thanksgiving wrap-up

a few last pictures from our thanksgiving weekend. what a fun time we had.

suz, nana and ellie.

sans ellie.

suz and grant.

claire and ellie reading together. they are doing this more and more. they spent about 15 minutes in the chair today reading happily. they pull every book off the shelf, but that is worth the 15 minutes to prep lunch.

trying on different shoes for their christmas outfits along with a ski helmet. classy.

their new setup. we are hopefully going to hit the slopes tomorrow. no matter what happens they will look cute!

color time. claire and ellie eating – I mean coloring with crayons.

some bath time fun. the girls love to lay no their tummies and backs side by side in the tub. it is so sweet to see their identical little bodies next to each other.

then claire was washing ellie.

they were giggling like crazy. bath time is one of the best times of the day.

a sweet time with daddy.

they got their daddy’s eyelashes. YEAH!

had to include this sweet picture charlie drew of himself, ellie and claire. it might be his first portrait of him and his sisters. the scribbles are his “calendar notes”.

great girlfriends

we had another girls night for beth’s birthday last week. I love getting a night out with these dear friends. I can’t even think about leaving these girls without crying. I am cherishing these wonderful girls nights.

nicole, becca and kerri.

me, julia and beth.

thanksgiving 2012

thankful! the Lord has blessed us abundantly this year! we want to give HIM all the glory. we are in our final year of bill’s training, he has learned much over these last 4.5 years and is a gifted surgeon, our families health, loving families that support us, friends that we love, an exciting year of adventure in new zealand that awaits us, and on and on. now on to the turkey day details.

this thanksgiving did not disappoint. my mom and I cooked a ton on wednesday morning while the girls were in mayo backup (charlie stayed home with us). I made a homemade pie crust this year and I also made a pumpkin pie with a real pie pumpkin. it was a different taste than the canned pumpkin, but still delicious. in the oven they go!

charlie got a bit bored watching us cook, but was happier to be home than at mayo backup.

the final homemade crust pumpkin pie. it was delish.

the girls were ready to party like hooligans after they came home. claire had the first shot trying on the john deere stuff.

 

charlie helping out.

we love having nana around, but miss g. pops while he is in bozeman montana.

eleanore’s turn!

  

thanksgiving day was beautiful. 60 degrees and sunny. so fun to gather lots of homies around the table.

 

around 11 am the party really started.

auntie dotes arrived and started doing airplane rides.

pappy was there to hold ellie.

nani (the girls are now calling her nani) doing an awesome job in the kitchen!

they love their pappy.

nana, bubba and me whipping up the final touches.

bill wanted to be artistic. like it.

uncle elliot badger handling.

so glad that even though bill was on call he could be with us for thanksgiving dinner. only 1 page came through.

the entire group minus me.

 

with me. you can see auntie suz better too.

this was ellie’s butt after taking her out of her chair. guess she didn’t eat as many mashed potatoes we thought she did.

I wish I had gotten a shot of a close up of the food. it was incredible! we had some awesome dishes. you can see a few of the dishes in this pic.

friday, the 23rd is dotes’ birthday so along with having pumpkin pie we also had a birthday cake. charlie was excited about helping dotes blow out the candles.

our big bird.

after the kiddos were napping pappy busted out his grand finale. “apple pie in a cup”

 

he was an attentive bartender.

everybody relaxin’ on the couch. enjoying their hot toddies.

nana with #2.

grant (suz’s bf) is a champ with the kids. they love him.

already eating turkey sandwiches.

around 4 pm I started to think about how “fun” it would be for bill and I to go shop around target that evening. we had babysitters already here (nana, suz and grant), and it might be the only time in the near future that bill and I could actually look at a few things for the kids together. I am not sure exactly what I was envisioning target would be like (I used to work at target I should know this stuff!), but I was thinking we would cruise in with the crazies that were out shopping that night and just casually look at stuff. yeah – not.so.much. we showed up at about 9 pm (it opened at 9) and the line was massive. it was back and forth through the parking lot, but it was moving so we hopped in. I could not believe how long it was. we had to weave back and forth for awhile (15 min) and then we made it inside. there were a few things that I thought we should look at. we ended up getting the last gift for each kid taken care of – oh and tin foil, whipping cream, wax paper – you know the other stuff you pick up on black thursday night. then we had to wait in line to check out. it was quite the ordeal and not something I really want to start doing. fun to try it though. of course, while we were there bill got a page to alert him to a big case he was going to have to deal with that night. he ended up having to go to the OR for the entire night and worked all day today. he came home around dinner time, ate and fell asleep. his turkey day was about 48 hrs long.  the joys of being on call.

this is the morning after thanksgiving – just another reason grant will win best boyfriend of the year award. all the kids love to jump on his lap and have him read to them. and he continues to do it willingly.

add charlie to the mix and it always gets a bit more interesting.

happy thanksgiving from the schmitts!