I Am Thankful...

This year's Thanksgiving left me feeling full and thankful!  I took off of work Tuesday and Wednesday so I could go down to Newnan early and have some time to relax and bake with my mom.  It was a great break filled with lots of family and friends - Mom, Maggie, and I went to LaGrange to visit Tiffany and Hayes and Charley and Molly (first cousins and their children) and almost got caught in a tornado, we celebrated Keith's (Kevin's brother) birthday at Georgia Shrimp Company in Peachtree City (yum!), baked lots of pies and delicious macaroni and cheese (you must make it - http://www.marthastewart.com/271998/perfect-macaroni-and-cheese) and other goodies with my mom, had Thanksgiving lunch at Kevin's grandmother's house with lots of family, Thanksgiving early dinner at my parents' house with my grandparents and a few family members who live in Alabama whom we don't see often, late night visit with Brianna and her family at her parents' house, visited grandparents in Alabama where we got to hang out with my cute almost-two-year-old cousin Reese and watched the GA Tech/Georgia game (darn!) and the Alabama/Auburn game (roll tide!), drove up to Buckhead to serve in Waumba Land and got to hear all about our little 4  year old's Thanksgivings (so sweet!), drove back down to my parents' house to see my cousins whom I hadn't seen in a long time, picked out our Christmas tree in Newnan where Kevin's dad sells them for the Optimist Club, and finally, drove back up to Atlanta and crashed!  I wouldn't exactly say it was restful but it sure was fun :)

At my parents' house we went around in a circle and said what we are thankful for...it is funny how every time this happens with any of my family, everyone is sooo thankful for Kevin!  I love it and it warms my heart but it is kinda humerous.  Finally when it got to my dad's cousin Joe's turn, he said something of the sort "well heck I guess I'm thankful for Kevin!  looks like we need to build him a shrine in the yard!"  Haha...but seriously, I am thankful for him too :)  One thing Kevin said in his "I'm thankful for..." spiel stuck out to me and has been on my heart for the past week - "We have more than we need and I'm thankful for all that we've been blessed with..."  We have more than we need?!  For real?  In the hustle and bustle of saving for a house, saving for a car, saving for Christmas, saving for a trip to Europe, sticking to a budget so that we can save for all these things and not spending too much on eating out, concerts, clothes, make up, ahhhh - it is hard to feel like we have more than we need!  It is something I know is true and certainly need to remind myself of more often.  Thank you Kevin for the reminder!  This Thanksgiving I sure felt like we have more than we need, and I'm thankful for that.

A few pictures to share from Thanksgiving week...

This is my cousin Tiffany's little boy Hayes.  He is sooo cute and such an entertainer.  I must also mention my cousin Charley's little girl Molly that we got to see on our trip to LaGrange who I wish I would have gotten a picture of because she was so cute - we found Charley down in his basement (due to the tornado) which is kinda his man cave with lots of camo and tools and such, so it was pretty cute to walk in to see his little 2 year old Molly sitting on his lap wearing only a blue tutu and nothing else (that is the ONLY thing she will wear these days!).  Fun times visiting the cousins in LaGrange!

Hayes gets his face painted every Tuesday night at Chick-fil-a!  He walks around like he owns the place!

When Hayes realized we were leaving he climbed out of the bath tub and started crying  "Mamie Mamie" which is what he calls my mom...heartbreaking but so cute!

This is at Kevin's grandmother's house.  This was actually last year because I didn't get a picture this year, but it's pretty much the same every year which is great :)  There were 18 of us there this year.

Kevin  hard a work at my parents' house  :)

Appetizers and looking at our wedding book before we ate!

Floyd joined the party too, in his Thanksgiving best

Only about half of all the food!

YUM!  This was on the cover of Southern Living and it was SO good!  Pumpkin cheesecake with candied pecans and praline sauce

The best part...my favorite is the chocolate pie with pecans...

This is my cousin Reese who we got to see when visiting my grandparents in Alabama!  She is quite the entertainer too!

Dogs make great Tech fans! :)

Us with my dad's brother's children who we hadn't seen in way too long!

I am thankful for great in laws!  They got Floyd this scratching post to have at their house because he loves the one at our apartment so much.  He loved this one too!  I didn't even think he could really fit in the top but when we woke up he was sleeping here :)

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving...Merry Christmas!!