Turkey, Football, Shopping....and the best video EVER!

This video is about a month old now. But I've been dying to share it. My mom and Akaela came out here and kept Gavin home with them one day. They both were chewing gum all day. By the time I got home Gavin was imitating them by "chewing" his imaginary gum! He has been doing it nonstop ever since! Whenever he sees someone eating, he will stare at them and then imitate them. It's so funny! Take a look. Be patient at first, it took him a while to start doing it but once he gets going....man he's cute!

On to last weekend...Sorry I'm starting to slack...can you tell my little guy is getting more and more mobile and I'm getting less and less time to myself? :)

Last Wednesday we headed back to Nebraska for Gavin's first Thanksgiving. We had Paige with us too! We drove the 3 hours to my brother Kenny and his wife Kristi's. They have three kids; Breanna, 12; Derek, 9; and Shane, 3. Paige had a blast running around with them all night while Kenny and Steve played the Xbox Kinect. I joked with Kristi that Paige has the kids to play with and Steve had Kenny! They stayed up til 3 in the morning playing football. Silly boys.

Thursday morning we all got up and headed the extra hour and a half to Kearney to my mom's house. Have you ever seen Home Alone? The opening scene, where there are people running around everywhere...that's my family. My mom and Terry have 3 kids still at home...Nick, 18, Akaela, 16, and Noelle, 11. My brother Billy and his girlfriend Amanda have 3 boys between the two of them, and one on the way. And their friend came with her two little kids too! Add my family and Kenny and his family and wow! There was plenty of food to go around, though, and we all had a great time.

I thought since I'm a mom now I better go join my mom and sister-in-law's tradition of going Black Friday shopping. So we poured over the ads all day, and headed to Wal-Mart at 10 p.m. After that, Kristi and I headed to the mall. We finally crawled into bed at 3:30 a.m. I was on such a high I couldn't fall asleep! I was so proud of all the deals I got and the fact that I managed to get most of our shopping done! Even better, I left it all at my mom's so we don't have to haul it back with us when we go back to Kearney for Christmas. The only bad thing about that is that I can't sit around and look at it all....so I'm forgetting what I have and what I still need to get.

Friday "morning" came a little early, but I got up when my boys got up. We hung out a little bit and then headed to the Chicken Coop...a sports bar...for the event we've all been waiting for. When my Huskers took on Steve's Hawkeyes. Not sure if you saw the score, but let's just say I have bragging rights until next Thanksgiving. (For those of you wondering, Gavin wore a Hawks onesie with a Husker's hoodie over it.) Several of my friends and Nick and his girlfriend Kylee came and watched the game with us. Afterwards, we took all the kids to Arthur Christmas. I saw the opening credits and the ending credits. A well-needed nap! Then we took the kids home and Steve, Akaela and I headed to Breaking Dawn. It was good!

Saturday Steve and I went out and did some more shopping for the kids and then everyone packed up and headed to North Platte to Kenny's. That evening, we all went and saw the North Platte community rendition of "White Christmas." It's a tradition in our family to watch the movie every year on Christmas Eve, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the live version. We were all singing in our seats. Steve stayed home with Gavin and Shane. I think he was glad he got out of it!

Sunday we headed home!

It was a long weekend that was jam-packed as it always is when I go home. Looking forward to Christmas! We will have Paige again and of course it's Gavin's first Christmas so I am soooo excited!

Gavin's eating turkey too! ...baby food turkey, of course.

Irish, Jenni, April and I

You can tell by our smiles who's happy about the score and who's not!

These little Hawkeyes cheered him up once we got back to my parent's house!

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours

I have a lot to be thankful for. This is the time of year to step back, slow down, and reflect on all of our blessings. I hope you all have the time to do that with the ones you love.

I'm thankful for my family, friends, job and health...and so much more.

And I'm thankful for you! Have a Happy Thanksgiving. And Go Huskers.

A True Survivor

Let me tell you a little story.

We met at Skeeter Barnes BBQ, the restaurant we worked at in college in Kearney, NE. (I met most of my dearest friends there.) I was 20 years old. She was 21. One night, she and a couple of other girls we worked with were getting together after work at her place to hang out. She invited me. I went. We had a blast. Honestly, from that day on, we hung out almost every night. We got an apartment together about six months later, along with a third friend. By then, I had turned 21 as well, and we had a routine. Work, home, shower, Cunningham’s. (A bar in Kearney.)

