Thanksgiving, Family, and The Zoo!

I think that's everything I need to post about since I'm shamefully behind. The day before Thanksgiving, my mom called to say that we should have a little get together to play games. I thought, "Okay, this is always fun. Let's do it!" She also mentioned under her breath that she had a surprise. I assumed this meant she made me some chocolate temptation or that my birthday present had arrived. So, we arrived at the "party" with all of my siblings. Dean and Mary with their kids, Mom and Dad, Mandy and Trent and their little boy, Libs and Maddie, Danny and Emily and Sam, and....Monica. Oh yeah, did I mention my surprise was Monica!!!! Her and Madeline kept it a secret that she was coming. I guess it was snowing and Mad told mom and dad that she had to pick up a friend from the airport. They DID NOT want her to drive in that weather, so mom went with her. I guess she was tearfully surprised to see Monica there! Everybody was shocked to see her. Except Madden played with the vacuum the entire time she was here. It was so fun to have her. Of course, we missed Brad as he spent Thanksgiving in Cali. I'm pretty sure we went to my parents' every night to see her. Fortunately, they had enough food for us to mooch on for dinner as well! Thanksgiving was too much! I gained two pounds, Tyler gained five pounds, and his work out buddy at the gym....16 pounds! We have not gotten over that! In addition to our gluttonous weekend, we were able to put up our Christmas decorations. London was so excited that she bounced around the house during the entire process. She is such a crack up. Our kids are growing so fast. The other day London was begging for wet wipes. She's slightly OCD and I know that she hates any tacky feeling on her palm. I told her absolutely no more wet wipes and shut the bathroom door on her because I had to go! A second later I yelled, "LONDON!!! WHY IS THE TOILET SEAT STICKY!?!" She calmly stated, "I was trying to tell you. I need a wet wipe because Madden grabbed a banana and wiped it on the toilet seat." I felt thoroughly chastised and laughed at the whole thing! Her and Madden are still best friends and usually partners in crime. I have had to take all of the ornaments off the bottom of the tree because Madden tears them off, and London will rearrange them! Both kids are in a jumping phase. They'll say, "One, two, three, JUMP!" London will actually get off the ground whereas Madden does a full squat and stands quickly up. It's so anti-climatic but, hilarious. Tyler's mom and step-dad are in town from England so Grandma and Grandpa Barnes took everyone to the zoo! I had no idea they did lights and Christmas decorations. I believe they even had Santa there but, there was a 45 min wait. No Thanks! You can't tell, but there's a reindeer in the background of this next pic. London was so excited the entire time. Her and I were running every which way trying to get in everything we could. Ty had a good time playing with his cousin's kids as well as all the other kids! He's such a child! At the beginning, Madden was kind of grumpy. He'd eaten an entire kid's meal so you'd think he would be happy. Nope, he was kind of stoic and mopey. I even gave him a kiss, and he ignored me. Once we got into the park his eyes went huge! He even tried to grab the lights and bite them! We saw snakes, crocodiles, a reindeer, bugs, etc. But, the best were the tigers! There were four of them circling around this bridge. At one point a tiger went right up to the glass where Tyler was holding Madden. It steamed up immediately and terrified little Madden and me! I'm pretty sure that Tiger saw Madden as a snack! The zoo was a fun time. Here I leave you with a video of our jumping children. Enjoy!