Thanksgiving 2023

Trying to get through all the posts, so next is Thanksgiving!

We traveled to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving, and the drive is always long:

We had an early start to Christmas with Sam's parents the night we got there. We sang, acted out the Nativity Scene, and opened our presents. So is this a Christmas post too?

 

 

 

 

The next morning, we played with our gifts and toys before heading off to Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner's.

 

And guess what? More Christmas gifts! Everyone got their own advent calendar to count down the days until real Christmas.

After gifts, the kids went outside to say hi to the chickens.

My dad's grown to care for the chickens as much as my mom!

 

Gotta go on the swing too!

We had lunch at a hibachi grill to celebrate November birthdays.

That night, we visited with Sam's Grandma Pitcher. Noah passed out from the long day.

One with Grandma in there. And Sam's dad!

Jumping to Thanksgiving, we went over to my parents the day of and helped with prep and setting up.

On Thanksgiving, the kids broke out the play dough while we helped set up for dinner.

 

More Swinging!

Eden and Harper had the same pants!

Dinner time!

Yum!

The next day we had the Hobbs Thanksgiving. Sam's parents' house is always perfect for hosting these family events.

Always so fun to see family! I'm so grateful that Albuquerque is only a day's drive away, so we can see family as often as we do. Happy Post Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2023

We had a good Halloween season in 2023! Here are all the things we ended up doing:

Now that we were back in San Antonio, we hit SeaWorld for their Halloween events. I took Noah separately at first while the other kids were in school. He still loved his Luigi costume and refused to wear anything else that day.

 

Pretty decorations!

Later, we took all the kids, and I convinced Noah to wear the family Yoda costume. All kids would have worn it at some point!

Not a fan of the Carousel! Even Eden and Joseph prefer the bench.

Joseph was a cyclops, Noah was Yoda (or baby Yoda), Eden was Stitch, and Eli was Harry Potter.

There were fun decorations, Trick or Treating, and a little corn maze.

 

 

After all the festivities we ended with rides with Eli.

Rio Loco is a family favorite!

I make sugar cookies every year for the kids to decorate. This year I got a request to make a snake and a frog for Joseph and Eli.

 

 

Eden had a special Halloween dance recital. This was also her first recital ever and it was cute to watch!

The stage.

All the kids at the end.

She did really well for her first recital and was excited to receive this little bouquet at the end.

 

There was a storybook parade at school as well. Eden chose to be a dragon from the book Dragons Love Tacos.

 

 

Later that day there was a Fall Festival and Trick or Treating at the school.

 

The Fire Department came and there were some people dressed as Barbie and Ken on stilts 😂. A lot of people were creative with decorations and costumes!

 

Time to carve our pumpkins!

 

 

On Halloween itself, we ran into our neighbors and Trick-or-Treated with them for a little bit. I wish we got to know them better before they moved, but it was fun all the same. Later we went to a Tri-Ward Trunk-or-Treat but I have no pictures. I wasn't too happy they had it on Halloween itself, haha!

And that's it! I still have Halloween 2024 to blog about, so hopefully, I get to it this year before Halloween 2025 happens.