Our new home

I just realized there are no pictures of the new house on the blog! Oops!

Here it is!

Stu and the kids on the first visit to the house.

Obviously this is during Mamaw and Papaw's visit in October

Sassy

Kate was kind of in a mood yesterday. I think she was tired, but of course, she insists that she was not. When sitting at the dinner table to a meal of homemade turkey pot pie, she was refusing to eat the vegetables she didn't like. (She's starting sort of a picky eater phase, and I don't like it at all! She's always been my good veggie and fruit eater up until now.) I told her she needed to eat them with the bread and turkey and she'd be just fine. I was talking to her about how it was important to eat the veggies, etc, and she blurted out:

"I just don't like the carrots! Stop judging me!"

Wow, already persecuted at the ripe age of 5.

Our First Thanksgiving

Today marked the first Thanksgiving that I can ever remember spending apart from some form of extended family, either mine or Stuart's. That's remarkable, really. In 35 years, I can never remember spending it apart. I can remember wanting to be elsewhere, or counting the hours until I could meet up with friends. When I really think about it, though, thanksgiving was special because it was a day I spent with my family. I remember a year when my grandparents didn't come home from Arizona and how mad I was that they chose staying over being with us (me).

It was hard this morning, and at times later, thinking of family gathered around the table, or looking at pictures of my great nephew crawling around the floor.

In reality, the first thanksgiving was likely much like ours was today. The pilgrims, settling in a new land, getting to know new friends over a big meal of new and favorite food. And it was a really good day. Our day today was really good too, and honestly I'm probably more thankful for what have been given, and the things I miss and took for granted, than I ever was before.

Happy new Thanksgiving!

Kate's big girl room

We spent the weekend making Kate's room model-home-like. Stuart worked late Saturday night finishing it up. She loves it! We still need some wall hangings, etc, but you'll get the idea.



This is the en suite bathroom...



Kate's reaction to the finished product

Our own little drama queen!

Thanksgiving

Kate and I have had some intense discussion this week about Thanksgiving. Here are my favorites:

First, we were talking about how we aren't going home this year for Thanksgiving. "But MOM!", she said, "Grandma makes that special kind of chicken that I like!" I assured her that I too could make turkey, but she wasn't buying it.

Second, I was driving Kate to school when she started talking to me about God:

"Mom, you know when God used to be alive?" she asked. I didn't, but it was early and I thought it best just to play along with a undecided "uh huh."

"Well, when God used to be alive, these people wanted to kill him and so they put him in a room with a big circle thing on it and they crushed him with it and he died. But then, someone moved the circle and he lived again! So, Thanksgiving is when we celebrate that God died, but on Easter, it's for when he was alive again."

To translate for you kid-speak novices, Kate was thinking of that picture in most Bible storybooks with the stone that was rolled in front of the grave and then rolled away by the angel. Somehow, she's turned that into some sort of crushing.

"That's pretty close Kate. Actually, at Easter is when we remember Jesus dying and rising again, so you definitely got that right. But Thanksgiving, it really doesn't have anything to do with God exactly. It's a celebration of when America was founded and being thankful, to God, for the things He provided."

"Oh."

Indeed.

Earth to Dad

So we're sitting at Red Robin waiting for dinner, and the kids are working on a word search. Apparently there was a break in the action, because Kate waves her hand in front of Stu's face and says, "Earth to Dad!!"

It was hilarious.

Visitors!

We were so excited to have out first visitors this weekend! Mom and Dad came to visit for the long weekend. They had never been to Vegas, so the pressure was on to show them an extra good time. We tried!
Friday was Kate's birthday, but other than cookie cake, we really didn't celebrate until Saturday night, when we headed to Margaritaville (the pirate restaurant) and had dinner. Kate got a special birthday balloon and visit from one of the girls on stilts. They offered Dad a hat too, but he passed. Instead, we got him an official Tshirt. We went to the Bellagio and saw the Conservatory and also the fountain show. It was Halloween weekend, of course, so it amped up the freaky people watching a bit.
The rest of the weekend we just enjoyed family time. We shopped, went to church, carved pumpkins and made cookies.

It was hard to see them go, but we had a great time!

The ad on the baggage claim reads: "HINT: You aren't in Kansas anymore. Welcome to Vegas!"

Mom and Dad above the Strip.

Love this picture in the Bellagio Conservatory!

Bored in Las Vegas (Henderson, actually)