thanksgiving 2019

our thanksgiving festivities started with kendall's kindergarten thanksgiving feast. adi and i got to join her and she loved having her worlds collide as we sat by her friends and she introduced adi to all of them. she was in heaven to say the least!

brooklyn got her back handspring at tumbling the week before and it has to be documented! she's been working on it for a long time and we were all thrilled for her. i may have cried! we celebrated with dinner at ihop.

the day before thanksgiving, we took the girls to see frozen 2. we all loved it and can't wait for it to come out so we can buy it and watch it over and over! the music is so good!

thanks to all of the snow, the girls played outside in it multiple times in two days. they couldn't get enough.

the morning of, james was in charge of the annual turkey bowl, and they didn't let the mountains of snow stop them. they ate donuts and had hot cocoa and played football in feet deep snow! the girls and i were safe and warm at home watching the big parade and eating kringle.

for lunch, we had crab cocktail as i was missing being in cokeville. it hit the spot and tided us over until we had the big feast.

unfortunately, most of our extended ruesch clan ended up sick. so papa treated us to dinner out on the town and we ended the night with full bellies and thankful hearts. especially for our tiny little baby that would be born the next day!

h  a p p y  t h a n k s g i v i n g !

thanksgiving 2018

we ate four delicious thanksgiving dinners this year. who can complain about that?! we started off with a bang with our 'friendsgiving' two saturdays before the actual holiday. everyone brought delicious food, my cute friend hosted and did up the prettiest tablescape, and we seriously had so much fun at this dinner! very obvious because of my lack of pictures. the wives sat at one end and the husbands at the other. it was also our only dinner without kids, which was really quite nice. we all ate the food while it was hot and just sat and enjoyed ourselves.

(if you know what friends thanksgiving episode is playing, we're best friends.)

next up was our thanksgiving with james' immediate family. my mother in law always goes all out and we have a delicious turkey and everything to go with it! again, i was horrible with the pictures! mostly just stuffing my face and chasing kids. we ate until we were sick, then retired to the basement to play a few rounds of psych (a game that's an app that you should totally download!) and then had dessert. the kids waited anxiously until the next day to decorate their gingerbread turkeys at nana's after we all ate turkey and leftovers. brooklyn and kendall were super proud of theirs!

and adalyn was happy to eat it after they were done!

thanksgiving day went as per usual...james playing in a turkey bowl, the girls and i at home watching the macy's parade while getting ready to go, and then hitting the road to cokeville to join family for a thanksgiving feast. it was an "off year" this year so our crowd was small but still so wonderful! james said this year he was most excited about the crab cocktail appetizer. i can't even argue that! i love this tradition and hope it never changes!

adalyn was obsessed with this book full of family memories of my uncle tom! she really didn't leave it alone except for when she was eating dinner.

kendall set the kid table and sure was proud of herself!

after dinner, we lounged and scoured black friday deals, visited, and then had pie. everyone was pooped and full to the brim and we really didn't stay up that late.

my girls had so much attention being the only kids there. keni got her nails painted, brooklyn got ballet lessons from great grandma carol, and adalyn ran around to all the adults talking their ears off and trying to brush their hair.

the next morning we gathered the girls up to give them their Christmas pillow cases. last year i did a picture of Christ, and this year we talked about the significance of the candy cane. they loved it and wanted to eat them for breakfast...i didn't think that through...

for breakfast, i couldn't help myself, i brought a danish kringle for everyone to try. you can buy them at trader joe's and i'm telling you...you won't be the same after one of these!

my girls always love to watch the cows and horses out my grandparents' windows.

my grandma arranged for us to see an amazing display of nativities in town and i am so glad we went! over six hundred nativities to look at. i'm sure we didn't see them all. it was an amazing way to start off the Christmas season.

adi got a little handsy so she and i went out to the van to jam to some Christmas music.

our last thanksgiving dinner was that saturday with james' mom's side of the family. this is always a big dinner with lots of kids and my girls absolutely love it! so many fun kids to run around play with. it's nice at the church because i usually get to just sit and talk while they run around.

we had our fill of turkey and pumpkin pie and were so lucky to spend our dinners with people we love and cherish. i'm so grateful for this and i hope my girls will have wonderful memories of these thanksgiving dinners! until next year...we're ready to celebrate Christmas!

