Thanksgiving-a-thon and a weekend recap...a bit late

So....finally got Thanksgiving pics downloaded. After weeding through the mountain of photos I took and deleting the duds, here's a quick over-view of our whirlwind Thanksgiving marathon. Hence, the title Thanksgiving-a-thon. Since the hubs and I are blessed to live in the same city as our parents, and our parents' parents, we have quite a few houses to visit every holiday. Last year we made it to all 4 Thanksgivings- my mom's family, my dad's family, his mom's family and his dad's family. That made 4 Thanksgiving meals in a row my friends. And....I was preggo. And....lugging around 2 kiddos. This year, we made it to 3 Thanksgivings with our 3 kiddos. And yes, I ate a full meal at all 3. Was there any doubt?
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Here's E with my Grandaddy (mom's dad) at Thanksgiving #1 which my parents held at their house this year. They're intently focused on Toy Story 3 in this pic.
And so was O...

Sweet MM in the headband I made for her that morning before we walked out the door because she had to have one that matched her outfit. Had to.

Cousin Laura with MM. She's expecting a baby boy in February. Can't wait!

Eating pic. Literally. Look how many people I caught with their mouth open...

Another eating pic...

And I took a pic of my Dad taking a pic of me. We're cool like that.

Eliza made sure everyone got to eat

And then took the rest for herself.

O did some math after he ate.

(btw- sorry these captions are oh so boring. It's been a loooong day and I'm a bit brain-dead)

Taking a post-meal rest. It was necessary.

And I asked (no, made) my sis take a pic of me and the hubs since I'm never in any pics because I'm always behind the camera. I told you the hubs can't take a 'normal' pic, right? Case in point, my friends. Case in point.

Moving on to Thanksgiving #2. Uncle Joe and Miss Amy's house. (dad's fam)

Since we had just eaten, O was content to play on an iphone.

My dad, aunt, uncle, mom, MM, Mal, and Chad

MM was totally acting like she wanted to dive right into the food. Ironic since she still won't eat baby food. Projectiles that stuff outta the mouth every time.

Behold....the Krispy Kreme bread pudding.

That's right.

You heard me.

Cousins John and Win.

Still on the iphone.

Sisters,

Sisters,

Never were there such adoring sisters....

(name that movie. anyone? anyone? Bueller?)

Karen and me, holding our sleeping baby girls. We both announced we were pregnant last Thanksgiving. No announcements this year. Well... I did switch to low-fat pop-tarts. Maybe I should've announced that.

Aaaaaaaaaaand....Thanksgiving #3.

Home of Rush and Diane Smith. (aka, the hubs aunt and uncle)

E with her Mawmaw (the hubs mom) and Presley

and the hubs Mawmaw in a hat. Not her hat. Funny.

Lillie!

O zapping/light saber-ing/or straight up killing Jason and Liz. Not quite sure which character he was being here, but rest assured lots of sound affects were going on....

The hubs grandparents, parents, and uncle. Hmmm....they should totally use this as their Christmas card pic.

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moving on to the weekend...

E climbed her little behind all the way up into my director's chair for the first time. I found her sitting just like this watching tv.

such.a.stinker.

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I pulled out our toy nativity sets for the kids to play with-

here's the Playschool 'little people' version....
(when you press on the angel, it plays Silent Night)

And the Veggie Tales version. The angel here, Laura Carrot, sings O Little Town of Bethlehem when you mash on her face. Ah....the memories I have of O when he was little making her sing over and over and over and over and over and ove.....well, ....you get the picture.


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MM was mesmerized by the lights on the tree. I loved, and I mean loved watching her face as she looked at the lights and reached out to touch the braches. Precious.

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Saturday night shenanigans.

The hubs friends came over after a birthday celebration for one of his friends and decided to have their own 'Sips and Strokes' at the house.

No kidding.

There are 4 renderings of Brent leaned against the mantle with glass goblet in hand.

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a pic of all 3 kiddos before bed saturday night. O asked to hold MM. And then, of course, E wanted to as well....

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took MM to the doc for her 6-month check up on Tuesday. She weighs a little over 15 lbs. E was 22 at her last visit. I practically have twins. No kidding.

It was a 3-shot visit.

Poor baby.

And O, right before bedtime Tues night.

He's Spiderman.

As if you couldn't tell.

my decked out mantle

So...I'm linking up this post over at the Lettered Cottage, and at All Things Heart and Home. First of all, I'd like to thank my hubs for not looking at me like I'm a crazy person when I told him that I had to have the mantle 'done up' by tonight because I had to link it to another blog. I know...that sounds crazy. But that's what I told him, and he didn't commit me. He did want to know what was in it for me, and I guess it just boils down to bragging rights. Ya know...."Mine's shiny and pretty and just look at how much of it I made...". Plus, there's not much I can do well- for example, do I need to tell you the story about my 3rd attempt at tuna helper? Nah... let's just say staying up late on a school night to work on my mantle decor is fun for me. I don't do drugs, but I craft and decorate.

Here she is...

Just pretend you don't see that tree over there with only 4 ornaments on it, mmkay? Thanks.

The stockings I made, by the chimney with care...

The ribbon trees I made next to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I put them on a stack of vintage books so they'd be on a higher level. You know, because... that's why we celebrate Christmas afterall. And that 'M' is our last initial. I have them all over the house, and I do mean all over.

Picked these letters up at the hob lob today. Well, actually just the J and the Y. I stole an O from B-O-O since I'd just taken that off the mantle after Halloween. Since I've used these letters for quite a few holidays this year, I figure I'll soon have the whole alphabet stored and can pretty much spell whatever I want. And that little wooden pretty next to the letters was on the unfinished wood aisle at the hob lob. I painted him white with a little acrylic paint. Cute eh?

Another tree I made today using this tutorial , some ornaments in a glass vase, and my elbow.

The hubs was hard at work on his own mantle while I was working on mine, so I thought I'd share a few pics of the man cave as well. He was proud of this tree he scored for free today from his grandparents house. And yes, that's a huge print from Dumb and Dumber. Man Cave decor.

Also wanted to share some pics of our foyer. Not really sure I like the Christmas banner here since it doesn't really 'go' with the other stuff, but....I had it. It was $1.50. So there.
And yes, I did see that tiny little red toy truck on the floor before I took the picture, but it was all the way down there on the floor and I just couldn't be bothered to pick it up.

Like this subway art? Pretty, huh? I printed it for free (well, I used my paper and ink) and you can too... Just go HERE. The awesome ladies at eighteen25 made it. I popped it into a frame I already had and, VOILA. Some new FREE Christmas decor. Love.

Again with an 'M'. Did I mention they were everywhere?

And that's where I put the wreath I made from this post. On the door to the Narnia closet. (It opens into a hallway that takes you from the front of the house to the back...so, yeah. We call it the Narnia closet.)

And no, I'm not putting her on the mantle, but this little cutie turned 6 months old on Sunday. Can't believe she's already half a year. I take a picture of my kiddos every month of their first year on the day they were born to document their growth. And plus, it's just fun. I bought this bear before O was born, so all 3 have bear pics.

And since decorating the mantle wasn't enough to keep me busy tonight, I made some Christmas headbands for MM. All of the babies born in the past year to mommies that teach at my school are taking a pic for the yearbook tomorrow and the babes have to be decked out in Christmas garb. I'm taking two options for MM, ya know...to be prepared and whatnot. This is option 1....

with its new coordinating headband. And...

here's option 2

I'm curious. Which do you like better?

(Thanksgiving post to come tomorrow. Lots, and I mean lots of pictures to share, so grandmas, hang on....the pics of your grandchildren are coming.)