Thanksgiving at the Alger House

We traveled to Missouri to visit my parents for Thanksgiving this year.  The trip is definitely getting harder, and more expensive -- but SO worth it to see family and have our kids connect with their cousins.  We got to meet my brother, Andrew's, girlfriend and see his daughter which was great too.  Love every chance we get to be together!

The Kids Table

 The Adults

 We always have to fit in a night at our favorite pizza restaurant, Shakespeare's

 The guys all got tickets to see MU beat Texas A&M for the SEC East title! It was freezing, so most of the ladies went to The Book Thief. 

In the cousin gift exchange, Rex scored Poo-Dough.  He (and his Dad) had quite a few laughs over this disgusting toy!

One of the coolest things was that my Mom saved one last jug of apple cider from my Grandpa's orchard.  It is the best apple cider I've ever had!  We all had a little bit and had a chance to toast to my Grandpa's memory.

When my mom and her siblings were cleaning out my Grandpa's house, they found silver coins hidden in a large can of beans.  Each grandchild was given a silver coin to remember him.

Rex's School Pictures

The morning that Rex had his school pictures was a bit of a battle.  I had prepped him that I was going to be the one to choose his outfit that day and he was okay with it...until I tried to make him wear a shirt under his button up shirt! GASP! It was quite the ordeal, but I did win.  I also was persuasive enough to get him to join me outside for a mini photo shoot in case the school photographer didn't get anything.  Here they are:

The first one is my lock screen on my phone and it makes me smile every time I see it.  He's such a cutie.

Evelyn is a Doc Band Graduate!

A few weeks ago we traveled up to D.C. to have Evelyn's last doc band appointment.  They took her final measurements and she left with her hair in a clip instead of stuffed underneath her helmet! Hooray!

And here are the measurements that show where she was before (in blue) and after (in black).  So, there was some improvement although it isn't really that visible.

All in all, we're glad we did it.  We knew it would not be perfect due to how old she was, but I think we were secretly hoping for a miracle.  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough improvement for it to be very noticeable to the average person.  If we ever have a child with a flat head in the future, we won't wait until they are 15 months old to start! 

And that night I put Evelyn's helmet up in her closet so we kissed it goodbye!

 

I'm proud of Josh for convincing me to do this, I'm proud of myself for dealing with no bows for 4 very long months, and I'm proud of Evelyn for not skipping a beat when we got the helmet.  She was such a trooper!

Rex's 5th Birthday - TMNT Style

Rex requested a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed party this year.  It was totally awesome, DUDE!  Here are some pics from our fun morning!

This was the first year while choosing his "guest list" it only included boys.  He invited the cutest group of boys - they had so much fun!

Played a little pin-the-mask-on-the-turtle

Learned a few super cool ninja moves

Beat the pinata with a bat until candy came out!

And then we had pizza and cake. Ninja turtles usually love pizza, but these boys didn't eat much.  They just wanted to get to the cake!

Rex once again exclaimed that this was the best party ever and thanked Josh and I for planning it.  He's such a sweet boy - I can't believe he's 5!

Evelyn is 18 months!

Actually, that headline was supposed to go out a month ago...she'll be 19 months tomorrow!  She is adorable, funny, and has a mischievous twinkle in her eye.  Here are a couple pictures of her at 18 months (without her pink helmet).

And of course, her sweet, big brother...

And for those who don't already know...I started a little photography business. Here is the link to my website: http://emilygarnerphotography.blogspot.com/  where you can see more of little E at 18 months.

Missouri Trip

I debated whether it was even worth posting something that happened almost two months ago, but decided it was worth it...you know...for the sake of chronology.

Just a mere day after returning from Washington I took the kids (alone) to Missouri to see some of the Alger Family.  Two of my sisters were there with their kids, and of course, Grandma and Grandpa Alger.  The trip out there almost killed me (unforeseen layovers totaling 6 hrs), but seeing Rex play with his cousins made it all worth it.

LOTS OF POOL TIME

LOTS OF LAKE TIME

 

 

That video is Rex being catapulted into the air by my 17-year old nephew.  He loved it until he actually did lose his beloved, blue goggles. 

AND COUSIN TIME

 And just as we were leaving for the airport, Grandpa found a couple spare minutes to give Rex a tractor ride.

We had so much fun!  I'm relieved to know that I can travel alone with the kids!