Thanksgiving with the Mamminas--2013

Toward the end of November, Mario's parents drove down to spend some holiday time with us!

Our first stop upon their arrival?  Fuzzy's Taco Shop, per the kids' request--it's one of their favorites!

(mine too--I always get the shredded beef, aka the "brisket taco")

(love this crew)

Nonno was already getting lots of giggles from these two!  ;)

So excited for snuggles and stories with Nonna

After a Veggie Tales movie and a quick horsey ride, courtesy of Nonno, the boys are off to bed!

Anthony and Lucas can barely contain their excitement the next morning--they have known that once Nonno and Nonna arrive, it's Thanksgiving and "Christmas" all in the same week to celebrate!  We had a low-key day today because we'll be doing a lot of cooking tomorrow!

Mario's grandfather made this wooden truck for Mario when he was a little boy--Anthony LOVED it!

Daddy does some coloring with the boys while I make some homemade potato soup for supper.

WE HEART FAMILY

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

These two are back at their artwork before breakfast!

a little praise and worship to start off the day with a heart of gratitude for all our Savior has done for us

this boy loves playing the guitar

looks like we need to get this one a "big boy" version as well

Nonno and Mario get the turkey set up to smoke on the grill all day long

they pretend that babysitting a turkey is hard work!  ;)

all Anthony's friends get a ride on his new truck

Anthony is a big helper to his Daddy, working hard to stain our fence while Lucas naps.

I made this Delicious Dinner Rolls recipe, and boy they sure lived up to their name!

Love cooking with Ma!  Thanks for all your HARD work with me in the kitchen!

X

Holy Smokes!  (no pun intended)  The flavor of this smoked turkey was AMAZING!!!

I mean, LOOK at that thing!

Fantastic job, Dad!

Ta-Da!!!  Can you smell them?

Oh, and it's not Thanksgiving without homemade pumpkin pie!!!

What a super fun day of enjoying family, togetherness, and laughter...and a friend even joined us this year!

Mario is a client of Mario's--the boys got a kick out of that!!!  ;)

Our "Christmas" celebration is coming up...get ready for picture overload! 

November Family Pics

Way back in November when Mario's parents were in town, Ma graciously agreed to go with us to downtown McKinney to take some family pictures for us.  She did SUCH a great job!  Here are a few of my favorites!!!

They ended up being such a neat reflection of our family and stage in life.  Thanks, Ma (and Dad) for your willingness to do this for us!  We will cherish these!!!

November Highlights

The morning after Halloween I flew out to Memphis to meet my brand new little nephew, Conner Payne...

I got to spend a little time with my grandad.  love him!

look at this sweet munchkin

i've forgotten what it feels like to hold one this little ;)

my niece reese had recently broken her arm, so we shared some snuggles

showing off her cast--she picked the blue

while i was out of town, mario was busy attempting a camp out in the backyard with the boys

they were sooo excited to sleep in a tent!

all their special "friends" joined them as well--

they made it until about 2am, before the boys got too cold and wanted to head back to their beds

the next week while anthony was at school, lucas and i celebrated his hippo's birthday!

(yeah, it was really just an excuse to get some donuts!!!)

anthony's project on lyndon b. johnson--he picked this president himself in class.  when i asked why he chose this one, he said that in the picture mrs. cleveland showed him of president johnson, it looked like he was holding a garbage can!  i guess he found that interesting!  ;)

Anthony's Elementary Showcase--

he performed two songs with his class

(to anthony's right--in the orange shirt--is porter, his best friend in school)

lucas couldn't wait to see his brother on stage

they sang "Jesus Loves Me" with the hand motions

they also sang a color song which tied in to their studies

(they've been memorizing the color names as sight words)

snuggles with daddy after it's all done--

he did great!

Lucas always asks to ride the mickey golf cart anytime we are at babies r us

my handsome boy--

love hanging out one on one while anthony is at school

i walked in the kitchen to find them making milk bubbles one morning!

my good friend kristin and her newest little one samuel at the ornament exchange we participated in

mario still has regular jam sessions with the boys

i love how he is instilling a passion for music within them, especially good worship music!

Halloween 2013

We had so much fun doing Halloween this year!  I ordered these batman costumes (pj sets) at Target, and the boys LOVED them!  They had so much fun being superheroes this year!

some quick pics before it gets dark

love these little blue capes that came with the set

some superhero moves before the big event

fighting bad guys

ready to save the day

and save the world

the heroes in action

have you ever seen two cuter batmen?

after our photo shoot they were more than ready to go trick-or-treating

mario had fancied up their power wheels hummer with a black sheet, spray painted cardboard, and blue glow sticks to make the batmobile!  It was pretty awesome!

me and my little loves

they thought they were pretty awesome!

and so did our neighbors!  ;)

everywhere we went, people asked if they could take pics of the boys in their batmobile!

It was really, really fun to trick-or-treat this year!  The boys didn't tire out since they were riding, and we had to power-walk to keep up with them.  It was very nice to keep things moving.   We did have to help them watch out for pedestrians, though!!!  And they got a TON of candy since they were able to go for a long time without getting tired.  That could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it!  Haha!