Happy Thanksgiving!

What a fabulous celebration of thanksgiving we had in our family this year. We had 15 loved ones in our home at a variety of times during the day, and it was just wonderful. This was the first time in five years we have been home and I loved every minute of cooking and serving.
This was our centerpiece made by the girls. They collected the pine cones and found a branch and then put fall leaves on the branches with things they were thankful for written on them. The girls were so much help and it was fun sharing the kitchen and the decorating with my girls. It was a nice glimpse into our future!

I considered getting out my grandmothers dishes and serving dinner on them, but after cooking two turkeys and most of the fixings, we just were blessed by Chinet! This is just a sample of the goodness, too bad you can't taste it!

This was my favorite picture of the day. It brought back warm and fun memories of my childhood. I remember when I was young and we would travel to the Grandparents and go "shooting" out in the clay pit, and then dig the bullets out of the clay... this was just a BB gun with a paperplate turkey taped to the fence, but it was fun and we had a few good laughs! My grandpa still could shoot pretty well even at 92 and with only one eye!

Olivia impressed the crowd as well!

Finn found himself in "timeout" and getting a little encouraging talk from his uncle Todd. I hope it was something like,"learn from my mistakes little man, and walk the straight and narrow!"

The Buhmeyers stopped by for dessert, but ended up just visiting with Sherri and Conrad! It is amazing that just a few short years ago all of these paths did not cross, but God's ways are perfect, and His timing is perfect. We continue to have that truth woven into the fabric of our lives. What a joy to have them over for Thanksgiving.

Girls with Uncle Todd, they were hoping to not get a tight squeeze!

This was a great time of pics. The grands with Mee-Maw! Pictures were part of her gift!

This year I guess the holiday was a little more special because of having Conrad here with us. We had a little scare this past year with him, but with our God's grace and mercy all mistakes were righted! We love and cherish him. Thanksgiving had a new flavor this year, and it had nothing to do with food.

Family and good food! (These smiles were hours and hours before we had combed through the ads over and over and then went and participated in BLACK FRIDAY SALES!)

Just beautiful, my girls and my Grandfather, Roy. Completely humbled by the blessings in my life.

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Mee-maw's Surprise 60th Birthday Party! aka Fiesta!

Kaitie pulled it off... Sue was completely surprised and the grands were there to soften the blow!

Mee-maw and her mojito!

My girl and her sprite!

She loves to do this everynight...read....begs for more minutes....this night she had a friend!

Legoland

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Awakening

The girls performed Sunday. They had been working on a rountine in their Ballet class. It was to the song Awakening by Chris Tomlin. It was really pretty! They are so graceful and very good at dancing. Their dad got choked up and full of tears, my heart swelled with pride. We are so thankful for these two blessings.

Acorns

Thankfulness reigns around here! We celebrated with our church family recently with a soup fall picnic. One of our contributions were these fancy little snacks! Chocolate acorns! We had fun feeling all creative. It was even more nice because Conrad was here to join in the fun!

Ingredients:

Kisses

mini vanilla wafers

butterscotch chips

We used a griddle to heat the bottoms of the kiss and chip so that it would stick to the wafer. Whala! Done!

End of Fall Ball

Olivia finished up her first season of baseball. She was a star player. We were not so sure how it would be when we started on this adventure back in August. Practices were hard, hot and coaching was hard, especially when it came from her Dad. We tried having some family nights of hitting the ball and catching practice back in August, but it was so hot!

She stayed with it, and she surprised not only us, but her coaches and team too! She was one of the best on the team. Steve kept up with her stats (surprise, surprise!!) She ended the season with a batting average of .650 !

Stephanie was the constant cheerleader! She helped carry the equipment and was her biggest fan. Kay-Kay made it to almost every game too! We were not lacking in the family support, we almost never were there alone! Olivia beamed with pride at the love! One of those weeks Conrad showed up and it was a huge surprise! Finn made it to three of the games himself!

Great team and coaches!

Only two girls on the team...and they were both great. D'Yani is a great first base player and runs like the wind. She is as sweet as she is cute, and we loved having her over for some fun this season too!

Most games she had to share the outfield with another player, but she always got to bat! She still needs to work on knowing where to throw the ball and when to steal a base and then she might be ready for the big leagues!

I loved her stance and her great attitude! GO NUMBER NINE!