The Journey of Parenthood…

Thanksgiving 2012 {Part 1}

When there are life changes we have choices of how we respond. We can be upset and resist the change or we can keep moving forward and adapt. I try my best to adapt and look at the twists and turns life brings as opportunities (when life hands you lemons, right?). With Thanksgiving this year we had some changes from our normal traditions so I hunted and hunted for ideas of new traditions we could start as a family. Basically all of them involved writing what you’re thankful for and since neither of my kids can write yet I figured we’d just wait and bring in new traditions as they become age appropriate. I did, however, think it would be fun for us to make some Turkey Cookies. My kid can’t write but he sure can make some yummy treats 😉

I love this picture b/c homeboy was chowing DOWN on some candy corns!

 Goofy Helped 😉

 “When Can I Eat One???”

I bought all the stuff to make the cookies then the day we went to make them I realized I was supposed to buy double stuffed Oreos. Oops. Luckily my husband is awesome and he didn’t mind running up to the store to grab some for us. And he picked up the chocolate icing I also failed to buy. Then we got started and I realized the yellow icing I bought to make the legs ended up being the gel kind and it didn’t work so great so our turkeys were legless haha 😉 They still turned out cute though!

Kye ate like a million candy corns. He just kept sneaking them. I told him to be prepared for a tummy ache!

On Thanksgiving Day we had a lazy morning together and let Kye watch some of the Macy’s Day Parade. He LOVED it. We continued to watch some of it at Mema’s house later that morning and Kye would have watched it all day. He loved all the floats and kept asking who they all were. We did get to see Mickey and a Firetruck one 🙂

Before heading out I wanted to get some pictures of all of us dressed in our festive colors. The fact that Brittlynn wasn’t crying her head off for these pictures made my heart SO HAPPY. After a solid month of her fussing non-stop it was such a blessing to me to see her in a good mood 🙂 Seriously…when we talked about our favorite parts of the day taking pictures was one of my favorite parts 🙂 Of course it’s tough to get everyone looking cute in the same picture…but these weren’t too bad!

I adore the cheesy grin Britt has going on!

Um. I have a hott husband.

It’s true…I do 😉

Isn’t that how it goes…Britt FINALLY is being cute for pics and Kye (who is ALWAYS golden…) was not in a picture mood haha

Isn’t her bow PRECIOUS? I got it from Posh Tot Bows and was SUPER impressed with the great price and quality!

I also ADORE her little skirt 😉 I wanted to get something a little less loud for her first Thanksgiving. Kye has so many super cool printed shirts but when we coordinate he always gets stuck wearing solids b/c Britt usually has on some type of patterned dress. This skirt caught my eye on Etsy. I love me some chevron, already had everything else to match it, and love that it will easily still fit her next year since it’s elastic waist! I thought a skirt was something fun and different! See Kate Create is the store where I purchased it from. The shop owner is beyond sweet and it shipped super fast. She even let me customize the fabrics at no extra cost! I loved the end results and how Britt looked cute on her own but didn’t have too much going on with her outfit so Kye could shine too 😉

I LOVE these last two!!!

Fav pic of the day 😉

AND we even got Jolee to snap a few family ones for us once we got to Mema’s house 🙂

Our turkey cookies might have not fared well when Daddy made a sharp turn. Thankfully Zach is a natural Mr. Fix-It and his skills include Turkey Cookies. I have no clue how he managed to fix them all but Kye’s little heart was spared from being broken 😉 Everyone loved his Turkey Cookies and they are a for sure keeper in the traditions book! This is funny to me…we tried to get a picture of us WITH the cookies but one of us was always blocking them (you’d think with like 10 people watching us take the pics that someone would have told us haha).

We brought along Kye’s crafts from school to wear for the event!

Can you tell my kids LOVE some milk?
And that Britt copies everything her brother does? 😉

She CHOWED DOWN at her First Thanksgiving!!!

Time for his Turkey Cookie dessert!

Haha if G-Mama didn’t steal it first 😉

It was a nice casual Thanksgiving lunch. Mema hosts it every year and it was nice that we were able to be there this time! Casey and Courtney were both in Atlanta celebrating the holiday with their in-laws so it was a blessing to Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte to have us there for sure 🙂 We enjoyed the quality time with Mema as well as with the Plyler clan. We ate an early lunch and, as I expected, we said what we were thankful for. Kye said the same things he said at school and added in all the rest of the family who was present, which was sweet. It was super funny that everyone kept whispering for him to add Brittlynn and he never did hahaha. He just kept ignoring us 😉 Oh brotherly love! 

Everyone pretty much cried throughout the whole thing…Mema got us started with the tears by being thankful for Mrs. Charlotte finally getting her medicine. And it just went on from there! We were a tear stained face bunch for sure! I, also as expected, couldn’t make it through. I just said “I’m thankful for Zach as everything good in my life flows from him” and that’s it. I couldn’t even look at him when I said it b/c I KNEW I’d bust out crying. Good thing I wrote that blog post, huh? 😉 

We enjoyed our lunch and the kids napped over there…which won’t be happening again. Britt SCREAMED and CRIED for almost an hour. I even went in there to her (which didn’t help). I felt super, super guilty about it and had a hard time enjoying myself at all. Thankfully she did eventually fall asleep but Zach and I agreed we DO NOT want to put her through that again. So we will be more mindful of things for Christmas time 😉 I think the different environment just messed her up? Or maybe because it was a pack and play Mema had and not her own? She never, ever, EVER cries AT ALL during naps. So it was horrible 🙁 Once she fell asleep though I could relax and enjoy visiting with everyone! The men talked golf and then threw around the football outside while the women went through coupons and talked and talked 😉 It was a great time and I especially enjoyed the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Jolee. She is SUCH a great girl and I’m so proud of her! Through so many trials in her life she continues to overcome them all and I look forward to continuing to grow closer with her in the future 🙂

It was a great start to our SUPER busy day! More to come!

Emily Parker
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1 Comment

  1. Rachael_Copponex
    December 21, 2012 / 4:34 am

    You turkey copier! I did those last year! Mine did NOT look that good though. Hahaha. http://copponex.blogspot.com/2011/12/copponex-thanksgiving.html I love ya'lls outfits. I need a jean jacket. What the heck is on Z's shirt? A tree? A bleach spot? guess he had to get fancy too. 😛 How freaking genius to put the arms of her chair ON that mat. I threw Macy's pink one away because she was always ripping it off the table. hahahaha

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