Thanksgiving Celebrations

Holidays have been hard for the past year, but this was one of the least stressful, easiest holidays I've had since my dad died.  As mopey as I was to not get to be with my family, I think it made it less sad for me because we were somewhere totally different.  We stayed in our pjs all morning and ate homemade cinnamon rolls and we watched the parade.  That afternoone our sweet friends, Aubrey and Jen McGowan, graciously opened their home to us and other friends who don't have family nearby.  We ordered our turkeys so no one would get stuck with that massive job and we each brought a few sides and it was great!  Not a lot of work, but a LOT of FUN! :-)  We had a Cajun Fried Turkey and a Smoked turkey and I was so glad we ordered two b/c their were plenty of leftovers and everybody got the taste they preferred!

                                   My three little turkeys!

                        Gigi (Jen's mom) and Dan carving our delicious birds!

                

          Anne and I....love this girl!  We have loved getting to live in the same city as them...FINALLY!

We ate and ate, we looked thru the ads and planned our Black Friday shopping strategies, played games and ate more!  It was such a fun time!

                          Can't believe how grown up these girls are?!?!

           The kids table eating dessert!

We are so thankful for so much in our lives!  Not only did God carry us through some very difficult "storms" in the past year or two, but He provided for all of our needs in such amazing ways!  We are thankful everyday for our salvation, our health, our children, our home, our family and friends and most of all each other!  On November 29th, Dan and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! While no marriage is perfect, I love that we are still so in love with each other!  I love that we have grown together and not apart during the hard times!  I love that he is my best friend and that after 8 years and 3 kids we still laugh together and have fun being together!  Looking forward to many, many more years.....living God's dream for our lives.....together!   I love you, Dan!

Bella's Birthday Party and a visit from Aunt Erika!

It's a pajama kind of day today....again!  I seem to be having a lot of these lately. :-)  So I thought it would be a good day to FINALLY catch up on my blog! :-)

Dan's sister, Erika, got to come visit us on Bella's birthday weekend and we had so much fun having her here!
We took her to the library...

and she got to have lunch with Bella at her school!

And she got to be here for the boys last soccer game and their end of the season party!

They loved playing soccer!

They loved having Daddy as their coach!  

 

But, most of all, they LOVED their trophies they got!

 I just have to say that my husband is amazing!  I always knew he was a patient man....I mean he would have to be to deal with me, right?!?! :-)  But, coaching 8 four year old boys is NOT easy....in fact it's extremely difficult, especially when they've never played soccer before.  But he NEVER lost his temper...he was calm and made learning soccer fun for them!  We had a really great group of parents and kids on our team too and they honored Dan by making this great photo collage of the team and giving us two gift certificates to go out to eat with!  So sweet!  We're looking forward to Spring season already!

It felt like we celebrated Bella's birthday for many, many days!  We had her actual birthday party at Strikz which is a bowling alley on Sunday.  My kids have been obsessed with Wii bowling for awhile so when they heard there was a place we could go bowling they were so excited.  We tried to explain it was different than Wii bowling but they wouldn't hear it...thankfully they enjoyed the real thing just as much! Bella invited a few of her friends from school and church and we hit the bowling lanes!

                                         My three posers!!

                                            Bella and Melia

 Karson helping Melia bowl......aren't those ramps great!  What a perfect idea for little kids so they don't hurt their wrists!

                                         The girls doing the cha-cha slide!

                                                        Bella and Kenzie

                                            Daddy helping Will

 After we bowled, we went to the party room and had pizza....

 ....and cupcakes and opened presents!   Bella has such sweet friends!  We are so grateful that even at an early age she is learning to choose her friends wisely!

Then Monday was her real birthday, so this was the day we went to lunch with Bella!

Then, we went to dinnner at Chick-Fil-A and then came home and had cake and opened more presents!!

Then on Tuesday she celebrated her birthday at school and took cookies for her class!  We also had to say goodbye to Aunt Erika on Tuesday morning!  :(   

Thanks for coming, Erika!  We love you and had so much fun!!!