It's never too late to be thankful.

It's a Thanksgiving post in pictures.  Never mind that it's nearly two weeks late.

 We celebrated K5 style on Wednesday morning.  We made indian hats, did the chicken dance, made vests out of grocery bags and had some yummy snacks.  This was my first time making something called a "Brookie" (which I was drawn to because of our sweet Brookie) and the kids LOVED them- mix a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie in a mini muffin tin and voila.  Easy and the hit of the K5 snack table.  As if I get my self worth from the opinions of 5-6 year olds.  But it never feels bad to be told you make the yummiest treats.

 Wednesday afternoon we headed to Lewistown for our longest stay in a while.  I believe that by supper time, the chaos had reached a level that had Nana and Pap wishing we had waited until Thursday morning to show up.

Although my pictures are out of order, one of the highlights of the trip was for the kids to meet their newest cousin, Hayden, who was just one week old.  I was having a really hard time missing her too, since I had seen her only for a quick minute on her birthday.  So believe me when I say we were all anxious for some Hayden time during our visit.  Joshua and Lauren both seemed to enjoy holding her, and neither one of them could believe or remember when Mara had been that small.  Frankly, looking at Mara next to itty bitty Hayden did a number on my mind too, as our "baby" all of a sudden looked huge!  Mara seemed to enjoy her as long as it was someone other than me who was holding her.  No shock there.

Mara spent her time at Nana and Pap's getting into mischief.  She seemed to be in exploration mode, and was ripping things apart right and left.  I think she was enjoying being in a different place and seeing what all she could get into.  She literally rummaged through my diaper bag at least 10 times.  I stopped putting things back in any semblance of an order and just piled it all in, knowing she was going to come back around within moments of my cleaning it all up.

Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious, as always.  Joshua even got to help Pap make the filling balls!  I was amazed at the kids' appetites this year.  Joshua ate an entire plate of Thanksgiving, and especially loved the turkey, filling balls, Gram's jello salad and pumpkin pie.  Lauren picked, but ate more than I have ever seen her eat before.  And I couldn't keep enough food on the tray for Mara.  She had turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes from my plate with gravy, about half of a filling ball, corn, bites of pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll.  It was unreal.  I guess it's safe to say that she's doing alright on table food at the moment.



Black Friday evening, we had what I term the best meal of the year with the Thanksgiving leftovers and Mom's homemade waffles.  The kids agreed with my opinion.  Lauren ate 5....yes, 5...waffles at dinner.  In terms of Lauren, that could be equal to the amount of food she consumes in an entire week, let alone in one meal.  The extra special surprise was that the kids got to see Danaca, who stopped by for a visit while she was in town.  Joshua and Lauren absolutely love her and have asked no less than a dozen times since when Danaca is going to come and visit again.  So Danaca, I guess we better get a date on the calendar!

Lauren really seemed to latch on to my mom this trip, and was seeming to soak up every bit of individual attention she could get.  She and Nana played lots of games, read lots of books and did lots of puzzles together.  Heaven forbid if my mom needed to go and do something else-- she was getting scolded by a three year old for walking away from her!  It was sweet to see.



And here was my out of order picture when Lauren first met Hayden.  She was very gentle with her, just like she had always been with Mara.  I really hope that all of these sweet cousins continue to love each other like we do all of our cousins.  What a special gift Aunt Libby and Uncle Zig gave to them in this precious baby girl.

Above it all, Thanksgiving this year was a great opportunity to reflect on our blessings.  And among all those I had to count (and there were so so many), I count these three among the most precious.  Jason and I are so blessed.  Getting to spend time with my parents and Libby and Zig and the girls was such a treat, and I am so grateful for that time together.