Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at my cousin Kim's house near Rochester on Thursday.  It was the best meal, and we had just a great day with family and friends.  I needed a 'down' day like that!  :)

It reminds me of a saying I just put in in my dining room:  Bless the food before us, the family beside us, and the love between us.  Amen.

Santa Videos

The boys received their videos from Santa this year.  I loved watching them see it for the first time.  Carter watches so intently, answering all of Santa's questions out loud.  So cute!!!!

Carter's Video

Ryan's Video

Instagram

Time for another Instagram dump:

I know he's under there somewhere:

Grandpa (and Grandma) came to the boys' school for Veteran's Day and participated in a program.  The boys were so excited to have Grandpa there!

It was a sad day in our house.  One of my two remaining large goldfish (9 years old) died.  I did everything I could to save him - water change, tested and treated the water, etc.  I was very sad to lose him.  My last remaining fish looks very lonely in the big aquarium all alone...

Ryan has a bit of a loom band obsession.  He wears 12 bracelets daily and has made several for his friends, Carter's friends, and his cousins.

Evan and Todd at a work conference:

My OCD feels much better after we organized Ryan's loom and bands.  :)

Carter still goes out for a run for me when it's in the single digits.  We much prefer the summer weather and not having to bundle up to get our workouts in!

The boys had Wednesday off of school.  I took the day off work and told them we were going to run errands.  I drove to the Waterpark of America and surprised them with all day passes to the waterpark.  :)

Carter taking a break from swimming to eat lunch and read his book.  :)

My cousin, Kim's cat Mittens, made himself right at home in my bag.  I told her, if he's in my bag, he's coming home with me.  I miss having a cat.

Carter and I shopped for 5 hours (and 5 stores) on Black Friday.  He was the perfect shopping companion, as always.  So patient and well behaved.  He earned lunch at his favorite place - Target's Pizza Hut.

Ryan won rock, paper, scissors with Carter.  He went to the Wild Game with Evan.  The best part for him - all the food!  

Carter and I were decorating for Christmas while Evan and Ryan were at the Wild game.  He pulled out his Christmas stocking only to discover there were 2 gifts left in there from last Christmas!  Oops!!!!

Jewelry

It was another busy weekend here at the Mackey house with Evan and Kyle up at the shack hunting.  The boys had playdates, we made loom band bracelets, went to church, made jewelry, and had movie night, among other things.  I did get my holiday orders wrapped up, but I have 12 necklaces left to make for gifts. Unfortunately, I broke one of my main tools making a necklace today, so I will have to replace that before I finish.  Here's what I did get accomplished:

Jewelry

I worked on jewelry this afternoon, my dining room table looks a bit like Santa's workshop.  The only thing missing were Santa's elves to help me!  :)

Ryan has a loom band obsession right now, so we made 4 or 5 bracelets together on the loom.  I think I enjoy it as much as the kids.  Too bad I didn't take a picture of some of our bracelets we made on there.  We had fun with them!

I cut off the bottom of two forks to make a different design.  I'm not 100% sure how much I like this particular style.  I'm going to look for different vintage silverware at Goodwill tomorrow and keep tweaking my design. I made 2 of these for Christmas gifts:

And 3 of these:

Grandpa and Grandma

This weekend I took a few pictures with Mom and Dad and the boys.  Unfortunately, the wind was bitterly cold on Sunday and standing on top of the bridge provided a very chilly and uncomfortable picture taking experience.  I was able to get about 10 pictures snapped, much less than I had hoped, but we took what we could get with the uncooperative weather.

It's crazy to look back over the years and see how much the boys have grown.  Seems like just yesterday Carter was a toddler on Grandpa's lap.  Next year Kyle will likely pass up Grandma!  I wish we could slowwww down time!!!

Our boys are so lucky to have Grandparents like Mom and Dad.  We owe thanks to them for all that they do for our boys and for our family.  Love you, Mom and Dad!  XOXO

Instagram

Time for another Instagram dump.  I haven't taken many photos lately, it's been too busy around here!!! :)

The view on my morning run through the woods:

Evan starting to paint the living room:

Our living room furniture in the dining room during our recarpeting project:

Ryan making himself comfy while we shopped for a new mattress set:

Ryan's End of the Season football party:

Carter's Fall Party at School:

My winter arrangements are already made.  Fitting because we got our first snowfall this week.  This is the planter I found left out for the garbage man in the neighborhood on my morning run. I cleaned it up, painted it, and love my "new" planter.  :)

Family Photos 2013

We had our family photos done in September with my good friend, Jen Billman, of Jennifer Brooke Photography.  I can't say enough about her patience and how well she works with our kids.  The boys were definitely testing our patience, and at one point, I thought someone was going to be tossed off the bridge we were on, but you'd never know by the end result.  If you're looking for a photographer, she is highly recommended!!! :)