Happy Thanksgiving! (And some stuff leading up to it)

Well, here's a catch-up of what we've been up to. Last Friday, Allison had her Thanksgiving feast at Mother's Day Out. When I went to pick her up, the teachers said that she was great (no tears!) and that she "REALLY likes macaroni." :) Apparently, she out ate everyone in macaroni at the feast. Go figure. I didn't ask but I bet she didn't eat ANY ham or turkey. She's on a vegetarian kick again lately.




We've also been bathing the girls together lately. They love it! (Well, Allison does). She likes to to help wash Jordan's hair. Jordan's favorite toy is the shovel.


Allison and Maggie were having fun with my shoes last week.

Jordan LOVES my dad. He came to visit a few weekends ago. Pretty much, any time he comes into the room, she bursts into laughter. She also somehow wriggled her way under her Leap Frog table.




Allison is still going through her "don't take my picture" phase. (Luckily only sometimes).






Sunday we went to Beef O'Brady's to watch the football game. The game was SAD but we were there with a reservist that Brandon had served with in Kuwait. We had a BLAST with him and his wife. Brandon was almost not sad about the game! Here is Allison in the Broncos sweatshirt Mary and Mike got her.




We left to drive to San Antonio after the game. I was lucky enough to pull driving duty. I was a little worried because Allison developed a nasty cough during her nap on Sunday. As I suspected it would, it got worse as the night went on. By the time we got to San Antonio (around 1045) it was pretty bad.

Monday we went to Build A Bear with my mom. We made Hal and Holly Moose (their seasonal animals this year ). Brandon convinced Allison to name them Mickey and Minnie Moose instead. That night, we went to Bass Pro Shop with my dad to have Allison go see Santa. I wish we had brought the video camera. We were a little nervous about how she would do. As soon as she saw him, she took off running with a big smile and practically JUMPED in his lap. Thank goodness there was no line! She was okay with him until he tried to reposition monkey. After the picture, she colored for a little while. They had a really neat Winter Wonderland thing set up. There was a TON of stuff to look at throughout the store too. Allison found the monkeys. Weird.




Here's Brandon with his girls.


Tuesday, Allison's cough was getting pretty bad and she started running a fever (not too high...about 101.5). Normally, I'm not a rush-to-the-doctor mom but considering my cousins were coming plus all the other people we were going to have for dinner, I wanted to make sure it wasn't strep (which I know is going around). Well, we took her to a pediatric urgi-care place. She did NOT like them looking at her throat or doing the strep test. When that came back negative, she really did not like having chest xrays (to rule out pneumonia). I did not like hearing that the x-rays came back negative and it's just viral and we'd have to ride it out. Yuck. They said that if she didn't get better in 2-3 days then to bring her back.



Wednesday, her fever was about 102.something all day. I went and got ibuprofen for her before bed. After I remembered where the store was. I went to where I thought the CVS was. Wrong. It's now an Advance Auto Parts. My mom said, "The CVS hasn't been there for like 100 years." Nice mom, thanks.

Wednesday night was ROUGH. Jordan was having a tough time sleeping and staying asleep. Then Nathan and Malinda drove down from Ft Worth and didn't get in till about 130 am. That made the dogs whine and scratch at the door which woke Jordan up. Remarkably though, none of it woke up my mom who usually wakes if someone else in the house breathes heavy. Then we had to get up early to start getting dinner and everything ready and so Brandon, Nathan and Malinda could meet my dad downtown.


We have a Thanksgiving tradition that we participate in Operation Homecooking at Lackland AFB. My parents have done it for about 20 years now. It's a program where people in the San Antonio area can go pick up (well, not just pick up, there is a registration process ahead of time) 2 airmen going through basic training. They spend the day with you and your family celebrating Thanksgiving and then you take them back that night. It's always been a really fun thing for our family. Usually, Dad and I go pick them up and then we walk the RiverWalk and tour the Alamo. This year, since Nathan and Malinda hadn't been to San Antonio before, they and Brandon met my dad downtown.



Here's Allison hanging out with the 2 we got this year:



After they got back, everyone else started showing up. My MeeMaw came over with my Aunt Barb, her hubby Randy and their 2 girls - Emily and Anna. Barb and Randy are also sponsoring a Chinese student, Li Mei, who is going to school in Springfield to get her MBA (she also has a law degree from a school in China). She spends most weekends with them and they brought her with on their trip so she could experience an American Thanksgiving. Then Aunt Susie showed up and Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike. There were a LOT of people here today! We had a GREAT time.



Unfortunately, after waking up from her nap, Allison's fever was 103.1. More ibuprofen. She seemed to perk up a bit when the medicine kicked in. She LOVED playing with Emily and Anna. Unfortunately, being sisters, Emily didn't want to play with Anna, and Allison just kind of went along with Emily so Anna felt a little left out (and she was tired but refuses to nap....she's 4).

Emily and Allison watching the Jonas Brothers perform.

Anna did LOVE the dogs though (Shiloh, Hunter, Chloe and Sadie) and kept going outside to play with them. At one point while she was outside, Mike and Mary were out there smoking (they are my aunt and uncle, not Anna's). She walked over to them and stared at Mary and said, "I thought only Grandpas smoked." I guess she's been asking a lot of questions about my Grandpa Bean (who died Michael's high school graduation weekend). They've explained to her that they think one of the reasons he died was because he smoked. Very funny what kids pick up on.


Allison LOVED pumpkin pie again this year. And Cool Whip (she is my daughter!)


Li Mei LOVED playing with Jordan. And Jordan loved her. It seemed like every time I turned around, she was holding her!

Here's a picture of Jordan's first Thanksgiving meal:

After dinner, a few of us took a walk. (Emily and Anna wanted to walk the dogs). Needless to say, imagine 5 adults, 4 dogs, 1 stroller (with a toddler), 1 4-year old, and 1 8-year old walking down the street.

Here's most of the people who were here:

Emily helped my mom bathe Jordan.

After everyone left tonight, John and Denise (family friends) came over for dessert. It's been a LONG day. And then it got longer. Allison decided to pick tonight to be a horrible go-to-bed-er. She would SCREAM when we left the room. So we did what we did when we were trying to get her to sleep through the night when she was a baby - we let her scream for 5 minutes or so and then went in to calm her. Then we'd repeat. When we were training her to sleep through the night, the most we ever went in was 3 times. Tonight was like 5 or so.

She's finally asleep and now I'm starting to get a sore throat. Yuck. At least I didn't have to go to the outlet mall at midnight. I found the monkey roller backpack I wanted to get her from Carter's online and ordered it. Yay for Ebay!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thankgiving! Time to sleep for me!



Looks like Nathan beat me to it!