Rilyn was Aunt Lacey's BIG helper in the kitchen, getting all her dips ready ... lol!! She stood on her little stool right there with Lay the whole entire time "helping" her!!! All I can say is Aunt Lacey has much much much more patience than me!!
The "Thank You" tree . . . so, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a big sucker for traditions ... and it has always kinda bugged me (atleast since I have been a mom) that we never do any kind of tradition for Thanksgiving so this year I decided to put an end to that and start a new Thanksgiving Tradition of The Thank You Tree!!! Now where I came up with this idea is beyond me (minus the painting of the tree which I got from my cousin Katie's wedding that we just went to a few weeks back) hahaaaa ... and I know I drive my family, especially all the guys, completely crazy with all my ideas, but they put up with me and participate in my cheesy-ness anyways!!! So on to the details of this special little tree: for the tree itself I just went out into my backyard (another advantage of living in New River, haaa) and found what I thought to be the perfect size branch with just enough other branches and leaves coming off of it and chopped it off. Then I got some spray paint, which I chose a metallic copper color, and painted the entire branch. For the pot, I just got a cheapy terracotta pot in the right size from Home Depot and had all 3 of the kids do a hand turkey around the sides of it by putting paint all over their hands (using a different color on each finger for the feathers) and then glued on a googly eye and painted on feet and beak's. Once the paint was dry I put the tree into the pot and secured it with rocks. Ok so here's where the "thankfulness" part comes in .. out of scrapbook paper I cut out leaves and attached a piece of hemp to each leaf for hanging on the tree. Once we were all at Momma's hanging out and getting ready for dinner I passed out a leaf to each person there and had everyone write on their leaf what they were most thankful for this Thanksgiving and then we hung them all on the tree!! We then used the tree as a centerpiece for the pie table!! It turned out really neat and the tree didn't photograph nearly as good as it looked in person!! Cant wait to add new leaves next year and the many years after!!!
Storytime with Uncle Bradley!! Rilyn kept bringing books to Uncle Bradley to read to her!!
Our firewood supply was getting a little low so all the boys went out and found a dead tree and then used the Ranger to pull it down and broke it up to use in the fire pit!!!
Grandma and her boys!!! I dont think my kids have any idea how lucky they are to have such awesome grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles .. you name it!!!
After dinner we all cuddled up on the couches and watched the DVD Slideshow that Lacey made for our family reunion a couple years ago ... which is like the BEST slideshow ever ... and starts out with my Granparents when they were young all the way thru to them getting married and having kids and their kids growing up and having kids and so on all the way to now with all the Great Grandkids!!! Like I said it is an awesome video set to the perfect music and takes you thru 4 generations of Crabtree's ... pretty amazing stuff!!!
I know I say this quite often, but I have the most amazing family ever and spending times like this is what life is all about!! There were so many more great pictures I could have shared in this post ... so glad we got to spend Thanksgiving with my Grandpa & Grandma this year!! We are most thankful for the many many blessings we have in our lives and for a healthy loving family!!
Ohhhh my goodness, if i didn't like you so much, I may have to barf at your cuteness! haaaa For REAL, how you juggle FOUR kids (all the driving), a husband, and the crafting, I may never know! LOVE that tree, and seriously may have to "jack it" as we say!
ReplyDeleteThe boys are looking so grown up and handsome in those photos, too!