thanksgiving

we got up early on thanksgiving morning, like usual - although it wasn't to take a trip to oneida, like we normally do. this year we decided to hold off, since whitney is almost due to have stella. we'll all take a trip once she's here :)

  

wes and i headed down to lake lure to pick up a smoked turkey from the smokehouse. 

 

papa t and uncle tim got up super early to smoke the turkeys and we're sure glad they did. it was yuuuummy! 

 

my favorite thanksgiving food is sweet potato casserole. gary's mom has the best recipe ever. it came from her mom. i love having the leftovers for breakfast. yuuuuuum!!

 after eating lunch with pawpaw, neena, aunt tracy and uncle daryl, wes and i went to watch wreck it ralph. it was an awesome movie. we both loved it.

 my great-grandma martin passed away on thanksgiving day. she was 93 and lived a wonderful, long life. i know that she is happy up in heaven with great-grandpa farris. 

my maw maw mary lou is the 2nd oldest of her 12 children!

november, part deux

 

october did it's best to hang around. our pumpkin pirate hung out on the porch. we really liked him. tissues hung out inside. we were very sniffle-y. 

wes had a cold, but took his medicine like a champ, which was sooo nice.

 we played inside a lot and got better.

 

 

weekends were full of sillies, of course.

 

 callie found her new favorite spot, which drives us nuts. does it HAVE to be in the kitchen?

 we went to the park and i got sand in my eye. i had no idea it looked like this until we got in the car. woops.

 

 we've had our new fish tank set up for a while and the fishies seem to love living in bikini bottom.

 

november, part un

wes asleep anywhere but a bed is a rare occasion. this looks funny to me.

on nov. 6 i voted, in the rain. there was a long line at 6:45 am. 

i didn't get a 'i voted' sticker and i complained about it at work, so kay made me a sticker :)

i'm going to miss this beautiful leaves.

saturday morning pancakes and dancing.

frost.

sweet thanksgiving gift from work. all of the essentials to make a yummy thanksgiving day meal. even a turkey!

silly boys.

beautiful sunsets.

who is that boy??

callie & abe.

our weekday morning routine. early morning drop off at neenas house.

halloween & hurricane sandy

we love to visit corn mazes in the fall. we usually go to a big one, but with all of the stuff going on this year, we opted to visit a small, local place with some friends. at the end of the maze there was a big slide that went into a pool full of corn. wes loved it!

it was even more fun once it got dark.

while the kids played, we checked out the pumpkins, gourds and apples.

on the way home, we made a quick stop at aunt tracy's house. she was having a halloween party at her house. 

a couple of days later, hurricane sandy brought high winds to our area. even though the coast of NC is about 250 miles away, we still had extremely high winds and cold temperatures. we came home monday evening to find wes' swingset blown over. it was 6 years old and not the best quality, but i was able to swing on it - so it had to be ok :)

 it also blew everything on our porch into a corner.

 

sunday & monday night the winds blew super hard all night. the big trees around our house were swaying and we were praying that one wouldn't fall over on our fence or house. 

 we're trying to stay warm and getting ready for trunk or treat tomorrow night! i'll be a pirate and wes will be a clown :)

catch up

october has been crazy for us.  

crazy. 

i took a minute to post pictures from wesley's birthday, but there is definitely more to share... i just haven't had the time to compile it all.  i'll try to now :)

three weeks ago, wes and i went with aunt tracy to an event called 'the battle of the youth'. it was pretty neat. wes really loved hanging out with the big kids and they were so nice to him.

 

fall has been gorgeous this year. there was a couple of weeks where we could open the windows and a refreshing breeze blew through the house. callie. really love it. 

(today is 40 degrees though, no open windows anymore!)

the leaves and sky have been breath-taking.

 

marlee loved relaxing in the warm sunshine. 

  

  

wes painted this pumpkin in aunt tracy & pawpaw's sunday school class. and, that's my meter lemon tree that i got at a flea market this summer. i think it may actually be a lime tree though? i'm not really sure. but, it looks pretty and smells citrus-y :)

last week, the elementary school where aunt tracy works had a fall carnival. we went and played games and hung out in aunt tracy's office.

this was what i saw this past sunday when i got out of the car to head into church. gorgeous!

 

a couple of weekends ago we went to a cookout for members of the 'praise team' at our church. i play the violin (i wish i could sing!). these gorgeous flowers were at the smokehouse. a sweet friend of my mom's always brings flowers to her. 

this is what i got when i asked wes to 'give me a nice smile for a picture'. haha.

sunset from wes' bedroom, on a beautiful fall night.

last weekend we took a trip to fun depot and wes experienced 2 'firsts'. playing laser tag & climbing a rock wall (that's him on the left, soooo close to the top!).

sorry that this post is sort of jumbled and all over the place... but that is definitely how this month has felt! fun, but a little nuts!