We have celebrated most of November with the Matthews. They joined us for our annual Turkey trot the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I did not run the 5k being 32 weeks pregnant and stayed back and watched the boys. Melanie rocked and was one of the first to cross the finish line.
Ryan won a turkey in the raffle!
We had the Matthews over for Thanksgiving dinner. I finally hosted Thanksgiving and it actually turned out pretty great. The weather was in the 60's so we started with a hike and then we were able to enjoy our meal while the boys napped. Everything turned out perfectly. We even followed my tradition and had a bonfire at the Matthews and sang Christmas Carols! I don't have any pictures of the day because I was too busy EATING!! On a different day, we went to Santa's village with the boys. Sam would only ride the rides if Rivers went with him. Both boys cried when we introduced them to Santa. But we still had a wonderful time getting ready for the Christmas season!
As you can imagine, there was a lot of hype for the Army vs. Air Force game around here. Once again, Ryan and I are rivals. He works for the Army and I work for the Air Force just like when I worked for UNC and he worked for Duke.
We went to the pep rally for Army and Sambo had a great time running around and signing "touch down!"
We didn't stay late enough for the bonfire where they burn an Air Force Eagle. Air Force won 24-14!
We had such a great time with Branny and Claire. We went to the Dallas Arboretum where they had pumpkin houses and a fairy tale land. It was magical!
We also were lucky enough to spend time with Kari and family. Olivia was so cute with Sam and it was wonderful to meet baby Owen. What wonderful friends! Fun to be in the same stage of life and have our kiddos play together.
We had a great time spending Halloween with Bran and Claire. Plus, Sam made it so much more exciting. We went to their ward party and Sam was a great Cat in the Hat. I tried to pull off Green Eggs with my baby bump and Ryan was the Grinch. Claire put Sam in the Primary Costume Parade and he won the "Cutest Costume" award. I think he loved being dressed up.
Our favorite Fairy and Pirate
Trunk or treat! It is great to have a kid that doesn't know about candy.
The loot was all ours!
On Halloween night, we went trick-or-treating with the Buchanans. They are one of our favorite families from Raleigh who moved to Dallas. We actually went trick-or-treating with them and the Willises the very first year we lived in Raliegh (4 years ago). It was so great to spend time with them.
At the End of October we got to fly to Dallas to be with friends and family. We'll post more on that, but I'll post on the Game.
BYU and TCU had a big Friday night game on ESPN in Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Going to the Stadium is worth the ticket price alone. It cost 1.3 billion dollars to build. Its got a giant video board that has to be close to the biggest in the world. It holds over a hundred thousand people.
The lobbys are posh and its a great stadium to walk around to just enjoy the opulence. It has a retractable roof that we got to watch open up: It was fun to go with Branagan and Claire who we also stayed with in Dallas.
This is my lovely wife, and our boy In Utero.
Oh and there was a game. BYU opened up by giving TCU 14 points in the first quarter and they lost by ten.BYU has 3 turnovers and some really bad punting that doomed them. This is their 4th straight loss to TCU. I hope one day in my life time BYU can beat TCU again. TCU was unfriendly to BYU fans, didn't announce BYU at the beginning of the game and showed only TCU stuff on the jumbo tron. All the BYU fans started booing the jumbo tron when they showed the TCU cheerleaders tussle their pom-poms every 5 minutes in the 4th. Overall it just stinks to lose to a team that has been so good recently.
We ended up wandering around the stadium most of the third quarter. At least BYU scored more points than when we flew out for the 2008 game. Here is one of the last plays that ended up making sports center for BYU
Our neighbors are Egyptian and went to Egypt to visit for 6 weeks. At the last minute, they asked us to take care of their bird while they were gone. The bird was affectionately known as "Bird" during his/her whole stay. Sam would ask and sign for him all the time. We would let him fly around the room and let Sam chase him. Six weeks turned into 10 weeks and now Bird is gone. Sam still asks for "Birrrr" with the sign (he never says it without signing). I guess we will have to go next door to visit out little temporary pet.
I can't say enough about my friend, Melanie. She has truly been a godsend. Not only do we have a lot in common, enjoy spending time together, and our kiddos are best friends, but she is also a talented photographer. Here are some of the photos she took of Sammers in the fall leaves.
Our babysitter got married and was going to be out of town. My mom didn't even hesitate when we asked her to come and help out for 2 weeks. Sam calls her "mama". He couldn't get enough of her chasing him and then hiding behind the counter or in the bathroom. She has so much more energy than I have. We had so much fun together. We spent a day at a pumpkin farm with Rivers and Melanie.
We had a perfect trip to the zoo. Sam was squealing about how
close he could get to all of the animals !
We skyped with Mom after she left. She and Sam had all of the same inside jokes and he still loved showing off for her and PopPop. Eventhough my Mom and Dad live so far away, they have basically been able to see him every 6 weeks or so of his life. He knows them and loves them so. He is so lucky.
We had the Matthews over for Thanksgiving dinner. I finally hosted Thanksgiving and it actually turned out pretty great. The weather was in the 60's so we started with a hike and then we were able to enjoy our meal while the boys napped. Everything turned out perfectly. We even followed my tradition and had a bonfire at the Matthews and sang Christmas Carols! I don't have any pictures of the day because I was too busy EATING!!
On a different day, we went to Santa's village with the boys. Sam would only ride the rides if Rivers went with him. Both boys cried when we introduced them to Santa. But we still had a wonderful time getting ready for the Christmas season!
