my heart is full and so is my belly

It's 2am and I can't sleep.  We made it back from South Carolina tonight, and because my husband is a saint for doing all of the driving, I got to snooze.  I always say car sleep is not good sleep, but it must be good enough sleep because I've got a 2am burst of energy.  So while my camera card is still out and my eyes are still open, let me recap this sweet Thanksgiving weekend.
Like I said, we made the trek to South Carolina.  We do it every other year when it's our turn to be with my family, and though it's a painfully long car ride for 3 kids, we all agree it's so worth it.  My brother and sis-in-law just moved into a new house this summer, so it was fun to see their new place.  They are sweet to host us all!  I tried not to get too weepy, but this year was especially special because it is likely our last Thanksgiving in the states for a while.  Watching all the cousins together, sitting around (and going out) as a whole, big family... these are the kind of important things that we won't be able to replace while we're gone, so I'm trying to get in as much as I can now.  I'd say we did a pretty great job making the most of this time.  We all got in Wednesday night, so we basically had three and a half days together.  The dads golfed twice, the moms shopped, we cooked and ate a big Thanksgiving dinner, we took family photos downtown, the kids went to Frankie's (the coolest place a kid could ask for), we had a family movie night, we ate out twice with ALL EIGHT kids, we introduced the boys to MadLibs, we kicked off the advent with a welcome elves (on the shelves) breakfast... lots of fun, laughs, pictures, and food.  It really was a holiday I will treasure.

As usual, I pretty much only remembered to take pictures of the kids, but here's to hoping the photographer captured a few great ones of the whole bunch of us.

We have cut waaay down on our Black Friday shopping, but we did get some stops in for Christmas presents and clothes for the family photos we were having taken.  We took Lily and the babies with us, and apparently Lil was ready for the adventure.  It took us a few moments to realize we hadn't lost her, we'd just covered her.  ;)

Yes, it was Thanksgiving, but this weekend also hit December 1st so we have moved on to Christmas season!  Happy December, everyone!

The kids woke up to a Welcome Elves breakfast of reindeer pancakes, the Elf book and a hunt for the first hiding spot of elf season (yes, I know that's not a thing).

Aunt Kristin read the Elf On the Shelf book to all the kiddos (and Poe).

Aimee found her elf, who she named Mommy, for the first time.  :)

We took a few of our own pics of the cousins all together.  I saw something like this on pinterest, so I printed out stickers with all the kids' ages on them and we lined them up.  I thought it would require both a miracle and torture to get a good shot, but we got several cute ones.

Nothing like a line up of these cuties to remind you how blessed your life is.  I also would have never thought after 4 boys in a row that we would have caught up with the girls!  So so fun!

They are: 10, 7, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1/2 (almost), 1/4 -- wow, they are coming faster and faster!! 

8 cousins means lots of laughing, playing, running, crying, snacking, snuggling, sleeping, smiling, loving, FUN!!!

Seeing all the sweetness of cousins and siblings together reminds me that I am actually so blessed to have the best sissy there is!  We have just as much fun being together as they do.

Happy Turkey 2013 all!