Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It was busy but filled with food, fun, and family!
Wednesday we headed up to Greenville to spend the day and then do Thanksgiving Wednesday night with my parents. The kiddos had lots of fun playing with all the toys at Gran and Grandaddy's and my mom had gotten some of our old chapter books out of the attic for Emmie to go through which delighted my little reader. We My mom fixed us a delicious steak dinner that evening and my dad made homemade ice cream! It was delicious.

Franklin loves his Gran! She grates cheese. It seems that lots of cheese "falls" on the floor.

We spent the night in Greenville and spent Thursday morning with my parents as well. We all enjoyed our visit!

Happy boy is ready for Thanksgiving food! He has always been a terrible sleeper away from home but he did great while we were traveling...it was so nice!

Gran and Grandaddy didn't have a plastic bat for JP to carry around but he made do with some pool noodles!

While we were in Greenville I also had a spur of the moment visit with one of my best friends from my childhood. My friend Kathleen(we've been friends since we were 3!), who I hadn't seen since Emmie was a baby, was in town from Houston and we were able to get together for a little bit! It was so fun to see her and catch up!

Franklin stayed with my parents and Thursday around noon we headed to NC to do Thanksgiving with the Hedrick clan (Paul's mom's side of the family). We always have so much fun when we get together with them! The meal was wonderful and so was the fellowship! Three of the older girl cousins were there (they're 11-12) and my girls just adore them. The big girls are so sweet to the little ones and I'm so thankful for their willingness to let the little ones tag along! JP had a wonderful time with all the grown up men. He loved hanging with the guys!

Ellie and Emma. They spent a lot of time together and I loved catching these sweet moments. They have very similar personalities in that they enjoy having some quiet time and don't feel the need to be right in the middle of the action.

Ellie snuggled up with Danny.

We spent the night at Uncle Clyde and Aunt Suzy's house Thursday night and they fixed us a big breakfast Friday morning and the cousins came too.

We went to check on the kids before going to bed Thursday night and Ruthie was using the mattress as a pillow! Poor baby was worn out!

After breakfast the kids played for awhile and they had a great time playing in the leaves!

The girls LOVE to play dress up at Suzy and Clyde's. (Ruthie, Ellie, Mary Jane, Emmie, and Laura Ann)

Emma and JP

Ellie and GG chatting at the table. So sweet.

They loved playing in the leaves with Danny and Paul.

JP was not so sure about the whole thing.

Paul's cousin Danny and his wife Jennifer are gradually adding animals to their farm.  They've had chickens for awhile and now they have goats and llamas and bee hives! We were really excited to see their new additions. JP loved all the animals. He was SO excited about their dog (a dog who wants to be near you...a novelty in JP's world!). He LOVED the chickens. He kept following them around. And he wasn't even overwhelmed by the goats and llamas. Its funny for a kid that is still slightly terrified of his sisters, he thought being in the middle of all the animals was great. I really wish I'd gotten more pictures of him with the animals. I was also impressed with how brave Emmie was. She's been around the chickens a number of times but she was super excited about feeding the goats too! (And of course Ellie and Ruthie loved it...they don't have too many fears!)

Love this silly girl!

After lunch on Friday we met up with my parents and got little puppy back (who of course had been spoiled rotten while he was with the grandparents) and then headed back to Columbia and Saturday Paul went to the game and the kids and I put up the Christmas decorations!