Thanksgiving take two!

Kieran, Rick and I spent most of today at Grandma Sandy's home for another very enjoyable thanksgiving. Great Grandma Brey, Gene, Great Auntie Joyce and Great Uncle Furcin, Uncle Aaron and Auntie Angie, Cousins Livy, Jarron and Braydon were all there for the festivities. Uncle Zack didn't make it this year and was missed- we hope to see him at Christmas though!
We all enjoyed Sandy's wonderful cooking- including two types of potatoes, casseroles and salads and of course turkey! Then there was all the dessert! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, pecan pie, apple pie, chocolate mousse pie and chocolate brownies! MMM!!!
It was lovely to catch up with everyone and the weather was just beautiful! Kieran was quite the social butterfly and loved all the attention- despite his missed afternoon nap. However, mommy and daddy paid for this on the loooong drive home- someone was quite fussy :(
All in all it was a perfect holiday. Thank you to Sandy for hosting and for the delicious meal. It was great to see everyone and chat. We can't wait till Christmas!

Happy 37 weeks and Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving (part one) was wonderful yesterday! Kieran, Rick and I spent the better part of the day at Grandma/Grandpa's house with Auntie Shannon and Cousin Presley. We ate a lot of really good food including southern style cornbread dressing and two types of cranberry salads- mmmm! And then of course there was the pie- chocolate pecan and traditional pumpkin with coffee naturally! The babies played and ate too and then Kieran went for a late and loooong afternoon drive down by the river on winding back roads and ended up way out at midway! Mom was a bit lost ;) But Rick and I enjoyed the time to ourselves while Kieran slept.
Today I think we are going to just take it easy around the house, but then you never know... we may get crazy and go out and brave the Black Friday crowds...
Happy Thanksgiving everyone from the Rother clan- we are thankful for all of you in our lives.

Fun with Kieran and "mama"!

We had today off... isn't it great being a teacher?! We spent our first of four consecutive days off work making baby food, two pumpkin pies and a spinach/artichoke dip. We also had breakfast at Panera, lunch at DQ and took a long and slow drive down past the Lake of the Ozarks and back (so Kieran would sleep!). Then we came back home for frozen pizza (nothing but health food today!), a brisk walk and then had some fun with Kieran's new toy from Sheila- thanks again for the great gift- he loves it!
Today we caught on video Kieran's first "word" at least an utterance that sounds like a word we know- "mama"! Of course this pleases mama very much and daddy doesn't mind- he knows Kieran and I have been practicing this one quite a bit ;)

Sunday at the mall...

Rick, Kieran and I spent the better part of today at the Columbia mall enduring the hell known as the "family photo shoot" at JcPenny. After over an hour wait and an hour plus photo shoot/ordering session including screaming children (ours and other people's) stressed out holiday shoppers, pee-pants and an an
overzealous sales person, Rick and I were relieved to escape to the slightly less stressful cafe court to enjoy a meal of Taco Bell and the entertainment of the carousel. In fact Kieran enjoyed his first trip on the carousel and although a bit apprehensive, seemed to really enjoy the experience.
Rick and I have vowed never again to subject our family to a photo session at any department store studio... it was agonizing! Thank you though to grandma Daugherty for putting up with cranky babies, fussy mommies and an impatient daddy... where would be without grandmas? Well for starters we would have a lot fewer photos that's for darned sure- and that would be a shame... so thank you again to grandma.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving a little early from the scrooges- bah, humbug!