Thanksgiving with the Walldens

Mema playing Brown Bear with Luca

A true Wallden Thanksgiving, the can molded cranberry jelly...and Beth poking fun of it

Joe dishing himself up

Men and meat

Papa and Mema

Cosmos for the ladies

Ben and Ava

Kate and Jake - dork

Super cute family shot, except non-smiling Tony

Thanksgiving in Rib Lake

Great Grandma Phyllis

Uncle Thad with the kids

Corey, Dustin and Dana

Grandpa John carving the turkey

Grandma and Ava playing Candy Land

Luca hanging upside down from Grandpa's legs. "Again, Again"

Shiner

Luca came home from daycare today wearing pants that were way too small, a ponytail in his hair and a shiner under his right eye from falling on BuzzLightyear. He was looking good.

Painting Mess

What was I thinking?

Body Art

Yep, thats right...A-V-A.

Airplane

It has been a stressful week...

no nuks for Ava, teeth coming in for Luca,

Dustin's certification exam and a new job position for me.

Lots of tears, tylenol and maybe a few bottles of wine.

No More Nuk

Before - showing off the bag of nuks for the babies

After - tired in the car, realizing that her nuks are really gone

After talking about getting rid of her nuks for months

we finally did it.

This morning we collected and washed all of them and then put them in a little baby gift bag. We went to Meriter where Ava would "give" her nuks to all of the babies. I had called ahead to let everyone know we were coming so we were greeted with lots of excitement and praise for being such a big girl and so generous for sharing her nuks with the babies who needed them. Ava even received a little stuffed animal and note of thanks from the babies (THANK YOU Jenifer!)

She did just great at the hospital but told me afterwards that she was, "a little bit sad to give them away". We went to Target afterwards and picked out a new Dora movie and book and then out to Old McDonalds for lunch (Ava's choice). After lunch when we got into my car reality struck that there were no more nuks for nap time. She started bawling and cried all the way home. I almost started crying too. She was too sad to take a nap without a nuk so is now cuddled up on the couch watching her new Dora movie.

You can do it big girl!!!