finally mom ...

the kids have been asking every day .. can we put the tree up yet .. for some reason their"christmas spirit mode" has been in overdrive .. i didn't even get the halloween stuff put away and they were wanting to bring out the tree .. never mind thanksgiving this year .. lets go straight to christmas .. 

so on sunday we put on the christmas music and had at it .. 

it is officially christmas now .. 

thanksgiving and puppies ..

we celebrated thanksgiving at joe and rhonda's this year ..

mary brought 2 of her little puppies that she is fostering until they are old enough to be adopted ..

poor little pups .. i don't think their little feet ever touched the ground .. they were hugged and loved on all day long .. 

oh momma look .. 

i think this is taco bell .. ross named them .. poor puppies .. and he loved lisa ..

oh lisa you are so pretty .. little taco bell is saying .. 

sweet cash .. he liked the puppies to .. 

rob and lisa .. 

lisa and me .. isn't this a great pic of us .. 

paul and his family .. 

where's the food you ask .. 

oh it was there .. trust me .. 

unless you were last in line like i was .. i was still in shock over uncle jon having a mustache that i had a hard time getting in the line .. 

little jake was more worried about hammering then consuming large amounts of turkey and dressing and sweet potatoes .. 

cash was more concerned with jake's hammering than eating his turkey and dressing to .. he might just need to get down and go and help jake out with his hammering .. 

we had lots of dessert as well .. and for the record ross was the only one who found something suspicious in his pecan pie .. something that might have been attached to a backhoe that at one time was seen digging in the dirt .. but he ate it 

uncle dan and aunt cindy .. 

aunt susie and lexi .. 

after we ate the kids played lets dog pile on top of james .. poor james .. 

my aunts .. 

and sweet sisters lisa and becky .. 

it was a fantastic day full of family time .. great food .. sweet puppies and uncle jon and his mustache .. 

i should have taken a picture of it .. 

he assures me that it is a fire station thing and that it will be gone at christmas ..

i will keep you posted ..

pie making with heavy equipment ..

ellie and i are not sure what cash is doing ..

ellie was in charge of chopping up all the pecans ..

cash was in charge of scooping them up and putting them into the big bowls .. when i told him this was his job he jumped down and ran into his bedroom .. i was thinking that he was going to wash his hands ..

silly thought .. instead he came back with his "scooper" ..

it must have been the word scoop ..

ugh ..

despite the use of heavy equipment our pies turned out fantastic 

i am pretty sure that 350 degrees and 45 minutes in the oven killed any germs that may or may not have been on cash's heavy equipment .. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone !

the last of new york ...

we got home from new york .. i got the laundry under control and then we went out of town again .. the laundry is again under control and the pies are made for thanksgiving so i thought i would wrap up new  york .. 

on our last day we went to times square ..

and then we walked from one end of central park to the other .. 

yes i ran thru it during the marathon but i wanted to walk thru it ... to hear the kids laugh as they ran thru the shadows of the trees .. to hear the leaves crunch under my shoes .. 

to hold jeff's hand and walk under the big trees with their pretty leaves .. 

to take in the last day of new york ..

ellie and i thought that this would make a great venue for a wedding reception .. just in case she wants to get married in new york in the fall ..

we stopped for a bit and sat .. the kids wanted to run around and play "snowmobile" .. so we sat and they played ..

i want to live here .. 

for our last night we meet up with kim .. patrick and baby molly again for dinner .. 

we meet in times square ..

as i was looking all around .. listening to all the noise and taking pictures i looked over and saw this ..

i wonder what they are talking about .. 

i wonder what sweet things jeff is saying to her .. 

i wonder what cash is doing ..

he is rearranging the chairs in times square .. 

ice skating at bryant park ..

for dinner one night we walked down the street a few blocks to bryant park .. they had a pretty neat outdoor restaurant .. and an ice skating rink .. cheers all around ..

they had rules ..

we do .. 

we did .. we were all wearing them actually ..

we will .. promise ..

we ARE !!!

just barely on this one .. 

as cash says .. let's hit the ice baby !!!

and they did .. several times .. and they were all wet for the cool walk home .. 

but we would do it again .. 

the very next night ..