Thanksgiving in Arkansas

Picture of Aunt Rhonda playing Christmas Carols with a little help from Hadley. Taylor was too busy eating Marshmellows to join them.

Best of Buds

The girls watching TV in PopPop's lap.

The girls getting ready to eat Thanksgiving lunch. And yes, they wore those hats for nearly 2-3 days straight!

Picture of the dangerous Forrester/Williams Gang. This is my Mom's Christmas card. Too Cute!


It is always fun to spend the holidays with family, especially Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful, food was delicious, and it is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming. Dewey had flown down a few days for before Thanksgiving. He and Brent cleaned out and painted our garage. I didn't know our garage could look that good. We have a great deep sink utility sink in the garage. I rarely used it because it looked like a toxic waste site. After a little work from Dewey, it looks brand new. So a few days before Thanksgiving we all loaded up and headed north. Our first stop was in Walnut Ridge to spend a few days with my family. Then headed to Searcy for a few more days. While we were in Searcy, I had a little trouble with my camera. So I didn't get many pictures of the kiddos.

What a Shoot out!

An attempt at Jingle Bells on the cellar at Nana's

Hadley at Mimi's house. Cheese!

Hadley and Madelyn by Mimi's tree.

Trying to get the kids ready to take a picture for Mimi's Christmas card. This is when my camera stopped working. This is the only one I got with Will.

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Hadley with the tree after it was all decorated.

Hadley & Daddy putting on ornaments.

Mommy & Hadley putting ornaments on the tree.

Hadley being patient before we started decorating the tree.

Before we left for Thanksgiving, we got all of our Christmas decorations out. Hadley & I put up the Christmas tree and lights while Brent was out of town. We waited for him to put the ornaments on the tree. Hadley had a great time. She enjoyed seeing all the ornaments up close before we put them on the tree. She even got to decide where some of them should go. As I had hoped, she has been really great about leaving the decorations alone. By letting her help in the beginning, I think it took away a lot of investigating later. I had forgotten how special putting up the tree can be.

A Good Cowgirl who likes some coke beer

One of the fun things about Fort Worth is all of the cowboys. Hadley thinks she is one of the gang. She doesn't know that her mom is highly allergic and she will probably never be allowed to ride a real horse. But she doesn't need to know that now :)

After a long, hard ride, nothing is a refreshing as a nice cold coke beer. As a special treat, we will give Hadley some rootbeer. She knows it is called rootbeer, but she prefers her name for it, "coke" beer. To the untrained ear, it sounds as if our 2 yr old is asking for a "cold" beer. So when we are out in public, and the waiter asks what she would like to drink, I eagerly suggest milk, water, or Sprite quickly before she has a chance to order "coke"beer.

I'm a little too busy for ABCs

Here is Hadley singing her ABCs. As you can see, she was really too busy coloring with her Daddy to put on a good performance.

Our little Minnie Mouse

Our funny looking Pooh-like pumpkin.

Hadley checking out Mommy's carve job. I thought it would be really special to carve the pumpkin together. I guess sometimes I forget that she is just 2. When I started cleaning out the pumpkin, she started saying, "Mommy, it smells". When I asked what does it smell like, she quickly responded, "it smells yucky". "I not like it". So instead she just drew on the sidewalk while I took on the pumpkin.

Hadley at TCU trick-or-treating.

Hadley showing off her candy.

These next few photos are pretty funny. I was trying to take her picture, but she could not be still. Then I threatened that if she did not be still and let me take her picture, there would be no candy! As you can see, she graciously posed for some shots.

Another one of Hadley being happy for the camera.

Hadley & Daddy getting ready to go.

Hadley was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. She was just too cute. At TCU, the families of TCU employees could go trick-or-treating at one of the dorms. Hadley was way excited about getting candy. There was 3 floors of nothing but candy. Daddy suggested that we just do the first floor. Hadley didn't know that she was missing anything and was totally happy with all of her candy. We finished the night with some cotton candy. The next day, she got to wear her Minnie Mouse dress to music class. Once we put it on, she asked where the candy was. If she had the costume on, she was supposed to get candy. On Halloween night, we just stayed home and passed out candy. The weather was perfect. We pulled the lawn chairs out front and sat by the door. As kids would approach, Hadley would yell "we've got candy". I was delighted that she was excited about sharing.

Game Day

Us enjoying the Hogs game!

While we were in town, my Mom, Sister, & Jackson came up for the weekend. Mom kept Hadley so that I could go to the game. We all had a lot of fun. Somehow, I don't have any pictures of all of our good times. Sometimes I just forget to get out my camera. Some friends of ours from Newport also came up for the game. So we got to tailgate with Shannon, Derek, Whitney, Drew, Kristen & Paul. It was great to spend time with old friends. On Saturday morning, before the game, we went over to Sam & Angie's house. Let me just say that if Angie offers to make you breakfast, GO. Her homemade biscuits and gravy were delicious. I'm wishing I had one of those biscuits right now. Hadley got to play with Morganne, Blaine, and baby Kennedy. She had so much fun with her old friends. Anyway, back to game. The energy at the game was exciting. Everyone wanted to see Ol' Huston go back to Mississippi like a whipped dog. But it just didn't happen. Arkansas is simply terrible this year. I don't know how they beat Auburn. But we did have a great time at the game. It was my first Fayetteville game since Hadley was born. Then on Sunday we went to church at New Heights. It was so great to be back home. We visited with even more friends.

Pumpkin Patch in NWA

Coming down the stairs for their fashion show.

Kids having fun playing dress up. Yes, Jude has on a tutu. I love the hat, Hadley. And Abby's vail is so dramatic.

Pumpkin Patch (Hadley & Mommy)

Hadley riding one of the big ones.

Hadley peeking through.

The little Ranas

Hadley & Jude playing

Hadley and her buddies!

We were in Fayetteville for several days in October. Brent had a training session on Thursday & Friday. Then we were staying for the UA vs. Ole Miss game. While we were in town, we got to see the newest Rana. Baby Gabriel was just 3 weeks old. It was so great to see him. Hadley thought he was very special. She would kiss him and even got to hold him. She was okay with me holding him. This is pretty huge. She usually will cry and through a small fit if I hold another child. She reminds me that I am her Mommy, not the baby's. So it was good to see her growing out of that phase. We met Anne and the kids at a pumpkin patch. They had a great time. Then we went back to Siloam to spend some more time with everyone.