So much to be thankful for

Another successful Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the kids are watching the DVR-ed Macy's parade as I get Christmas decor out of the closet. Three kids after my own heart.

Monday night David's life-long friend Michael and his wife and daughter came over to eat and play. Lindsey entertained all the little ones so the adults could catch up. We are so thankful Lindsey is learning to read (and loves to read) so she can entertain little people for us.

Tuesday we went to eat at David's uncle Jim and aunt Missy's house in Hernando. Some of their family was in town, and it was good to fellowship with that side of the Ruff clan. Benton loves his cousin Tripp, and the moment they see each other someone says, "Wanna wrestle?" and they run off to do their three-year-old thing. Funny story about Kate and baby Sophie. Kate lost her lovey sometime over the weekend. We thought she was too young to be attached and pulled another one out of the closet. Tuesday when Emily arrived and put Sophie's car seat down, Kate spotted Sophie's lovey (which looks exactly like Kate's, but has Sophie's monogram). Kate crawled over with lightning speed, snatched up the lovey, and started doing a baby dance and squeeling. When I would try to take the lovey away, Kate put a death grip on it and did her pteradactyl scream. So Sophie agreed to let Kate keep it for the night, and we went to the children's store early Wednesday to buy Kate a new one.


Wednesday night was the spot on the calendar Lindsey has talked about for weeks. This was the night she was invited to her first Girl's Night Out. Nani took Emily, Brooke, Lindsey and me to dinner and the Orpheum to see the musical White Christmas. I got Lindsey dressed in her Christmas outfit (breaking a rule of etiquette before Thanksgiving, but it was a necessity). We went to Houston's to eat, and Lindsey passed the time there writing out her family tree. These days her favorite pasttimes are writing names of everyone she knows and writing out math problems. It is obvious she is my child; hopefully we can intervene early and find her some hobby that involves something other than academics. After dinner we went to Starbucks and Lindsey had her first S'bucks beverage: hot chocolate. She was adorable sitting at the counter with all of the adults, sipping her hot drink out of the red cup. Then we headed downtown. There were activities for children before the musical began, beginning with Santa. (This year Lindsey is anxious to tell Santa what is on her list, but Benton keeps saying he just wants Santa to call him.) There were also crafts for the kids, so of course Lindsey was in her element and we eventually drug her from the crafts table and found our seats. The musical was wonderful! And to my astonishment, Lindsey stayed awake for the whole thing. I'm talking about 11:00 and she was still wide awake talking about her favorite parts of the musical (the song "Sisters," which ironically is also Nani's favorite song from the musical, and the farmer man who only had one line).

Thursday we switched up our usual routine and went to Booneville to visit Macille, then we headed to Tupelo to enjoy lunch with my family. Now that there are five little ones there is never a dull moment. Luckily it was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy playing outside (the boys all hit golf balls; Lindsey wrote names on a family tree). It was a bittersweet holiday because Ben and Ashley and the boys are moving to Baltimore this weekend. Selfishly I'm sad I won't be able to see Wilson and Charlie every time I'm in Oxford, but I know this is a great opportunity for them and they are blessed to have her family nearby. On our ride home from Tupelo we started planning a road trip to Baltimore--this just gives us a great place to visit.

Thankful for all our blessings.

Who needs football?

Clearly, the Ole Miss faithful do not. Because we still manage to have a blast in the Grove every Saturday, even right before we watch the Rebs lose....to LA Tech...on Homecoming. Oh well, we can't have it all, and I'll take the #1 tailgating ranking right now. Yesterday was our last game for the season (we have the good sense to skip the last home game against LSU, the #1 team in the nation). This season worked so well with a sitter at the Ruffs' apartment for the kids so we could let them play in the Grove then ship them off and enjoy the game without kids. If we could enjoy the games, that is. So Lindsey and Benton played with their cousin Wilson while Kate charmed everyone into giving her bites of cookies.

When we were walking up to the Grove, we had our three kiddos, and Brooke was with us with her puppy Bronx. Two college girls walked up and started oohing and aahing over Bronx. "How cute!" "He's so adorable!" "What's his name?" To which Benton proudly replied, "Benton." He knows how to win over the ladies.

Community helper day at school.  Lindsey is a cook.  Benton is Batman, because he helps the community fight crime.

Halloween

This little piggy went trick or treating....

Little Red Riding Hood and Benton the Terrible pirate, ready to trick or treat.

I usually detest Halloween. It's my least favorite day. The only redeeming thing about Halloween is that when it is over, my favorite season of all starts. I love the Thanksgiving through Christmas season--the music, the food, the red cups at Starbucks, all of it. But this year, I was pleasantly surprised by a wonderful Halloween.

We started celebrating Saturday with a neighborhood fall social. The kids enjoyed playing with their friends, and so did the adults. Kate retired early to head to bed, which worked out great for David who needed to get home to watch a miserable Ole Miss game.

Sunday we had our church fall festival, and oh my, our church knows how to throw a fall festival. There were big bouncy inflatables, two little carnival rides, every fall game you can imagine, crafts, balloon animals (or sword and flower for my two), and even an area for infants to play in a miniature ball pit and get their pictures made for a craft. The organizers truly thought of everything.

At this point, I thought my kids would have had enough of Halloween and would be content to go to our neighbor's house to trick or treat then call it a night (it worked last year). Oh, how mistaken I was. We met up with a gaggle of toddlers and their parents at the Halls' house and followed the toddlers around the neighborhood. They were little and they were cute, but they were serious about some trick or treating. Kate hung out in the pouch with me and the other adults. Benton went to the first house, said "twick or tweat" with his adorable toothless smile, and scored some loot. He ran to me and said "Mommy! Her gave me a tweat!" He then realized he was behind the crew who had already headed to the next door, so he took off running and caught up with them. Then he ran back to me and said, "Mommy! Her gave me a tweat too!!" He was amazed that the people kept giving him treats. And some of the ladies were charmed by his adorable toothless grin and gave him handfuls of candy. Once we made it around the front loop, it was dark and getting cold, but the kids would not be shaken. One of our friends drove up on his four wheeler with a hayride attached to the back, so the kids and dads hopped on and headed to the back loop for more candy.

dads pulling the kids uphill. I was walking with a baby attached to me, so I did not pity them.

Now we have retired the well-worn costumes and are flipping through the Toys R Us catalog anticipating what Santa will bring