Happy Thanksgiving!

The week before Thanksgiving we tried to take time every night at dinner and bedtime to name some of the things we were specifically thankful for over the past year.  We have so much to be grateful for but here were some of the things we listed:

- Trains, books, Daddy being home from work early, our family, Harrison joining our family this summer, a new job for Ryan next year, the prospect of getting to be closer to home, our health and lots of new babies throughout the year (I think we have had something like 7 friends that have had baby boys over the past year)

I couldn't write this post without a few pictures of my two little turkeys. :)

Not so sure about this food stuff.

So thankful for both of our Grandmas!

Near the top of my thankful list are definitely my two boys! 

So glad to have him with us

Thankful for brothers

I'm not going to lie, Thanksgiving was pretty lonely this year.  Of course we were thankful to get to spend it with each other but there is no denying that we felt really alone and isolated here without any family or friends.  As much as I love Facebook it definitely makes you aware of all the fun things people are doing while you are home alone.  But.... how can you not be anything but happy and thankful when you wake up to this on Thanksgiving morning???  

James loves doing this with Harrison

And as a side note one of the blessings of our time here in Shreveport has definitely been that we are more aware of people who are lonely on holidays and hopefully we will be able to extend some kindness and hospitality to them in the future.

Ryan went to work early that morning and I hung out with the boys while we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  The funniest thing about watching it was seeing James watch the commercials- he had never seen commercials before! His reaction to them was really humorous.

Ryan got home and we headed out to lunch. I just didn't see the point in cooking for just us, especially since we didn't know if Ryan would even be there.  We had a little fiasco with Thanksgiving lunch.  When we got to the restaurant it was crazy busy and the wait was going to be forever. We drove around the town trying to find anywhere to eat and everything was closed (keep in mind H hates his car seat so driving around town is not a fun experience).  Finally we went home and ate a turkey sandwich and chicken nuggets for James.  Later that afternoon we went back to the restaurant and managed to get in but a lot of the food was gone and they didn't really have any of the normal Thanksgiving foods. Oh well.

James ate one bit of turkey, a brownie, and a cookie. 

This is H these days- can't stay still!

The next day after Ryan went in to work we decided to brave the black Friday traffic and go to lunch and to the park.  Harrison had a big milestone: first time sitting in a high chair at a restaurant!

Yum this napkin is tasty 

I hope they always love each other this much!

Big boy in the high chair 

On the way out we heard the Salvation Army bell ringer and James got to put $ in the red can for the first time.  The lady also let him ring the bell. This was special for me because one of my oldest memories is ringing the bell every year with my dad. I hope he will do it with James when we move back!

Next we headed to the park for some fresh air.

Cutie 

Why do I look like a marshmallow in this picture???

And we got the house decorated for Christmas.  Doesn't everyone decorate the tree in their undies? Lol

After Thanksgiving my friend Shannon encouraged me to cook a "do-over" so I ended up making a Thanksgiving dinner one week later.  I just made our favorites and included a little touch of home from both our families: Ryan's mom's stuffing recipe and my mom's homemade bread. It was all delicious and it definitely made us feel like we got to eat Thanksgiving goodies after all!

Yummy

And finally one last picture of Harrison from MDO. I just love this little guy!