My parents made the long drive to join us for a week around Thanksgiving. What a blessing to have them with us. We spent some time running between home improvement stores and ranch supply stores. Wally needed his picture taken with Baby Lord Jesus.
Luckily, the weather was beautiful while my parents were here, so we were able to work on our projects. Our sliding glass door was not working well, so the boys took it apart and fixed it.
Then, my favorite home improvement project yet (well, its up there with the mounted microwave and the skylights). Dad installed a new storm door with a doggy door on the porch. Now, all we have to do it let the dogs out the sliding glass doors and they can let themselves out the rest of the way. This will be wonderful tomorrow with a high of 19! Oddly, Moose caught on to the door much faster than Daisy. Granted, it took him running into the main door head first right beside the doggy door to figure it out, but the fact that he caught on faster than Daisy is kind of scary.
My mom helped my with the full Thanksgiving meal. I had never cooked a full turkey before, so it was fun to learn. After Thanksgiving, she taught me how to make a yummy yummy soup with the carcass and the left overs. Thanks Mom!
Wally and Papa decorated the porch for Thanksgiving. 
We are thankful to live in a place where we can eat our Thanksgiving meal on the porch! What a beautiful day. And so much to be thankful for.
To burn off a couple of calories, we took a hike after our meal at Hickory Hill. Again, we are blessed to be able to go hiking in a beautiful place, even if there are no mountains.
After about 5 silly pictures of my parents (yes, they have a tendency to goof off) I got a pretty good one. Papa had a hard time keeping up on the hike because he was busy picking up walnuts, acorns, etc. I guess that is where Wally gets that trait.
We were thinking of using this as our Christmas picture, but it just didn't seem very Christmasy.
Wally knows Grandma Mary loves puzzles, so he made one by cutting up a completely blank piece of pink paper. Now, that was a hard puzzle, but they make a good team.
I bought Wally his first pair of tie shoes right before Thanksgiving break. He worked really hard at learning how to tie with Grandma and Papa's help. After about a week and a half, he became a pro. Now, I just need to try to cut back on his creativity as he works really hard at making knots with 3 loops or knots that look like Christmas wreaths, etc. The problem with them is that they take a long time to tie (and we don't have the time before school) and they are true knots! He's proud that he can tie his shoes though, and so am I.
The weekend after Thanksgiving we too my parents Christmas tree cutting Iowa style. It was pouring rain and we wandered through rows of perfect trees and finally pointed at one that was promptly cut down for us.
Ta-da! The perfect tree!
The men did have to work hard to carry the tree to the tree shaking station.
They had to carry it rather than drag it so that it wouldn't be a big ball of mud!
A lovely tree and a lovely boy.
Wally got to open his presents from Grandma and Papa early. He was a little excited as you'll see in the video below.
Ah, he really loves his presents.
He really REALLY loves his presents!
Building Legos = chapped lips.
I loved that Wally actually helped decorate the tree this year. The ornaments weren't necessarily nicely spaced around the tree, but it was perfect.
Reading a "silly poem" book with Grandma Mary.
Just what I wanted! Not to take away from Grandma and Papa's present, but Wally was this excited about every gift he received this year, so thank you to everyone! We had a great Thanksgiving and really we have so much to be thankful for, I feel guilty. Thanks so much for the visit Grandma and Papa. We love you!
Thanks for the blogs, Jill. You have such a wonderful little boy and are doing such a great job of raising him. Love you all!!
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