Happy Thanksgiving!

What a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration! I'm so thankful for all of my awesome family members. My mom, dad, grandma, brothers, Ken and Karan were all able to join the boys and I for turkey dinner. Unfortunately Clint had to work, but he just finished up his tasty plate right before I started typing this. The food was so good. I feel like every year was, "The best meal ever!" but it really was, lol. It was nice cooking with everyone and spending the day talking. 

Leo enjoyed his first Thanksgiving! He didn't get to eat any of the food, but he liked having his family all around. He can't wait for next year ;) 

I don't get photos of my brothers and I too often, so I took advantage of their cooperative spirits today...

Grandma, Mom, and I color coordinated our outfits! haha- not really, but we did all end up matching. I love the following pictures of us!

Thanks Mom, Grandma, Dad, Karan, and Ken for all of your help today! My grandma brought me table cloths, cloth napkins--gave me her china, and brought me my flower candle centerpieces--gorgeous! Mom made her delicious dressing, sweet potatoes, and her famous pies. Thanks to Clint's parents and my Dad for the rest of the food and helping clean and play with Max. It was a great day. 

Also....I tried making my first homemade pie crust and apple pie today. The crust stuck to the parchment paper (I thought it would be a good idea) so it broke. The pie looked pretty scary, but it actually turned out really good. I will have to continue practicing the skill of creating pie crust...even though it would probably be smarter to just go buy the frozen crusts. I will not let it beat me! lol  Also, I didn't get any close up pictures of Ken and Karan :( I will have to ask Karan if she got any so I can include them on my post. 

Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Night of Lights

Tonight, Ken & I took the boys downtown for Fort Wayne's annual Night of Lights. This was our first time attending the event & we really enjoyed it! (Even though we got stuck in a parking garage for almost an hour...haha). Max was able to see Santa and then got to go to the "North Pole" to pick out gifts for his family members. He really enjoyed himself. He brought his own wallet with him and counted out his quarters-it was so cute! Then he was so excited to help wrap them with one of Santa's elves. It definitely wasn't the fanciest stuff on Earth, but he had a lot of fun. After that, we walked around downtown some more to see the other light displays. At the end of the night they had a firework display at the Tincap's stadium. What a fun night!! 

Leo getting all cozied up for our cold evening out. 

Should ride please!

Leo loved peaking his little owl head out of his cocoon. 

We walked around the corner of a building and ran right into Santa and Mrs. Claus. There weren't any little kids around at the moment, so Max got to see him right away. 

The lights downtown are beautiful to see. I've always liked driving around town to look at Christmas lights. It was cool watching Max's reaction to everything he saw.

Sleepy Leo. I love pictures of him sleeping. 

Parkview field was packed!

Here are some more owl hat pictures, lol. I can't resist.

Roller Coaster

Max's number one gift that he wanted Santa to bring this year was a K'nex Roller Coaster. He saw it at Walmart one day with Clint, and fell in love. Whenever we asked him what he wanted from Santa he would reply, "A roller coaster!" Yesterday he was so excited when he opened up his gift. He wanted to start building it right then and there. Since we knew it would take a few hours to put together, Clint promised that he would help him the next morning. 

As soon as Max woke up today he ran to Daddy and reminded him of his roller coaster downstairs. I think Clint might have been just as excited as Max to get started building. They both had a lot of fun studying the diagram and finding all the right pieces. Leo even sat in the office with them for awhile and read a couple of stories. The final product is amazing! Good job Max and Daddy!! 

The building process started around 10:30. 

Max decided to take a break around 11:00 to play with Leo. 

They decided to listen to Amma and Naps read "The Night Before Christmas".

Daddy working hard. 

He had to move the process to the dining room table for more space. 

All done!!

Here is a video of Max watching the roller coaster go for the first time. Disregard my freaky sounding voice. 

Thank you Ken and Karan!!

The Owls and Paintings

My Aunt Kathy has a friend who makes these adorable owl hats. The boys looks so cute in them I wanted to post some pictures. I plan on getting some professional photos taken in a couple weeks, so the owl hats will probably make another appearance. Also, there are a couple of Max's first paintings in the last picture. He received an easel yesterday, so I need to get him some paint jars so he can create more. :) 

Max's new favorite picture face......

It's an Amma and Naps Christmas!

Before Thanksgiving...lol. Yesterday we celebrated the Hill Family (Lockwood) Christmas at Kelli and Brandon's house. It is always hard to coordinate a day to celebrate together because of everyone's work schedules, so we had to have our holiday pretty early this year. Kelli put up her gorgeous tree and decorations, made a delicious meal, and everyone opened up gifts. Thank you to the Lockwoods and ken and Karan for a wonderful day!!

Once again, we loved watching the boys ooh and awe over their gifts. It gets more and more fun each year. This was Leo's first experience with gift opening. He is still too young of course to really understand what is going on, but he had fun watching. It was a nice day to be together and I know the boys loved every minute of it.

Leo loves his Aunt Kelli! 

And Uncle Brandon- especially his whiskers :) 

Just eating my candy cane while I'm using my tools....

Max patiently waiting present time, hehe. 

Yeah!! Jazz Hands!!

Amma and Naps watching the present opening begin. 

The boys really started playing together more this Christmas. That also involved some small arguments concerning who's toys were  who's.

Yay for Christmas!!