Happy and Thankful

Sorry as usual for the delay in new pictures. As you can see we've been busy. Here we are spending some family time and of course Thanksgiving.

Sam has earned a lot of new belt loops and this was the ceremony where he received his first ones. Jeff has been working with the Army but was able to sneak away to be there for Sam. I missed this ceremony as I was at the baseball field picking up his trophy for traveling team.

Sam checking it out.

Talk to Sam for more then 5 minutes and you are bound to hear something about James. This cute little guy in the blue shirt is Sam's best friend James and they really are two peas in a pod.

This is Sam reading the things he is thankful for. His family, friends and that he lives in the USA.

Mama finally arrives. From the picture you would think I had been gone for days as opposed to the 45 minutes I was actually away.

Back at home with the trophy. Sam missed the ceremony as he had Boy Scouts as you can see from the picture it's hard to have to pick one over the other when you are 9.

This is Sam's heritage project. He had to trace his roots and then show different aspects of his culture. If you blow it up you should be able to see more of it.

The night before the food collection they had a sleep over in the fire house so all the boys would be there bright and early. I have no clue what was happening here because I didn't sleep over. The mom's had to sleep in the tents but I wasn't really eager to put Pheenie in a tent as she had been sick all week.

Jeff had to go back so I took Sam to collect the food. Here he is running up to a house.

And here he is bringing it back to the car. The boys collected over 1700 food items in just under 4 hours. We are very proud of all the hard work they did both putting out the bags and collecting them.

Even though she has a brand new baby and is probably not sleeping all that much Aunt Sara set a beautiful table and opened her home to us for the holiday. Isn't it pretty?

Goo Bobby looking for some bow noodle soup. Yummy!

Pheenie really loves her cousin and as she was FINALLY better she was able to hold him for the first time. She was really eager to get the chance but he was sleeping a lot. Being 3 weeks old is tiring.

So since she couldn't hold the baby she went looking for food. Cranberry relish that she made herself.

Vincenzo was gifted this bouncer from a church friend. Goo Bobby isn't wild about it but Vincenzo sure doesn't care that it's pink. He enjoys sleeping in it regardless of the color and I LOVE that he isn't bogged down by gender stereotypes.

Finally!

Oh no sleepy again. Seraphina didn't get a chance to hold him very long as you can see from the big ol' yawn he was ready to sleep again.

Someone is smitten.

Now fed and happy the little guy allowed Pheenie to hold him. I think this is one of my all time favorite pictures.

I'm not sure what Sammy is doing right here but Pheenie is falling madly in love.

Sammy held Vincenzo after Pheenie and I'm pretty certain from the picture he wanted Daddy.

Grandpa holding his grand baby girl and Grandma now has Enzo.

It's craft time, but some people are missing!

There's Grandma holding the baby. We sure are lucky he doesn't mind being held by so many people and so far everyone has been good at taking turns.

Pheenie made a strawberry pie for dessert and here it is.

Grandma did make a craft finally. Goo Bobby made his at the same time I did so I was too busy painting mine to take his picture and Grandpa didn't make one because he "isn't crafty".

Playing with Daddy.

This one is kind of blurry because I wanted to get his beautiful eyes without the red eye. It's the best I could do.

Sam helping Grandma make a craft for Grandpa.

Seraphina really just can't get enough of her cousin, as you can see.

Time to eat all the sweets.

So Daddy is going to be gone until right before his birthday so all of the decorations had to get done before Sunday night as he was leaving then. We got them almost done before he had to leave us and most importantly we had fun as a family.

Pheenie, just like her Mama, loves Betty Boop (though she calls her Betty Boo) I have several Betty ornaments and they all make noise. Here she is pushing the button. Boop Boop Bee Doop!

The best part of decorating is finding all the ornaments you love as you dig through the boxes. We get new ones every year and always share the stories of where they came from. Here are a couple of favorites.

Trimming the tree.

Daddy adding to the tree.

Why is mama holding on to Sam's head and what is so funny?

I am balanced on a little piece of metal to reach the top of the tree :)

I have no clue what Pheenie is doing here but she sure looks funny.

The finished product. Our tree and Yule log all ready to go when Daddy returns.