Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful week. I didn't get many photos. I took my camera to family events, but didn't take a single photo. I was more enjoying family and delicious food and not so worried about documenting the event, I guess. I did take these of some pie making:

Maren enjoyed licking the beater after I made the filling of our French Silk pie. And who wouldn't? I really need to post the recipe, because it is SO good.

Here is a rundown of our week: Nick took Wednesday off. We went to see "Tangled" (super cute). In the afternoon we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with Nick's extended family.

Thursday morning we ran the Turkey Trot. It was COLD and I was tempted to stay in my warm bed, but we went and I was glad I did. It hurts to run on frozen toes, by the way. About three-fourths of the way through, I was pulling off my layers because I was overheating. It was great fun to actually run with Nick, as that never happens these days. Many thanks to Grandpa who stayed with the kids. That afternoon we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. All 40 of us that were there.

The rest of our weekend was spent shopping (not the crazy stay up all night kind), decorating our pretty new Christmas tree (goodbye sad-looking Charlie Brown tree, thanks for the many years of faithful service) and just plain spending family time together. It was so nice.

Oh, and my kids get up way too early in the morning. I got up with them all weekend long while Nick slept in. How rude is that? Well actually, I earned myself the honor. On Nov. 8, Nick and I started a little competition - whoever lost the most weight before Thanksgiving would get to sleep in while the other would get up with the kids. Kind of funny that it is extra sleep that motivates us. Well, guess who lost? The point of the exercise (no pun intended) was to lose weight, which we did - I lost 6 lbs., and Nick lost 6.7 (actually, if you go by percentages, I won, but that wasn't included in the fine print). I made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight! Hurray! I can't say that I am still there. No, the holiday was not kind and we'll be getting back into it starting today, but we are still a couple pounds ahead. We are thinking of starting another go before Christmas. What should our prize be this time? And you should all know that my Nicolas felt incredibly guilty and I had to 'force' him to stay in bed to claim his prize.

More cute photos:
Mr. E has learned to pull himself up and was feeling incredibly proud of himself:

He's started making this funky scrunched-face grin that makes me laugh:

Oh, my Maren. She's a silly girl. This photo was taken just a little bit before she got her first real haircut. I evened up all the scraggly ends. Keep an eye out for photos.