Early Christmas Presents!

Thanks Aunt Debbie! We love our early Christmas presents!!!!

Last week we had dinner with my Aunt Debbie and she asked us to come over to her house and pick up the presents she had for the boys and for Haylyn. Happily we said yes we would love to come over. And by the way Aunt Debbie, "have you ever sewn any hooded towels, do you think you could help me?" I asked. She laughed. Here are the presents she got the kiddos, complete with embroidered names:

Thankfulness!

We had a great day of Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed our family at Granny's house. We had a awesome turkey dinner. The dogs (all 6 dogs that came with their owners) got to go for a run in the back lot as we had our first Thanksgiving walk. We watched football. We ate pie (it was a cheat day y'all). We played a guessing game that involved our writing down what we we thankful for (everyone participated as Granny made it a requirement for those who wished to eat. We drank coffee. The boys drove their gator, played in the rocks and played in the sand box. We tried to play the game "trouble" but Shiloh lost interest quickly and Jude got frustrated (I have no idea where the child gets his competitive nature and drive to win...).

I am so thankful. For all I have named and more. We spent the month of November focusing on thankfulness as a family and as a church family. I re-read parts of "1000 Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are" by Ann Voskamp. I highly recommend this book - lots of great insights (though I must admit I do not like her writing style at all in fact I think I hate it - but I love her heart and message and so love the book). We listened to Seeds Family Worship song "Thankfulness - Psalm 105:1-3" a lot. I love this song. I am full of thankfulness!

Every pumpkin pie needs whipped cream and someone has to clean those beaters.

Thanksgiving placemat making.

He unraveled a cat toy.

I'm even fuller (is that a word?) of excitement because now it is ADVENT!!!!!! My favorite season of all!!!!!!! Stay tuned for our spectacular decorating and Advent activities!

A Couple of Days Late to Say He is Eight (months that is)

It's a couple of days late...but Asher is now eight months old!!

Our little guy is growing. He is between 20 and 25 lbs. He wears 12 months clothing. He can crawl. He pulls himself up on everything. He can stand without holding on to everything (every time he does this I hear my chiropractor in my head "push that baby down" it's good for his neck curvature for him to crawl). He eats whatever we eat. Seriously. I try to give him purees but he throws a huge fit if I don't give him what we are eating - so whole foods it is. And he has no problem eating this with his 7 teeth and number 8 is already peeking through. He thinks he is so big and has decided he is a one nap a day kind of guy (at least it is a 2-3 hour nap). He has regressed to waking up at least once during the night (it is never the same time). I have tried to get a routine and schedule going but he resists my efforts so we just go with the flow. He is so much happier now that he is eating whole foods (don't worry he is still nursing) and he can move. He thinks Jude hung the moon. He loves Jude. If Jude laughs, he laughs. If he hears Jude he will look and look until he can find him. It is super cute.

Here are some pictures of the last month:

Impromptu Photo Shoot

Today we had an impromptu photo shoot. It all began as Chad was ironing his clothing and the boys clothing. We were getting ready to attend the M4 network gathering (which was great!) and Chad said, "I was thinking about getting some portraits done..." In horror I replied, "today, now?" You see it was already 4:15 pm and we needed to leave by 4:45 pm (and by leave I mean be in the car and driving away - so that means trying to get all the kids in the car at 4:30 pm). I should have done a better job of communicating when I thought we needed to leave but alas I did not. Chad replied that he hadn't thought of doing it today. Sigh of relief on my part. I turned to the task of changing Asher's diaper and getting him dressed. Then I heard Chad instructing the boys to take their chairs outside and get ready for some pictures. What? What? We need to leave! Ahhh. But we took pictures and under the bribe of halloween candy the boys mostly participated. Here are some pictures we got:

Yelling.

Frowny Face and Boker photo bombing.

Roar. 

Lilah Photo Bomb. We ended up bribing the dogs with dog treats.

Almost there. 

Close Enough!

Granny Day

Granny Day is one of our favorite days! And it happens every week! We play in the yard, let the dogs run in the pasture (we pretty much always take my pesky boston terriers to mingle with Granny's pesky boston terrier - and just so you know we are the only ones allowed to complain and talk bad about our boston terriers - we will be extremely offended and possibly end our relationship with you if you talk bad about our dogs so be warned), ride the power wheels john deere tractor, watch the garbage truck pick up the neighbors dumpster, dig in the sand box, eat a yummy lunch, have way to many snacks, ride in the golf cart, pull each other in the wagon, take a ride in the stroller (at least Asher does), have play dates with cousin Haylyn, play cards and board games, climb the huge pile of rocks, climb trees, stumble in an ant bed and of course drink coffee!  Anyway here are a few pictures taken over the last weeks from our time at Granny's.

In the Eyes of a 4 Year Old

Sometimes Jude gets ahold of my phone and takes hundreds of pictures. Sometimes when I look at them it lets me see how he sees things. It is like stepping into his shoes for a few minutes. Crazy to think but this is exactly what Jesus did. He stepped down from heaven and became a man. When I think about what it must have been like for God to become a man I am amazed. I look at the pictures Jude took because I love him and I think it is cute that he took them but they are not all that spectacular. God loved us and he became like us so he could save us even though we are not all that spectacular. So enjoy some of the pictures Jude took (p.s. - note that Lilah is in a couple).