thanksgiving 2016...

This Thanksgiving was definitely one full of memories and things to be thankful for and much sorrow as well.  To start the week off we went to East Texas to visit with Adam's family.  We had so much fun!  We got to ride around the family deer camp and visit with pretty much everyone in town.

Chillin' on Pawpaw's bus!

Driving with Pawpaw

Crash on burn on the way home...2 hours and 55 mins into our 3 hour drive...ugh!

On Thanksgiving Day we actually stayed home and family came to us!  I have to say everything turned out wonderfully and it was so nice to actually celebrate a holiday in our own home!

Grocery shopping with mommy for Thanksgiving dinner!

and so it begins...

Baking with mommy!

Cousin love!

Heather, Euneta & Lauren

Randall, Lauren and Ranger

Marley and Ranger

Sammy needed in on the fun too!

Slumber party proof!

Unfortunately there was also much sorrow and sadness this week as well.  Two educators from my high school died along with one of my very best friends mom on Tuesday.  Although this brought sadness to the week it also allowed me to reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for in my family being able to be together for this holiday.  Attending my friends mothers funeral was actually a very beautiful service and reaffirmed the importance of living every day as your last and to be thankful for all the small things in life.

  On Thanksgiving morning my dad was also in a terrible head-on collision.  He was traveling to help someone out when he was hit.  He is VERY stubborn so swears he is fine and refuses to go to the hospital but he's pretty banged up.  The other car was going about 65-70mph.  So with that being said, I am VERY thankful that he is "okay" and proud that he is always going out of his way to help others.  Funny end to the story was that he was stuck about 2 hours away from home in a teeny-tiny little town with no rental cars (especially on Thanksgiving), so their only option was to rent a Uhaul box truck to drive back home!  

Leave it to my family to make something funny out of a very scary situation!

a little "ketchup"...

It has been way too long since I posted!  Our lives have been going 900mph since September.  This is going to be a little "ketchup" post filling you in on the last 2 months of the Cain life...enjoy!
We were finally able to make it to a Baylor Homecoming Parade after last year's being rained out and the year before being on Halloween.  Marley had a blast!  She loved the band and floats and loved catching the candy that was tossed.  I'm sure the girls next to use thought they hit the jackpot by standing by us because Marley just gave them all her candy when she got it!  Growing up we went to the Baylor Homecoming Parade every year and stood in this exact spot and I was thrilled to share this experience with Marley and hopefully for many years to come!

Marley's Favorite Float!

She was over it...

After the Homecoming Parade we went to Pumpkin Patch #2 with Uncle Randall, Aunt Lauren, Ranger and Grammy.  We had a lot of fun cheating our way through the hay maze and coloring on pumpkins!

 

 

We finally decided this year we would attempt to actually carve a pumpkin with Marley.  She's a little hesitant to get messy (to say the least), so we had no idea how this would turn out, but she had a blast!

Our next adventure was the State Fair of Texas.  This is another thing I grew up doing every year and we thought Marley would love it.  We decided to ride the DART to the fair and I'm pretty sure that might have been her favorite part.  She absolutely LOVED the rides!  The faster, the better.  She was ticked when she wasn't big enough for some of the rides.  She loved seeing the animals; especially the chickens and the 1,500lb. pig!  Funnel cake - not so much her thing...weirdo!

Waiting for the train...with no interest in my funnel cake...

We found crack on the train... ;) 

This year for Halloween Marley wanted to be a mermaid.  I have to say Sammy and her were both beautiful mermaids!  Marley absolutely enjoyed every moment of Trick-or-Treating!  She ran from house to house ringing AND knocking hollering, "Trick or Treat".  She finally partnered up with some older boys from the neighborhood and had no problem keeping up. Of course she had no interest in the candy which once in our house was never mentioned again by her, but was supremely excited about a bottle of water one house gave her!

Her buddy Al aka (Owl)!