Thanksgiving Day 2014 (Recap style)

There was family and cousins and beautiful sunshine. 

 There was my hot husband and his turkey fryer.

 

 There was a laptop and my sister's face over Skype who reported that she ruined a pumpkin pie and I missed her a lot.

 There was a pretty table that somehow I still haven't graduated to sitting at.  

#kidstablestillrocks

 And a glorious fried turkey and frying turkey is really the only way to do turkey anymore.

  There was family and laughter and words of gratitude.

 And my greatest gifts.  The man who loves and cares for my heart, the one I do life with and come home to and can't sleep if he isn't beside me.

 My big boy.  

The smart, kind, tender-hearted one who said he was most thankful for Jesus and that he died on the cross so he didn't have to.  And when he said that, my heart swelled with pride and joy because he gets something about Jesus even though he's just five and I so want him to know Jesus like I do.

And the little one.  

The passionate, emotion-full, silly boy who brings so much life and light to our home and our hearts.

He humbles me, and teaches me and my life wouldn't be the same without him.

And maybe it sounds all Christanee and churchyish to say this, but honestly, this year I was most thankful for Jesus.  This year has been big and special somehow. I have followed Him more close and more deep and I am changed and different because of it all.  I have been taken and captivated and my heart has been stolen by the places we have walked together this year, and I want more of it, more of Him.

So much to be thankful for.  So many blessings, so many things, so many much.

Vader, Linus & Wildstyle

What people often find surprising about me is that I'm not one of those moms that wants to coordinate Halloween costumes into a big family thing.  Like a s'mores family or have all of us be Star Wars characters.  Don't get me wrong - those are adorable ideas and maybe someday there will be a family theme in the Halloween costume department for the four of us.  I must say though, that I agree with that being a surprising thing to know considering I'm the queen of matchy-matchy and all things coordinated and my desires for color schemed Christmas card photos.  

I suppose I've realized in the few short years that I've been a mother, that my kids are going to be different and have different personalities.  And I want them to feel free to choose their costume every year. Plus, I'm getting to relive my childhood as my kids grow up and I have just as much fun dressing up as they do and at the end of the day, I want to pick my own thing too.

For Halloween this year, Tommy chose to be Darth Vader.  Being the Star Wars fanatic he is, I was not surprised with his choice.  Also, since he had a Star Wars party for his birthday this year, I actually had to spend zero dollars on his costume since he already had everything, which was a major bonus.

Jacob and his little blue blanket that he affectionately calls "ni-night" are inseparable.  The natural choice was to select Linus for him.  Red shirt, black stripes, blue blanket - done.  And poor baby, he has been teething off and on working on those pesky molars so he wasn't completely thrilled with Halloween in general this year.

My costume choice came from my new favorite animated masterpiece - The Lego Movie.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you purchase it immediately.  I seriously love it and laugh every single time.  I dressed up as Wildstyle and was mostly excited about spraying color into my hair.

And all mismatched and totally un-coordinated - here we are.  Ready for trick-or-treating - a tradition that still seems very strange to me.  Maybe because I didn't grow up doing it, I will never understand why you just show up at people's houses and ask for candy.  And then they give it to you.  It's totally weird.

By the end of the night I was begging Todd if I could keep the hot pink hair.  Because it's totally me and I've wanted pink hair for as long as I can remember.  He didn't go for it.

After our candy collecting adventures, Tommy sat down with his bucket and went to town.  I finally cut him off after his fourth bag of skittles.  But he had a blast.

Hope ya'll had a fun, safe and candy-filled Halloween!