Thanksgiving pics

Above is a pic of Jim and his friends and their kids (sans Ben who felt too shy).  Wednesday night before Thanksgiving we got together with them and had a great time.  Such a good group of guys.  I hope Ben has friends as good as these guys are to Jim.

Below is Marshall being super silly w our kids.  Jackie cannot get enough of him and talks about him nonstop. 

Jackie and Corncob.  He def likes her best.

The big Thanksgiving day.  Below is Hilly, killing the pumpkin pie.  Me and Hills man, we love pumpkin pie.

Pop-pop and the kids playing trains.  They love pop-pop.

Benny eating his pumpkin pie.  He noted that he prefers pumpkin cheesecake.  Well then.

Grandma and her girl.

These 4.  This pic is a tradition.  I can't wait until my girls are like 20 and Jenna and Jill are 40 and they pose this exact same way.  We were so happy to see Jill back from school.

Me and my Jackie.

Decorating the Xmas tree.

Below, our Macky ornament.  We still miss this little guy.  It sounds ridiculous to most people, but I am an animal lover just like my kids.  I can still muster up tears when I think about my guinea pig, Mickey.  I haven't been able to get or really look at guinea pigs since.  28 years is just too soon!

The kids received their annual ornaments.  Jackie got a Taylor Swift ornament that plays music.  Hilly received a soccer ball ornament to commemorate her first true soccer team experience. Benny received a Ninja Turtles and spider man ornament.

This guy.

Hilly is ornament obsessed.

The large felt envelope that the kids can put their xmas list in for our elf, Suzie, to deliver to Santa.

Benjamin.

The elf left us some Christmas décor in our fairy garden!!!  The girls check on this almost every day and Jackie couldn't believe her eyes.  This is on top of Macaroni William's grave, by the way.

Jackie at Miss Amy's decorating her door for Thanksgiving.

Bath time.  The kids are starting to get mad when I take pics of them in the bath.  WAAAHH! My babies are growing up.  Time for another!  :)

Benny eating lunch.  He just quietly sat there with his ham and cheese.  I love him so much.

Jackie found out that her friend, Will, ran 3 miles.  So she was determined to run 3 miles.  She ran 2 and said "Will ran 3? Wow.  He's awesome."  She was pooped.  Then Hilly and I went out, ran fast to the playground, she did some flips and what she calls push-ups (on the bar) and then we ran back.  Nobody in the world was happier to be out running than Hilly. Nobody.

Jack's favorite game at the playground- she loves guessing where the states are.

On route to mass on Saturday night.  I love when Jack grabs Ben's hand.

After mass we went to our fave restaurant nearby and ran into P and crew!  Our good fortune!  We were so happy to see them and chat.

That night, I read this book to Ben.  This book was from Grandma E's house.  Love it.

The next morning Miss Amy and Em asked if Jack wanted to go to mass and of course she did.  And she lit 4 candles for her family.  She felt like such a big girl w Emily.

Meanwhile, Hilly wore this uniform for 3 days straight.  She's dying to be like Jackie.

Benny holding his card from Aunt J, Uncle Mickey, Con-man, and Gabey congratulating him on his yellow belt in karate.  He was so happy to receive this and carried around for the entire day.

Sunday afternoon making Christmas cookies next door.

Ahhh!

The group.  This was such a fun experience for the kids.  And is also a huge help to me because now they have made cookies for xmas so if I don't have time to do so with them, it's no big deal.

Getting ready to start the fun part.

Lou, 12th birthday fast approaching.

Monday afternoon soccer with his buddy Drew.

He's obsessed now with his "soccer slide" and tries to slide around the gym on his knees at any opportunity.  I think he learned it from Will and Drew and thought it was super cool.  See the move he is doing below? He doesn't like to do this unless he is near a wall bc he doesn't trust his balance.  So he will purposely kick the ball toward a wall when they are working on this skill so he can grab a wall. When I spoke with him about how the point of practice is to get better at something he confessed that this is what he was doing. 

At recital rehearsal Monday night, I took Hill's bestie Emily.  The 2 of them finished first and asked if they could watch the rest of the dancers in the auditorium.  They sat there silently eating their chips totally engrossed in the other acts. 

Meanwhile, Benny was living the dream at Betsy's hanging with Kyle and making pizza.  He cried when I came to take him home.

He insisted on not sleeping in a crib because cribs are for babies so we set him up with a sleeping bag on his floor. He read and played w his toys and then laid down in the sleeping bag. The girls NEVER would've done this. 

Tuesday night Hill had tumbling at the HAC and P and crew were there too for Hannie's swim lessons so we all played in the maze and had dinner there.  Fun times!