November, part 2

My roommate Britney was in town for a conference and we were so lucky to have her spend a day with us.  Brit and I went out for crepes then when the place closed we sat out in my minivan talking, haha.  Bryan's mom was still in town so the next day I took Britney and Sherrie to tour the Hampton House.  It's only ten minutes away and such a neat place, I couldn't believe we'd lived here for a full two years before going inside!

On the Saturday after Jilly's birthday we had a party.  I tried to convince her to do a big family activity instead of a party but she had been dreaming of a butterfly party for weeks so we did it and I'm so glad we did.  We had fun searching pinterest and planning together.  She has such a darling group of friends, it was a lot of fun to have them all over.

The day of Jilly's party was Nana's last day here so that night after the party we took her to Kenilworth Mall to see the holiday train exhibit and to have dinner.  We were glad to start our Christmas celebrations with her and so sad to see her go the next morning.

So excited about the little smiles we started to see-

I love this picture- Bryan was totally oblivious to poor Olivia's bow trouble

We had our first Thanksgiving as just our family.  We were excited for a low-key day at home together, but it didn't exactly end up that way.  Our turkey took MUCH  longer than we thought it would and we made the rookie mistake of buying movie tickets for the afternoon.  We finally sat down to eat all the sides (that of course were cold by this point) without the turkey.  I dished up the food and encouraged the girls to start eating then after a few minutes Mattie said, "don't we need to say a prayer?"  Ahhh.  We had forgotten to say a prayer for Thanksgiving dinner!  We took a deep breath, laughed, then said a prayer.  The turkey was finally done just a few minutes before we had to leave so we each ate a few bites before dashing off to see Moana, which was fantastic.  

On the day after Thanksgiving we went to a Christmas tree farm.  It was a relatively warm day and we had a great time searching for the perfect tree.  We also got to see Santa; seeing all three girls on his lap was so fun!  Somehow all our pictures from that day have disappeared except this one, but at least it's a cute one!