Gobble, Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving out in Pecos with the Dominguez/Davidson/Forrister bunch. Lots of food, family and fun times were had by all.

David's brother, Daniel, his wife, Syndi and Grandma working on the food prep.
I am quite sure I drove them nuts taking photos...I was messing around with my camera and trying to figure out how to take photos out of the auto mode.

Great Grandpa carving the turkey.

Benjamin

Cousin Elena, Thumper and Jonathan playing in the backyard.

Aunt Arly and Cousin Nathan

Ema is following in Grandma's footsteps....a cup of tea and quilting kept her busy all morning.

Cousin Eli and Benjamin

Jonathan waiting on his turkey....

The Spread...lots of yummies as usual!

The never-ending table! How fun, huh?

From the other end...

Everet wasn't too keen on Grandpa moving his sippy cup! Um...within arm's reach, please.

Nathan enjoying a little bite of turkey.

After dinner, several of us played several rounds of Dominoes

This morning we headed out to Barstow to tell everyone bye.

Great Grandpa explaining to Jonathan that two was only two fingers...not four.

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Preschool Fall Program

The boys' had a big day at preschool on Thursday. Although, I didn't make it to school during the day to make it to their "Sharing Feasts" (I was recovering from that stupid bug), I have had many reports that great fun was had by all. Each child in their classes brought something special to share with everyone for lunch. Benjamin was particularly excited that someone in his class brought cheese! Hey, whatever it takes, right? They both came home with lots of cute turkey crafts and fun memories of their day.

I did feel much better by the evening and we all pulled it together to make it to their Fall Program. Jonathan was a bit of a ham on the stage:

Here he is waving at Benjamin's class in the audience.

Here's where he realized I was sitting on the floor taking pictures. 

I was just glad he didn't run down the stairs to me!

He did decide to perform with his class a bit, too.

Singing The Cow Song

Benjamin was kind of buried in the four-year-old classes on stage so I didn't get the best photos of him....

you can see his head poking out in the middle.

He's still in there!

Yay for Bennagins!

And, I guess I am not the only bad videographer in the family (as I certainly learned from the EHS Choir incident). Although he did have a bad lighting situation on his hands, David is right up their with me on video skills. Jonathan's taping was *somewhat* watchable. Benjamin's however didn't turn out at all. : (

I guess we'll be purchasing the one the school made!

I know not everyone will want to watch the entire thing, but if you have a few minutes, here is Jonathan with the two year olds:

Last One Standing...

Hi Everyone, David here!

Please pray for Kristi, as she is down with what we hope is a quick bug. First, it was Benjamin. Then, a day or two later, it was Jonathan. Now, just today, it's Kristi.

I'm the only one who hasn't gone down, and I'm going to try and keep it that way!

Everyone out there, take care and stay well.

Get well soon, Kristi!

Love you!

Jon Jon

A couple of you asked why Jonathan didn't have any individual pics with our family ones. There is an actual reason. Melissa was also the photographer for our preschool this year. I LOVED the photos she took of Jonathan....they melted my heart. Benjamin really wasn't in a very picture-taking kinda mood that day, so I asked Melissa to take those individual photos of him on the day we had our family pics.

Here are the ones that Melissa took of Jonathan from the BCP shoot. I seriously have no clue which ones I want order...actually I want them all. Decisions, decisions.

Shooting the Eagles

Our good friend, Melissa took our family photos again this year. She is so fun to work with and a wonderful photographer.

We booked her for last Saturday after Benjamin's flight. I was a bit worried with how eXhAuStEd the kiddies were after the big day, but, leave it to Melissa to take some great shots despite that....and in enemy territory! ; )

We decided to take our photos on the Ellison campus this year....and sweet Melissa (being a rival Killeen High teacher) came on over to our side of things to work with us.

Check our preview out on Melissa's site:

Melissa's Photo Blog

THANK YOU, MELISSA!! You rock!

Flying High with Benjamin....the Photo Story

Last week, I received an amazing phone call. On the other end of the phone was one of the directors of Hope Therapy in Temple. She was calling to tell me that Benjamin had been nominated to be a part of the Flying Vikings program. We felt so honored and thrilled for our little guy. The Flying Vikings is a very generous program that puts together flights for special-needs kiddos. The children go up in a plane with their pilot and a parent and then are even able to "take control of the plane" and fly on their own.

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to head to the airport in McGregor for Benjamin's flight. 

Our Little Aviator

While we were there, a photographer from the Waco Tribune followed Benjamin around for a bit. Sunday morning, we found this photo in the paper! So cool! 

My four favorite guys....my parents drove up from Marble Falls for the big event! We had some time to kill while waiting for the clouds to clear, so we took a little walk around the airport.

We were in the group of flights that went up first.

This was Benjamin meeting his pilot, James.

Watching James prep the plane for our flight.

Ready to go!

I got to ride along in the back. 

What an incredible experience to be a part of with Benjamin.

This was right before take off....getting excited!

This is a short video of our take-off:

Flying high over McGregor and Waco. 

Benjamin said his favorite thing to look out and see was the "little swimming pools".

"Okay, James....ready to take over from here."

This is my FAVE video-- it's of Benjamin landing the plane! Look at him go!

Being presented with his First Flight Certificate and his Little Pilot's Wings

Woohoo!

Getting his wings pinned on.

This was the plane we flew. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. We really did enjoy it. Although, I felt like an old lady when James asked if we wanted to try some "zero gravity tricks"... he pushed some buttons and it felt like we were free falling for a moment. A little much for this mama. I have grown into such a wimp!

Jonathan was well occupied while we were in the air! 

There were bounce houses, face painting, crafts, pizza and more. 

He had a great time, too!

Benjamin's therapists, Shana and Rachel came out to cheer him on. 

LOVE these ladies so much! 

They are the ones who nominated him for this incredible day!

Jonathan flew his own plane, too! ; )

Doing a few crafts and connect-the-dots before we left.

This was a day that will live in our hearts forever. What incredible people the folks are who put so much time and effort into making this day so amazing for us. Thank you, Flying Vikings, especially Paul Hansen who works tirelessly to run this organization and make it so incredible! Thank you to all the directors at Hope Therapy, especially Heather! And we couldn't forget Shana, Rachel and James, our pilot! You guys made the day for our little man. Thanks a million times over!