Things I love Thursdays: Thanksgiving Edition

This Thanksgiving was simply perfect with Amanda, Andrew, Andrea and Rogan in town for an extended period. We just have so much to be thankful for and I know these are the best times of our lives! Beau was home and on vacation the entire week and Grayson and I were THRILLED to be surrounded by everyone! My parents loved having their kids home and Jeff gets giddy having the guys around. :) There were a couple of pub lunches, dart tournaments, and movies and many football games watched by those guys. The girls took a couple of trips to the mall, saw the Twilight movie and all enjoyed some meals out together as well. 


Wednesday night before Turkey Day, we all had an incredible dinner at Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Gayle's house. 

Asking Maw something ;)

Uncle Jimmy, Elaine and Brian

Sitting by the fire with blankets - love!

They prepared a fabulous ham dinner with Pioneer Woman's
mac and cheese -- kuddos Elaine!

Thanksgiving Day was perfect. More eating, laying around, eating and laying around. Then for the VERY LAST TX/A&M game EVER. So sad, I know. A 100+ year tradition brought to an end and each side says the other is responsible. Bah. Regardless, it was a really exciting game! Probably everyone watching thought A&M was going to win this one until Texas kicked a field goal with seconds left to win the game. My parents' living room was ALIVE with shouting and jumping and yelling and high 5's! None of which was captured....but we had so much fun. :) 

I will cherish these days always!

The ongoing battle for the remote.

On Saturday, we helped my mom (I use the term "helped" loosely) cook a big Mexican dinner for everyone including the Dallas Caldwells, their grandmother, our grandmother, and cousin Tommy. We then settled in to watch the exciting Baylor football game! (so once again we have some pretty random photos - not capturing any of the family and all of G - sigh)

Love his time with NANDA! Aunt Amanda's new name that he
only said with a big emphasis...NANDA!! ;)

It's past Uncle Jimmy's bedtime!

Wardrobe change! It's hard to sling food across the room in a neck tie.

We miss everyone so much. Sunday was really sad seeing everyone go. It's getting increasingly difficult to see them pack their bags and leave. We look forward to next year though! 

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Green Monster

I recently learned about these Green Monster smoothies from my moms group. I think the creator of this site initially started it for her own energy boost but the smoothies quickly caught on with moms who are desperate to work veggies into their kids' diets. Since Grayson is no different and has zero interest in anything green (or orange or yellow),  I thought I'd try this route. I made our first smoothie this morning and Grayson seems to really like it! I probably need to start drinking them myself since I too have no interest in vegetables. And let's face it, I can use any energy boost I can get. 


I love that there are so many creative recipes! I tried the Banana-Blueberry recipe....you can't even taste the spinach :) 

Kids like the color :)

Oh, and masking it in a fun sippy cup doesn't hurt either. 

Amanda's Bachelorette Party....9 months late

I can not believe I never posted the pictures from Amanda's bachelorette party! I was just going through old photos and came across these...


not-so-brief recap: It was a wonderful weekend at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel! A beautiful hotel that, if you have ever been stuck talking to me about my vision for my house, you know I love the way they did this hotel! A Cowboy Zen feel, if you will, that proves that I can mix Texas western with anything. Like Pottery Barn, for example. :)


I digress....Amanda, Andrea and I did a sisters spa day there, then had Amanda's friends up to the suite for a lingerie shower and then out in Downtown Fort Worth, which is always a good time. Drinks and apps at Grace (LOVE this swanky place) and then mexican food at Mi Cocina. Most everyone spent the night and then we went to brunch at Brownstone. I seriously recommend this place! Any weekend centered around my sisters, good food, champagne and massages is a perfect one in my book! :)

We had fun decorating!

The invitation 

Sprinkled fun pictures of Amanda throughout the room. :) 

Amanda's glass had it's own veil! 

My Mom is the coolest! She made us her famous sugar cookies in
the shape of lips and hearts. They were a BIG hit at 2am.

The picture on the left is from my bachelorette
party....wheeling a cooler wearing my party veil. Ha! Silly girl.

The future (well, now present) Mrs. Tarr

CREEPIEST blow up doll ever!

Of course I left the camera in the room when we went out. There's a reason my aptitude test in high school made no mention of event photographer.

Party of Five

We had our group over for an adult play date (with kids) Saturday night and had a great time as always! We just ordered pizza, had some great wine and put on Happy Feet for Beau and Nick the kids. But really, any wine is great when there are SEVEN children in da house. It has been such a joy to see these kids grow up and I can already see the maturity coming through each time they come together. For example, they actually sat still for TWO seconds this time versus the one second last time ;)

Liam, Emmie, Piper, Naked Grayson and Cole

Remember last time?

Actually sitting in the same order!

and of course, the time before that....

Remember? Grayson was sleeping through his own party!

