Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with family this year. My mom, my sister and her family, my brother, John's parents and John's grandma all came over to eat! John's sister and family have came the last two years but they were not able to make it this year. They are living in California so we missed them and wished they could have been there with us! I started feeling sick a couple of days before Thanksgiving, so John did all of the cooking, and I have to say he did an awesome job! I am still fighting some kind of cold/sinus infection and it looks like Brennan has it now and Ayla woke up a little stuffy this morning so I am praying they do not feel as bad as I do. I lost my voice for a few days and I am just now getting that back. Since I was not feeling well, I did not get many pictures on Thanksgiving day :( Oh, I forgot to add that the kids LOVED watching the Thanksgiving day parade on T.V. Ayla loved all of the singing and dancing. It was fun to watch that together! Here is Ayla and Brennan eating breakfast watching the parade!

John being the "chef"

Ayla playing with Memaw, she loves taking her into her room to play!

Grandpa and Brennan

I went shopping on Black Friday with my sister and step mom since I had been planning it for weeks. John took off from work so I could go and some how I managed to get up and go shopping from 5am to 1:30 pm. Yes, it was crazy but we had a lot of fun. I know most people do not like fighting the crowds but it was not that bad and I hardly EVER get to go shopping without the kids so I enjoyed it!!

When I got home on Friday, John had went to Home Depot and picked up some Christmas Decorations for outside. I was shocked when he bought the white reindeer for outside because normally he is not a fan of yard art....haha, but he knew the children would like it so he caved in and bought THREE reindeer for our yard. Ayla loved it and she was outside helping him most of the day! He always puts the white lights out and we put lighted wreaths on all of the windows. The only thing I need now is garland for around the door and a wreath on the front door. I tried to take some pics last night of the house, I will try to post them later today. We have not put our tree up yet because I have not been up to it. I am feeling better today so maybe we will get that out this evening!

I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving, only 25 more days until Christmas!! Oh, speaking of Christmas, Ayla was watching the Dora Christmas movie and she was so excited and she came to me and said, " Mommy, Santa is coming" and I said yes in a few weeks and then she said, "But not the Grinch", no baby not the grinch!! How funny!! I have been telling her everyday about Christmas and how it is Jesus's birthday. I don't want her to think it is ONLY about getting presents. Last year on Christmas I read the Christmas story of Jesus and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I am sure this will be a long lasting Christmas Tradition!

THANKSGIVING

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and it was wonderful. Of course we missed our family that could not be there, but overall we had a great day. Johns sister, husband and three nieces were able to come in from Michigan and join us. They have just spent the last eight years of their life as missionaries in Albania so it was great to see them and spend some time with them. They are awesome people, Johns niece's are sooo smart, they speak English and Albanian. Maggie the oldest is eight and she plays the violin amazingly!! It was a fun filled day of singing, praying, playing, dancing , having fun and being thankful for all of the blessings in our life!!!

......... here is Brennan just hanging out................




and Kaleb finally stepped in front of the camera.......

the boys playing the Wii, and of course Ayla had to join in on the fun!!

The girls playing............

Maggie entertaining us with her violin!!

and Ayla and Memaw dancing made for a very fun day!!

THE CLAY CENTER

Instead of shopping the day after Thanksgiving, I decided to take Ayla to the Clay Center to play. They were having Christmas activities all day long with lots of Christmas Trees and Trains to look at so I thought It would be a great opportunity to get her out of the house and have fun. This was the first time going since she has started feeling better and she had a great time. She was running, going down the slide and jumping into the ball pit with no problems at all. This is the first time that I actually had to keep up with her!! Santa Clause also made an appearance but we just waved and kept our distance. She was not to sure about him and I saw no reason to traumatize her and make her sit on his lap. Overall, it was a very fun day of play!!!!!!! She is still doing really well, we have a Dr's appointment this Friday so I will keep everyone posted!! For the time being, we are enjoying watching our little girl come out of her shell for the first time since I can remember. Our prayers are being answered and we are so thankful!!