Thankful for Family

I am so very thankful for family. They mean everything to me. This year we got to have two Thanksgivings. My sister has been living here in California this past year and was moving back to Africa on Thanksgiving Day. So we decided to have an early Thanksgiving with my family. My brother and I both met up at our parents house and we spent the weekend with Katie before she took off. It was a lot of fun for the cousins to play. I enjoyed spending time with Katie. We even had a girls night out, Matt watched all the kids! (Six total. We went when it was bed time so it wasn't too bad.) We went and saw the new Twilight movie.  I will miss her lots and hope that she can make it another year until we can see each other again.

We love and miss you Katie!

                                                
                                                   SURPRISE
Since we had Thanksgiving with my family we decided to drive up to Washington and surprise Matt's parents. We drove all day Monday (16 hours). We hit a bad rain storm in Portland and it continued until we got there. It was so bad we couldn't even see the car in front of us. It was pretty scary and the kids were done with the car so we will glad when we got there. Matt's parents were surprised and so glad to see us. His mom's face was priceless when she opened the door. It was awesome and I am proud of Matt keeping it a secret for so long. (He isn't very good at keep secrets!) The boys had fun playing and being out of the car. They love Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma made them their Christmas jammies so they were excited. She even made them a Christmas shirt too. Plus we came home loaded up with all sorts of things. My boys are so lucky to have such a great Grandma that spoils them.
We also went to see the new movie "Wreck It Ralph" for our Thanksgiving tradition. It took us a while to actually see it but we finally made it and they loved it. It was a cute one. The boys also went to the beach and on a walk with Grandpa and Daddy. It was nice to stay home and relax. I never get to just sit down on the couch and not worry about anything. So I enjoyed myself. Then Thanksgiving day we headed down to Missy's house (Matt's sister). It was a yummy dinner and I was stuffed. Tyler hit it right off with Jenni just like they use to when we lived up there. Carter just followed them around and had fun with his cousins especially Rachel. Hayden on the other hand loved the dog. He would go wherever it was. He was in heaven and when he would wake up from his nap he would get so excited and start to bark like a dog. It was too cute!
Black Friday I went out with the girls and we had a fun day shopping. It was nice to get a few things and not have my boys hanging all over me.  That night some of the kids made a Gingerbread house together. Hayden just wanted to eat all the candy before they could get it on the house. They all had fun making that.  Matt had a great time with everyone! He misses his family alot and wishes we were closer. He had a blast and didn't want to come home. We all enjoyed ourselves and were sad to leave. I hope they enjoyed our surprise as much as we did.