thanksgiving weekend

we spent thanksgiving weekend up at my parents' house this year. my mom's parents were in town from seattle and i wanted to get as much time with them as possible. we went up wednesday morning and beth and rachel joined us soon after for a few hours. the girls had a great time playing with mr. potato heads, although not really in the intended manner.

ray arrived wednesday evening and solidified his role as favorite uncle by reading to madeleine and rachel.

randy spent the day practicing as much as he could and diane stood by for much of the time.

wednesday night, the hanks arrived and madeleine was in heaven. she ran around with the boys until their heads were about to explode (oh wait, that was my head). this picture is an anomaly.  my parents gave the kids stuffed penguins this weekend and they were using them as pillows to take a brief break from running around.

the weather was frigid all weekend, which meant that the kids didn't get to go outside much. but, on thursday afternoon, we did get madeleine all bundled up so that she could go outside with the boys for a little while. nobody lasted long, but she sure looked cute.

as i mentioned, my grandma and grandpa were in town. it was so fun to see them and have the girls get to know them a little better. it's funny - two years ago they were here for thanksgiving weekend and madeleine was just learning to walk. this year, it was diane's turn. fun for me to have my grandparents associated with my memories of the girls learning to walk.

grandma won the hearts of the great-grandchildren (and grandchildren!) by reading to them for hours. she patiently read book after book.

as usual, audrey and i had a big project for the weekend. we spent most of the time that our children would allow on our 2009 family photo album. yes, we are a little behind, but trying to catch up before 2010 is over and it is time to start a new one. audrey is a photoshop wizard.

diane spent the weekend toddling around and getting more confident in her walking. each day brought more steady steps.

the cousins had a blast together, as always, and ran amok throughout my mom's house the whole weekend. i'm sure that she was relieved to have a quiet house again, but it was sure fun while it lasted.