Thanksgiving and cousins and Christmas

Thursday morning Davyn asked, "so when does Thanksgiving start?"  Well, the whole day is Thanksgiving, so it already started.  The answer clearly did not satisfy.  So he asked again.  And again.  And with each repeated explanation, he grew more and more annoyed.

The boy finally found satisfaction when I changed my answer to:  Thanksgiving starts when we get to Grandma's house. 

Perfect. 

Grandma Kay and Papa definitely know how to entertain kids.  With chickens and turtles, climbing trees and a huge backyard, it's one of my boys' favorite places to be. With a quiet backroom for sleeping babies and a napping couch for tired moms in the upstairs theatre room, I wasn't complaining either. 

The food was delicious, and we enjoyed a relaxing day with Jim's family.

I never think to take family shots, but saw this on Shanon's blog and stole it (thanks!) because it perfectly encapsulates my biggest Gratitude.  I love these four humans I get to call mine!

On Saturday we enjoyed all of the Hendrix cousins.  Since JoDee was visiting from Utah, Megs came up from Tucson and we had a cousins party/Christmas gift exchange.  Imagine 17 cousins ages 16 to 1 (but mostly 5-8) in my house.  What you're imagining is Chaos.  But I still love seeing them all together.  Andersyn helped me make the decorations for this cake we made for that night.

I love spending time with my sisters and mom.  The only humans in the world who can get me to wake up at 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning to shop.  They not only make me laugh, but they always manage to inspire me with ideas that make my life better.  

After writing this, here's my vow for Christmas/December:  more pictures! 

cookies for Tyler

I can't figure out why I look fully 36, while my same-blooded brother doesn't begin to look the 35 he turned last week. 

We're big on kids' birthdays in my family, but the adult birthdays get little attention other than a phone call.  But I ran across some hunting decorated cookies a few months back and knew I had to make them for my Tyler.  Mandi came over, and we had a blast with these.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

cookies for baby Alex

I'm getting a niece for Christmas.  It's Daniel (Jim's brother) and Tonya's first baby, and we couldn't be more excited.  I did the cookie party favors for the shower, but snapped pictures of the rest because it was all put together so well.  Her name is Alexandria, so they went with a Greek theme. 

first, the cookies...

This picture is of the cookies in process.  The design mimicked the invite, but was so detailed that I had to develop a new skill.  So I made a stencil for the leaves.  Jim spent a good hour cutting out the tiny details, and it worked surprisingly well with the royal icing.  It was a huge time saver that I will definitely try again.

bagged cookies make me smile. 

but here are some of the shower details that I loved...

Jim and I both had a slew of Saturday commitments, so we divided the kids, and I ended up with Azure as my shower buddy.  She loved all the other littles that were there, especially her cousin Abby.  I love this picture I snapped of them from inside...Abby's little arm guiding my Azh.

Grandma Kay has introduced each of my 3 to olives.  Azure readily gobbled them down.

And here are all of the Scott girls:(Tonya, Jenna, Shanon, Kay, Abs in front, Tonya, me with Azh)

Now we just have to wait to meet Alexandria!