Black Friday... We Traveled and Ate

Instead of getting up really obnoxiously early on Black Friday and heading out shopping, I got up at normal time and headed down to see family. Alex had to work (shocking I know) so the kids and I piled into the Tahoe. We headed to Carrollton first to see Grandma Ann and whatever Webers were around. We got there in time for lunch!

 

The crazies had to see the kitties AS SOON as they walked into the house.

The baby kitties that had grown since the last time we had visited Grandma.

Jake came to play too. He gave Sawyer a hat...

Liss helped make lunch and in turn she had Charlotte help her too :)

Charlotte LOVES to cook.

Does this not just steal your heart?????

I would be a cat lady if I could. I really wish I could....

I messed up the cropping and editing of this picture. I chose not to fix it. It's the odd picture out. But how funny are these two.

Melia, my cousin (the next Weber cousin in line after me), gave birth to her beautiful baby girl at the beginning of November. Here we are meeting her for the first time. Charlotte fell in love. Absolutely in love.

 

Grandpa Richy came out to visit with Melia and her two girls. He is smitten by baby Allana. Sawyer loved her too....and you can always find Liss wherever all of the babies are :)

Grandma loves her great grandbabies :) Sitting with her oldest and her youngest.

Pretty baby girl...

After we hung out for the greater part of the afternoon, I loaded the kids up and headed over to the Villa for Thanksgiving with the Schumanns.  We got there just in time to eat with everyone. Grandma and Grandpa, Bev and T, and Aunt Betty and Uncle Paul came down. Mom cooked a delicious meal.

Sawyer loved hanging out with Aunt Bev.

 

Aunt Bev, Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom

Grandpa loves picture time. All of these ladies just tell him what to do.

 

Do you see the similarities?

Dad was taking pictures on his Ipad as well. After he took the pictures, they all had to look at them. So funny.

I have no idea what he is saying here.

Gigi is so funny.

Cousin Chet came over to see all of us. Sawyer loves him. Charlotte is scared of him and his beard.

 

 

I told Charlotte that if she would smile then Chet would go home. This is the smile I got.

Papa and his two babies...

...fighting over the Ipad.

After I ate supper, I ended up getting sick a few times. I threw up multiple times. Everyone else felt fine. I had no idea what was going on. I was so extremely nauseous that I couldn't function. However, both kids only wanted "mommy" to put them to bed. So I had to suck it up to get them to sleep. While I was rocking Sawyer to sleep, Charlotte fussed and stood outside of the room.

She fell asleep standing up and pouting....

 

 

The rest of the night was awful. I threw up consistently from 6 pm until 2 am. Projectile vomiting that then led to just dry heaving like a mad woman. I continued to dry heave off and on all night. In between I would fall asleep with my head on the toilet seat for awhile and then move back to the bed. I didn't eat or drink anything from 6 pm on. In the middle of the night, I heard Dad start to get up and run to the bathroom. He was doing the same thing I was. By morning, Mom had joined us in the sick kids group. When we talked to Mary later in the day, she also was having vomiting. I still had to drive home the morning of the 30th because it was Alex's birthday. So I made the 3.5 hour drive home from the Villa. It was awful. But by the time I got home, I had eaten a few pretzel sticks and had drank a bit of water. I felt awful the entire next day. Charlotte, Sawyer and Alex eventually had their rounds with it....but none of them vomited like I did. Holy cow!!!!

 

I hate that I was sick and couldn't enjoy all of the Thanksgiving celebrations. Regardless, it was a great Thanksgiving.



Happy Thanksgiving.... :)

So I haven't written in this blog for a LONG time. So many things have prevented me from doing it....everything from not being able to get my computer to work to my computer needing to be wiped clean and started over to me getting a new photo editing program to not having time between babies... and family....and lots of events... and taking pictures for other people.... But I am back....with a goal to do a blog post a day to get caught up since I am FIVE months behind!!!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Jacksons!! :)

 

The night before Thanksgiving, Alex and I attended a fabulous party at the Shoff's house. I went to high school with Scott and college with Erica. So the party was a blend of people from his home town, her home town, and their grown up life. I was SUPER SUPER nervous about the party BUT my friend Erin and her hubby were there too so I knew that I had people to rely on if I got weird. :) Mom and Dad watched the kids so that Alex and I could go out and enjoy ourselves. I drank much too much and felt pretty horrible the next morning.

 

 

Thanksgiving morning we enjoyed a delicious and festive brunch at the Meredith's house! Mom and Dad have been attending this for the last few years and we were actually able to attend this year! Alex went with our neighbors to help serve Thanksgiving lunch to the tornado victims in Washington (our neighboring town).  He missed brunch and the food prep.