Those years were some of the best of my life. We have so many memories. She truly became one of my family.

One day, she came home and told us she was pregnant. She was scared, and so were we, but we stood by each other, and 9 months later our first “nephew” was born…Aydan.

She moved in with her boyfriend and they had a happy little family. We began to grow apart, which tends to happen when kids enter the picture. We were still friends, but it was different.

About a year later, we all got together for our annual girl’s Christmas. (No matter what’s going on in our lives, the five of us friends get together once a year to celebrate the holiday and our friendship.) She had some news for us. She had cancer.

It was such a scary word, but for some reason, we all took it in stride. It wasn’t long before we realized the severity of the situation. She began to lose weight. She lost her hair. She lost all of her female organs….thank God for our little miracle, Aydan.

But she didn’t lose her hope. We all rallied around her and renewed the strength of our friendship to be by her side to help her fight. She fought the battle of her life, and at times we were all terrified for the worst.

We promised her that once she beat cancer, we would celebrate by going to Vegas.

We fulfilled our promise the following year when she was told she was in remission. We all got tattoos to mark our unique and lasting friendship, and to remind us of the battle we just won.

She has continued to fight, and yesterday, on Aydan’s 6^th birthday, she was told she is officially cancer-free. She has beat the most evil disease on the planet.

Her name is April. She’s a fighter, and I’m proud to call her my friend.

This year, on the 9^th annual Girl’s Christmas, we have more than just Jesus’ birthday to celebrate.

Girl's Christmas 2006: Irish, me, McGee, April, Shiloh. April told me she had cancer that day.

Girl's Christmas 2007: Me, Irish, McGee, Shiloh, and April in front. April was fighting for her life at this point.

Girl's Christmas 2008: Shiloh, April, McGee, and me. (Irish was there in spirit) April was in remission. Her  hair was growing back.

Girl's Christmas 2010: April and Irish in front, McGee, Shiloh and I in back. Irish and I were both pregnant here. Hence the pajama party.

"Not Me" Monday!

It wasn't me who picked out all of my favorite candy from our Halloween stash before handing it out to the neighborhood kids!

It definitely wasn't me who hid the candy in a separate container, hoping Steve and Paige wouldn't notice.

And it most certainly was not me who yelled at Steve saying "Hey! Don't eat my candy!" when he found the stash.

Last but not least....it has not been me who has forgotten to post a "Not Me" Monday for weeks now! (Thanks for the reminder, Jackie!)

Your turn! What didn't you do last week?

The Last Couple of Weeks (In Pictures!)

Don't mess with the big guy

Happy boy!

Poor kid. This is one of many times I've dressed him up just to take pictures of him....you'll see :)

Mama, I'm sitting up!

Paige's last game

Just chillin' watching baseball

Paige and I had a full-on craft day. We made Halloween cards, an "Eek" wall hanging....

We decorated with a huge skeleton and spiders....

We made owl cupcakes (thanks Shannon for the idea!)

Gavin's first pumpkin! You can't really tell, but I got the idea for the pumpkin from the shirt he's wearing. I bought that shirt last year at Gap when I was pregnant with him and had just found out he was a boy!

...and we crafted pumpkins! See her pretty spider web?

All of our pumpkins...except daddy. He was supposed to carve his, but he never did!

Bobo and Gavin. They're buds

I saw a photo shoot on Pinterest similar to this, and I had to try it! Again...dressing him up for pics :)

Two cute teddy bears

And another version of the Gavin-Bear

Gavin and I headed to Kearney to see my mom for her birthday last weekend

Grandma and Grandpa with their puppies

Their dog, Molly was really curious

While in Kearney, I got to see my little brother Nick perform in the Kearney High School musical, "All Shook Up." That's him in the black and white shirt. 

When we got back on Sunday, we took our puppy and kitty to the Children's Museum downtown.

:)

Mama and her puppy

Paige is shopping in the Children's Museum grocery store

She made us a pizza too!

This was two weekends ago, before the Jason Aldean concert. That's Steve and my friend Kristin's husband, Ty

Kristin and I at the concert

Jason and his band. It was a great show!