Thanksgiving

This is actually the first year in many many years that I've had 2 Thanksgivings. I usually end up working and then just stay at home to celebrate with my in-law family. Well, now that Abbykins is in our family, I think I will always make an effort to celebrate this holiday with both families, though it does involve quite a bit of traveling! But, the awesome thing this year is that we celebrated with my family Saturday and Jay's family Monday afternoon so we weren't rushed at all which is always a huge stress relief for me!

So it was great to see Ben, Jess, & Abby at my Mom's house. My Uncle Steve was there for the day and we went to visit Grandma on Sunday. She's doing really well and her personality hasn't changed a bit since she had her stroke.

It was busy, busy, busy at my in-laws on Monday. It always is, and it always will be. The whole family was there. That's 10 adults and 9 kids under 7!

But the bird was great, all us kids always bring a dish to contribute to the meal to help out so it makes the load a lot less (I hope!). Here's a pic of Grandma teaching the girls how to make gravy and Uncle Jay whispering in their ears "Ask Grandma if she's sure she knows what she's doing!"

The kids all got along great, and for the first time ever Braden actually played with his twin cousins. For some reason Braden just always seems to avoid them, but maybe now that they're 22 months and getting older he likes them more? Not that he ever didn't like them, he just always avoided them!

 It's really nice that the Uncles/Daddies of the family can take over playing with the kids while the gals tidy up. Some of the guys help clean up, but mostly if the kids are taken care of...that's all I care about!

Grandma turns 60 on October 17 but has a busy busy week that week so we celebrated early. Here's Grandma with all her grandbabies except for Blake because he was having a good snooze...and we all know better than to wake a sleeping baby!

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again...Braden is so blessed to have ALL of his cousins live so close to him and be so close in age! Luke is 19 months older, Chaz & Nolan are about 10 months younger and he's a bit over 2 years older than Abby.

So? What am I thankful for this year? So many things...too many things that I don't deserve and that I know I can't possibly write them all down. But it looks a bit like this:

• My freedom, both that Jesus gave me and that I have as a Canadian
• My health and my family's health
• My beautiful home with an almost 1/2 finished basement now
• The anticipation of changing our life and family forever in a mere 4 weeks or so!
• My family. My side has been through some really tough times with my Dad over the last year and we have all stuck together and it has brought us closer together, and for that I am SO thankful. I'm also thankful that my in-law family has been so supportive, loving, and caring to me through all of this and that Braden has such an amazing bond with his Papa and has strong male role models in his life.

Only 2 days left to vote so please help a girl out! :)

Harvest is Almost Done

I worried about how I was going to get through harvest well into the 3rd trimester as a "single" mom. With Jay out in the field for 14+ hours every day for 4 weeks and counting, I look back and wondered why I worried. Braden has been better than good, and I'll write more on that later... BUT, for right now...I'm ready for harvest to be DONE. So are the guys. 34 weeks pregnant today, about 4+ weeks of being a "single mom"...yup my harvest tolerance has been maxed! But, when you look at these pics, you'll see why I really do love harvest so much!

We headed out to see the harvest crew at the Rosebud land, which is about 20 minutes away from the farm site, last Sunday when we got back from the wedding. I missed my boy like crazy, I think more than usual because he's at an age where he is keenly aware of all that is going on around him, and missed us and knew where we were and that we were gone.

This is his "cheese" face!

Since it was a gorgeous fall evening, I decided to dress my boy up in his finest harvest duds and do our annual harvest photo shoot. Uncle Craig even said to me "did you have to dress him exactly like me?" But I think he was very flattered! Funny he said that, because I did tell Braden he was going to wear his "Uncle Craig shirt"!

I still love all of my free Pioneer Woman action sets and playing around with them! The effect on the above photo is called Sunshine and below are Vintage, Sepia, & Soft Faded. Also...how adorable is his cowboy hat? So glad Jay bought that for him when we went to the Calgary Stampede this summer! Braden calls it his "Hoody hat" as in Woody, from Toy Story!

This is his "BIG CHEESE!" face!

And, if it's not evident the bond between these two in this photo...I don't know what is! Braden missed riding the combine with his Papa and his Papa missed him just as much!

Best pic I've ever gotten of these 3!

Braden loves everything about harvest. Being with his family, going for combine and truck rides. I'm just so thrilled that he is just so passionate about all things farming, he's just in head first!

Just check out these beautiful harvest skies! This was our last wheat field and the guys are just finishing up the last fields of canola now. We can see the light at the end of the harvest tunnel!

This one I call "The Tweeting Farmer"

Then it was time for a harvest take-out supper in the field. I love these moments and capturing the memories for years to come. Note, this is the FIRST picture of me ever at harvest time. I noted that when James was putting together the movie for our farm, there wasn't a single.picture.of.me in the last 7 years! It's because I'm always the one taking the pictures! So, for the next harvest movie...there can be a picture of me at 33 weeks pregnant with Squishy!

Braden's First Harvest

So after our first SNOWFALL of this "winter" we got rolling again with harvest again yesterday. This is a picture I took on Friday on our way into Strathmore when we were supposed to be going to the pumpkin patch, but clearly it got cancelled...

So luckily the canola was dry enough to combine yesterday and I finally got Braden out for his first combine ride with Jay.

He was absolutely fascinated with the combine...everything about it! He'd look forward and see the canola swaths being fed into the combine, he reeeeeeally wanted the controller (to him it was just a big remote control), he tried to eat the steering wheel, he'd look outside and watch the tires go around, he'd see the speakers from the stereo and stare at those, see the shadows outside - so much fun!

On the go...

And the big bad shih tzu Teebo was barking at Jay driving the combine:

And it was also Brenda/Grandma's birthday yesterday! So happy birthday to you! The whole family got together and had a wonderful supper that she made. Here she is with all the grandkids, except for Trinity, because she was napping!