Happy Birthday Thanksgiving!!!!

When Kieran woke up Thursday morning I reminded him that it was Thanksgiving to which he replied - "Happy Birthday Thanksgiving!!!" (I think we've had a few too many Birthdays lately). I figured it was close enough and didn't correct him, which meant he said it about twenty more times that day. Anyway, Thanksgiving morning was nice and quiet, our friends' daughter Eden came over and played with the boys while Mason played soccer with Jon and Laura went to church. It was fun having a mini play date for the boys and nice for me to have a mellow little girl to hang out with.

Once Jon was home we did an early lunch and then he took Dodger on a walk with Kieran hoping the little guy would fall asleep in the stroller and get a mini-nap in. Our plan worked perfectly and K slept for about 40 minutes before we had to wake him to get in the car. Shockingly he didn't fall back asleep in the car but Reed did instead. When we got to Aunt Penny and Uncle Mark's we set up a Facetime call between mine and Jon's phones to create a pseudo monitor and let him sleep for another 45 minutes before I went out and actually woke him up. We got to hang out with everyone for a few hours, attempted family pictures, documented seeing Baby Ben (I had met him last Friday but totally failed on the picture front), and Jon and I even got to play games and have a drink while the boys played with Grandma and Aunt Jana. Before we left, Blingy gave the boys some holiday books and very sweetly read one to Reed, which he loved!!!

Auntie M and Baby Ben

Reed meeting baby Ben

Checking out Penny's "Grandma toys"

Playing with Aunt Jana

Mama knows how to multitask!

Blingy reading to Reed

Great-Grammy, Melissa, Grammy (Penny), and Ben

We had hopes of Kieran falling asleep on the way to Nonna and Pepe's, he didn't, but he was in such a great mood it really didn't matter. We finally got to meet baby Maisie who is already two months old, so I was thrilled!!! TJ played with the boys while we caught up with everyone else and then we enjoyed a delicious dinner courtesy of Pepe. Of course Reed provided the entertainment when he tried to explain how he was full up to the top of his head with dinner but still had a little room for pie. Just as we were finishing our meal, Auntie P, Tim, Tammi, and Kyle arrived surprising us all and bringing our favorite key lime pie. Most of the guys headed to the pool house to talk politics and drink, while most of the ladies stayed inside and caught up some more. After asking a couple times I finally told Reed he could have pie around 7:00 pm. Nonna held Kieran and both boys dug into the apple crumble pie we had made the night before. Reed was totally out of it while eating dessert and when I asked if he wanted to put PJs on and cuddle up on the couch, he said yes. Ten minutes later he was sound to sleep and slept through everything for the next two hours, including his brother crawling all over him. After multiple attempts to get Kieran to sleep I finally threw in the towel and said we needed to head home at 9:30. It was a long, but really great day and reminded me just how many people we have in our lives we are thankful for!!!

The Stoothoff family!!!

TJ entertaining the boys

Playing with Aunt Di Di

Auntie P and Reed



Visiting Great Grandpa's Ranch

Reed is off of school all week for Thanksgiving which meant on Monday we had some free time to head to Orange Cove and check out the baby calves that were born last month on Great Grandpa Dean's ranch.  To add to the boys' excitement, Grandpa was able to meet us up there too. I honestly don't know what the boys' favorite part was because they can't stop talking about the whole morning. Riding in the back of Grandpa's truck, the dog eating avocados, picking oranges off of the ground and throwing them into the pasture, the cows eating oranges, going into the pasture with Grandpa and throwing "cow pies," picking oranges and eating them, peeing in the ditch, or seeing a guy riding a horse on the neighboring property. To say they had a blast is an understatement!!!

November Happenings

Over the last two weeks we've been to a few different celebrations I thought I would recap quickly.

Up first was Skylee's Birthday party. Skylee is Reed's best friend at school and totally new territory for us since up until now Reed's friends have been our friends' kids and therefore we know all of the parents really well. In the small world that is Kingsburg, Skylee is actually related to one of the ladies that works at HMC but she and Reed have genuinely forged a friendship all on their own. Anyway, her Mom was sweet enough to invite us to her Birthday party at Chuck e Cheese. Jon had a work event late into the afternoon and I wasn't about to take two kids on my own, so just Reed and I went and we had a great time. He loved all of the games he played and of course the fact that there was a "Frozen" theme was a huge bonus. Before we left the house I had him sign her card and instead of just an "R" which has been his signature for the last month or two he wrote out his whole name!!!

That Saturday was Russell and Laurie's daughter Bailey's first Birthday. There were a ton of kids and they all got along really well - even holding hands on the tennis court spontaneously and piling into the ball pit until there was no room to move. Bailey was her usual sweet self and Laurie made really cute decorations and had tons of pictures up of the Birthday Girl over the last year. It was a lot sunnier than any of us expected so a bunch of the kids (boys included) ended up wearing some of Bailey's extra hats.

Reed, Lyla, and Clara

Birthday Girl Bailey

Carver in his sun bonnet

Squished much guys?

Birthday cupcake with Mom and Dad

Clara and the boys eating their cupcakes

We didn't attend the next celebration but I can't skip over such a big event, Auntie M and Hunky Kevin welcomed their Baby Boy, Benjamin Thomas. I'm so excited for them and am at the same time totally bummed because our house has been plagued with sickness for the last eight days and so we've yet to meet him in person (sob, sob, sob). The other exciting part is that I guessed his name and have it documented in a text to Grandma while Melissa was in labor, I'm pretty proud of myself for this!!!

This past weekend we thought we were attending a wedding reception for Jon's cousin Greg and his new wife Deborah who were planning on getting married at the Courthouse earlier in the week. We were bundled up in jackets and ready to hang by the bonfire all night, instead an hour into the party they stood up in the middle of everyone along with Deborah's son and had Greg's best friend marry them. It was so cool to be part of and also marked the first wedding either of the boys have attended.

Nonna with Lyla, Reed, and the groom to be

Lyla and Kieran could not be kept away from the wheelbarrow full of ice

Surprise Wedding!!!

Juggling three kids - Reed's face about sums things up!

C and Lyla

Kieran with Dad

Pepe roasted the most perfect marshmallow for Reed

On Sunday Aunt Di Di came over for Sunday dinner and it was like Christmas for our family because we hadn't seen her over the last six weeks which meant she had Birthday presents for all four of us!! It was sweet of her to make the trek over from the coast and the boys, especially Reed, loved playing with her after dinner.