And we're THANKFUL

For so many things, but really thankful for the time we spent together as a family this past week--man it was full!

Stephen took the whole week off from school along with the kids and we got a TON of things off the "honey do" list and then on Tuesday we headed off to College Station for some McKneely family fun!

Wednesday was full of preparations for the FEAST. I got in a good run and am THANKFUL to my BIL Andy who I know ran slower than normal so that I didn't have to run alone. And while Grandma took my niece and Kaitlyn (who are 6 weeks apart) to go shopping for a little 8 year old girl in the foster system, Andy and I took this crew to the park to play.....then after awhile the rest of the gang joined us......


On the day of FEASTING, all the McKneelys joined in the festivities plus a few extra. When Stephen was in high school he went to Russia as a foreign exchange student. The student he exchanged with is a guy named Ilya. He considers the McKneelys his "other" family and since he now lives in South Carolina and works for GE whenever there is an American holiday he finds his way back to College Station to spend it with us. He's now married and has a baby, and we've never met his family, so we were excited to meet them all! They were lovely and Matthew really got a kick out of having a little friend to run around with.

The eating was awesome of course and took the hands of everyone--we enjoyed all of it for sure!

We gathered (and had to drag some, ahem) the family for a group photo.....We watched the Cowboys pull off a late game win, and watched the possible final Aggie & Longhorn rival game which we lost in the final moments.

on Friday we enjoyed a family soccer game, a little shopping, and then took the whole group of us (all 16) went to see a matinee of 'The Muppets" a silly family friendly movie that made our kids laugh. They had no prior knowledge of Kermit, or Miss Piggy, or Gonzo (who Sam later identified as the guy whose nose looked like a cheese puff that had been painted blue), but they loved the whole movie experience. And then we went to dinner at Raising Caines--YUM!!

But most of all we enjoyed being together, GOBBLE, GOBBLE--