An Early Turkey Day...

Friends, I hope you had the best Thanksgiving with your family and friends. 

I decided to take the rest of last week off from blogging so I could focus on family and enjoy as much as time as possible with them. 

Of course, now that we're in Austin, our Thanksgiving looks different this year than it has in the past. We typically ditch DJ and head to my parents in Arkansas, but it was too far this year, and with my new job, I needed to work. The girls were disappointed that also weren't going to be making our annual Branson trip on Thanksgiving weekend. 

Texas played in Kansas on Friday, which meant that DJ would be traveling on Thanksgiving day. (And I would be traveling too because I was able to go to the game with him.) So, we decided to host Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night and invite his staff over for dinner. 

Since DJ's mom was in town, she took care of the turkey, dressing, and deviled eggs, and I took care of a lot of the casseroles. Wednesday morning, she and Gretchen baked our pumpkin pie. 

We set out a few appetizers for our guests, and dove in to dinner as soon as it was ready. 

DJ carved the turkey, and I pulled out the casseroles so we could eat.

Dinner was delicious, and Gretchen's pie was too. 

The girls showed our guests a few magic tricks and kept them entertained. 

The kids made fast friends with our company.  

We laughed and chatted our shared football stories most of the evening. 

And after a while, my cell phone was stolen and the kids took photos upstairs. 

We had a great night with new friends. We are so thankful that God has put us in Austin with Texas football. 

Thursday morning, this sweet girl was having a hard time with us leaving. She required lots of extra cuddles and attention. At one point, she went upstairs and packed her own suitcase in hopes that she could go with us. 

We spent Thanksgiving morning watching the parade, 

and Gretchen played card games. 

at noon, I said goodbye to these sweet girls who were playing "parade" upstairs and met DJ at the stadium for a quick 24 hour getaway to Kansas.

Friends, we hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. Even if yours looked different this year too, there's so much to be thankful for.

Monday Musings- Silly String Fun & Football

Last week, the girls and I ran in to The Dollar Tree to buy some cheap candles for their jack o lanterns, and there were a few cans of Silly String. I went against my better mom judgement and picked up four cans. 

Then, last Thursday afternoon, the weather was gorgeous, so we went outside and had a silly string fight! 

The girls thought they'd get super messy, so they changed in to bathing suits. Ha! 

We had the best time, and it was a fun little fight that I think we'll need to repeat every so often. 

As a mom, I think sometimes we're so busy being mom, that we forget to have some fun every once in a while. This was a good reminder for me to let loose a little. 

The girls and I made corn chowder for dinner that night. Gretchen had been asking for it for a few weeks- it's one of her favorite meals, so we whipped up the soup and had a yummy dinner. 

Friday afternoon, we received this fun Edible Arrangement from our realtor in Tulsa. We closed on our house Friday, and the girls were so excited to see this arrive! We dug in and ate several pieces! 

Later that night, we headed to Hat Creek to eat burgers. This was a fun little restaurant in Austin, that had the perfect play area for kids. 

Saturday was game day here in ATX. We headed to tailgate and the girls had fun playing with their friends. We ate, they climbed trees, they fell down and got booboos, and we eventually called it quits and headed to the stadium for some pre game field time. 

The West Virginia cheerleaders were checking out Bevo, and the girls love cheerleaders, of any team, and wanted a picture. 

My cousin and his friend were able to come up for the weekend and go to the game with us. We were so excited to have some family and show them a different side of game day. 

DJ met us on the field and the girls were excited to see their dad. 

We attempted a quick family picture. 

It gets hot on the field, so Gretchen found a shady spot. 

while the little girls found the cheerleaders. 

Alex and I took a quick pre game photo before taking the little girls in to babysitting. 

Each university we've been at has been different.. in Tulsa we had a family suite so I could watch the game and the girls had a safe place to run and play inside. At Texas, we have babysitting for the kids under a certain age. They have adult supervision, and the wives are able to watch the game and not worry about their kiddos. I'm telling you, 4 hours at a football game is long for adults, but it's super long for kids. Especially in packed bleachers, so we are super thankful that Megan and Addy can enjoy game day, have a safe place to go, and that I'm able to actually watch the game. 

