Our First Family Thanksgiving at Home

A bittersweet moment: being at home for Thanksgiving was nice, but missing the entire family was a big bummer. Here's our Cajun Fried Turkey from HEB.

Evan "Don't Call Me Cool Ray" Williams

He takes the snap...

Drops back to pass...

And he sees an open receiver...

And DON'T call him "Cool Ray" or "Cool Dude" or anything like that because he just doesn't like that!

Lightning McRodeo

Evan and Elliot show off the Rodeo's Racing Numbers! We bought some temporary car paint and put Lightning McQueen's number 95 on both doors. We then put all the car seats in the Rodeo and drove it everywhere for the entire week that I was on Vacation. The boys had a blast.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

Elliot has bronchitis, Drew is congested, coughing, feverish and we think he has an ear infection and Evan has the sniffles and sneezes, so we couldn't go outside yesterday even though it was a beautiful day. So, I thought it was a perfect time to put up the Christmas tree!! That way everyone was inside and occupied. We played non-stop Bing Crosby and here's our tree for this year...

This year's tree again sports the old fashioned "big" bulbed colored lights. We have 4 strands of colored and 2 strands of clear white lights. As a throw back to yesteryear we added silver and gold tinsel garland around the tree, and the finishing touch on this vintage tree is the star that topped Gran and Pop's Christmas tree in 1965!

We've been adding one Fontanini figurine every Christmas to our Nativity Set that Grandma gave us as a Wedding Gift. We got two last year: the donkey was purchased before Christmas and it was chosen by Evan and Elliot. After Christmas Day, we tried finding the Three Wise Men, but everyone was sold out, so we got the drummer boy. This year's addition is Matthew the Shepherd standing in front of the seated camel. We bought him at Crossroads when we were in last week. Maybe this year will be the year that we add the Three Wise Men at the Epiphany...

A closeup of the Star. This year we had to do a little minor surgery in order to keep The Star in one piece. Elliot wanted to play with it and it came apart! But it wasn't too serious...nothing a little tape wouldn't fix!

Evan inspects the tree to ensure proper ornament alignment and spacing. This is an art form we're talking about here!

Evan's Re-enactment of the Tractor Tipping Scene from Cars

 

The Cars Craze

Cars Fever has officially swept the Williams house. Here we have a few pictures of the main characters.

The King in his Dinoco Blue 43 Car.

Lightning McQueen and The King line up for a race.

The star of the show is Lighning McQueen. "Ka-Chow!"

Fun with Play Doh

Kim brought the white drawing table downstairs so the boys could play with Play Doh. As you can see, the boys all thought that this was a wonderful idea.

This is Veggie Tales "The Ballad of Little Joe," as envisioned by Evan and his Play Doh skills. For those who don't know (shame on you...) that's Little Joe (Larry the Cucumber) on the left and Sherrif Bob the Tomato on the right. 

Drew gets a real Haircut

His first haircut wasn't really a true haircut, so here's a few pictures of his latest "do". Compare it to the picture from Pioneer Days! What a difference!


 

Pioneer Day

We loaded up the gang again this year to make the trek to Jesse Jones Park for Pioneer Day. This is quickly becoming a family tradition. This December they have an Old Fashioned Chirstmas and we have reserved our spots to attend, so maybe for that one, we'll have the kids dressed up in Pioneer garb.

For more info on this very cool event, go here: http://www.hcp4.net/jones/jjpan-pioneer.htm 

Pictures from Pioneer Days

In the petting zoo they had this very large land tortise.

Evan saddles up on a hook 'em and is ready to ride.

Evan in front of the main house of the homestead. 

Activities at Pioneer Days

All of the activities at Pioneer Days are hands-on ways to do what the pioneers did in the 19th Century. Work related tasks like washing clothes on a washboard (with homemade soap that the volunteers make right before your very eyes), carving a leg for a chair and grinding corn are just a few things to do. You can also write with a quill pen and they make the ink right there on the homestead site with blueberries and other fruits for color.

Evan and Elliot write notes with a quill pen.

Walking on stilts was not as easy as it looks..

Elliot gives it a try while Drew looks on. Kim and I both tried the stilts. Kim did pretty good. I planted the stilts into the ground! 

Some of the Characters of Pioneer Days

Evan poses with a member of the Texas Milita. That's a real rifle Evan is holding. The milita men were in the woods outside of the pioneer homestead. They would show you how they loaded their rifles and then shoot them. When those guns went off, it sounded like a cannon! Oddly enough, Drew loved it when the rifles were fired...Evan and Elliot on the other hand didn't like it at all.

Evan shoots a bow and arrow.

Elliot shooting his bow and arrow. They had rings set up on a dirt hill. If you shot the arrow into the ring, you received a large feather (for your cap, I guess.) If you missed, you got a small feather. Evan and Elliot both got small feathers!