I just wish Nick could relax on the weekends. ;)

I just love Beau's photo of my Fall flowers :)

Had to include this one b/c I love my spastic son! :D

Miss Finley at 6 months. We didn't get one of Rowan, I guess?!
(Rowan is the newest baby at just 5 wks old)

What goes up must come down (Update on the post below)

I keep going back to the post below - simply shocked at how teeny tiny those paintings look above the bed!  While they don't seem to be that small in person, I'm troubled by the whole thing. In fact, Beau agrees with me and the fact that he does when he knows it means more manual labor for him, I know this is a BIG DEAL! Here are the options:

1) As I mentioned in the original post, leave them (well, once the middle one comes back down) and throw the Hail Mary pass of big, dramatic lamps to balance things out. OR will that make them look even smaller.... :/

2) Bring the outer frames up allowing for a second row of 3 frames beneath it.

3) Get bigger frames and start over with the paintings. Grayson won't mind.

Advice please.

Some small updates to the home

I blogged a while back about our work-in-progress master bedroom here. We are still loving our new bed and it's feeling much more cozy in there already. However, that giant horse picture screamed "move me into the office!" Before we did that though, I needed to figure out exactly what I wanted to do on that wall. I toyed with framing some unique prints from Etsy or even the pretty printed paper from Paper Source like these. I still love these ideas but couldn't pass up the opportunity to personalize it a bit :) So, I had Grayson whip up some paintings - true works of art from our adorable 16 month old! 


Some observations now that I'm looking at the photos:


1) The colors are off :/ I must be terrible at editing. Bah.
2) The middle "painting" will be brought down to where they are all even across but Beau has some patchwork to do from the GIANT HORSE that once looked over us as we slept. 
3) The frames were an impulse purchase a while back but looking at them, I should have gone a size bigger. However, with my sister's help, I've decided to go big and dramatic with new lamps eventually so hopefully this size will be perfect when all is said and done. :)

The colors blend with the bedding: blue, orange, yellow, camel.

They're pretty cute up close - all are little Grayson paint strokes!

The living room has two new pieces of furniture that I'm so, so happy about! Finally some place to set down that glass of wine milk. And that empty pint of ice cream because the trash can is SO. FAR. AWAY. 

Hmmm, I'm talking about the new trunk-as-a-coffee-table.
Jury's out on why I didn't zoom in. 

One man's trash....my mom donated this awesome
pedestal table to the Reynolds Living Room fund.
One random trip to Lowe's later, and I came home with an uber-cheap base
for my homeless lamp shade. There is no substitution to moody lamp light!

Halloween Rap-Up

A little play on words there for you. :) Grayson makes everything so much fun - and Halloween probably tops it all! This post is really too long with too many photos but will help you understand why I am so glad that Halloween is OVER! 30+ days of ghosts and ghouls is just too much for this girl. Heeeeere we go......


Themed food is fun!

Mummies!

Bat Bites - individual cheese ball apps that were pretty good (a lot more fun to make!)

A vist to a pumpkin patch

Shopping pumpkins

He wanted to move each pumpkin somewhere else.
Anywhere else. They just couldn't be in their current location. ;)

Random petting zoo at the pumpkin patch

Neighborhood Fall Festival - I realize now that it looks like we are the only ones that showed up (ha!) but it was well-attended and fun. It was nice to meet new neighbors!

Grayson with our neighbors Maddie and Lowery Asel - they are
so sweet to him!

Monkeys love popcorn!

I adore this photo. No doubt they are siblings. ;) They were awaiting the
announcement of the sibling costume contest winners...which was them!! 2 years in a row :)

Now time for the individual costume contest. An 8-ish y.o. Minnie Mouse won.
My insides were screaming WTH?! and I DEMAND A RECOUNT!
But I was mildly composed on the outside.

Play Group Halloween Party - I truly love this group! It's a great group of about 30 Mamas that all know each other really well! I love how the kids are growing up together and know each other already. 

Babies with their Mamas

Now with their Dads - these shots weren't easy to get!

With some of my favorite Mamas! This picture freaks me out just
a little with regard to how much I look like my bio dad...who is a 60+
y.o. man. But I WAS supposed to be a man, a frat boy specifically, so I guess it works.

Play Group Trick-or-Treat Party - We had a great turn out at the park! 

A zebra, giraffe and 2 pumpkins! Grayson is the pumpkin next to me. :)

Batgirl!

Sophia is the cutest Cowboys cheerleader!

A Piggie! Adorable.

Nemo and a golfer

Discovering lollipops

Trick or Treating w/ the neighbors - our first time going door to door and it was fun! Not pictured: the other Radio Flyer that our neighbor Scooter was pulling that was loaded with "refreshments".

Lowery and Grayson, who was already so tired!

The 3 of us! Finally! :)

Can you see now, while I loved every minute with Grayson, why I'm ready to move on to a new holiday?!