Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We very much enjoyed getting a few days to spend time with family and have a reprieve from work. We started out our Thanksgiving celebration by going over to Eric's parents' house on Thursday. They had just set up their Christmas tree - we got there just in time to help pull out all the old ornaments and decorate.





I even got to decorate my own stocking this year :)



Then it was time to get busy cooking. His parents did the majority of the work before we got there but we tried to help out where we could.





The chefs - and lots of delicious food!



Dinner was amazing and we're so thankful we were able to spend the day with them! Thank you!



We got to my mom's house late that night. We woke up the next morning to a house full. There's nothing better than having so much family around and our crew is definitely growing!



Off to an early start getting the turkey ready.



Once it was in the oven, we all walked over to the high school for the annual field goal kicking.



It was a much nicer day than it's been in the past and it's always a great way to burn some energy and work up an appetite.







The ladies





Jane is on the move these days.







When we got back the turkey was just about ready to be taken out of the oven. The guys even took the reigns on carving it this year.



So much delicious food!







We ate early in the afternoon but were full through the night. Of course we did have room for dessert. The rest of the night was spent playing games and lounging around letting our food settle.



The next day we took a small hike at a trail nearby. It was cold but beautiful!





Down by the river





Nothing is better than time with family. I'm so thankful this year that mine is growing and I'm getting to become a part of another amazing family. I have a lot to be grateful for this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Class, cakes, and a little Christmas cheer

Lately I haven't had a whole lot to update on. Honestly, pretty much any free time I have is spent on the class I've been taking. But when my sister and Chris headed to Mexico a couple weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to go help out with the girls at my mom's house.



Not only do I love seeing these faces as much as possible, but my mom had recently broken her arm and I have no idea how she took care of everything all day by herself. Wonder woman I tell you. I had to work that day so I drove straight over afterwards.



I was able to help out with getting dinner together, feeding the girls, playing, and getting them to bed. My dad and brother also came over around dinner time but I didn't get pictures. It's a full-time job taking care of two kids! Katie is probably laughing at that.



It was so nice to get some cuddles from this one. She is so snuggly and sweet. It's not often I get to take advantage of that so I definitely got all the hugs I could while I was there. I stayed the night and the next morning was able to at least help get one little lady dressed, and the other one a diaper change and half dressed again before I had to head back out to work.



I wish I could have stayed longer to help out more! They were so great though. I loved seeing them cuddle together first thing in the morning. Adorable.

Last week we decided we needed some cheer since everything has been all about work around here lately. Therefore, we decided it was certainly not too early to bring out the Christmas tree. Anything to lighten things up ;)



Eventually we'll have to upgrade but right now I love our little tree. We've been wearing santa hats around the house and loving celebrating way too early.



And fortunately, I got a break from studying when my mom set up a cake tasting for us last weekend. It was so fun and much needed. Since the class has been such a big time commitment, I haven't had as much time to work on wedding planning recently, but I'm still trying to enjoy it as much as I can. Let's just say I'm going to be elated come December when this class is over.



Stuff like this is a welcome break from school :)



Cake for breakfast? Yep.



Thank you mom for all your help - I couldn't do any of this without you!



Honestly though, everyone has been so supportive and helpful. I'm so thankful for the people I have in my life. There have definitely been times that I've gotten pretty overwhelmed with everything going on. But my mom has been so helpful with the wedding planning, my sister has been working on getting some of my friends together, various family members have been jumping in to take the reigns on certain parts of the wedding or even just providing any resources they may have. And then Eric, he's so great. Our quality time together has been pretty much eliminated recently and he's been so patient, supportive, understanding, and helpful making dinner every night and picking up the slack on things I'm not able to do right now.

As crazy as things may be right now, I can't be anything but grateful for all the people in my life and all the things that are going on. And I suppose that's a pretty good perspective to have going into Thanksgiving next week :)

San Antonio

Eric and I got back from a last minute unexpected trip down to San Antonio last week. His grandfather sadly passed away recently. We went down for the services and to spend time with everyone. It's been a really difficult loss for the whole family. He was an accomplished veteran, a loving family man who adored all the girls in his life (wife of 72 years and 4 daughters), he gave back to his community every chance he got, and loved taking advantage of all life has to offer. He lived a long, fulfilling life, but it doesn't make the loss of such a great man any easier.

We flew down with Eric's parents early on a Wednesday morning.



We were thankful Eric's sister, Alison, was also able to make a last minute trip out from California. That afternoon we got changed at the hotel and went straight to the rosary service. I didn't take any pictures in any of the services until the next day at the cemetery (where his family really wanted some pictures they could look back on). The rosary service went pretty late. We got dinner with everyone after and went straight to bed that night. The next morning got ready for the funeral Mass.





Col. McSwain was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.







They gave 3 shell casings from the service to Eric's grandmother for her to keep. She actually ended up letting Eric keep one which was so special.







We attended a luncheon back at the church after the services and then went back to the hotel for some quiet time to rest. Later that night we went out to dinner with all the family.



This trip was actually the first time I was meeting any of Eric's extended family. It was a really bittersweet way to meet everyone but I was so thankful to be there and get to know all of them a little better. I feel like I got to spend some quality time with each of them and learned so much about what an amazing family they have.



The next morning we went to Eric's grandma's house to spend time with her. She is an amazing, strong woman. At 91, I was completely impressed with how she was handling everything.



I love all of Eric's family, but I probably enjoyed spending time with her the most.  I loved hearing all of the stories about Col. McSwain and their family. Although I was never fortunate enough to meet Eric's grandfather in person, we did get a chance to FaceTime and I feel like I learned so much about him during this trip. I learned that Eric has a lot of his grandfather in him, and I can't be anything but grateful to him for that.



His grandfather also loved to paint. He had paintings all over the house. This fascinated me. Not only the fact that he painted, but just learning about their appreciation for art, the painters they knew or that his grandfather had learned from, the market of buying and selling paintings in a time where I believed it to be a thing of the past. His grandmother also had some reproductions of some of his work that she let us take home with us.



That afternoon, we went to see Eric's grandparents' old house where they lived for 40+ years. They sold the house to one of their daughters a little over a year ago when they moved into the Army Residence Community.



The flag was at half mast when we arrived. The daughter (Eric's aunt) who bought the house lives in Alaska but wanted to keep it in the family, renovate it, and potentially rent it out. The inside was still in the middle of renovations but the backyard was beautiful.



Eric's and my favorite part was rummaging through the garage. Although his grandparents haven't lived in the house for over a year, we still found all kinds of old projects and paintings his grandfather was working on. It was really special to spend some time looking through some of it.





Later that night Eric took me to see the Alamo and the River Walk. It was my first time in San Antonio so he wanted me to at least get a taste of the place where he grew up and loves so much.



It was absolutely beautiful. The River Walk was nothing like I'd ever seen. It felt like we were in another country.





There was art everywhere. Random mosaics under bridges.



The river even ran through buildings.



I can't wait to spend more time there one day.



 The next morning Eric took me to see Market Square (commonly known as the Mexican Market).



First we went to the restaurant where Eric's parents had their rehearsal dinner.



Everything was so unique and colorful and festive. It was just a fun place to be.



The room below is the very room Eric's parents had their rehearsal dinner at 38 years ago.



We did a little shopping and ate some freshly made gorditas for lunch.



That afternoon we went to have dinner with Eric's grandmother and one of his Aunts one more time before we had to leave.



It was so nice to spend time with family, as sad as the circumstances were. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone.



A very bittersweet trip.



Col. Earl McSwain - Obituary