Big Timmay Comes Out for Thanksgiving

My little brother Timmy, which I learned this visit that he doesn't care to go by Timmy rather by Tim, but to me he is Timmy, Big Timmay, Tdog, Timmer, etc. Sometimes I call him by boring old Tim. But that is what he prefers... Anyway, we had lots of fun plans and a ton of food to prepare and eat because he has been living off cafeteria food in Arkansas where he plays Soccer for The University of Central Arkansas. Well, hardly any of this was to be accomplished because of a lovely little stomach bug that decided to grace our household. I was sick on Thanksgiving but didn't realize that it was a bug and not just pregnancy until I sat down to our Thanksgiving feast at the McAffees took three bites and high-tailed by back side up the stairs to totally annihilate their toliet. At that point I grabbed the keys and put myself in bed for the next 12 hours. Meanwhile, my three boys stuck around and devoured Richy's amazing smoked turkey and all the delicious trimmings. Afterwards, Richy was kind enough to let them play with his Wii. And guess who's a natural at Wii Boxing???

Must get it from these guys:

So then Friday, Matt ended up working a good portion of the day when he didn't think he was going to have to work at all. BUMMER!! Timmy and I did a little Black Friday shopping and mostly chilled at home. Then by the time Matt got home and we ate some dinner it wasn't too far from Carter's bed time so we stuck around and watched football. Matt wasn't too disappointed about that. I was okay with how the day went because I knew that Saturday we had lots of SUPER FUN plans to fill our day and make memories. Oh no, we made memories in other ways. Around 1 am Timmy woke up and took his turn totally demolishing our toliet downstairs and let me tell you, he put a major hurt on it. Yeah, no worries Tim, I made Matt clean that bad boy up. And Matt started his joy ride around 3 am. Needless to say, the boys were worthless the next day and our fun plans were cancelled. We were supposed to have a big party for the BYU vs Utah game but after sending out a "Come at Your own Risk" email and phone calls we only had one couple venture forth. And to my knowledge the both of them are still healthy and well. But we did get some pics of us dresssed in our gear and watching the game.

So Sunday after attending church we decided our "Ox was in the Mire" and since all the downtown Holiday events were going to be Free that day we were in the clear, right?

This awesome thing above is called the Holly Trolley which we absolutely love. During the Holiday Season they shuttle people around for free to all the different Holiday locations downtown and give you a little city tour while you're at it. Last year Carter thought he had died and gone to heaven and kept saying to himself, "Trolley Bus, Trolley Bus, Trolley Bus..." He still thought it was pretty cool this year.



Our lovely Tour Elf, Kristy Kringle.

While taking our tour we found out about another cool thing, the Ice Skating Rink at PPG Place was having free ice skating and hot chocolate that day, SCORE!!!! So we were off to give Carter his first ice skating experience.





Though it was a little frustrating Carter really enjoyed his first experience. As any soon to be 3 yr old (16 days away) he wished he could have done more "all by myself," but he was good at accepting the help.

I got such a JOY!!! at watching these three boys that I LOVE so much skate together and help each other out. These boys fill my cup to overflowing!!!!







And these two boys fill each other's cups. There is quite the love affair between them and that is another reason why I thank my lucky stars everyday that Matt married me. I love the way he fits into my family, especially the relationship he has with Big Timmay.

Also, at PPG Place they have a Wintergarden that they fill with gingerbread houses. There is also a train that runs through these houses and that is Carter's favorite part. I took pictures of some of my favorite gingerbread creations.

PPG Place

The White House

Candyland - Carter's new favorite game. We play it just about every day now.

The Duquense Incline - a famous Pittsburgh thing.

For those of you who grew up in Utah, you are probably familiar with the ZCMI windows all decorated at Chrismastime. I remember going to see those just about every year the same night we would go to the lights at Temple Square. So it was really fun for me that they do the same thing here at the Macey's Windows. They had a number of them decorated with a storyline about what happens to the letters we mail to Santa.

And of course, the last window Santa gets all the letters form Children around the World.

Here is the HUGE nativity scene they have downtown.

Thanks Timmy for coming out and being with us. We love you man!!!!!