Being Thankful

We had a fantastic feast yesterday for Thanksgiving.  We have much to be grateful for in our home.  I love this family of mine.  I was determined to have a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out so great.  It was helpful to have Jackie and Jerry here.  Jackie brought half of the food with her that she prepared at home.  We made the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and beans.  Lots of cooking and cleaning up messes as we went but it was fun to do it together.
I set the table with plates that were my Grandma's.  I love these plates because they remind of happy gatherings at her home when I was younger.  I miss those fun and rowdy times with all of my cousins.  I made way too much stuffing and feel a little tired and sluggish today from all of that delicious food and from preparing it all.  It seems to crazy that another Christmas season is here upon us.  I love this time of year because there is always something to look forward to.

Abby's Hair

Sometimes having a big sister is pretty awesome when she does your hair into cute hairstyles that would whine and cry about if your mom tried to do it.

Sammie the Smarty Pants

Sammie tries so hard in school to do well.  She was given the Academic Achievement award from her teacher for the first quarter of school. She also was on the Principal's List and got an award for having 150 AR Reading points already.  She loves school and is definitely there to do her work and to do well.

Joey's Birthday

Joey and I have been talking lately about how we can't believe how old we are getting.  He just turned 37 a week ago.  Joey also just finished his Master's Thesis for American History and Government.  Hooray!  He received high praises for his work from his professors who read and reviewed it.  The past 5 years have been so enjoyable for him as he has learned and studied and grown.

Olivia snapped this photo of us after church on his birthday.  It seems like Joey and I don't have nearly as many appearances on the blog as our kids, but here we are.  Happy Birthday Joey!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year.  I don't think I have seen so many trick-or-treaters before.  We somehow got caught in a group where the kids were just streaming from one door to the next.  It was a little crazy and hard to keep track of our own kids but luckily I only had two to look after.  Olivia went on her own with her friends this year.  She said they went for 3 hours!  She came home exhausted but had a great time.
The girls had sort of a hard time figuring out what they wanted to be this year.  Olivia's we thought of last minute and she just wore some of her own clothes, but I made the fringe vest out of a $5 t-shirt.  After our "Witches Night Out," Sammie and Abby both decided to be witches for Halloween.  In the end, they turned out adorable.  Sammie and Abby were both particularly excited about the "witch jewelry" that we found.  It really made the outfit I think.
I love this time of year.  There is always something fun to look forward to.  Somehow we managed to get in all of our fun fall traditions this year.  Even the pumpkins got carved.  Sammie proved to be quite the pumpkin carver.  These girls are such posers.

The Hippie:

The Witch:

The "Purple" Witch:

Olivia's Trick-or-Treating Crew

And...Sammie the Pumpkin Carver