Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving...I know we did! We went to Grandma Reese's house and had a feast! You know how family holidays go...we went over early morning and hungout, watched the parade, ate lots of food, played outside, and of course took naps and the guys watched football..(or so they say I think they napped off and on the whole stinking time!!)...so anyway it's pretty much what everyone does across America but oh I sure am thankful:) 
Abby gets up from nap today and says, "Mommy, we are going to eat some bones." (aka ribs) Abby and Reese sure can put down those ribs...and that makes Daddy proud! I know for certain they got this from Daddy because I tend to steer clear of "bones"!
Last night we had dinner at Grandma's (Greg's Mom's Mom) house...she cooked us a great meal and then she "hog-tied" our kids! Well this may seem weird to all of you non-Texans but I guess this is a "normal" thing these crazy Texas people do:)
We got here Wednesday afternoon and I think the kids have played in the backyard about 85% of the time! There is tons to do and Abby and Reese just love to get dirty! I love for them to get to play outside we don't get the perks of a backyard or house in DC so I know the kids are thrilled! The picture with Abby she has used chalk to make a farm and then got all the trackers and animals...pretty creative that girl! Also the kids love climbing the waterfall that Maw Maw and Poppa built....it's like climbing a mountain for them...Mommy gets a bit nervous sometimes though...both kids have fallen in a few times! :)
We get here and Reese was so scared of Baby (Maw Maw and Poppa's dog) we were not sure how long it would take him to get used to her again....but it sure didn't take long and they were best buddies! Reese now wants to feed her all the time (whatever he doesn't want to eat of course:) and he walks around the house looking for her...I think it's safe to say he is back to his old ways...loving his Baby!
I got back late last night from Chicago and we had a blast! The musical "Wicked" was awesome...I think it was flawless and have never seen a better show! We (my mom, sister and I) had so much fun just doing whatever we wanted all weekend! We shopped one day, went to the Shedd Aquarium another and sat at a few Starbucks along the way:) I loved hanging out with them both because we don't get to see each other enough but not to worry we are already planning our next girls weekend!
PaPa brought Reese a hat from where my dad went to college...University of Missouri! They look so cute...I think Reese would love Mizzou don't you think?
Oddly enough Abby picked the exact same things to do as Reese did on his Birthday but they had fun anyways. Granny and PaPa are here too so they got to join in the fun....Abby was very excited to hear that they were going to play with her all day! They painted a picture for Granny and PaPa and played play dough for quite awhile. I love how the simple things are the best things of all!
Abby has been wanting to go to Chuck E. Cheese forever and I thought what better time than on her birthday...so we surprised her and took her there for lunch. She was soooo excited and her and Reese and well a little help from me used 100 tokens in about 2 hours...pretty good I'd say:) They also loved the show those kinda creepy mechanical animals put on...I know now why I was afraid of those guys when I was little....they are super creepy...I can't believe Abby and Reese like them. I tried though to get them to take a picture with Chuck E. Cheese and they wouldn't get close without me holding them...I don't think they caught on that I was terrified too!:)
Tonight Daddy got home and we had a Birthday dinner for Abby. She loves this dinner I do called the Shrimp Boil where I cook food and then throw it on the table....the kids think it is so funny to eat off the table with no plates! Then after dinner we did cake and presents and she got some great stuff but one thing she was really hoping for was to get the Cars movie that came out today...well Greg went this morning first thing and got the movie before it sold out and so we had a movie night after a long day of celebrating! We had a fun day and I think she realized how special she is to us...not just today but everyday! 
today after church my dad took some pictures of us in Old Town Alexandria. The kids were pretty hungry and it was super cold but all and all I think they turned out...well as good as can be expected from a 2 and 4 year old. I have had to come to realization that we will not get the "perfect" studio pictures during the toddler years and that is ok! I hope you enjoy....
Here are a few more I thought were cute! The one with my parents cracks me up...I took probably 40 pictures of the same pose and we didn't get one with everyone looking....this one is my favorite because they are all playing together and having so much fun. 
Happy Birthday to Abby and Reese! Today we had a party for the kids...since their birthdays are so close together it's easier to just have one together so the grandparents can all come up! So we had a Cars party (very orginal I know... we have been to 4 Cars parties this year:) Anyways we did lots of fun stuff...the kids decorated cookies, colored, had a puppet show, played games, Granny (my mom) made balloon animals for all the kids and we all ate lots of sugar.....good times!
Ok this is really funny....well I wanted to get a group picture...I guess that was not such a good idea because it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to get all the kids to sit after they ate all that sugar! In the first picture you can see me trying to corral all the kids to get in the picture and the last picture well Lizzy is the only one I got to sit down...so I guess you can say we didn't get a group picture...oh well the action shots will have to do for now:)
My mom did balloon animals for everyone and they were crazy jumping around...but Granny handled it well:) There were balloons everywhere and kids running in every direction...I guess you could say it was a typical 2 and 4 year olds birthday party! It was great!
and more presents! As you can see they got a tons of toys...Reese got a bunch of Thomas the Train stuff...Greg and I got him a Thomas the Train Table and he got all the trains and tracks too...he loves it! Abby got some My Little Pony stuff, lots of crafty things for her to do, a Leapster and....lots of other great things! I think all and all they had a pretty good day...wouldn't you agree?
Well these are too cute...Reese here is giving you a huge cheesey grin...notice the chocolate all over his face:) The next one with Reese and Abby laying on the ground....well they both wanted to do the game together but couldn't quite decide who would go first! The last pic is of the puppet show....before the cake Anglea (my sister-in-law) and Debbie (Greg's mom) did a little show for all the kids....it was so cute the puppets said all the kids names and talked to them and they were so excited...one of the little girls turned around and said to her mom, "Mommy, that puppet knows my name!" It was so sweet...I think they had alot of fun!
Last night we went to Fall Fest at a church near by...the kids as you can see went as a chicken and a frog...I tried to talk Abby in the being a cowgirl and not a chicken again like last year but she only wanted to wear her cowboy hat with her chicken costume! anyways the kids had fun..Greg's parents came into town yesturday for the kids birthday party this weekend and so they got to go get candy with us! The church had moon bounces and lots of cars with candy in the trunks! We also got to see fireworks at the end of the night. Reese and Abby had tons of candy and were on sugars highs for the rest of the evening...In the picture of Reese and MawMaw looking in the bag of candy he is so amazed people just filled his bag with candy...it was funny to see what the kids picked out too....they kept picking out all the "non-chocolate" things...I was shocked! Who would pick that candy when there are snickers and Reese's peanut butter cups in there?
