Family pictures, Thanksgiving, Emma's getting faster!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we put our indoor Christmas things up. Here's two partners in crime checking out the tree.

My mom got Emma a winter coat - with matching pants! So cute!

We FINALLY got some family pictures taken! The photographer took a ton of pictures and then gave us a cd of all of them to do whatever we want with them. There's a bunch of really cute ones - here's a few of our favorites.


Emma was super distracted with the new surroundings and didn't feel much like smiling!

On Thanksgiving, we invited Chad's parents to join us for the day. We went to the parade in Charlotte, which seemed to be mostly school bands and paegant queens. Last year there was more variety! It was 50 degrees and drizzly, and when the drizzle became rain we headed out early! Here are some pictures of us passing the kids around (both to keep them warm and to see over the rude people who came and stood right infront of us).

Note to self: never wear a scarf and fuzzy sweater when I'm gonna be holding a baby! She had black fuzzies all over her drooly chin and the scarf became a choking hazzard for me! haha

After we got back and ate lunch, Drew took a nap. But he woke up early b/c he was too excited about our company. So Chad brought him down...and he fell asleep for another hour like this!! He never does this! I think I was the only one in the house awake for awhile - our comfy couches sucked everyone in.

Thanksgiving night we decided to skip the 10pm sale at Toys R Us after hearing about the 2-3 hour waits to get into the store and another couple hours to checkout...and we are so glad we did. We ordered our things online at the same awesome sale prices!! I did go shopping Friday morning around 7am and was surprised at the lack of lines or crowds. Then we all went to Concord Mills mall, which was busy. The kids even sat on Santa's lap...no line for that even!! I'll scan the picture from that and post it later. Then Friday evening we took the kids to BounceU - a facility full of inflatable bouncers and slides. Here's Emma cheering Drew on.

And here's Drew at his favorite thing there.



And another one.



And I just wanted to show you how Emma can get around now...and FAST!

On Saturday, we went to Chad's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Grant, Sherry and Olivia were there too. Olivia and Drew are good buddies and had a blast! They ran around like crazy kids and loved every minute of it - even though we were trying to control their chaos! haha And we had to protect them from the mean Buffy cat (apparently the kitty is an angel for Susan, but she isn't too fond of our kids). Sharon, Susan and Alan's good friend, stopped over with Christmas gifts for the kids, which was so sweet of her! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera - there were some cute photo opportunities! I hope to get a copy of a picture of the three cousins that everyone else took and I'll post it later.

On Sunday, we let Drew pick out an outdoor decoration at Wal-Mart, so we ended up with one of those moving reindeers that light up. So, we got home and put up all our outside lights. We even put some on the back deck so we can enjoy them from inside the house.

It was a busy 4 day weekend - but lots of fun!! Definitely too short though!