A week of Thanksgiving

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving for a whole week.  It started with a feast at Madison's school the Thursday before Thanksgiving.  The children sang some songs for us and then we ate together.  

The placemat and other Thanksgiving crafts Madison made

Walking in with her class, on the way to the stage to sing.

On Sunday, we drove to my parents house in Oklahoma.  Our good friends, the Bynums, just happened to be traveling to Texas from Missouri at the same time and spent the night at my parents with us on their way.  They have two boys just about the same ages as our girls.

Madison and Brayden played great together.  Doing a puzzle.

Somehow, all four of the kids got into this pack and play by themselves.  Brayden crawled out before we could get a picture.

Annabel and Bransen hanging out with my dad before bedtime.

These two crack me up.  They both just have this twinkle in their eyes that makes you wonder what they might do next.  They had lots of fun pushing and pulling things all over the house.  They really did well together (except that Annabel refused to allow Bransen or anyone else in her red rocking chair the entire week).

Madison and Brayden were playing "house" a lot.  They kept finding new places to make their house.  At this point, I think it was the pack and play.

On Monday, we hung out at my parents house.  Then after the girls went to sleep, Jared and I got to go see our friends Shannon and Cory (and meet their precious new baby).

On Tuesday, we went to Tulsa and got to see some of Jared's family.  First, we stopped at his grandma's house and got to visit with her and his Uncle Mark.

The girls playing at GG Mac's house

And playing with the dog named GG.

My best attempt at getting a picture of the girls and Jared's Grandma.

Later, we went to Jared's cousin's house.  Jason and Ann have two girls that are very close in ages to our girls.  The big girls had a great time together.  Madison and Reagan played games and tried to keep the little ones out of the room so that they could play.

Annabel and Lauren playing with the kitchen.

The four cousins.

My Grandma and Fred got to my parents house on Tuesday, and it was great to get to visit with them for a few days.

Grandma and Madison played lots of games.

First Dominos

and then a puzzle

Annabel wanted in on this action, so they built domino towers

and then Annabel crashed them.

Stillwater got a new children's museum, so we took the girls there on Wednesday.  Annabel painted

Jared and Madison working the large spirograph

This thing was great.  It was a huge network of tubes with air forced through them.  You would put balls and scarves in and they would shoot out the other end.  Mom and Annabel putting scarves in.

Madison with scarves shooting out on her head.

Annabel milking the fake cow.

Mom, Jared, and the girls playing with this thing that had tracks that you roll golf balls down.  The come back to you on the bottom.

My Grandma made sure that she got a picture of me milking the fake cow and made me promise that I would post it.  This is for you Grandma.

Madison spent a long time wringing out clothes.

One of Annabel's favorites was gathering eggs.

On Thanksgiving day, I wasn't very good about taking pictures.  My Grandma Fair took Annabel outside to play right after they got there.  They had a great time in the front yard.

We got to see lots of family on Thanksgiving.  It was great.  All of my grandparents and many aunts, uncles and cousins were able to come.  Madison had lots of fun playing with my cousins Mason and Miranda.  Later in the evening, we even got to meet a new baby cousin.

Annabel relaxing with my dad after all the excitement.

Jared and I also got to see some of our high school and college friends.  Thanks to mom and dad for babysitting so we could do this.

A great Thanksgiving.

Annabel is 18 months old

Annabel turned 18 months old today.  She had her check-up and her stats are:

   23 lbs 6 oz        (30th percentile)
   32.5 inches       (75th percentile)

She is very healthy.  In the last three or four weeks, she has started saying many more words.  She also knows the sounds dogs, cats, ducks, cows, and horses make.  She seems to understand almost anything that we say and is quick with an "uh-uh" and vigorous head shake if it is anything she disagrees with (bedtime, getting out of the bath, etc).  She still moves at full speed all the time.  She loves dropping Madison off and picking her up at preschool.  She will insist on carrying the backpack or lunch box in.  When we pick her up, Annabel walks right into the classroom and gathers Maddie's stuff up.  She will love it when she gets to go next year.

She is such a blessing to our family.

I was thinking back to last year at this time.  Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of her surgery.  So thankful that this seems like such a distant memory most of the time.  If you are not familiar with her surgery, you can see

http://jmacdonaldfamily.blogspot.com/2010/11/annabels-surgery.html

and

http://jmacdonaldfamily.blogspot.com/2010/12/post-surgery-head-decor.html

We are still so thankful for the great doctors involved, from our pediatrician to the neurosurgeon and his whole team, the wonderful nurses who took care of her during and after surgery, and our friends and family who prayed, took care of Madison, stayed with us, and brought us meals after coming home.  Most of all, we praise God for taking care of our little girl and our whole family.

Trip to DC and Halloween

I got the opportunity to go to Washington DC last weekend to represent Stata at the American Public Health Association conference. Since Jared's mom only lives a couple of hours away, it worked out perfectly for the whole family to come. We flew up to DC on Friday. It was much colder than the weather we are used to in TX. Jared and the girls were staying Friday evening and all day Saturday. His mom picked them up Sunday morning before my conference started.

Bundled up to go get dinner.

We knew that the weather on Saturday was likely to be bad, so we took the girls on a walking tour around DC on Friday evening. They were both pretty worn out from traveling, so as soon as we got them all bundled up and riding in the stroller, they both fell asleep.

We walked around the mall and saw most of the monuments. On the way back, we went by the white house. Jared and I had been to DC before, but it was really neat to see everything at night.



I am not sure if you can tell here, but Madison did wake up to see most of the monuments. Annabel slept through most of it.


On Saturday, as predicted, the weather was pretty nasty. We decided to try to stay inside, so we headed to the natural history museum. Maddie liked all of the dinosaur bones. They spent the first couple of weeks of preschool this year talking about dinosaurs.


Annabel was very excited about the penguin.


We had ridden the metro from our hotel to the museum, but the escalators were not working to get back down to the metro on the way back. We didn't think we could make it down with the stroller, so we pushed the girls about 8 blocks to our hotel with sleet pelting us. They were freezing, so we spent most of the afternoon inside. The hotel had an indoor pool that we played in for a while. It even snowed later that afternoon. By evening the precipitation was over and we were able to get back outside.

On Sunday morning, Jared's mom picked us up and we got lunch and the Cheesecake factory (yum!). Then they headed to Williamsburg and I headed to work.

That evening his mom's church was having a harvest carnival. The girls dressed up and had a great time.

Nana with our little ladybug and little mermaid.

Playing games


The cake walk


Madison and Christopher. Showing off the cookies she won at the cake walk.


Jared's sister, Rachel, lives close to Nana and came to visit.


On Monday morning, they got to go to the Yankee candle store. It is huge and has all sorts of fun things. They saw a show with a mouse and a rat and a clock. They even got to talk to Santa.



They trick-or-treated in Nana's neighborhood on Halloween night.

Ready to go!




Rachel, her husband Jared, and baby Levi, the penguin.


Nana with Rachel and all of her grandkids.


It was a great trip. The girls even traveled pretty well.

We picked the dogs up the next day. When Jared went in and asked for Wrigley and Ginger, the lady at the front desk said "Oh, you mean Team Chaos". Well, I guess that about describes them, but we were glad to see them anyways.

It even cooled off a little in TX. We decided it was time for the first pot of chili for the year. The girls loved it, especially Annabel.