Surprise Thanksgiving

We were planning on spending Thanksgiving at home this year after finding our schedules very full. We celebrated with a meal on Wednesday with my family which was wonderful. Even though Jason thought it was not traditional we ate ham instead of turkey and had wonderful pie made by gram Mc. She makes the best pies! Madeline, Meredith and Patrick all played so well together all day long. They helped Papa set up the Christmas train and then played with all the people and houses that go along with the set up.

The surprise came today, Thanksgiving Day. Since we celebrated with family yesterday we were expecting to spend today at home watching the parade and the dog show. J had some work on the house he wanted to get done and my dad came up to help with some staining. Talk about something to be thankful for- all the help we have gotten from family and friends on getting the house done in time for the new baby! Late in the morning we called a friend that we knew was home for Thanksgiving to see if we could stop by with dessert. We have had one of her pie pans for way too long and we really wanted to return it. We couldn't return it empty, of course! Our intention was to go over, give the horses some treats and share a dessert. Being such short notice we didn't want to intrude or make her feel like she was hosting something. We called her up and made the dessert offer. She ended up having us over for prime rib(which she claims she always has left over of!), homemade applesauce, homemade coleslaw and salad. We offered to bring potatoes and cranberry salad. Spur of the moment this wonderful meal appeared before two families that were supposed to be home alone. Instead we shared a wonderful table with a great friend.

When we got to her house the prime rib was just about done so we decided to let it coast in the oven while we went for a horseback ride. We headed out to the barn and gave out the apples and carrots. Patrick isn't up to feeding the horses yet but he laughs when they bite into the apple. A little drool and smacking horse lips just does the trick for him! Once the treats were gone we saddled up and got ready to head out. Typically Patrick rides with me but with this belly getting bigger everyday he had to ride with Jason. It was a gorgeous evening, chilly but no wind and a beautiful sunset. We rode for about an hour and it was just perfect. Perfect does not even do it justice but perfect. Just perfect. We returned to the barn and got the horses cleaned up. Patrick was getting more and more comfortable as we were there and even helped brush them down. He worked on the legs and did a fabulous job. We all headed inside to the waiting prime rib and sat down for a delicious meal. Patrick had barely finished when he was asking to head back out to the barn. It was very dark by the time we left but Patrick wanted to say goodbye to the horses. We headed over to the fence and George, the horse Patrick and Jason rode, came walking right over. George put his head down low so Patrick could put his hand on his nose. It was very sweet. Then Nugget came over and put his head down low to check Patrick out. Patrick was really good with the horses and they were good with him. I was kicking myself that I didn't have the camera. Seeing him put his little arm through the fence to pet the horses and having them lower their heads so he could reach them was just too precious. The third horse Gypsy was a no-show for the fence visit so Patrick asked about her and wondered where she could be. She had already headed out to the pasture and it was just too dark for us to see her.

So a surprise Thanksgiving for us. Thankful for family, friends(with spur of the moment scheduling abilities!), a wonderful spur of the moment meal and this wonderful earth we are blessed with. What a perfect day.

Leaves and snow

These pictures were taken about a week apart. The leaves were thoroughly enjoyed on the last night day of fall. Patrick really enjoyed running through the leaves, throwing them up in the air and being buried underneath them. Now we have the snow to enjoy. Patrick loves to eat the snow. His daddy pointed out that the old Sedum flower heads made the snow look like ice cream cones. A thorough tasting followed and the snow was enjoyed very much!
Patrick is such a sweet little guy who really enjoys being outside. He likes to point to the airplanes in the sky and even points out the white trails they leave behind. He will stop what he is doing if he hears the helicopters coming or a plane is flying a little low. We live near the county airport so we see a lot of private planes go over. Patrick waves and waves! This summer we went to a biplane festival and Patrick got to climb into a restored WACO plane. He didn't want to get out! He asks lots and lots of questions which I admit grow tiresome after awhile but I love his curiosity and sense of adventure. I hear "Watch this" a lot! As we plan to add to our family I look forward to when Patrick can be a big brother. He will be the coolest!

Halloween Weekend

Friday was a long day for Patrick because trick or treating did not start until after nap time. That is an eternity for a 3-year-old! Once he woke up(not until almost 4!) we headed to the church to drop off the bread for Hot Meals. Several of the people that volunteer on Friday nights wanted to see Patrick in his costume so we parked in the alley behind the church and changed Patrick into his fabulous bat costume.
He was a big hit with everyone in the kitchen and even scored some candy! Next we headed over to the Diehl's for a night of trick-or-treating. Several other families that live in the "country" all met up for a group effort. Of the kids we had Patrick, Elizabeth, Alex, Charlotte, Spencer, Makenna, Ella, Andrew, Ben and Sam. The kids headed out in a large mass ready to fill their buckets with so much candy it was ridiculous. They were all so good about saying trick-or-treat and they worked really hard at saying thank you. A few times when they would all come trouping back to the sidewalk the parents would ask if they remembered to say "Thank you!" A few of the kids would say Oops! and run back to the house just to say it. Very cute. Patrick was very excited to get suckers and liked showing his candy to people that passed by and even to the people handing out the candy. We had wonderful weather and there were a lot of people handing out candy. One poor guy sitting at the end of his driveway is sure to wake up very soon with a cold. There were 4 kids gathered around his bowl and they were all coughing. Sorry about that! Patrick enjoyed chatting with people about his costume and the candy he had gathered. He would explain that he was not a scary bat and that he had bat wings under his arms. He also told people he could not really fly- just pretend.After the little kids had been out for about 45 minutes we headed back to the Diehl's and ate some yummy food. The kids got to sample a few items from their buckets and then they all played and played and played. They were in the basement. Then they were in the family room. Then they were up in Elizabeth's room(making a huge mess!) and then back to the basement. They were all having a ball! When it was time to leave there were many tears on Patrick's part. One of the little girls offered to let Patrick spend the night at her house. How sweet! Saturday night was the grownups turn for some Halloween fun. Jason and I went to a Halloween party at the Conway's dressed as a 50s housewife and the milkman. There were some great costumes- someone dressed up as the Financial bailout and his wife had pork around the bottom of her outfit. Sarah Palin as she is now and as a beauty queen, John McCain, Woody, Goose from Top Gun, 80's couple...even Todd Palin made an appearance. By the way- the Conway's garage floor was so clean we could have eaten off of it! It literally shined! Sunday evening we headed over to my parents house for dinner. My sister and her family came also. We all wanted to get together before mom has her back surgery Tuesday...kind of a last supper kind of thing. Once she has the surgery she will be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days so we wanted to all get together before her recovery begins. Tuesday we also have our ultrasound! Weee!