Our Family Thanksgiving, 2015

Leaves, matching shirts, beautiful weather, LOTS of wonderful food, and family...yep, that sums our family Thanksgiving. 

We had lots of fun traveling to Nashville to spend Thanksgiving with Jesse's family. 

The boys did great on the car ride, had fun playing with their cousins (first, second, once removed...whatever), and slept like champs despite all the chaos. All around great trip! 

Our best attempt at a family photo.

So much fun in the leaves!

 

Henry's first Thanksgiving!

"Grrr, I'm going to crush these leaves"

Brother photos may be my new favorite thing. They are so awkward and so sweet.

 

Going in for a kiss! 

Play time at the park with the adults and kids.

All those cousins (first, second, once removed...whatever).

 

The second day we went to Jesse's grandparents farm and spent the day with family. Emerson had the time of his life riding on the back of a pick up truck through the pasture and climbing up into BIG tractors. Wish I would have taken more of this day, but somehow only found ONE picture (which I stole from my MILs Facebook page. Thanks, Kim).

Emerson was in heaven riding on the back of the truck. He was especially tickled when he saw a cow poop. *sorry for the gross image

So many blessings this Thanksgiving. Hope you all were able to count yours.

Our Week in Tennessee

Wow, I am behind in blogging! But in all fairness, we have been very busy traveling over the past few weeks.


Emerson and I braved traveling alone all the way to Knoxville, TN. We flew by ourselves for the first time and it was...sometimes challenging, but overall not too bad. On our flight there, he was actually quite the funny boy and loved playing peek-a-boo with all the passengers around us. The way back was a different story : )

We got to do lots of fun things while we were there visiting the grandparents including going to Dollywood, eating with the great-grandparents at a food truck, lots of playing with new things (including the dog and cat), trying new foods, and celebrating Emerson's Aunt Molly and baby Martin at a baby shower.

Lunch time at the airport.

Thank goodness I brought his tractor to play with to kill time waiting on our flights.

Visiting with the great-grandparents.

Emerson loved the dog, Chloe! He was glad she could go on our walks.

Eating an orange for the first time. He bit right through skin to get to the good stuff.

With Gramma on a carousel for the first time...he really liked it!

Lots of fun at Dollywood. Such a pretty park.

Playing ball with Pops.

Time to shower this pretty momma-to-be.

At the shower with both great-grandma's. He was very well behaved as long as he was eating.

That was just a glimpse of our fun week. Grandparent (and great-grandparent) time is so very special.

Thanksgiving 2013

I have very exciting news to share! But I am not going to tell you until the end of this post, so keep reading. (Or if you are lazy, then just skip to the end, but you will miss out on some good stuff : )

Anyway...

Emerson got to spend his first Thanksgiving in Tennessee. There were clear skies, cold temperatures, lots of family and of course great food! Emerson couldn't really take part in the food, but oh well, something for him to look forward to next year.

We drove, yes DROVE 13 hours to Nashville to visit Jesse's family to spend Thanksgiving week with them. The drive up was not too bad. It seemed to take forever, but all-in-all I think Emerson did great. Anytime I caught myself complaining, I just remembered how much money we were saving by not flying : )

Get ready for family picture overload!

Emerson and Pops.

 

 

Emerson does not like what this fox has to say. Don't worry, it's a fake one.

 

Turkey bottoms are too cute.

Family photo!

 



Turkey bib that Aunt Molly gave Emerson. Is it weird that I think Emerson and the face of the turkey on the bib look alike?

On our walk to the old red barn. It was a beautiful day.

Emerson could barely move his little arms in his puffy coat.

 

 Opryland Hotel Christmas lights.

OK, ready for my news? Emerson is going to get a new cousin! Two actually (not twins). My SIL, Molly announced over Thanksgiving that they are pregnant (due in July) and my brother and his wife are expecting another sweet boy in March. Two separate sides of the family are adding to their numbers and I am so excited for my SILs and for Emerson to gain cousins that are going to be close in age. The holidays will be even more fun next year! Congratulations to Molly and Jonathan Martin and Trace and Sarah Kirkpatrick!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now I guess I better get crackin' on that Christmas shopping...

Emerson's First Trip to Tennessee

We recently made a trip to Tennessee to visit Jesse's family. This was Emerson's first visit to Gramma and Pops house. This was also the first time Emerson got to meet Uncle Evan. And sadly I didn't capture a very good picture of them, but I think the one below is pretty funny  : )

Just love both their faces, as if they were saying  "what do I do with this guy?".

Friday night was the only night the whole McKee family was able to be together so we snuck in a quick family picture.

Get ready for tons of other photos...

Playing a classic, croquet.

Wearing orange for the TN game.

Meeting new friends!

Jesse's best friend from high school, Michael, his fiancé and his family. Emerson was quite the charmer.

Emerson, Jesse and Michael.

 

These three headed to the TN vs. Georgia game. A great game, but we all had wished for a different outcome.

 

Story time with Gramma before bed.

Hanging with Aunt Molly.

 

Goodbye hugs.

 

Jesse and I headed back to Nashville to catch our flight, but first we made a stop at the greats house.

Emerson got to meet his great-granddaddy and great-grandmomma for the first time. He loved spending time with them.

But we ran into a nap time issue and he had enough of being charming :)

What a great trip! Can't wait until the next one.