Thanksgiving 2011

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever!

Psalm 107:1

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with our families in Texas! It was relaxing and filled with lots of fun - exactly what we needed!

Our little family of three packed up and headed to Texas on Wednesday morning where we spent the week with Ben's parents (Grandma & Pops). Reid loves "trips to Texas" and is such a great traveler! Here he is watching his movies and wearing Mommy's sunglasses:

We arrived in Texas on Wednesday evening where we had a wonderful dinner with the Peterson's - even Uncle Jeff and his girlfriend Lizzie were in town! Then on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day), Grandma cooked a DELICIOUS traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was such a relaxing day of watching football... eating... sleeping... then eating some more! Here we are at Thanksgiving lunch: (Disclaimer: I had surgery the day before we headed to TX, so I definitely did not get out of sweat pants... nor did I fight my toddler to wear clothes. It was OK, though ... we never even left the house! Perfect!)

Pictures of the Reider playing on Thanksgiving

Reider and Pops

Chillin' with Daddy

Cheering for the Cowboys - Reid loves football! (And I promise we own clothes for our child - ha!)

Reid and Uncle Jeff

Playing trains with Pops

Reading with Grandma

On Friday, we got to spend the day with my family (KK, Doc, Aunt NeeNee, & Uncle Craig) celebrating KK's 60th Birthday! We had a blast and I wish I had some more pics... but I do not. We did get to eat at Ben's FAVORITE burger place that just opened in downtown Fort Worth:

Ben was in heaven, to say the least! After lunch at In N Out, we headed to the Movie Tavern then back to KK and Doc's house to open presents and eat some more! It was such a fun day and evening with my family!

Another highlight from our Texas visit, was attending the Baylor /Texas Tech game at the Cowboy Stadium:

Such a blast! We saw a ton of old college friends and I have to say that it was so nice that BU WON! Here's Ben and I:

While we were busy at the game, Reid was busy entertaining the grandparents and aunts/uncles... He was showing off his stellar skills of double-fisting the apple products. Our child can use the ipad/iphone better than most adults!

All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving break - we have so much to be thankful for and are looking forward to seeing all of the family again over Christmas!

Christmas Card 2011

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Fall Family Pictures

Our friend, Mitzi Penick, is a wonderfully talented photographer and we had the opportunity for her to photograph our family several weeks ago. I love the pictures she captured! You can see more of her work at www.mitzipenickphotography.com. Here are a few of our favorites!

Reidy and Cole-Cole

We have been so fortunate here in Little Rock to meet a group of families that all have little boys about the same age as Reid. Reid truly LOVES his friends - Cole, Carson, Owen, Miles, Jake, Brady... the list goes on (and there are so many sweet girls/older sisters as well!). He asks to play with them every day and it's been a lot of fun watching them all together. Cole's Mom (and my good friend, Emily) sent me a bunch of pics of Cole and Reid (or "Reidy" and "Cole-Cole" as they call each other) from over the summer. I had to post a few of them because they are so cute. Love these boys!

God made a world out of his dreams,

of magic mountains, oceans and streams,

Prairies and plains and wooded land,

Then paused and thought, "I need someone to stand...

On top of the mountains, to conquer the seas,

Explore the plains, and climb the trees,

Someone to start out small and grow,

Sturdy and strong like a tree", and so...

He created boys, full of spirit and fun,

To explore and conquer, to romp and run,

With dirty faces and banged up chins,

With courageous hearts and boyish grins.

When He had completed the task He'd begun...

He surely said, "That's a job well done."

Sick Boy

There is not much that can slow our VERY active 2.5 year old down - EXCEPT... the stomach bug. Yuck. Yuck. and more Yuck. It breaks our hearts to see Reider feeling so bad!

Despite how bad he feels... he's still the most handsome little man ever...

Reid ran onto the tile to "take care of business" so many times, that he finally just laid down on the cool floor. Mommy brought him blankets and the ipad to help make him more comfortable. That's where he stayed for most of the evening.

Hoping he gets a good night of rest and feels better tomorrow!

Halloween 2011

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my! It's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run! Let's run!"

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"

...And fun is definitely what we had this Halloween! Reid (now being 2 1/2) COMPLETELY got it - he's practiced and played Trick or Treat over and over. And over again. Haha!

The Saturday before Halloween, we headed out to a "real" pumpkin patch in Mayflower, AR with a group of friends. I wish I had more pictures, because all of the kids had a blast! They had playsets, swingsets, slides, bounce houses, food, snow cones, hay rides, horse back rides... you name it! Reid's favorite part of the day was "riding the tractor to pick his pumkins"... We took a hayride out to an actual pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins from the vine.

That following week was followed with not one, but TWO Halloween (Harvest) parties at Reid's school. He was so excited to have halloween cupcakes and cookies during class! Then the Saturday night before Halloween, some friends of ours threw a mega Halloween party. And let me tell you... the Phelan's KNOW HOW TO THROW A HALLOWEEN PARTY!

Here's our little Superhero enjoying some donuts from one of the games...

Showing us how "fast he can fly!"

With some friends at the Phelan's party...stoping for some dinner...

My friend Emily and I (I was Queen B... she was June Cleaver).

All the Mommies... love this pic!

Then on Halloween night, we went to Palio's Pizza with the Darby's, the Smith's, and the Martin's before assaulting all of the neighbors with our tiny trick-or-treaters.

Here's Reid - ready to go!

Best shot I could get of a few of the kiddos at Palio's - Owen, Reid, Alex, and Avery.

Wagons were the transportation of choice during trick-or-treat!

Kylie stopping to talk with Cole and Reid

Buddies! - Already digging into their candy =)

Look out neighbors!

Reider's loot - pretty good for a two year old!

We're already looking forward to next year!