Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving here at our house. We had both of our families over and some friends, for a total of 16 people. Everyone brought something for the meal, so we were in charge of Turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. The day was very nice and relaxing, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and waited for guests to arrive. Before the meal, I was able to sneak out with my sister's little family and take some pictures for them for a Christmas Card.
It's amazing how crazy things get right before the meal is completely ready, the kitchen had been mellow and clean all day until it was time to do last minute preparations. The kitchen turned into 5-6 people flurrying around getting things ready to serve, and the kitchen looked like something blew up. But the meal was absolutely delicious, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite meals ALL year. I am still eating leftovers and loving it! Unfortunately, I didn't take many other pictures of things, so here are a couple random ones from the day...

Clara & Pappy

Since the fall decorations have been put away, we have replaced them with Christmas ones! This last Sunday we went and got our tree, Clara got to sit on Santa's lap at the Christmas Tree farm (we had to bribe her with a candy cane). The tree and house have been decorated, I'm still waiting on Jordan getting a chance to put our outside lights up. We even managed to get out and take our family Christmas Card pictures, which was very interesting. I thought that if I could get my camera settings just right, then I could have anyone take the pictures. It didn't work out as well as I thought, the sun kept coming and going behind clouds and I kept having to interrupt things to reset the camera. We had both my mom and Jordan's mom come, one to take the pictures, and the other to jump up and down behind the camera to get Clara to look and smile. It was pretty funny but thankfully we managed to get some cute pictures. Here are some funny ones that didn't make it to the card...

Clara loved decorating the tree. I had helped my mom decorate her tree a little earlier, so Clara had a pretty good idea of how to do it. She would pick an ornament, then take it to Jordan to help her put it up, then she would go run grab another one. Grammy and Pappy came over to help us decorate and I made some yummy turkey soup for dinner.
I don't know if you can tell in the tree picture, but my 20 week belly is definitely growing. We had our formal ultrasound last week and they confirmed that it is a boy, so we are working on finalizing a name now. I think we have it pretty much picked out, but Jordan is in charge of the boy names, and he hasn't given me the go to publish it, he says he is still thinking. Christmas is just beginning and I am already having so much fun. I can't wait for our Christmas events and parties to begin, although I am not really looking forward to Christmas shopping (Clara is a terrible shopper, I'll have to teach her better ;). Sorry that I have been such a bad blogger, it'll just have to be random things right now, not much else going on!

Family Beach Day!

This last weekend we had family visiting from Minnesota, and while they were getting a foot of snow back home, we took them to enjoy a San Diego fall beach day! The weather was perfect and we all had such a kick out of watching Clara charge the waves. We took Clara to the beach a couple months ago, and she wanted nothing to do with the waves and water, this time she was completely different! As soon as we set her down she was heading to the water, and she wanted to stop for nothing. Even after the cold water hit her, she wanted to keep going. We had to keep pulling her back, and she would just crawl back for more. She was having sooo much fun, squealing with delight the whole time. Clara would not stop playing in the water, so we eventually had to tear her away after she began to shiver with cold. Stripping her down and wrapping her up helped her to get warm again!

Jordan's Aunt Amber and cousins Elle and Emma loved watching Clara enjoying the water. The girls were such a good help with her the entire time they were here, I know Clara will miss them! While they were here we also went to see Jesse's Lambs Players show "The Glory Man." Which was excellent, and we just spent good quality time as a family! Clara is 14 months old, and she has been walking now since the beginning of the month. She still is a little wobbly, and when she wants to get somewhere in a hurry (like the ocean) she will crawl. It is so cute to watch her walk, and she has begun to say some more words. She can say shoe, teeth, hot, Ella, cookie, and gram gram (not perfectly by any means). We are having so much fun with her it's not even funny!