As usual, my parents made the annual trek south to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We were all especially grateful and thankful for the warmth and love of family we were able to experience this year having everyone together. Josh, Shelly, and Logan joined us so my little brother and his family, my family, and my parents celebrated together!
Here is Grandma with a bribe toy--an Elmo jack-in-the-box. Lauren (and Logan, too!) loved it!
Lauren had to check it out a little more closely.
That night, Lauren spotted a box that had been sitting in the living room for a day or two. She thought it would be fun to jump into because it had foam peanuts. "I jump, Mommy!" she exclaimed and laughed.
Lauren wasn't too sure about the grandparents in July when they visited, as well as in August when we were home. Lauren remembered and loved them from the word go!
She even tolerated Papa's kisses!
Our family (in my living room) eating Thanksgiving dinner. At least we carved our turkey!!
We went out to dinner with Shelly's dad the day after Thanksgiving since he was unable to join us for dinner. We met his new girlfriend, Hope, who thought Lauren was adorable. Shelly helped Lauren fix her hairbow, but Josh wouldn't let me get a good picture of them all.
After dinner, Lauren asked Papa to read her a book.
On Saturday, Logan came over and wanted to play Guitar Hero. Lauren, loving Logan, wanted to play, too, but she messed up the game, so we gave her an empty guitar to play along.
She really jammed!
We went to church on Sunday with Grandma. I made us breakfast with Lauren's help. She just wanted untoasted bread. She looked adorable in this dress which turned out to be a bit too short. However, she was too cute! This was the only picture I got of her dressed up.
Sunday night, we decorated the tree together. Logan found the Santa hats on the floor. We thought he was too funny, watching a movie with the hat on his head. We had to bribe him to let us take a picture of him wearing the hat.
We decorated most of the tree while Lauren was asleep. I pulled out some of the more special, non-breakable ornaments for Lauren to help decorate. She did a GREAT job! She had a lot of fun. Her favorites were the ones with Mickey Mouse that used to be mine.
Because Josh, Shelly, and Logan will not be traveling north for Christmas, my parents celebrated Christmas with them early. Logan received a Nerf gun with a huge chamber. What resulted was a full-out Nerf war with Lauren being as bit as a participant as Logan! Shelly would load the Nerf gun and Lauren would shoot the trigger. The funniest part--Lauren shot the gun which hit Paul's glasses and stuck! We had just watched "A Christmas Story" with little Ralphie and his Red Rider gun. Of course I had to say, "She shot your eye out, Kid!!"
Before bedtime, we had to get a picture of Lauren with her Grandparents Bernosky. "Cheese!!"
