Thanksgiving 2015

We continued with our annual tradition of seeing my mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving. We traveled down to Tunnel Hill, GA to my Aunt Mary Nell's house. You may know Aunt Mary Nell as Nana #1. ;)

The boys did great on the 4+ hour drive. We stopped once to change diapers and let them have a little snack and overall they were pretty content. Stokes started piping up with about 20 minutes left, but that's really it. We put on DVDs for them so that helps pass the time.

We drove on Thanksgiving Day and our goal was to leave the house by 9 am. We were pulling out of the driveway by 9:10 - pretty darn good! We got to Aunt Mary Nell's around 1 or 1:30. It was so great to see everyone as people started arriving to Nana's house. We ended up eating around 2:30 and it was a great feast - as always! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to take our plates out on the deck to eat. I couldn't believe how warm it was! Plus, eating outside is always a good thing with toddlers. You never know what kind of a mess they will make! I had some helpers that wanted to assist in toddler food consumption and I think it's safe to say that all three boys got plenty to eat.

Random pictures throughout the afternoon:

My cousin, Gwen, and Ryan

Gwen and Ryan

Kaitlyn, Kacie and William

Nana keeps some of Kaitlyn's toys at her house. There was little motorized bike thingy. It took Stokes less than a millisecond to spot it and jump on. The big cousins were helpful in sitting on it with the little guys. Stokes kept says "vrrrm vrrrm". He's such a daredevil!

Kaitlyn, Whitney and Stokes

Whitney and Stokes

Kaitlyn and Stokes

"Cheese!" Stokes, Kaitlyn & Whitney

Kaitlyn and William

William, Kaitlyn and Whitney

Ryan, Kaitlyn and Whitney

Kelsea and Ryan

Time to hop in the car with Kacie!

They're pressing every button they can find!

This was so funny!

Later in the evening, we did a mini-Christmas celebration for all the kids. We don't see this side of the family again during Christmas time, so we exchange gifts over Thanksgiving. It starts the holiday season off with some fun!

Thomas and William

2 of my boys :)

Mary Nell's tree and lots of gifts!

William is checking out the loot

Start passing them out

open!

fun toys

getting some unwrapping assistance

so many presents!

new rain boots! He had to try them on!

Kaitlyn got some fun gifts, too!

Kaitlyn and Nana

After the mini-Christmas, we loaded up and went to see some lights at one of Mary Nell's friend's houses. They did a great job and we had a lot of fun! We walked through twice.

Ryan and mama

Nana and Stokes

William with Kaitlyn and Whitney

Ryan and Da-da

My phone takes the worst pictures!
Although you can't tell, this is William and
Kaitlyn with Michael.

After we got the boys down for the night, we grabbed some movies and went to the basement to get comfy. I only lasted about 10 minutes through the first movie before my eyes closed, but I absolutely love falling asleep watching movies! Stokes woke up at one point though so I went on up to bed and held him so he could fall back asleep. He ended up sleeping in our bed for about half the night.

Friday morning, we hung out until after lunch to try to get in as much family time as possible.

Snuggling with my boys

Love these littles

Everybody on Nana's bed!

Stokes, Mary Nell, Ryan, Kaitlyn and William

Plus me

Thomas and Stokes, who loves doing "cheese!!" for
pictures now.

Ryan and Marla with her dog, Nova. Ryan and Nova bonded.

True love

Ryan passed out on Marla - it was an exciting and fun morning!

Michael helping William on the motorcycle

William riding in the wagon with Kaitlyn

Go Nana!

I actually let them ride around on Friday. Kaitlyn was
being very careful, but I was super nervous for a while.

Speed demons

Nana and William

Nana and William

Ryan and Nana

I'm not sure if he was loving his wagon ride haha

Family pic - go tigers!
We had to wear orange for SolidOrangeFriday!

Our family + Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn got to ride home with us and spend the weekend with us. It was great to have her in the car to help entertain the boys. She loves hanging out with them and they all had a good time back there. She was so sweet to help us hand snack cups to them and pick up their waters and toys when they were dropping them.

Saturday was our BIG game against South Carolina. They always play it the Saturday after Thanksgiving now, which is part of the reason we come home from Mary Nell's on Friday, instead of waiting for Saturday. I wanted to stay in GA for another day this year, but the game was at noon and we wanted to be back in time.  Guess what - TIGERS WON! We finished the regular season 12-0 and #1 in the rankings. What a time to be a tiger!

Ryan, Kaitlyn and William

Cousins hanging out

William, Kaitlyn and Stokes

all the kiddos and me - I'm in heaven!

We have so much to be thankful for and we feel very blessed. This year was another great Thanksgiving and we loved being with our family on such a special day.