At brunch we all had drinks (which helped the hangover), and snacks and enjoyed the company. Then I headed home with the babies. I put them down for naps and I prepared Thanksgiving dinner.

John came over and helped me make the food and helped me with the kids.

Sawyer loves his Uncle Poop

We had so much delicious food and it really didn't take that long to make it all.

Mom brought the homemade pies (AMAZING) and Mary brought the homemade bread.

We had a beautiful spread....so delicious.

The counters in our shoebox kitchen were filled with yummy food and lots of love :) (cheesey but true).

Lunch was perfect. Mom, Dad, Mary, Chad, John, and our four all enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal together.

Charlotte thought the Thanksgiving meal was delicious.

 

We had an amazing Thanksgiving Day... so different from past Thanksgiving Days. But it was perfect. It was filled with Family, Food, Fun. We are so thankful for the last year in our lives.

 

And we are thankful that there is a day set aside on the calendar to remind us to all be thankful for what we have.

He Keeps Rolling Rolling Rolling...

It was a THANKSGIVING MIRACLE :)  Well, not really a miracle but it was an exciting Thanksgiving for us. While we were at the hotel getting ready to leave, I decided to lay Sawyer on the floor and let him try to roll over. He had been acting like he had wanted to try for the last 24 hours. So, against my better judgement (due to my phobia of hotel room germs), I laid a blanket down and let him try. Within 60 seconds he was rolling over!!!!!

You'd think that since I planned to let him try to roll over that I would have had the camera ready before I put him down. Nope. Of course not.

Here he is right after he rolled over for the first time. Isn't he so happy and proud of himself??!!???

Second roll.... check out that form...

Charlotte was so excited for him! She was totally pumped...and she could tell how happy we were so she was going nuts.

He just wanted to show off his sweet looking bootie.

I LOVE THESE NEXT THREE PICTURES.

He is so serious here!! He looks like a miniature man! Curly hair, hands clasped, a furrelled (sp?) brow...

And a little bit of spit up.

Our little man can roll both ways now!!!!  He hasn't had much chance to try to roll because we can't lay him flat very often bc of his reflux. But, even though he never gets the chance to try, he still rolled over like a champ!!!

Thanksgiving 2012 Part 3

We decided to go out for a deliciously fabulous Thanksgiving meal. We actually had an amazing restaurant in our hotel that was serving Thanksgiving dinner. So, we packed up the Brady Bunch and went downstairs to McCormick's and Schmick's for our Thanksgiving. 

 I was very nervous about taking our 2 rowdy kids to a very nice restaurant. I mean, our version of "nice" restaurants these days is Texas Roadhouse and Carraba's. 

However, once we got there, my two napless children started showing signs that sleep might be what they were going to order at the restaurant. Here is Sawyer 2 minutes before he fell asleep.

Here is Alex telling a wild story...and Daniel intently listening :) Can you tell by the position of Alex's hands that he was telling a crazy story????

My little whiney princess laid her head on my shoulder and was asleep in just a few short minutes.

So happy to be with my friend again.

While my kids slept, Ella just played and watched movies on the Ipad. Such a good girl!

We enjoyed some fancy little appetizers.

Here was my Thanksgiving meal... I had grouper.... naturally.

Alex had salmon. Another natural pick for Thanksgiving.

Ella had chicken strips and she LOVED them.

Once Goose woke up, she was ready to graze on everyone's meals.

We ordered her some fruit to top it all off. She was LOVING it.

Sawyer woke up when we were all finished as well!

So he had a tastey lunch of Similac Spit up with rice added to it. YUMMM

After our meal, we decided that a photoshoot was needed.

The Hicks family

The Jackson Family

Love my family so much!

The whole group!

Those with kids.... Daniel opted out of this picture.

The best of friends.

I can only imagine what they are saying here!!

And I can only imagine what Sawyer is saying here :)

One last walk before we say goodbye... :(

The front desk girls were loving our two little buddies.

Charlotte was so happy to have her friend back...even if it was just for 24 hours.

Love this one.

We headed back to our rooms, got our bags, and we headed out. It was so fabulous to see our friends. We have missed them so much!!! Saying goodbye sucked... 

We drove the hour and a half home... neither of our cars acted up! (Thank the Lord.) We got home all in one piece and with minimal crying from our kids. I made phone calls to my family on the way home telling them all Happy Thanksgiving. We skyped with mom at Grandma Ann's house when we got home. What a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!! Thank you Hicks Family and Mr. Sickler for spending it with us!! We love you guys!!!!!!!!!