Happy Birthday Grandma!

It's my Grandma's birthday today...and she is awesome! I'll tell you why:

  Things to know about Grandma Fran:
She has the best sense of humor
She's the most delish cook in town. You never leave her house hungry!
She's a total servant. We always have to force her out of the kitchen. 
She can out-fish all of us. She might be tiny, but she always catches the biggest fish
She loves her family more than anything
She's still dances a mean fox trot
She can beat all of us in poker. Don't let that kind face fool ya, she's good!
She calls me all the time to check on me
She's the best grandma (and great grandma) ever
She loves her grand dogs and used to bake oatmeal cookies for Lincoln
Also, I'm her favorite granddaughter. (sorry wes)

she helped me bake my first pie...raspberry apple crumb. yum!

 A classmate of Michael's heard Gabe loves trains...so he gave us this whole train getup for around the Christmas tree. Needless to say, Gabe is obsessed, enthralled..etc. He wouldn't tear his eyes away for a picture.

 It's pretty cute..plays christmas carols and lights up. Santa waves and says "Ho, Ho, Ho". So now Gabe says Ho ho ho.

 He's only allowed to touch the buttons when supervised...

 Today we had an "ice" storm. I didn't think it was that bad, but Michael got a 2 hr delay, so we'll take it! I strapped on my yak tracks and we took a walk!

 Gabers all bundled up

 Being a ham.

 Who does he look like here? I can't decide...but it's someone!

 cutie face

My amazing yak tracks! My dad got me these puppies my first winter in Missouri. They allow me to walk all over the ice with out falling on my face! Good stuff.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

 We started the day shaving with Daddy...

 

No, mommy don't take my picture....i'm not done yet!

 There she is in all her glory. And yes, she is fake. Michael was determined to have a real tree because a). they're giving out free ones to the troops this Wednesday and b). "I don't like fake boobs or fake trees" (that's a direct quote). Well after Sunday school today and he realized live trees are a fire hazard and we wouldn't be able to leave it up before our big Colorado extravaganza (he also didn't want to have to vacuum)...so he decided we should head to lowes and check out the selection. It was slim pickins' but we did find this 7.5 ft pre-lit beauty. So much easier than my p's tree...it comes in three sections, no messing with bags of lights to see which ones work..took us about 10 mins to assemble. The bummer is we can't find where the movers stashed our ornaments. So we made do with the few we did have and bought a cheap set of colored balls.

The tree skirt we bought previously is also lost somewhere with the ornaments. So i improvised...yes that's our 1st Cav throw. I think it looks rather charming.

Obligatory family photo in front of the tree. Gabe has 1/2 a piece of pizza in his cheeks. Do i mention this a lot about food in his cheeks? That's because it's a recurring problem. The kid thinks he's a hamster.

Thank you Hubby for buying us this awesome tree!!! PS I'm wearing the hat because my hair is greasy. I'm not obsessed or anything.

Last night we went to "Christmas on the Square" in the lovely town of Waynesville. There was live music, free food and drinks and a live nativity scene. We met up with some people from church and it was really fun. Gabe liked watching the horses go by (there were hay rides) and eating a hot dog. Afterward we went over to a friends house for milk and cookies. Gabe stayed up till 9:30 and never threw a fit once! He was totally enthralled with all the new stuff to check out.

kisses for mommy. Note: I made the flowers for my hat!

the men in their christmassy flannel

flexing

Gabe eating his hotdog at the square. Yes i totally forgot my camera after the flannel pic sesh, so we had to rely on Mike's not so great camera phone.

New friends: Daniel & Kristi Walkup and little 4-mth old Cooper.

cutest lil' guy

chillin' in the square

petting the lambs at the live nativity. We tried to talk our friends into letting Cooper be baby Jesus, they didn't go for it.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving was great. We had great company, delish food (including two turkeys!) and snow! Two couples on our street that were also stranded in Ft. lost in the woods came over and we all had a fabulous time. Gabe only slept about 30 mins, but he was really good. Praise the lord for baby einstien videos..it helped calm him down so Mommy could actually sit and visit! My turkey came out awesome, did i remember to take a pic? No. But trust me it was really tasty, not overly dry or undercooked (which i feared), my gravy wasn't lumpy (happens a lot) and my spaghetti & cheese and pumpkin pie were a hit! We had so much food the table was groaning! The other two gals out did themselves with sides too (thanks ladies)!

Yes, i copied pottery barn with the napkin under the dinner roll plate idea. We didn't even have dinner rolls, but it looked really cute with my favors on top!

The lovely table linens are courtesy of Aunt Carolyn. Thanks! They looked awesome with all my china!

I loved the excuse to whip out my china, crystal and silver!

 The only group shot of the whole night. Took a few tries to get it, but hey, we were busying feasting!

I know, another pic of the table. But  this is when i actually remember to use my camera. And i was so pleased with how pretty it turned out! Just call me martha stewart.

first snow in Missouri!

Gabe was quite thrilled. He also got to wear his new winter coat!

 The dogs were somewhat amused. They don't like getting their paws wet. They hung out in our bedroom most of thanksgiving.

Yes, finally cold enough to whip out these bad boys, my fabulous new uggs thanks to Mary & Carolyn! They spoil me :)

 Michael regaling everyone with his war stories...or something about a water balloon maybe?

It was a great day. Michael's trying to get me motivated to go shopping today, but I'm still in my pjs sipping tea and looking forward to feasting on leftovers and doing NO dishes and avoiding all the crowds. We'll see. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! We missed family but it was a blessing to have new friends over. Incidentally, Michael and i were jointly thankful that we were able to spend this turkey day together; as opposed to over the phone (last year he was in Iraq!)