Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

The weekend before Thanksgiving we took a little day trip to Dyersville.

Our first stop was the The National Farm Toy Museum.

Pierce and Travis loved it!!

{Cash, Kroy and myself wondered around...}

Pierce could have looked for hours!

We then headed across the street to the Plaza Antique Mall.

Pierce and Travis looked around forever and then picked out a few tractors to bring home to our collection!

Cash looked around and all he found was the Barbie section!

So he came home with this beauty!

 We then ate lunch at Chad's Pizza... It was amazing!

We moved onto Field Of Dreams movie site {No pictures...not sure what I was thinking!}

And our final stop was in Guttenburg to watch the barges lock through the dam.

On our way out of Guttenburg we stopped at a scenic overlook for a family pic...

This is how it went....

So we ditched the kids and made it a mom & dad only pic😉

So pretty!

It was a great day but we were all glad to get out of the vehicle at the end of the day...

....8 hours later... just saying! 😜

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The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Travis and his brother Austin smoked meat all day.

Travis also baked a turkey for the Heitman family Thanksgiving.

Here's Travis carving the turkey and all his taste testers...Austin, Pierce, Makenna and Cash!

 Taylor and Brynnleigh wanted to be on Kroy duty (some of us had to work!)

We went to my parents to hang out and little Mr. Leo thought he could fit into the baby high chair😆

Puppy love🐾

We didn't have anything all day on Thanksgiving!

Later that afternoon we headed to Travis' parents for Heitman Thanksgiving.

Carter and Kroy

Rayce and Kroy

Great Grandma Alice and Kroy

Capper and Heitman kids!!

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Iowa played Nebraska Friday after Thanksgiving.

We didn't have any set plans but I booked a babysitter a few weeks back so Travis and I could get out of the house!

Later on Thanksgiving my friend Stacy texted and said they had 2 extra tickets and wondered if we wanted to go... HELLS YES🏈

So we took off Friday morning for the 2:30 kickoff!

Our friend Molly and her husband Aaron (from Ohio!)  joined us tailgating!

It was so much fun!!

The three of us were inseparable in high school and although we live hours apart, it's like no time has been lost when we get together!  Definition of a true best friend!!

Guys got in for a picture too!

Yay for a day away and adult only conversations😄

So.Much.Fun.

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The rest of the weekend was spent decorating for Christmas, playing board games and Thanksgiving with my family!

Love Kroy's smirk😏

Too many games to count!

No pictures of my family Thanksgiving this year.  I'm not sure what happened there😞

We celebrated on Saturday after Thanksgiving and my sisters family had the flu.

The food was amazing as always!!  My mom always puts on a feast!

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I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the ones you love!

I know we sure did!

I am still in shock Christmas is 12 days away!!

We are finishing up our shopping this weekend and I'm hoping to wrap on Sunday...YAY, I cannot wait!  My boys are going to be SO happy with their gifts!!

We are doing 6 gifts...

-something you want

-something you need

-something to wear

-something to read

-something to do

-something for the family to enjoy (board games!)

Stay tuned!!

Winter Tidbits

I had some time over the weekend... Travis took ALL 3 boys out of the house {I'm pretty sure it was so I could regain my sanity!}

So I thought it would be a perfect time to update my blog...

...then I realized I haven't posted since November 4th!

Oh my...

...As you can imagine a lot has happened since then!

So here's your warning...PICTURE OVERLOAD!!

One Saturday morning I took some time with my SIL's at the Barn in Wellman!

We've been to a few Packer parties!!

Instead of watching the game Pierce chose to rake Westfall's whole front yard!

He did a great job!

Best.Baby.Ever.

Sometimes my favorite nights are the ones with no plans and showing up at Jake and Amy's!

{Sorry about my cheeser smile... I was trying to get Leo to smile!}

Kroy, Andie and Slate {Slate is not happy!}

I'm not sure if you can read this but it's a journal entry from Pierce about his dad coming to school to be a guest reader.  And then Travis commented how fun it was to be there!

{I really don't give Travis enough credit... he's a great dad and we're all lucky!}

And then there's this journal entry from Cash... this one pulled at my heart strings:(

Cash was punched by a 3rd grader on the bus one Friday morning.  I didn't catch word until Friday evening.  He seemed okay so I didn't take any action.

Then I read his journal entry (picture).  It's of himself and me and he had something over his heart.

I asked what it was and he said it was his broken heart from getting punched!

So to make a long story short I contacted the school on Monday and things were taken care of.

I still get a lump in my throat when I picture my Cashy getting punched by a kid 3 years older...

Moving on....

 A tradition Travis has carried over from his childhood is popcorn and milk shakes on Sunday evenings.

We all love it!

 Popcorn, milk shakes and AFV!

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Kroy has started all sorts of new tricks since I last posted!

Here he is rolling over for the first time!

He started sleeping in his crib!

{It was a rough transition but we are good to go now!}

He turned 5 months old!

He started to sit on his own!

And he started eating cereal!

A HUGE month for Kroy!

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 The middle-man, Cash, turned 6!!

 He chose to have his party at Iowa Gym-nest!

It was a good time had by all!

 The day of his actual birthday (Dec. 1st) we had Pierce's holiday concert.

So after the concert we went to the Landmark for ice cream!

Holiday Concerts!

Pierce out of slicky pants and a t-shirt!

All dressed up for his concert!

You can dress them up, but you can't take the wild boy out of them!

Cash all dressed up for his concert!

 All my mom wanted was a decent picture of the grandkids for a Christmas card...

Here's how it went!

BAHAHAHAHAHA

Ugh... the elf (Jody) is back...

It's only mid December and I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas!

So this only seemed appropriate since I'm doing this all solo!

"Your mom is the Queen... Don't forget! -Jody"

When Kroy was a little baby my family gave me a hard time because I held him all the time!

Well, they'll be happy to know I'm not holding him while he sleeps anymore {that's impossible} but we're still touching!

The boys are still a huge help and Kroy loves them!!

New rule, though.... you cannot get Kroy out of his bed unless mom and dad say it's okay!

We've gotten a few inches of snow and Pierce loves to scoop snow.

He did our drive a few times so he and his shovel headed down the street to do neighbors driveways!

He received $5 from one neighbor and he was SO happy!!

And we were hit with a little tiny bug... which I hope is it for a while!

Cash came down with a fever and the runs on Saturday.

I, of course, got anxiety thinking about how he would start puking through the night and it would travel to every family member!  Luckily my Hail Mary's were answered and he went to bed, slept all night and woke up feeling 100% better the next day!

Phew!

With all the craziness and chaos of the holidays I plan to wear this a lot this month:)

Thanks for sticking with me til the end!

Stay tuned as I have a few other posts to come... one being Thanksgiving!