And So It Begins . . .: 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!!!