thanksgiving reunion

alright, time for picture overload. every other year on thanksgiving we go to my extended family's ranch (on my dads side) for a family reunion. its a lot of cousins and great aunts and uncles we literally only see every other year, but we always have a great time. they're just amazing people, and i'm happy to be a part of their family.

since so many people drive or fly in from all over the country (mostly the midwest) they've turned it into a 3 or 4 day event. wednesday theres a big tour of the priefert factory and a bonfire that night. then friday there are other happenings and events that go on as well; mostly visiting and eating leftovers, but there may be some horse riding and hog hunting, too. :-)  its about an hour and a half drive from mom and dads, so we just drove up for thanksgiving day this year. with memaw and pawpaw (my moms parents) now living in the dallas area as well, they went with for the first time! 

we started off at "the hangar" for lunch. the hangar is literally what used to be the hangar for their plane, but for whatever reason, thats gone, and its now a big meeting and event room for my cousins company, and they host the thanksgiving meal there because of its size. i think the final count this year was 86 people.

this was one of my pictures for last week, but i'll post it again. colby and molly are on either side of my grandma (dads mom), and right behind her are memaw and papaw (moms parents).

this is the original house on the ranch, built in the 50's i believe. my great aunt still lives here. it was one of my favorite places to come as a kid.

after lunch anyone who wants to  is invited to go on a hayride around the ranch.

and heres what you came for. out on the property is a pretty steep drop off where my cousins have parked a huge crane on which they've rigged up a rope swing; literally a swing attached to an extremely long rope. my 3rd cousins kids who live out there, are on it all the time, so its no big deal to them to just hop on it and go. since i swung on it (yes i did!!), my grandma decided to go, too! she's 78 years old, and unfortunately i didnt get a picture of her brother, my uncle irv, who went on it too. hes 88!!!

 molly rode it three times. colby said it looked too dangerous.

heres a few other shots of some of the family taking their turns, just to give you some perspective.

its a little far away, but thats the crane in the distance.

then of course a stop to say hi to goliath and radar before heading back to the hangar.

i think i probably ate my weight in sweet potato casserole. seriously. then i went on a 2 & 1/2 hour hayride, then sat in a car for another couple hours. a completely wonderful sedentary thanksgiving. :-)

threesixfive, week 47

i hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!!! i'm still carrying a food baby. :-/ i need to visit the gym badly. it'll have to wait until monday.

we finished our laundry room monday night, and then left tuesday morning to spend the rest of the week with my family in the north/east texas area.

sunday

these buckets are now in the laundry room, but they spent a few days on the couch. i found molly crammed into one sunday afternoon reading a book; and in her snow white dress no less.

monday
heres a shot of the mostly finished laundry room, or should i say laundry closet. the walls are kind of a grayish green (its still not the exact same color all over, but eh, its the laundry room closet. the door you see there leads out to the garage, and is now a nice shiny black, as is the back of the other door that you cant see, because im standing in it. the black bucket is for me to toss dirty kitchen towels in to be washed later, and the silver one is to throw the recycling in, instead of piling it on the dryer as we've been doing for a year. all in all im very happy with it.

tuesday
we got to my parents house around 5:00 tuesday. they wanted to take us to a place near them called the harbor. its an area of restaurants mostly (a few shops), and a boardwalk. the kids took their scooters and rode around after dinner.

wednesday
speaking of scooters, molly wanted to ride around in the neighborhood wednesday afternoon. i decided it would probably be easier to ride with her (i took colbys scooter) rather than try to keep up walking. little did i know we'd stay out for an hour. that was my work out for the day.

thursday
happy thanksgiving!! we went out to mt pleasant where i have a lot of family on my dads side. theres a big family reunion every other year. i took a lot of pictures, which i'll post in the next couple days. i will preview this, so maybe you'll come back to see them...my 78 year old grandma got on the rope swing they have rigged up on a crane. it swings out over a creek about 30 feet up in the air. too funny.

friday
on the way home we stopped at homestead heritage in elm mott. its a community that lives off the land in every sense of the word. they have a big festival every year on thanksgiving weekend. heres colby with one of the 4 week old blue silkies they had in the animal pen.

saturday
i cant tell you how excited i am to be able to listen to christmas music!!!!! i wont allow myself to indulge until after thanksgiving. i went on to my iTunes today and put all 75 of my christmas songs back on my iPod for the season! yay!!

check back in a couple of days for all the thanksgiving craziness. 

seriously. grandma on a rope swing, y'all.

be blessed!!

threesixfive, week 46

this week flew by before i even realized what happened! i guess thats a good thing. i've been working on our latest project for most of the week, and its kind of been more trouble than its worth, but i think its going to be finished today. i'm hoping the finished project brings me back to my decorating happy place.