After dropping them off, Gretchen and I headed back to the field, and we happened to get a glimpse of Bevo Boulevard before the game, and it was packed. 

We watched the pregame activities on the field, which was a fun experience.... we were trying to get off the field to our seats, but we got caught in a roped off section, so they could bring Bevo out on to the field. Whoops. 

Bevo and the team came out, and we made our way to the stands

We watched the 1st quarter from our seats, and then headed to the club level for some ice cream, which is basically a game day tradition. 

We lost the game by 1 point, when West Virginia went for a two point conversion.... which was a tough way to loose, but it was a great game to watch, and DKR (the stadium) was a full house. 

We have one more home game and three weeks left of the season, and I'm amazed at how fast it went this year. 

Each game day, I'm amazed at where we are. We weren't looking to move when the video position came open at Texas, but when DJ was approached, we knew it was something we couldn't turn down. The experience gives me chills every time, and we're just thankful to be a part of this university and team. 

Friday Favorites: Halloween Edition

Happy Friday friends! We made it through Halloween week! Fallelujah!

I'm linking up today with a few of my favorite bloggers and sharing our Halloween favorites! 

Last Sunday, the girls were invited to a Halloween birthday party, and they were super excited to dress up. Megan didn't wear her actual costume, because it was so hot outside, so she opted for an older costume we had. 

We were a few minutes early for the party, so we stopped by this little lookout spot that DJ showed us back in August, and enjoyed the view :)

If you look closely, you can see the skyline of Austin way in the back.

We made it to the party, and costume pieces started flying off since it was hot. The girls found the bounce house, and then made their way to the little petting zoo. 

There were chickens, bunnies, and goats, and it made my little country girl heart happy. 

While the big girls were petting animals, Adalyn went to get her face painted. 

She asked for hearts all over her face. 

and ended up with hearts and glitter! 

And then, she got a balloon animal made. 

Megan found her way back to the patio and got her face painted. Since she was an "Egyptian princess" she asked for a crown. 

I mean, how adorable is this!

Addy made her way back to the bounce house. 

And we spent the next little bit just playing. 

Gretchen had the magician make her a balloon bow and arrow that actually worked! 

The girls had the best time at the party! 

When the party was over we headed to DJ's office for team dinner Sunday night. 

Monday afternoon, the girls and I carved their pumpkins after school. 

We usually have DJ help carve pumpkins, but his schedule just didn't allow it. And, I'm not the best pumpkin carver, but we did our best! We always let the girls just draw on their own face and then carve whatever they draw. 

On Halloween morning, the girls had book character day at school. 

Gretchen was a Harry Potter character, Megan wore the Egyptian costume again and went as Isis- thanks to Gretchen for finding us a chapter book for that! And, Adalyn wore her Paw Patrol costume for last year. 

After school, the girls were so excited to change in to their costumes. Megan chose a character from the Disney movie Zombies, and even had green hair to match. 

And, then I got busy making dinner, and didn't get a single picture of the girls together.

Gretchen was invited to a little party with some friends at school, and I gave her the choice to trick or treat or go to her friends, and of course, she chose her friends. And, I may have been a little bit (or a lot) sad about it! I'm glad she is making friends and settling in, but I wasn't prepared for her to ditch us on Halloween just yet! Ha!

The little girls and I headed out trick or treating with our neighbors, and sadly, the weather was miserable. It wasn't a torrential downpour, but it was enough that we needed raincoats, and umbrellas. 

And I think this was the only picture that I got of Adalyn all night! 

And, since we have just moved, I have no idea where the girls Halloween buckets are, so we just grabbed some pillowcases. 

Megan refused to wear her rain coat, until about halfway through the night. 

After trick or treating for just a bit, we came home and watched a movie for a little while before calling it a night!