Thanksgiving

This year, we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving. My sister was hosting her in-laws, my brother was hosting his in-laws, so we hosted the Duesterhaus family (and the Sober-Reiss family since Hany and Grant were in Chicago this year as well). We had a fun-filled few days with lots of amazing food, drinks and company! I was a little under the weather (bad cold, no voice, really sucked!), so I don't have a ton of pictures.

Matt stocked up before the holiday! Don't worry - this was not all for Thanksgiving!

Morgan loves to help Mama cook

Matt spatchcocked a turkey in the Big Green Egg - it tasted amazing!

Table ready for lunch

Thanks to my mom for the pilgrims!

(Side note: We gave Avery the job of making the name cards for the table. Papa and I helped her by writing most of the names. We told her to "put stickers on them" and decorate them. Before we realized what she was doing, she had put the stickers on them so that they were "closed". So, we ended up just laying them on the plates instead of setting them upright. Guess we need to be a little more specific!)

We had tons of yummy food!

 The day after Thanksgiving, we met up with the Wilken crew for a little bowling. All the kids had a fun time. :)

Then that night, after we were "turkeyed" out, we went to Morgan and Avery's favorite restaurant - Steak-n-Shake, of course.

Always the jokester 

On Saturday, Matt made a brisket in the Green Egg and we had everyone over for more food and fun. The girls love playing with Sabrina (Keely and Brian's little girl). There was a lot of dress up going on in the basement!

Avery, Sabrina and Morgan

All the kids playing with playdoh

Morgan LOVES Natasha!

Not sure how much Natasha loves her! Ha!

Painting and drinking

Erin and I went to a board painting party at Emmett's (a local bar) a few weeks ago. We both picked something Christmas-y to paint. We had done those canvas painting/drinking parties before, so expected it to be like that. This was actually a lot more work! They just give you a piece of wood and instructions. You have to chalk up a piece of paper and then trace over a printout of your design to basically stencil it onto the wood in chalk. Then you paint what you've stenciled on. Afterwards, you wipe off your board with a wipe to remove all the chalk. By the end of the night (and yes, this took the entire 3 hours to finish!), we were sweaty and tired. They didn't turn out exactly as great as we hoped. In fact, Erin thought hers was all dry and started to wipe off the extra chalk and got a big paint streak on her board. :( 

We had chalk all over us after this!

Erin working diligently on her board

My finished painted board - still needs a little sparkle

Thanksgiving at the girls' school

The girls' school had a Thanksgiving luncheon and a cute little show a week before Thanksgiving. The girls had been practicing their songs for a few weeks. They were really excited to have a surprise guest - Papa! He was up in the Chicago area and stopped in to see the show and have some turkey.

Here is a video of the girls' class singing one of their songs and another video of Avery singing it for me later so you can maybe actually hear the words. :)

Happy Anniversary to us!

Matt and I took our annual anniversary trip this year to Las Vegas and had a great place to stay thanks to Matt's mom (and her timeshare). We were a block off the strip near the Lync (and that big ferris wheel). The weather was awesome! We ate and drank a ton! And gambled a little. ;) I fit in a trip to a nearby spa for a massage while Matt gambled. We saw "O" at the Bellagio. Such a fun time celebrating!

Cheers to us!

In our hotel room, which was decked out with this fancy chandelier

Photo bomb!

We had to stop by the M&M store for the girls 

Hung out with the blue M&M

Margaritas!

We had dinner on our anniversary at Delmonico Steakhouse - so awesome!

They even brought us a special dessert!

The ferris wheel lit up on Election Day - red, white and blue

Watching the election results as they unfold - this was actually crazy to watch the reporting on the different networks

While we were enjoying the great weather, gambling and amazing food in Vegas, the girls were having a blast with Mama and Papa and their cousins!

Avery got to go to her favorite restaurant

S'mores with uncle Ross

Celebrating a great roll!

These three love to bowl!

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday with a party at the Wilkens' house. The girls had fun playing with their cousins and Kayla and Sabrina. They especially loved all the glow necklaces and wands that Uncle Brett brought! This year Morgan wanted to be Spider Girl and Avery wanted to be a purple princess.

Trick or treating at the Wilkens'

Grayson, Papa and Beckett

Family Halloween pic (Morgan is pouting)

 On Halloween, the girls had a party at school with some trick or treating. Erin and I volunteered to hand out candy to the kiddos. The costumes were so cute! The girls thought it was so fun that their mommy was handing out candy. :)

Beckett and Hunter

Trick or treat

My purple princess (minus the broken tiara)

Spider Girl and the Purple Princess

Getting candy from Aunt Erin

We took the girls trick or treating in our neighborhood to a few houses. It was their first time really trick or treating outside. Morgan was hilarious! She kept looking in people's houses and making comments. I had to tell her to stop! She wanted to go to every house! We came home and waited for trick or treaters at our house. We didn't have many after we got back since it was already getting dark. I think two separate groups came and the girls went ballistic! I think they had as much fun handing candy out as they did getting candy from other people's houses!

Trick or treating at our house!

Once we got home, the girls were ready for trick or treaters... but we didn't get too many. They stood by the door and watched for people to come. And by watched, I mean screamed at the top of their lungs at the front windows to conjure up some trick-or-treaters.