sunday

we had our very first FX (Family eXperience) in Hwy252 on sunday. allen was captain cooperation, and did an excellent job. unfortunately i didnt get a better picture of him. maybe one will make it on here sooner or later. i'm sure he'll be making future appearances.

monday
ok, so i didnt take this picture on monday, but i did buy this at the store on monday, and it is delicious. i love all things pumpkin.

tuesday
with christmas quickly approaching, my mailbox has been inundated with toy catalogs. most of them have managed to make it into the recycling bin before the kids spotted them, but these have been lurking around my kitchen with things marked, dog-eared, and labeled for my convenience.

wednesday
my project. sigh. i saw a cute laundry room on pinterest im trying to duplicate in my tiny closet of a laundry room. like i said earlier, i think the finished product will be fine, but the paint has been such a hassle. i wont bore you with the saga, but just know ive been to lowes three times in as many days to get it right (not because i'm being fickle, but because they're messin' up my paint!). there are still issues, but i refuse to paint those walls a fourth time. :-/

thursday
making progress.....
can you tell the paint is a little different in this picture?

friday
my sweet friend april's birthday was friday. the four of us went out for a fun evening to celebrate.

saturday
molly had a princess tea party to go to for her friend audrey's birthday. such a cute idea.

i'm about to go paint. some more.

hopefully i'll have happy, pretty pictures of my fabulous tiny laundry room next week. oh, and thanksgiving stuff, too. :-)

enjoy your families this week!!!!

threesixfive, week 45

with the exception of the kids' birthday party on sunday, we had a pretty low key week. we kept to our typical schedule, and then spent most afternoons at home. all the kids are interested in doing right now is playing with their birthday toys.

sunday

party day!! colbys birthday was oct 28, and mollys is nov 8, so they had one party with about 30 kids, plus parents. it was a bit hectic, but loads of fun. we went to a great park and had a nature hunt.

monday
ive been all about candles lately. i think im craving holiday smells because its definitely NOT feeling like fall outside. maybe i can trick my nose into thinking otherwise.
allen came home with this for me! i have a pumpkin spice one i'll finish out, and then can use this one just in time for the christmas season.

tuesday
colby and molly have been working on these reading logs. 6 hours gets them a ticket to six flags in the spring. we're almost there!

wednesday
we gave molly a razor scooter for her birthday, so wednesday i took them to the park for a couple hours so she could break it in.

thursday
happy 6th birthday to my sweet princess!! she picked schlotzsky's for lunch, then we went to see wreck-it ralph (SO cute!!). for dinner we went a little bit nicer and took her to bj's, a new restaraunt that opened a couple months ago. thats a giant cookie with ice cream shes enjoying for dessert. it was a fun, laid back birthday.

friday
we got our operation christmas child boxes assembled this week.

saturday
we went to a gender reveal party for some friends of ours. the pinata broke open to reveal a bunch of pink candy! its a girl!!!

hope you had a great week and are staying warm where you are. hopefully that applies to you. if so, please send some our way! 

threesixfive, week 44

i was going to post this earlier, but i broke my coffee pot this morning while getting ready for church (an already hectic event with out adding sweeping up glass to the mix), and then this afternoon we were scrambling around trying to get everything together for the kids' birthday party which was today at 3:00. this is really the first chance ive had to sit down all day.

here are the pics from the week.

sunday

daddy and molly in the hammock. this has become their "thing", and the weather in the evenings has been great for it.

monday
termites were eating a section of our fence, so allen tore it down and rebuilt it. he is much man.

tuesday
i made a fresh batch of laundry detergent today. this whole jar cost me about $15 and will last almost an entire year. i just ran out of the batch i made at the end of november last year.

***UPDATE***
heres a link to my laundry recipe since i had several requests for it in the comments section. although i think i contacted all of you with a link, i'll put it here too just in case.
LAUNDRY DETERGENT RECIPE

wednesday
happy halloween! colby was harry potter, and molly went as a gypsy.

thursday
we went to a carnival here in town with our friends the o'gradys. colby and evan were tall enough to ride the BIG rides with the dads.

friday
the last day of early voting, so the kids and i went after co-op. i stood in line for an hour and a half. sheesh. however, the kids were SO patient and understanding, for which i was extremely grateful.

saturday
more soccer games. allen coached colbys team (and did a fantastic job!!) because his coach was out of town. molly scored her first goal!!!!! yay!!

thats our week. my parents and grandma were here friday and saturday, and the kids' birthday party was this afternoon (pictures of that next week!). 

ive been eating chocolate like its the only thing available to me in the whole wide world. ugh. i hate hormones.

tomorrow is a new day, and i shall eat vegetables. or at least buy some at the store.....

have a great one!!

be blessed.