A Happy Thanksgiving~

Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite days of the year!
We were so happy to have my side of the family for lunch to celebrate~

The weather was warm and the trees were beautiful and the people especially sweet~

I loved taking a few Christmas photos for Jason and Amy~

Amelia & Logan and Jessie & Peter~

We also loved celebrating Sissy and Amy's birthdays~

There is nothing more wonderful than family gathered to celebrate love, peace, and thanksgiving!!!

Parties, Family, & Children~

All the big kids came over for the day Saturday to celebrate Scott's birthday.
The guys played golf and the girls had a day of hanging out together.
We finished the day with everyone gathered around our table~

NOTHING makes me happier that all of us together!

We celebrated Labor Day with Jason, Amy, & their kids with frigid swimming, pizza, and homemade ice cream~

Rosie had her last big/little reveal and she's the great grandmother~

Blows my mind that she is in her senior year of college!

SJ found the perfect stick bow, 10 perfect stick arrows, and sewed her own quiver~

 She and Calla took care of all the wild animals in our yard!

I decided to do a little rearranging of the sunroom creating a table space for art or whatever~

And here is baby Calla helping just like the big kids with our JOY time~

A great week!

Christmas Card Afternoon~

Every Thanksgiving afternoon we try so hard to get a Christmas card photo
and this year was no exception~

 Trying to nail down an arrangement~

 MY Beautiful People~

 My Main Beautiful Person~ {Scotty}

 My Six Beautiful Blessings~

You can imagine what a big job it was to get everyone dressed, in a spot, set up the camera,

get everyone looking AT the camera, and hope everyone is somewhat happy.

{Huge thank you to Amelia who bought all the outfits for the littles!}

The shoot was a success and Christmas card has been ordered!!!

Check off the big fat Christmas list. :)

IF Gathering~

My sil Amy planned and pulled off 

a wonderful IF Gathering for women in our area

and invited me to come.

SO wonderful to hang with her and Stephanie for an evening and day~

It is always hard to leave families and get away 

but there was NO doubt in my mind that we were supposed to be there

when we saw this gorgeous sky right over the venue!

Go God!!!!!

A Big Day~

We headed to Gwinnett this am and met our social worker at the park for WP's 3 year home visit 

then to pediatrician for flu mists/shot {both went perfect}~

Then to Target for shopping/my flu shot and finally to pick up BC for the weekend.

Savannah and Josh have a wedding so we are blessed to have BC all to ourselves!

Amy and Jason invited us to meet them in town for a walk around the square seeing all the scarecrows~

It's awesome our kids are so easily entertained!

Afterwards we returned home for ~

Baths for everyone and bottle for BC.

I think it's going to be a pretty wonderful weekend!!!

Christmas @ Uncle Jason's House~

Tonight we were excited to celebrate Christmas with Jason, Amy, and kids before they head to Michigan on Friday.

We had dinner and then the OH SO fun opening of gifts.

We let the littles exchange gifts and bigs do too~

 I think they all were super happy with what they received~

Let's see... EK: horses, SJ: bunny, PC: dino, WP: dino, EC: bear puzzle.

They will have fun new things to play with tomorrow~

Thank you Jason and Amy for having us!!

 Sure missed Josh, Savannah, and Amelia!!!

Parade of Lights~

In keeping with holiday tradition, we met Jason's family last night to watch the Parade of Lights~

 And like many other events this year...

This was Payne and Evie's FIRST Christmas Parade.

It is often so hard to prepare them for what they will experience.

Like a Christmas parade???

It is just a matter of doing it~

Look at the cute glasses boys!

Payne LOVED the firetruck.

Evie loved gathering the candy after she got over the shock of the loud sirens.

Great time had by all and you can tell from shorts and no socks we were having an unseasonably warm day... 70s.

Made for a very enjoyable evening!!!

Trick or Treating~

Payne and Evie definitely thought their first experience with ToT was SO fun.

We always go to my mom and dad's first and this year was just SO sweet.

They were greeted by my mom and she just covered them in love... like she always does right? big girls?~

 She had big goody bags waiting for them and they loved it.

We met Jason, Amy, and the kids there since we always ToT with them {our tradition!}~

 Look at those adorable boy cousins!!!

And thanks to Amy we got this awesome big group photo... just missing the 6 big grandchildren and 1 greatgrand!!!~

 My 5 LOVE their 3 cousins!!!~

 After my parents' house we made our way to Aunt Susan's neighborhood for ToT~

 Along the way we met up with Evie's BFF from China~ Lily Hope {Sweet!}.

Such a great night of fun and home in bed by 8:30!

Now the REAL fun can begin!!!

A Sweet Saturday~

At Home!!!

Sandy Creek Nature Center~

Today we went with Amy, Max, and Addie to the Sandy Creek Nature Center for a field trip~

 It was the perfect outing for spring and all the things we have been studying in school~

 It was not crowded at all and there were lots of hands on activities to do. All the cousins loved being together as well as me/Amy/Amelia~

 We spent about an hour and a half inside then ventured out on a boardwalk trail through the woods. We were able to find a huge patch of poison ivy and they were amazed!!! It was a really beautiful and warm day making us all very hungry so we enjoyed a yummy lunch together too.

We are already looking forward to our next outing with the Martins!!!

More Cookies~

Aunt Amy had us over for more cookie decorating fun this morning~

It was so fun and yummy. She makes THE best icing!!!!

Thanks Aunt Amy, Max, and Addie. We had a great time!!!

 

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Simply Sunday~

Day 18~ Thankful for my little brother Jason and His amazing love for Jesus. Our family was blessed to hear him speak today @ Impact Church.

We also celebrated Amy's birthday with pizza and cookie cake!!! We loved making you feel special!!!

AND our social worker came for WP's one year visit this afternoon. She was amazed how much he had grown and matured. So sweet!!!

Happy birthday to my sister Marcia tomorrow!!! Wish we could make you feel special too~ next weekend for sure!!!

A wonderful Simple Sunday!

 

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Pumpkin Patch Day~

All littles were fast asleep quickly last night so today would come quickly... Pumpkin Patch Day. We loaded the car and read a book on the way (planning to print our pics and make our own book)~

We met Jason, Amy, kids, and mama there. It was so surreal to think back to last year when we would be leaving in just days to get WP and here he was today~

 Everyone LOVED Hardy Berry Play Patch: animals, tennis ball shooting, animals, jumping, swinging, car racing, animals~

 After lots of playing, we boarded a hayride to the pumpkin patch to choose the perfect pumpkins~

 Loved that WP chose a green one~

 Next was a huge slide and back to the car~

 Thank you Memommy for a GREAT Pumpkin Patch Day!!! 

We LOVE you so much!!!