Jesus and Ninjagos

What a combination right? This year for Thanksgiving, Mom decided to gather what we were all thankful for, type it up and bake it in a croissant....if you are what you eat, I guess that's a good thing. Seriously we didn't eat our paper (most of us) but we did read them from very young to very old. Imagine a fortune cookie...in place of the fortune, a thanks..in place of the cookie a croissant. As if this wasn't enough, there was indeed an extra twist...we had to guess who was thankful for what. If you know us, I bet you can guess who was thankful for Jesus and Ninjago...yes, our very own Parker Bullis. Tinley...a very thoughtful thanks of "pink." Brandon and I were able to put a little more thought into this and to sum ours up, we are thankful for our families, friends, lots of love, a great life and just like Parker- our Savior who made this all possible (haven't decided if I really am actually thankful for Ninjago, but I am kind of thankful for pink.)

Here are a few of our many Thanksgiving pictures. We saw so many people we loved, I couldn't fit them all...great problem to have!

 (The croissant)

(The message)

Our days at home were filled with talking, playing, shopping, movies, resting, eating, and even some off road adventures.
We were excited Ganny and Grandaddy got us some tickets to go ice skating on the rink (that's not actually ice) that is in town for a few weeks. Definitely sets the mood for Christmas.

 Tinley turned out to be quite the little skater. 

We were happy the trio could unite on the ice...where there was a lot of silliness, some great moves, and a variety of ways to fall down.

And while we were beside the Children's Museum, we might as well go. The favorite room this time was the hospital nursery.

 And when we remembered we had our own baby with us, it was even more fun.

Doctors can be patients too, you know.

And today our doctor adventure...not quite as fun as pretending to be a doctor. The croup came back in the night for Tinley and we got a 2 hour wait where we met lots of lovely (but sick) people in the waiting room.

Tinley was very patient and I thought she deserved this big bowl of yummy at the frozen yogurt place beside the doctor. I do believe she's feeling better already!

Today my croissant would still be filled with thanks for family, friends, love, Jesus..with an addition of medicine and chocolate ice cream. I'm pretty sure I will add some more tomorrow;)

Sweet November

November definitely has a personality of it's own that often gets lost between the full months of October and December. It seems like November is gone in a blink of an eye!  Although nothing much has slowed down around here, we are trying to enjoy the mix of mild days and chilly days...the reminders to be thankful, and the rest of the fall beauty before we're inside sipping on our hot cocoa. Thanks to his Grandaddy Parker is very aware when Christmas sneaks in early (we have to justify decorating early since we will be out of town so we don't get a "ticket" by the holiday police!)

We were happy to see Erin and Claire at the park. Double fun on the swing!

Look at this sweet face... although Tinley calls her baby Claire, she has grown so fast!

It's just too hard to get everyone to look at once.

I tried to motivate by asking them to clap and cheer...Parker took it to the extreme and Tinley is trying to get Claire in on the clapping...

Here are some pictures from Tinley's preschool Thanksgiving program.

Our favorite little Pilgrim girl Sadie was there.

Tinley's class dressed up as the pumpkins.

Our little pumpkin got stage fright...look at this face. This is a familiar look, but it's usually Parker who is nervous. We'll have to work on it before she reaches Broadway;)

Here she is back to her wide open self!

Her buddy Easton!

She loves Ms. Shannon..and her chocolate chip cookie!

Get out your shoeboxes...

We have loved the tradition of filling the shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child for the past several years. Parker is finally old enough to understand what it's about and Tinley can help us even if she doesn't know why. I hope that they will remember these holiday traditions as much as any other...and that they will carry on for many years.

Parker helped me shop for the stuff this year so we ended up with even more! They were very serious about sorting boy stuff from girl stuff.  Parker was also serious about wanting things to look happy. He drew a smiley face on the magna doodle..."so maybe they'll be happy to see it."  And although I had to repack these boxes a dozen times with the "help" of the kids throwing things in, I hope they will feel the joy of giving.

 Here are random but happy phone pictures:

Tinley taking care of her baby at Booya and Grandaddy's house.

Parker's cool new R2D2 hat.

Fun at the Alamance Children's Museum.

 A fitting for the little flower girl.

Something's Missing...

It's Parker's tooth! While our country was experiencing Election Day, we were having our own milestone last night. Losing the first tooth.

It was tucked safely away...

And replaced with $5.00 this morning. (maybe the tooth fairy should have left a note that high rates are only for the first tooth:) 

Mother Son Fun:)

This year the Mother Son Event for our school was at the Charlotte Copperheads Lacrosse game. First lacrosse game for us, but we will gladly be fans of any team we need to be. There is definitely something sweet about seeing little boys (and big boys) out with their mamas. Having a son has definitely grown my knowledge about things I didn't know I'd need to know. I'm sure this is a subject that I will be learning my whole life.  Thank goodness he shows me some grace as I figure it out... For now, I'm hanging on to the fact that a night with me  still sounds appealing to him!

When we arrived, we got a fancy hat and went to make some posters! Yes, that is a copperhead with a giant head and a skinny body.

I got a new phone finally so I was happy to take some iphone pictures instead of lugging my camera around. It was a good thing because we had posters, giant balloon hats, and food to carry. I don't think I could've squished in the row with anything else....but I'm still working on my blurry phone pictures.

We spotted someone with a sword balloon...so we had to do a revisit to the balloon table.

 Here's that squished row I was talking about.

And here's one of those crazy faces cheering on the team with his new Copperheads hat!

A fun night and a new experience. What will he remember? Probably this balloon and how one of the players pants fell down. I know that because of my 6 year experience of having a son and what makes him smile:) Love you son!

Hope everyone enjoyed their extra hour this morning. We had an extra hour + later church for Homecoming so we were really spoiled. We woke up, but stayed lazy a little longer...cause we could!

Just Another Friday Night at the Bullis House

Maybe no matter how old you are, you look forward to Friday nights...maybe for different reasons, but surely they are a cause to celebrate. We are ready for the weekend and somehow no matter how many times we do it, I always feel a little extra pep in my step knowing the weekend is just beginning. Last night the Brenneman family came over to dinner. Long ago, Parker became impressed with Daniel's Star Wars knowledge (and light sabering)...ever since, most of our dinners and visits turn into some kind of Star Wars event. Parker has been wanting to have them over for a "Star Wars" party. Like every good Mom, I said "sure" and forgot that my son has a better memory than anyone I've ever met. When we told him they'd be coming, he recalled that we better get ready for our party....

So Thursday I printed out some Star War pictures and googled some other themed items. Voila...we created a free and easy Star Wars party...that met a six year old standards.

I'm glad he remembered because it was kind of fun having a theme for no particular reason. Our fancy coloring pictures in page protectors as place mats...kind of a nice change:)

Parker's favorite...Yoda Soda.

A little pre party dancing of course with some Star Wars theme music of course!

And we waited on a sneak attack.

 Daniel is such a good sport with living up to his light saber fun. He even did a sneak attack from the back door!

Tinley found Braxton a tiny light saber so he could play too...but this little cuddle bug is pretty content to snooze through all the racket.

 Which is a great reason for me to hand over my light saber for the evening. Don't mind this job at all!

Thank you Brenneman's for being so much fun and making our Friday night even more of a reason to celebrate!