Oklahoma/Thanksgiving

In the middle of November, the boys and I traveled back to Oklahoma with Mama Luci and Papa D, after their visit at our house. We left Caleb here in Missouri for a week, to finish his big project of the winter, installing our new heater! Then he would fly to OK to join us after the job was done. It was a construction zone here with all of the tools, mess, saw dust, dirt, tractors in the yard, piping and tubes all over the house. So thank goodness we got the kids out of there! The trip to OK took us 10 hours (normally 6.5) due to various stops for the boys and just taking our time. Things to remember: Noah's diaper leaking on the Burger King slide.....all the way down...., Enoch insisting to the lady at the gas station that he was batman with his mask and gun, NOT the lone ranger, Enoch eating all of the KFC chicken, boys playing chase and climbing fence at rest stop.

We had so much fun once at their house too. They had a fenced in backyard for the boys to run around at their new rent house , a neighborhood with sidewalks for the bikes we brought, and an empty garage for them to play in too. I got to see Sissy, Kelsey, and my pregnant friend Lindsay. Right before Thanksgiving we had the neices and new nephew come for a few days, leaving the 1100 sq ft house to be taken over by 6 grandkids! They had so much fun playing with eachother though, and we got to meet baby Luke. Him and Josiah become immediate friends rolling over to eachother and holding hands. The 2 year old Noah and 1 year old Luci had trouble deciding with of the two babies was theirs.

We had a big get together with about 20 people to celebrate Nana's birthday. Surprised her with some long lost relatives, set up a BIG 7 person tent in the back for the kids to play in, roasted weenies and made smores and talked around the fire pit in the yard.

And of course we had to go ride the free train around the track at Dental Depot while we were there! We visited an old train museum (closed) but still walked the tracks and climbed on the old train car. And ML, PD and the boys rode train at the Christmas light viewing too. Can you guess the theme of toys for Christmas? Yes, trains. Cowboys and batman too!

Then the three ladies attempted a brave task...trying to get a picture of all 6 grandkids under the age of 3 (including too newborns) After breaking to nurse one baby...then the other...then deal with uncoroportive 2 year olds....or Noahs bloody nose (yes, on the WHITE shirts) we finally had to cut, crop and edit a finalized picture, out of about 600. But we got it and its ever so CUTE!

We celebrated Mama Lucis birthday as well, going out to eat and looking at the Christmas lights. Watched footloose with some friends another night. Went to a few parks with the boys and fed the swarming geese one of the days ML had off. Made cookies, played with the puppies at Brittanys, picked up Daddy from the airport and showed Enoch some planes, gathered and threw rocks in the creek on one of our walks, ran around yard with strap-on-head flashlights. Caleb and I got to go out (kid free) on a date-YAY!

For Thankgiving, Grumpy and Hilde joined the group of Matthew, Randi, Lexi, Luci, baby Luke. Caleb, me, Enoch, Noah, and Baby Josiah. Mama Luci, Papa D and Micah! Big group, big dinner, Big naps!

We went to Tulsa to go visit my family and to celebrate an early Christmas with them! The boys had so much fun playing with their Mimi, Papa and chase with Uncle Don! We usually celebrate Thankgiving with the Bender side, so missing it for the first time....ever.....was a little different! We missed everybody but were still able to see my parents and most of the Benders once home in Missouri. Shawn performed at a Christmas Musical at ORU that we were not able to see in person (3 kids would not sit still for long) but got to watch him perform on video once they came home.