A Tankersley Thanksgiving

We always celebrate Thanksgiving with Jeff's mom's side of the family the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We meet up at Uncle Wayne's Farm in Madison. It is SO beautiful there. So serene! And there are COWS. So the kids love it ;-)

Everyone brings a dish or two and we all pig out around noon for a heavy lunch. And typically, there is a UGA game on so most of the family gathers round to support all of their alma mater. Except Jeff, who has a major disliking for UGA, likely due to the incredible love the majority of his family has for them ;-) (Too much of a good thing, youknow?). Plus, he's just not a football guy (Thank you sweet Jesus!). So we usually use that as a chance to get out with the kiddos and roam the farm and check out the cattle.

This year, though, Uncle Wayne walked with us!!!! He told us all about the farm and we had a GREAT time!

Mack had a GREAT time running around but there were 2 concerns that we both had:
1. Cow Patties are everywhere
2. That fence is electric ;-)

So we had to keep him closer than he would have liked, which led to some screaming (Shocker!)

The cow on the right was preggo and expected to deliver in the next day or so. There was also a cow who had just delivered the day before who was in the back of the pasture with her calf where they were more secluded and could have some privacy. Rhyan LOVED hearing about the baby calves and preggo mama!

Jeff, again, keeping Mack from the fence while he screamed! haha... it was a fun memorable day for sure.

Here, you can see that Uncle Wayne planted a particular kind of grass that stays green in the winter (Rye, maybe?) and fenced it off so as to control how much the cattle eat.

I'm so relating to Emily Parker here... my pic with Mack, I get this face... And Jeff gets a smile. Really?!

Jeff, acting like a tiger prepping for a pounce on Rhyan. She thought it was less than funny, which WAS funny

Such a boy.... eating straw!

And here you can see that we were IN the fenced in area where the grass was planted. Jeff helped Uncle Wayne move the electric fence over a bit to give the cattle more grass to eat. But there is an obvious difference in where they've already eaten and the fresh, uneaten grass. Its so pretty!

My hero! On the way back up to the house, he carried BOTH kids for a bit. Seriously, they had both already stepped in cow poo and we were trying to salvage their shoes. Oh, and my back was hurting ;-)

I thought it would be nice to get a pic of me and the kids on the swing but we had 2 problems, again:
1. The wind was blowing
2. Mack wouldnt sit still

And then theres always the issue of "i look fat". So I called it quits after about 10 shots. Oh well.

My sweet mother and father in law!

Mack was obsessed with going in and out, in and out of the slats in the railing.

Sweet baby Chas and his Aunt Samantha

And sweet baby Elle and her daddy

Awwww.... Mack! Why so sad?! The answer is who knows ;-) He's a temperamental little thing! haha

TWINS!!! So cute!

We had a wonderful time visiting with all the family, although, I feel like since we had the kids that we do very little visiting... we're too busy chasing the babies! But we love all of the extended family and its such a blessing to get to see (most) everyone.