turkey day! i mean, THANKSGIVING day!

it's that time again...gobble, gobble, gobble! we had been looking forward to thanksgiving day for so long now, we could just taste the turkey and all the yummy sides that go with it! not only is it jaccob's favorite holiday of all time (mine is christmas), but it's the one day we are guaranteed to give thanks for all the wonderful things in our lives!!

once again this year we made the 10+ hour drive to TN to spend thanksgiving with jaccob's family. we packed up the xterra and headed for colder climates :) the drive wasn't too bad i guess, but when you're pregnant and trying to deal with a 20 month old, it can be a little insane and uncomfortable! my feet were definitely not my friends as they were swollen for pretty much the whole way there...grrr!! definitely not something i'm thankful for, that's for sure. nevertheless, we made the journey as best we could and arrived at a very decent hour :) isabela was very entertained this time around as i took along some elmo's world dvd's for her to watch during the long drive to tullahoma. last year was a nightmare! isabela drove both of us pretty crazy that time, but then again, who doesn't take along a dvd player and kid friendly dvd's for an 8 month old? yeah that would be us...i think last year's drive would've gone a lot smoother if we had had something for her to entertain herself with. lesson learned!

jaccob's family was very happy to see us and it was definitely nice to be with family during the holidays :) they welcomed us with open arms, as always, and were happy to have us as in house guests for a couple of days. this was the first time that isabela had visited her papa and nana since she learned how to walk so she was a whole different person! she definitely came out of her shell a lot more since she started walking, it's like something in her clicked once she could go where she wanted and grab whatever she wanted, when she wanted :) she had a lot of fun playing with her cousin tyler (he's 4 yrs. old) and would imitate a lot of what he would do, it was so cute! they both loved to go outside and explore everything they could and one of their favorite things to do was get in tyler's jeep and off road it around the house! all in all her papa was very happy to see her having the time of her life :) she was also really cuddly with him and would run over to him to give him kisses!! as he would say, she's papa's girl!!


on thanksgiving day we all got dressed up and being the mom and photographer that i am, i couldn't help but take lots of pictures of isabela!! she certainly knows how to wear a dress and wear it in style!! she looked like an absolute doll and i of course was thrilled at my little model :) once it was time to eat we piled the food onto our plates and chowed down!! there was so much yummy food it was ridiculous ;) we had a lot of fun and gave thanks for all the wonderful things in our life. not only are we happily married, have a beautiful daughter and have everything we could possibly need, but we are expecting the birth of our anya...God has been very good to us.

isabela, my beautiful girl!

she wanted to open up her Christmas presents, can't you tell?!

kisses from her aunt rebecca :)

she's such a happy girl :)

we had a wonderful time in TN and know that we'll be welcomed anytime we go visit :) it will probably be the last time we celebrate the holidays there for a while. once anya is born and we move back to TX we'll be spending it at home with my parents. jaccob will probably be shipped out by this time next year so we'll most likely spend thanksgiving with jaccob's family in 2011. regardless of where we spend the next thanksgiving we'll definitely be giving thanks for our new baby girl!! i can't wait <3