Giving Thanks for Cowboy Boots!

I am going to start off a little side tracked. Can you believe that? I never get side tracked...yeah right! Hope you like the Christmas music. At Greg's request we had to stick with the Louisiana/Hogwash theme and give you a little Harry Connick, Jr.

Now back on track...

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year!

Pawcaw and Nana came up for their first Thanksgiving in Tennessee. They even brought Aunt Tiffany (Greg's younger sister) and Uncle Ray. John Reagan had lots of fun and went full blast until company left Saturday morning.

Before I get into the story good, let me explain where "Pawcaw" came from for all of you who are wondering. Pawcaw and Nana took about a year and a half to decide what they wanted John Reagan to call them. They wanted him to come up with his own name for them. The problem was...he never called them anything because he didn't know what he was supposed to call them. So we told them they had to make a decision. They decided on Grandpa and Nana. Then when they came to visit in May, John Reagan kept getting Pawpaw and Grandpa confused, and it came out Pawcaw. Of course Pawcaw loved it, hence the name.

Getting back on track again...

When Pawcaw and Nana arrived Wednesday around 11:00, Daddy and John Reagan were at the store. As soon as John Reagan entered the door, the hard work for Pawcaw and Nana began.

First thing Pawcaw had to do was let John Reagan ride the "bull." Pawcaw and Nana start a lot of things that Mommy and Daddy don't want to follow-up with when they leave.

Then they had to get their play time in with both John Reagan and Evie. This was later Wednesday night. Pawcaw and Nana do do a good job wearing the kiddos down, as you can tell by this next picture.

I don't know which one fell asleep first. All I know is neither Nana's nor my flash woke Pawcaw up.



Turkey Day is Here!

This is just to show you how much hard work goes into frying a turkey. You can soon look forward to Greg's first post..."The Anatomy of Turkey Frying!" Yes, I am going to be brave and unleash him on the blog. Scary!
The next couple of pictures entail what takes place while Daddy is frying the turkey!

This is one of my favorite pictures of John Reagan! He was having fun running around the backyard doing whatever pleased him until Pawcaw joined the fun.

Pawcaw has lots more muscles than he did when he arrived. He spent many hours outside swinging John Reagan.

Now for the Turkey Carving!
It took 3 generations of Hasley men to get this one right...lol!
I will get a comment from Greg on that one.

We had The Amaro's for our Thanksgiving guests also. John Reagan and Abby play so well together, and they are a lot of fun to watch. After lunch, John Reagan wanted to go for a ride in Pawcaw's truck. So Pawcaw, Nana, John Reagan, and Abby took off. They were gone for quite a while, which we later found out was because they ended up at Wal-Mart. That is no shocker if you know Nana. And for those of you who know John Reagan, you know he likes horses and bull riding, so he and Abby got cowboy hats out of the whole Wal-Mart deal. It started out with John Reagan wanting the black hat and Abby wanting the red hat. By the time they got home, it had reversed.

Here are the two cuties sporting their new look! They even had the horse to go along with the look!

And here are Greg and Mike sporting the great new look. Sorry Kristen, you weren't getting cropped out of this picture because it's the only one I got of you.

On "Black Friday" I usually stay home. I hate shopping in crowds, so it is not the day for me. Since we had company, I didn't have much of a choice, and it was because of the men, not the women. We had to make a trip to Bass Pro Shops. For Greg and whatever men are here for Thanksgiving, this is nothing new. They usually go out while the women stay home and decorate. I don't know why we decided differently this year, but we did. So this is where the cowboy boots come in. Since John Reagan finally got his cowboy hat, Pawcaw and Nana had to go by him some cowboy boots to go with it.

Here John Reagan is waiting on us to leave. Sometimes when Greg and I don't get out of the house fast enough for John Reagan, he goes and sits on this overhang by the step waiting for us. Well with 6 adults and 2 children, we weren't fast enough for him this day.

We had a great time shopping for boots in spite of the crowd.

When we got home Friday night, John Reagan was nice enough to share his hat (temporarily) with Evie.

We have a picture of John Reagan putting the hat on her, but this was the better picture of Evie. Isn't she a cutie?

John Reagan is taking some much needed R & R here on Daddy's back. They were watching "Elf." It's tough being a kid, don't you think?

The R & R didn't last long though. He was too excited over those cowboy boots. He kept putting them on, taking them off, and putting them on and taking them off. As a matter of fact, when Pawcaw and Nana bought his boots, they had to buy a pair of long socks too because John Reagan wouldn't take them off. What can I say? He's our little cowboy...for now.

After Pawcaw and Nana left Saturday, John Reagan wanted to catch up on some Max time. We could NOT convince him to wear another pair of shoes outside so he wouldn't get his new cowboy boots dirty. He WANTED the boots...and of course the hat! Can't forget the hat. On a side note, we have not left the house without the hat since Pawcaw and Nana bought it. Yeah for Max. He has now had his first cameo appearance on the blog to go along with Duchess.

I don't know if Pawcaw wore John Reagan out more or if John Reagan wore Pawcaw out more. One thing I do know is Evie slept all day Saturday. From about 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., I think she was up for a total of 3 hours, and I am being liberal with that amount. She loves company and doesn't sleep as well when we do have company.

I have to add here...there are a few things I have learned about myself since I started this blog. One is that I know a good bit more about computers than I thought and I have learned a lot more about them since. Two is I need to take more focused pictures (more of family and company instead of ALL my pictures being of the kids). And three, I am a lot more long winded than I ever imagined. I think this helps me get all of my words out that I am supposed to use in a day. I can't use them all on Greg or he would tell me to shut up.

One last note for those of you who I haven't emailed. Please pray for my dad as he undergoes quadruple bypass surgery this week. Since we will be in LA this week, I won't be posting anything for several days. You know what that means...another long one when I do get back.

Hope you are having Happy Holidays so far.

Brandi