thanksgiving 2017.

thanksgiving day started out nice and early. james got up and got ready to go play in his annual turkey bowl, but not before he picked up a load of donuts beforehand. the girls and i stayed home, baked cookies, watched the parade on tv, and painted our nails. oh, and i packed for all of us (girls). a couple hours later, as soon as james got home, we hit the road headed for cokeville!

this is probably the most disappointing year as far as pictures go. why on earth am i so bad at getting pictures anymore?! anyway, the food was absolutely delicious, we loved getting to sit downstairs with all of our fellow cousins with (and without) kids. the girls loved having so many cousins to play with and i rarely saw my two oldest the entire weekend!

my grandma always rents out the high school gym that evening so that our little ones (and big ones!) have somewhere to run off some of that turkey! my girls look forward to this every year and made sure i remembered to pack their 'gym shoes'.

the next morning, james and i started a new tradition with the girls: christmas pillowcases (that i sewed!) with a picture of Christ inside (and a festive shirt). we explained why we celebrate christmas and that Christ is at the center of it. they were excited and have the pictures hanging in their rooms.

saturday afternoon came with much anticipation! my mom really wanted all of us girls to get together and go see the nutcracker. brooklyn was so excited about it! our tickets were really cheap, but the view was great! it really brought the magic of christmas and it was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season! i loved being there with my mom and sisters (and brookie and livi) and hope to make this a tradition for years to come!

after the nutcracker, we grabbed soup/salad/sandwiches and then brooklyn and i had another thanksgiving dinner to get back home too. and of course, no pictures of that event! i am promising myself i'll do better next year. anyway, we enjoyed another big thanksgiving dinner with james' mom's side of the family and then watched a christmas movie afterwards. 

thanksgiving weekend holds so many dear memories and it always goes by way too quickly. i love that it's followed right up with the christmas season so that i don't have to be too sad about it being over for another year. grateful for so many blessings in the life, especially james and my three little ladies i get to mother. we are so blessed and i'm so thankful for this crazy little life of mine!

november so far...

at the beginning of november, we went with the whole ruesch clan to the zoo for my mother in law's birthday. it was a little chilly, so we bundled up, and ended up having a great time.

the girls loved being with cousins and nana & papa. 

adi stayed wit her nana most of the time and loved sneaking drinks of her drink and pointing out all of the animals to her.

one of the highlights was the tiger. he was never really active for us in the summer, and we loved watching him eat and walk around.

kendall is my super star at the zoo! she's so good to stay in the stroller and she loves to pretend to be every animal we see. 

we let the girls play at the playground for a little bit when we were done. the girls loved it. james and i were cold! everyone had a good time being there together and especially watching the kids get excited about the animals.

we hit up our favorite donut spot on the way home and tried not to eat the whole dozen on the short drive home.

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november marked a huge milestone for the ruesch family. adalyn is now in nursery!!! the icing on top is that she loves it!  these pictures were from her first sunday going to nursery. girl was excited!

i just love her little profile! and that freckle on her lip!

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the next couple pictures were from another sunday. i dressed them all in sweater dresses and they looked so cute all together!

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adalyn had her 18 month check-up (21.3 lbs & 30 inches) and took her second dose of the flu shot like a champ! did. not. cry. one. little. bit. the nurse couldn't believe it. this girl cracks us up daily, loves her little babies, and gives the best kisses!

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we had our much anticipated ruesch thanksgiving dinner this past saturday. my girls were so excited about this! mostly, kendall just rode on brooklyn's excitement. but they loved it! they decorated place mats before dinner, and during dinner we all went around the table and said something we were grateful for this year. brooklyn said: that she is old enough to be in 1st grade. kendall said: her family!

there was so much delicious food! a few of us mentioned a couple of times that it reminded us of our thanksgiving in hawaii. great memories!

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this is so random but i want to remember it! on any given evening, you will find my hair in some sort of braid. brooklyn is obsessed with braiding right now and i love it! she also wants braids in her hair every day. i do my best, but i need so much practice still! i love that she's such a girly girl.

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and last but not least... some sleeping pictures of adalyn...

a true depiction of how i feel about getting my house clean, christmas up, and packed for thanksgiving in cokeville in the next two days.

H A P P Y  T H A N K S G I V I N G