For Thanksgiving this year, Jacob's Mom and two youngest sisters drove from Idaho to surprise him.  I knew they were coming so I was able to plan, but it was hard keeping it a secret from him.  It was worth it though to see his face when they showed up!  He kept hugging them and saying how happy he was that they were here. 

Jacob's cousin Lauryn and her husband Josh also came from San Antonio for a few days.  We were so glad they did! 

We had fun playing ping pong and pool. 

Of course we did some shopping.  This was in Old Town Spring. 

ShayNiel, Angela, & Cryshel

had to get one with all of us

We stopped by the temple so they could see it. 

I remember a time when these sisters did not get along so well; now they're best friends. :)

I had lots of help in the kitchen preparing the big dinner. 

Jacob and ShayNiel were on turkey duty.   

Relieved to have everything ready!

Finally eating and thankful to have so much food. :)

Later for dessert we enjoyed Lauryn's delicious apple pie.  (Thanks for bringing it!)

We were so happy to have family here to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Now we have wonderful memories of Thanksgiving in our first home.  Hopefully there will be many more to come.  I am especially thankful for my wonderful husband.  We're coming up on eight years of marriage; it's hard to believe! 

We are enjoying the holiday season and looking forward to spending Christmas with my family in Tennessee this year. 

Two weeks ago Jacob ran his first half marathon in Galveston.  He had trained some, but not as much as he could have b/c he was sick the last few weeks leading up to the race.  Our friend Haley ran it too so we drove down with her family.  Here they are getting ready to start.  They had to put their bib numbers with the timing chip in their pocket because there were no more safety pins when they registered, which is why Jacob is not wearing his in any of the pictures. 

We waited at the 9 mile marker to cheer them on.  (Jacob's giving Caleb a high-five.)  We barely got there in time to see Haley. 

Finally finished and relieved that it's over!  He ran it in about 2 1/2 hours.  Haley finished in just under 2 hours.  She's getting ready to run a marathon in January. 

Jacob says he's never running a half marathon again.  He was exhausted and sore for the next few days.  But I was so proud of him for doing it.  I still struggle with running just a few miles.  So I think both Jacob and Haley are amazing for running that far.  We grabbed some of the free food on our way out including cookies, candy, drinks, and pizza.  Gotta make that registration fee worth it!   

We went camping with our friends at the end of October.  It was my first time to camp in Texas.  Jacob went several times with the boy scouts last year.  After setting up our tents, we ate tin-foil dinners and s'mores and sat around the fire and stayed up late talking.  That night it got down to 35 degrees!  I stayed fairly warm in the sleeping bag, but still woke up frequently b/c of being on the hard ground.  I was glad to get up in the morning.  We had a yummy breakfast and drank hot chocolate and sat close to the fire to warm up.  Later we saw some baby alligators and played games.  After lunch we packed up and headed home.  It was a quick trip, but we had a great time.

Our little tent

Peter & Lauren

Carter, Matt, Haley, and Caleb

We camped next to a lake.

the guys

playing ladder golf- Jacob won :)

the girls

trying to get both of us in the same shot

out on the lake

Afterwards we were famished and hot so we stopped to eat some frozen yogurt at Red Mango.  It was delicious.  (Similar to Orange Leaf for those who've been there.)  I'm sure you are all impressed with our eating choices so far, but we did eat better the rest of the day.  And I did have raspberries with my yogurt.  :)

Here's Jana lookin' all cute eating her yogurt.  My picture did not look so cute; that's why I didn't post it. :)

About halfway through kayaking, we realized that we forgot to put sunscreen on (except I had some on my face from my moisturizer).  When we got home we noticed just how bad our sunburns were.  These pictures don't even show how red we were.  I had trouble sleeping the first few nights, my legs were bright red for a whole week, and then I was peeling skin off for another week after that.   

Ouch!

While Jana was here we also made these canvases.  You can find the tutorial here.  It wasn't that hard to put them together. 

We also made the fabric flowers to put on one of the canvases.  Here's the tutorial.  Jana had made them before and we also made a bunch to attach to bobby pins to wear in our hair.  So cute! 

What do you think? 

One day we treated ourselves to pedicures.  Believe me, our feet definitely needed it after spending the summer wearing flip flops practically every day. 

We ate lunch at a fun restaurant in Old Town Spring.  The fried pickles and fried green tomatoes were so heavenly!  I'm not so sure the stomachache I got later was worth it though. :)

More to come!