Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives, and this year, I am particularly thankful for the blessing of our healthy children. Austin is thriving and Baby Girl is growing healthy and strong in preparation for her introduction to the outside world. How blessed we are!

I was lucky to have Thanksgiving Day off, so we headed up to the Murphy's to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our family...

Jenna once again made a delicious meal!

Uncle Greg moved to Minnesota so we were blessed to have him join us for our Thanksgiving celebration. Here he is with Nanny and Auntie Trish.

Austin had fun playing with Alexis's toys...

Michelle and I

Austin jamming on the guitar while singing the ABC song.

He even figured out how to hold it and strum it on his own.

Steve, me, Brian and Michelle - the Brintnall side representatives in attendance (Kevin and Keng were in Thailand and Mom and Dad were visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Michigan)

The kids roped Brian into playing with them...here they are playing musical chairs.

And Austin got Michelle captive for story time...here he's reading her "Green Eggs and Ham"
Alexis tried to be in every picture she could...the opposite of when we used to get her "no paparazzi" pose with every photo attempt. Here she popped into the picture with Michael and Brian.
We had a delicious meal, got to see some of our family, and then headed home laden with leftovers. I had to work on Friday, so we got back late Thursday night and the boys had a day to rest and recuperate at home on Friday, capped off with Nanny and Grandpa visiting on Friday evening on their way home from Michigan.


Other fun stuff recently...

Austin has been more cuddley lately and has been giving me lots of hugs and kisses. Of course, his snuggling lasts about 3 seconds before he moves on to playing again.


One of Austin's favorite activities is still conducting story time just like Mr. Peter.

Daddy's Notre Dame hat is his new story time hat...

And recently, he pulled a box of baby wipes out of his closet to use as the bench.
He starts off with "time to sing hello to everybody" with the "Howdi Do" song...

And the "shaking hands with everybody" part includes his audience of stuffed animals...

Then the "Wheels on the Bus" song.
"The doors on the bus go open..."

"...and shut."

After a few more stories, it's time for "Baby Beluga," then handing out balloons, including making comments like "What [color] would you like?" and "Thank you for sitting so nicely" and "Put it on your wrist so it won't fly away" while he puts the balloon strings around the arms of his stuffed animal audience. Quite cute!

That's all for now. We've got our next appointments this Wednesday for another level 2 ultrasound, then next Wednesday for another checkup. Christmas will be here before you know it, then a busy January before Baby arrives. Sleep is scarce and about to become more scarce, but we sure are happy!