Thanksgiving 2013

Yep. It's February. BUT, I wanted to be sure and get this posted. Last Thanksgiving, Cora and I made a Thanksgiving banner where we wrote one thing she was thankful for on a paper leaf every day leading up to Thanksgiving. For the record, I did not coax her to say anything. The only thing I did was try to get her to think of something different everyday. It was a lot of fun and I hope to do it next year with her and Micah! Without further ado, Cora is thankful for:

1) Valentine's Day
2) Christmas
3) Mickey Mouse
4) Halloween
5) My Family
6) Spending the night
7) Moe Moe to play with me
8) Playing chase with Daddy
9) Getting to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa
10) My new friend, Puff
11) Everything I see outside
12) Playing run around with Micah
13) Moe Moe pretending my hair is yarn
14) Mommy and Daddy carving my pumpkin
15) That Jesus heals everybody
16) For God to take care of us
17) Jesus' power and love
18) To play Octonauts with Mommy
19) For Nana and Papaw to bring Mickey & Minnie
20) Mommy and Daddy to give me hugs
21) For going to the park
22) For playing outside
23) Going to the hospital to see the baby (referring to Evan Cody)
24) Kisses from Mommy & Daddy
25) Pictures of Mommy & Daddy (as kids)
26) Watching shows
27) To get treats for Halloween
28) God to make the whole world

A picture of our banner

And more pics from November

Cora and Micah helped me make turkey cupcakes

Getting ready for Micah's first haircut!

Big boy!

Getting ready to cut the curls off the back. :(

Looking like a big boy!

Just hanging out watching some television

A typical Micah mess - two boxes of gloves emptied

Silly kids

Welcome Evan Bryce Cody! Cutie pie.

This boy loves shoes as much as his momma

Rolling snickerdoodles in cinnamon/sugar

It's a messy job!

Baby girl getting big

Adia's first Thanksgiving, hanging out with her great-grandfather (aka Big Papaw)

Aunt Mandy and Adia

Hanging out with Daddy, looking adorable in her turkey sleeper

Cora Leigh's 4th Birthday - Octonauts!

Cora Leigh celebrated her 4th birthday on September 16th. We had a really fun time planning her party this year. She told me she wanted an Octonauts party...then My Little Pony...then Care Bears...then Octonauts...then The Lion King... It seemed that Octonauts was mentioned more than anything else, so that's what I decided on, and then tried my best to keep her on board. :)

One challenging thing about throwing an Octonauts party - there aren't any Octonauts party supplies available in the US! I could have ordered them from England or Australia and paid big bucks to have them shipped over, but I thought it would be more fun to see what we could do on our own. One advantage to having a new baby - I had lots of time in the middle of the night to look for ideas on the internet and Pinterest. One disadvantage to having a new baby and a 16-17 month old, it is hard to find time to execute those ideas! I tried to do as much as I could a little at a time, but I was still left with a lot to do at the last minute and am very grateful for the help of our families in helping Cora Leigh have a great birthday party!

Mom and I made Cora's cake. We used a combination of traditional vanilla icing and marshmallow fondant. The Octonaut characters doubled as decorations and gifts for the birthday girl.

Back of the cake. I got the inspiration for this cake from the internet, which I also pinned on Pinterest.

I ordered the "Life is a Beach" Cricut cartridge and made a lot of sea creatures for decorations. Cora enjoyed helping!

Birthday balloons were aqua and orange to match the Octonaut theme.

I am so thankful I found the Octonauts logo for the hats online. I free handed the hats and cut them out so we could all be Octonauts. Made for some fun pictures!

Again, I found the graphic of the Octonauts online. I pasted it into Word, added the text and circle, then cut out shapes on my Cricut. I was really please with how it turned out!

Again, thanks to the Cricut for the perfect crab legs. Cora Leigh really enjoyed helping me glue on the arms and draw eyes.

One of my favorites! These were shortbread cookies filled with pink icing and a yogurt covered raisin, then topped with black icing eyes to make them look like clams. So easy, tasty, and cute!

Cora, Jeremy, and I also used some old toilet paper rolls to make octopuses. She loved helping paint them!

This little guy invaded our veggie dip.

Nana made some blue punch - so tasty!!

The birthday girl in her shirt that I ordered off Etsy.

Octonauts Papaw and Nana

Daddy Octonaut

Aunt Mandy Octonaut with Micah...whose hat did not stay on.

Octonauts Grandma, Grandpa, and Big Papaw

The birthday girl coloring Octonauts pictures with cousin Hayden and her good friend, Ema

Miss Kirby looking good in her Octonaut hat, enjoying some time with baby Adia. Big Papaw was having a good time, and I'm pretty sure Sam was trying to escape from the camera. :)

Boys

I love this picture of Aunt Mandy and Cora Leigh!

Back to the food - starfish chicken salad sandwiches and squid dogs

Bunless squid dogs. They looked really squid-like. That was one of Cora Leigh's favorite things about her birthday party!

More sea creature decorations

The girls (Ema, Jillian, Hayden, and Cora) had craft time in the garage - painting jellyfish - bowls for the bodies and ribbon for the tentacles

Probably Cora Leigh's favorite gift - the OCTOPOD!!!

She was also excited about her cash. :)

Cora Leigh seeing her surprise from Mommy and Daddy - what we thought would be her favorite gift...

I suppose a bicycle just cannot compare to the Octopod - she does love it though, and she has really gotten the hang of it over the last month!

Birthday cake time

Playing with her new toys while wearing her bicycle helmet.

Overall, we had a WONDERFUL day! I am so thankful to many folks for coming to celebrate with us - Grandpa, Grandma, Nana, Papaw, Aunt Mandy, Uncle Bryan, Aunt Amye, Hayden, Harrison, Aunt Joy, Auntie A, Big Papaw, Brooke, Jillian, Hunter, Ema, Kirby, Ryan, and Sam. We are blessed. Happy 4th birthday, Cora Leigh!!