Picture This

Thanksgiving, in my mind was going to be peaceful. After all, we had madly ordered items to complete the readiness, and put up as many paintings and curtains as we could. Yes, there were going to be 20 of us--including 11 grandkids, but in my fantasy Thanksgiving, they were silent and docile. We didn't take many pictures, but I can give you the rundown on many moments.

Picture 1: Four or five girls giggling for an hour on the entry bench as they play alternating doctor/patient.

Picture 2: Logan loving the reclining chairs (we have five). Yes, so much that he reclined them back so far he would tip them over on the floor. It was his newfound game. :(

Picture 3: Clara and Errolyn rehearsing for hours in the garage to sing a song (of made up melodies) to the music and words of well-know songs...(at least  to adults) and performing them later.

Picture 4: Hairballs. Yep, Carter has a thing about hair. So much that his lion he sleeps with has big chunks torn out of his head. When Carter wakes up, always empty his mouth of the hairballs he chews.

Picture 5: Grandma (me) finally getting Miles-- to laugh and smile.

Picture 6: New furniture (my pride and joy) finally being covered by sheets to protect them.

Picture 7: Gymnast Olivia, who always grins) can raise herself to a stand from a sitting position without touching or pulling on anything. It is pure leg strength. She is only 5 or 6 months old.

Picture 8: Alternating high pitched screams and low pitched howls from the competing cousins who are at an age where sharing is not a natural/normal ability.

Picture 9: Grandpa laying down to play with Olivia amid loud chaos of cousins and when he is woke up 2 hours later, he thought he was only asleep a few minutes.

Picture 10: A jam-packed fridge with Thanksgiving food for 20 and Susan and Mike's special diet. No room in the fridge.

Picture 11: Grandpa taking the grandkids around the lake and one of them kicks a resident's soccer ball in the lake so Grandpa had to fish it out while the rest of the cousins raced to beat him home.

Picture 12: Grandma fishing through all the boxes in the garage to find books to read to the children. She finds one labeled Cheryl's books, so she assumed all the CH books were Cheryl's too...No books to read aloud. :( Later, she found out the CH stood for Children's...books.

Picture 13: Quite the switcheroo for beds. We were jam-packed with people in every room when it came to sleeping. Poor Carter had to sleep in our closet. When I came to get him, I found a little nest of my clothing he was cuddling with as he must have had fun pulling them down from hangers.

Picture 14: Me cooking (over cooking, mind you) the turkey. It was so plump that I had turned it upside down. When I checked the temperature, it read that it was done, so I pulled it out and when I went to carve it, the meat was not white (as would have been the case had the turkey been right-side up) so I put it back in and kept cooking and testing it (even though it read that it was done according to the thermometer) because I was waiting for the white meat. I don't even remember when it occurred to me that it was upside down. I felt like a fool.

Picture 15: More than enough food. Lovely desserts from Le Madeline (Thanks Janet) and great salads from Susan, while I fixed the staples. Needless, to say, this dieter was off her diet.

Picture 16: David's sad face. Nothing was going right for him. He had imagined a romantic getaway for his anniversary and up till the last minute it was almost cancelled because Carter appeared to be ill. They took him to a clinic, but he was OK.

Picture 17: Wild whooping and hollering from a bunch of cousins trying to play inside and out, when there was no backyard, but mud.

Picture 18: Los Tres of course.

Picture 19: Logan playing Book of Mormon Stories that he taught himself to play, with everyone shushing him because it always seemed to be while someone was watching a movie, on the phone, or a baby was napping.

Picture 20: Kevin sleeping on the floor next to the couch, where Halley was sleeping. He traded the couch for his bed (well his substitute bed...because he gave his king bed up to Mike and Susan) to Halley, so he could play video games in the living room after the kids went to bed. In the middle of the night, Halley wakes up and doesn't know where she is, so she cries and wanders back to the couch where she originally went to sleep. She lay down on top of Kevin, who gave in and let her have the couch and he rolled on the floor. She would periodically wake to look and see if he was still there.

Picture 21: Everyone going to see Frozen with Janet's family while grandma stayed home to dance with Carter and Halley to Barney music.

Picture 22: Me trying to sleep with Carter's music playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star so loud. I finally had Mike pull the plug. No telling how long it would have gone on.

Picture 23: Mike and Kevin going to pick up medicine on the pre-Black Friday at Walmart when the entire parking lot was full. It was quite the miracle they could even get in and out...as they made up a parking spot from the waiting area up front.

It isn't finished. For all of the chaos, I hope the memories are happy. I will update them when we finish the vacation.

Heaven help me

if I picked that hideous color! If they don't change it, I'll be out there with a paintbrush...but how can I get the chimney. I'm totally embarrassed for anyone to think we'd choose to live in such an ugly house. I am so stressed out.

Miles to go...

Mike, Kevin, and I traveled to Pearland to participate in Miles's baby blessing. What a sweet boy and beautiful blessing! Two cute things that happened were when Carter took the sacrament bread and went, "MMMM' while he was eating it. (Just like David when he was little.) The other thing was when Heidi went to the stand to bear her testimony, Halley was not happy, but when Heidi came back down, she shouted out, "Mommy, you came back!" and everyone smiled. Both David's family and ours ended up at Janet's for dinner on David's way back to San Antonio. The salad bar was the best idea ever, but I know Thiago's bbq leftovers went over well with those men who wanted the real beef. Dessert was cut fruit, so for we women, it was very healthy. It was fun to see two sets of grandchildren. We will miss David's family.