Thanksgiving on the Farm

 Thanksgiving was at my parents this year.  Not only was it just the Gillis Family, it was my Dad's brother and all of their kids!  It was a fun, crazy holiday that you would expect with tons of people!  We had so much fun!  One day we went to our Family Friends home, The Bailey's.  They live on a farm...we thought it would be a blast to let the kids run around!  

 They started off by feeding the cows bread.  They all got to experience a cow's really long, sandpaper tongue!  Ewww!!!

 They loved it!

 Connor was mezmorized by the whole thing, then he wanted to try:)

 Then the kiddos decided to play fetch with the dogs...they had so much fun and burned off tons of energy:)

 Connor found the dogs...and just stayed by them the whole time!  He just wanted to lay with them and pet them all day long!

 This is Diane and Megan...

 We ate Hot Dogs and then roasted marshmallows...This is Aunt Katie helping Noah out.

 After we ate...it was on to explore the farm...there is tons to see!  Jennie and I got to sport these awesome boots...I really want some!

 This was definitely a highlight...Miss Piggy...the BIGGEST, FATEST pig you have EVER seen!

 Brent, Noah and Caden...about to ride the row boat.

 This was so much fun!  I have never been on a row boat before;)

 After the row boat...the kiddos were off climbing the massive tree...to get to the tree house!  I'm telling you...the farm has everything any kid could imagine!!

 Taylor and Caden made it up there!

This is Caden...realizing he has to climb down!!  Hahaha!!!  We had so much fun there!

Thanksgiving 2010

 Thanksgiving this year was so much fun!  There was definitely a house full!  All my brothers were there, with kiddos.  Then my Dad's brother, Uncle Matt, and all of his family came as well...so all my cousins were there.  It was so much fun!

 You know your in Texas when you get to go swimming in November...the kids loved that!

 Jennie hard at work with the mashed potatoes.

 Connor entertaining the older kids...and messing up all the table settings...

 Finally getting to eat!  The best part!!

 The dessert table I put together...

 There was tons of pie, and since I'm all about mini desserts...there were plenty of those also.

 Pumpkin Gingerbread shots, Pumpkin blondies, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving 2008

Sorry for the late post! I'm about what...2 weeks late?? Oh well...pretend that Thanksgiving was yesterday for me...k? Anyway, the guys started off the day with a little Turkey Bowl while the women folk were cooking up a storm and slicing fingers (that would be me...only so I could get out of peeling a million potatoes, sorry Whitney:) I am proud to say that my hubby's team won and he even made a touchdown...way to go babe:)
Thanks to Jennie, here are some collages of the great events of our Turkey Day...My parents hosted this year and there were alot of people! My family, Eric and Katie, Curt and Whitney, Jennie (my cousin) and Phil, Matt (my Dad's brother) and Dottie, Austin (cousin) and Meagan, Garrett and of course all the kids...it was fun:)


Here are the table arrangements. We stuck the kids by themselves in the foyer. I am already missing the turkey! So good!!Here is all the food...my favorite: the rolls, strawberry pretzel jell-o, and mashed potatoes. YUM-0! Later that night everyone went swimming and sat in the hot tub and let our tummies digest all the yumminess:)
The next day the girls and guys split up to do some shopping. The guys do the usual Best Buy, Frys etc...The girls did the Target and Kohls thing. Is it just me or were there not very good deals out this year? It seems like I can finish my C-mas shopping no problem on Black Friday...lets just say I am still no where near being done! AHHH!! Later that day we made a cute Advent Calendar and then went to Twilight...and yes I loved it! I went into it thinking I would hate it, which helped I think. I just hope that on the next one they don't put so much makeup on Carlile!

Later that night Caden and Taylor watched Wall-E and then made their own little masterpiece. How cute is their Wall-E?? They stayed up sooo late just coloring and creating...at around 10:30 we went to check on them and Caden looked like a walking zombie and had marker all over himself...pretty funny.
Poor Noah just gave up and fell asleep on Mimi and Popies bed. He was all tuckered out!

Turkey Cookies

For those of you who have Thanksgiving Parties at school...these might be something fun to try! I got the idea from Puppy Cove...they are so easy! They would be fun for the kids on Thanksgiving Day...at least my kids were really excited about them! Whats nice is you can make them as easy or as difficult as you want.
You can:
make your own sugar cookie....................or get the refrigerated sugar cookie dough
make your own frosting (chocolate and vanilla).........or get the canned kind
use a pastry bag to pipe everything....................or use a ziplock baggie (I would use the pastry bag)
So, I was really excited to make these little guys for Noah's Preschool class (they were having a Thanksgiving Feast)...I made them on Wednesday so they would be ready today. Too bad that all Wednesday night he woke up every 30 minutes throwing up...everywhere!! I have had to do so much laundry today and disinfecting its not even funny. I wish 3 year olds could grasp the "if you have to throw up, throw up in the bowl next to you...not all over yourself, or all over my carpet, or all over your bed/blankets"...it would have saved alot of clean-up. I'm just grateful my sweet husband did the clean up while I dealt with the sick boy. It always makes me sad to see my kids sick. With all that being said...he did not get to go to his Thanksgiving Feast today. I took the cookies in anyway, I just wish he could have been there for it. It sounded like it was so cute!

Now that you have lost your appetite...here is the recipe:)

Turkey Cookies

1 (18 oz) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8 oz) bag candy corn
1 (8 oz) bag miniature M&M chocolate candies
2 oz decorating gel (I used chocolate icing and made the eyes dots with toothpicks)
1 (6.5 oz) can decorating icing (chocolate and vanilla)


Cut and bake the sugar cookies as directed on the package. Cool. With the can of frosting, put some in pastry bag and pipe a line on the top of the cookie that covers about 1/4 of the cookie arc. Place 5-6 candy corn along the frosting row to make the turkey feathers. Next, put icing on the back of the M&M's and put into place. Then using a toothpick (or decorating gel), dab some frosting in the middle of the M&M's. With the vanilla frosting, (tinted orange) make a "V" for the beak - and then an upside-down "Y" for the feet.

P.S...Due to lack of time, I cheated and used the refrigerated cookie dough and the canned frosting. I am so ashamed:( It is against everything I believe in...PHEW, I feel better getting that off my chest.