Giving Thanks...

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed to Mom and Dad's in Midland. Since the boys had off all week, Monica and I headed out there Tuesday morning (she had to work on Monday), met our hubbies there, and stayed until late Saturday before coming home. Funny: Donny flew but could only get a Rapid Rewards flight out on Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday when he was hoping to come. The man got to fly by himself just about beat us into town...after we had traveled the whole way with 5 kids and a completely LOADED car! Not bitter, but there was some grumbling going on for sure!! ha!

I always love being with my family, love watching my boys form memories with my parents, and love being back in the town I grew up in. I LOVE Midland. For lots of reasons. It was a sweet time!

One of the sweetest parts of the trip was having our Grandmother (Mamaw) come down from Amarillo with her son, her other granddaughter, Christina, and her son, Eli. What a treasure to be with these sweet ones! They came on Saturday and stayed for lunch and some visiting before they headed back and we started our journey home. I love seeing my boys (especially Brady) play with my cousin's son...may their relationship form strong so our family tie won't be lost!

Mom and Spencer exploring the airplane at "Dennis the Menace" park...oh, the memories at that place!!

Makin' music on Nonny's keyboard...

Me and my honey cookin' up some Thanksgiving yummies!

Annie mixing it up with the cousins in some wrestling time!!

Choking??? I think that's a penalty, little lady!

Nonny cooked a great bird...now if she could just get the wires off....
Sitting down to Thanksgiving lunch (notice Mom still has her apron on!)
This totally reminded us of the scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark carves the turkey...except we had better results!

She is just the cutest thing ever, don't you think?

Relaxing with PawPaw

Colby made, I mean asked PawPaw to throw the football with him...like all the time.

Playing Uno with Nonny, Brady and Annie (and all the babies)

Enjoying some desert with Mamaw!

These 3 were so cute running around together....Christina's little boy is a sweetie!
Cousin football game! Tyler was the self-declared referee and told everyone what to do (surprise!)

Mamaw with her grandaughters

Mamaw and all her great-grands!

We always wonder if perhaps Tyler got his height from Uncle Don...he's got long legs like Don, and he's the only man in our family tree who is taller than average!

It's a Fourth Grade Musical!....

Tyler was SOOO excited to be a part of the 4th grade musical at his school this year. He has always loved being a part of musical shows and is dreaming about the day that he can have a speaking part in a show. He had to learn a hard lesson this year....just because you audition for a part in a show doesn't mean you automatically GET the part in the show that you try out for. He and his good buddy, John, had auditioned together for parts opposite each other. John got his part (VERY gifted musician and singer!) but Tyler didn't get the one he tried out for. The heartbreak was rough for him, but he recovered, learned how to deal with disappointment and that he IS good at lots of things even if he doesn't get to do everything he tries out for. He had a great time performing!

Sweet Mrs. Wyly, Tyler's teacher, was at the performance. We.love.her!!

On the back row...as usual!

John performing a solo....he did GREAT!!

The show was called "Reading, Writing and Rockin' " and had the kids playing the roles of different teachers in their school. VERY cute!
Nana and Papa were in town for the weekend, and came a day early so they could see Tyler's show. And of course, Super Aunt Moni (and Spencer) was there!

Tyler and his good buddy, Zachary before the show began

Fun Run...

The boys had their annual "Fun Run" at school - thankfully our one and only fund raiser for the year! First and second grade classes ran at the same time slot, then 3rd and 4th grades ran right after them. From the beginning the skies looked like they could explode with rain buckets...thankfully the storms held off until after Colby's group had run, but unfortunately Tyler's group got only about 8 minutes into their run before the skies opened up with a MASSIVE rain. Sooo....all the sound equipment had to be scurried off the field, all the children, teachers and parents there scrambled to get all the spirit stations inside and we all ended up nice and soaked. Thankfully I was able to go straight home, dry my hair and change clothes - I felt bad for those poor teachers who were stuck sporting a wet t-shirt and rained on hair! It really was fun while it lasted....

Colby's class - Pedrami's Peeps. Tye died t-shirts with a little "peep" on the sleeve


I was impressed with the personalized water bottles with name labels! Wow!
Gettin' all excited and ready!! Colby is between the 2 girls in front with his mouth WIDE open!
He takes running VERY seriously - he wouldn't even look over at me as I yelled his name when he passed...in the ZONE, man.

His biggest fans!

Wyly's Warriors! I made the headbands and got face paint to make them "Warriors"

Mrs. Wyly had a "Warrior Pep Talk" right before the run began...

And they are OFF....for just a few minutes, anyway!! they 3rd and 4th graders were able to "redo" their run the next week at the end of the day so they could get all their laps counted. Fair is fair!

Upwards Flag Football...

My big boys LOVE football and couldn't wait to play flag football this fall with Upwards at our church. Donny and Darrell Plemons coached Colby's team, and Tyler was on a team with three of our favorite guys, Tim Shake, Doug Tackett, and Jeff Polk.

Colby apparently is a natural offense guy - he was quarterback a lot of the time and loved being able to run with the ball. Tyler is our natural defense guy - he's tall, rushes like there's no tomorrow and scares the little kids (not really, but his size works to his advantage sometimes!). We would hear kids and coaches saying, "Watch out for number #33 - he's coming fast!". This non-football mama is growing to actually like the sport...especially when her babies are playing it. It was a fun season, and I have a feeling there will be many more seasons to come in our future!

Coach Dad going over the next play series with his little man...loved watching these 2 together!


Notice how much taller Tyler is than the other boys?? Wow...I've got a giant on my hands!

I think I was screaming while I took this picture....hehe!

This was Colby's favorite play of the whole season....the QB passed him the ball, he caught it and ran it all the way down for a touchdown. I don't think the grin came off his face for about a week!

Love this one of teammates Cannon Plemons, and Brant and Cade Japhet!

Some of the faithful sideline cheering section

Offensive Coordinator, Darrell, going over plays with his QB's