Thankful and Merry!

It was a very happy Thanksgiving in Gainesville this year! It was so great to have all of the family together!  We headed up on Tuesday night after work and enjoyed spending Wednesday just hanging out and playing (and not driving in any more traffic!) Thursday was so fun! We got up and watched the parade and played in the backyard! The boys threw a football for a little while. Jack enjoyed playing until he took a ball to the eye and then decided it was more fun to climb on top of the playhouse and check out the trail in the woods! The boys fried three turkeys (as usual it was slightly stressful but still fun!)  The turkey turned out terrific! Nunno worked so hard and we had so much yummy food! We relaxed for the afternoon, played in the backyard and ate leftovers that night! It was a perfect day!

It's exhausting to be a kid!

Aunt Jenn brought Thanksgiving cookies to bake!

Lucy loved brushing Caitlin's hair!

Wild hair watching the parade!

Lucy loved all the singing in the parade!

Turkey #1 coming out!

Cousins love eachother!

Backyard fun!

The boys frying turkeys!

Jack spent a lot of his day up at the top of the playhouse! He observed turkey frying from up there too!

Mommy and Daddy!

Typical Lu Lu... on the phone hanging out with a flamingo!

John and Steven pulling out turkey #2!

Jack is really concentrating while carving the turkey with Poppa!

Poppa's helpers!

KIDS TABLE!!!!

Happy Leonard babies! 

The original family photo!

Four kids!

How the kids felt after they ate Thanksgiving lunch!

Sweet babies coloring together while the adults finished lunch!

Friday morning we went to Nanny's for an AMAZING breakfast! The kids had at least 3 servings each of biscuits, grits and sausage! After about two bites Jack said, "This is the best breakfast!" (I couldn't have begged him to say that at the perfect time!) We were very grateful to get to visit!  With full tummies, we hopped in the van and headed to the mountains to get our Christmas tree.  Jack loved seeing how high we were up in the mountains! It got cold as the afternoon went on! We went through the Elf Village and picked out our "perfect" tree! We had some pizza before heading out of town and coming home.
This morning we got up and brought our tree inside and and got the lights on it! We played outside and had snacks during the afternoon and then headed back in to decorate the tree. The kids were GREAT at unwrapping ornaments (while sitting on their bottoms and not standing up!) and handing them all to us! Jack even got to help out with the Angel on the top of the tree! We had soup and sandwiches for dinner followed up by Smores by the chiminea. It was a happy day!

Playing in the Elf Village at the Christmas Tree Farm in the mountains!

Hey there!

Brrrrrr! It's cold Mommy!

Silly Lucy in the big carriage!

Kiddos in the carriage!

Daddy with his babies!

Jack helping carry our big measuring stick!

Sweet girl!

How about this one?!

Silly Jack (Both kids kept breaking out in some kind of dance while looking for a tree!)

The Leonard Christmas Tree!

I think we like this one!

Fun times!

Like I said...Lucy doing the "Chicken Dance" in the middle of the farm!

Leonard family!

Jack and Lucy in the sleigh!

Still smiling waiting on pizza for dinner!

Jacket, necklace and purse... going somewhere!?

Jack was so excited about getting to the angel!

Daddy lending a helping shoulder to Jack!

Perfect can take many forms....

Last weekend we celebrated Steven's birthday in Highlands, NC with some good friends. We look forward to heading to the mountains once each Fall without the kiddos! It's really nice to get away and feel like yourself and more like a spouse than a parent for a day or two. It's always so nice to not have a schedule and just be together.  Steven and I got there around lunch on Friday and had lunch at one of our favorite places just the two of us. PERFECT.  The Stephens' got in town later that afternoon and we sat around on a great porch in the mountains having drinks and just talking. PERFECT.  The next day we stayed in pj's, drank coffee, made a fire and had a yummy breakfast. PERFECT.  We went on a long hike and then back out to lunch with no schedule! We had fun appetizers, chili, drinks and another fire that night. PERFECT.  It was such a fun weekend and the weather up there was so great! It really was a PERFECT weekend to be together.  We followed up our weekend with a day off on Monday.  We NEVER do this...we both took the day off and stayed home together. We just hung out and were together. We had a big dinner and sang Happy Birthday with the kids that night. PERFECT.

 

This weekend was a full weekend at home. PERFECT. Especially with the holidays coming full throttle at us, it was great to just be at home with nowhere to go!  (And we had LOTS to do!!!)  We woke up Saturday and started getting down the Christmas stuff!!! Jack had been so excited about getting up in the attic and seeing all of our decorations. It makes it so fun that the kids enjoy it so much! It is SUCH a job to get all the stuff up in the house. It's just hard to believe that it's that time of year! We spent the first half of the day working in the house and we spent the afternoon playing in the backyard.  The kids were having the best time.  They were dancing and playing! We grilled out and made smores Friday and Saturday night by the chiminea. PERFECT.  Both kids sat by the fire and had hot chocolate. It was just one of those really happy times.

When life gets crazy, we are running 90 mph  and we are super tired and easily aggravated...it's just amazing to have some times that are so PERFECT to make you stop and really think about how wonderful life is for us. So very thankful for our life.

Here are some of the pictures we took this Fall!