Thanks-Christmas

A few years ago we started having Christmas while we were at Papa and Nana's for Thanksgiving. It was the only time that our immediate family was together alone during the holidays. As the kids get older it is harder to make them wait when we arrive for Thanksgiving. They are wanting to hurry and eat the turkey and be thankful so we can move along to the presents! The kids got some new toys and clothes (praise the Lord) and everyone was happy and even more thankful. Notice Uncle Tommy's new pink life jacket he received. That is so he won't drown we he goes into the water to retrieve his golf balls!

Old Friends/New Friends

On Friday night a childhood friend of Joel and Tommy's came over to Papa and Nana's for dinner. This is a friend from when they lived in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Christy is now married with a little girl and they live here in Knoxville. It was great to meet them. The kids enjoyed playing together and everyone had an enjoyable evening. Joel got to reunite with an old friend and the rest of us made some new friends.

Happy Thanksgiving

The girls Thanksgiving tradition-looking at the sale papers.

Three little turkeys sitting on the couch.

We are celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday in Knoxville with the Franks' family. Joel's brother, his wife, and their two boys are here and the kids are having a ball. We have eaten, played games, looked at the sale papers, eaten, watched football games, done a little shopping, eaten, been thankful. Did I mention that we have eaten? It has been a wonderful day. Tomorrow will be filled with more food, games, shopping, and playing.

On this Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things. First of all, the family that God has given me. I am so blessed to be married to Joel and have two wonderful, healthy children. I am very thankful for our church family. They are such blessings to us. I am thankful this year that I have my sister living nearby. It has been so much fun to be able to spend time with her again. I have so much more to give thanks for. I am a very blessed person.

Psalm 105:1 "O give thanks unto the Lord..."

A Nonphotogenic Bunch

My Mother found one of these pictures on my facebook page and wondered why she hadn't seen them. It is because they aren't very good. Joel said that we were very unphotogenic. These were made Sunday morning before church. Take one look at me (especially my eyes) and you can tell that I'm sick. I was in the bed just about all day Saturday. I have now passed the germs on to Joel. He just finished off my bottle of NyQuil and went to bed. Thankfully the kids haven't caught the mess yet. Squirrel is still on meds for her ears and Possum has just been doing wonderfully since his tonsils/adenoids surgery. Hopefully they will not get sick. That is all we need for Thanksgiving. Anyways, enjoy these wonderful pictures of the Possum, Squirrel, and their sick Mommy!

Desperate Times

Squirrel was not wanting to take a nap by herself today and so we told Possum to go lay down with her until she went to sleep. About an hour later I decided to go and check on them and this is what I found. Notice the middle picture. Squirrel has technically not had a paci since the spring, but at times she has found the need for one. For a while she was hiding them from us. I guess she was desperate today, because that is a baby bottle nipple in her mouth. You take what you can get! There are some days that I feel she will have a paci in her mouth when she walks down the aisle on her wedding day!

Sweet Siblings

My darling babies were sweet enough to pose for a few pictures tonight. They actually look like they love each other in these! Possum is doing great, but Squirrel is on the puny side this evening. She is running a fever and just doesn't feel good. We have a busy weekend coming up so hopefully Squirrel will perk up tomorrow. The kids are really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Possum is counting the days down. Only 7 more days to go!

My Very Own Top Chef

If you know Joel you know that he enjoys creating new things in the kitchen. What he doesn't like to do is cleanup after himself! He has helped me create some new desserts lately that are out of this world. I will give all the banana roll credit to him! About a month ago he built a new grill/smoker and he has been trying new things on it. Sunday night is our Thanksgiving meal at church. He and I usually cook the turkeys for the meal and so he wanted to try and smoke one. This was going to be his trial run. It turned out wonderfully! The turkey was so moist and delicious. Dad (Joel's dad) always smokes a turkey at Thanksgiving and it is my absolute favorite. I look forward to his turkey all year long! Now I don't have to wait. Joel's turkey was just as good as his Dad's. This is a huge compliment for me to give. I can't wait for Sunday night so I can eat more of this delicious turkey.

A Clean Laundry Room

This post is specifically for my sister. Since Cricket has been married she has lived away from everyone until recently. Now she and I live within a two hour drive from each other. To say that we are loving this is an understatement. The first time I got to visit her home I was a little envious at how uncluttered her house was. I guess this comes from moving so much. The less clutter you have, the less time and effort it takes to pack/unpack it. When I came back from that first visit I have tried to unclutter our house. It just doesn't work around here for some reason-until today. This morning I woke up early and started getting busy cleaning my neglected house. I did so much baking last week that the housework was put on the backburner. I don't do laundry (unless absolutely necessary) on Sundays, so the laundry piles up between Saturday and Monday. I had finished one load of laundry and started the second load when I heard an awful noise. Yes. My washing machine was dying. To make a long story short, Poppy helped me out tremendously and brought the machine back to life. In order for Poppy to perform the surgery I had to clean out the laundry room. This was a chore that I had been wanting to do, but had been putting it off. This was the time. I now have a very cleaned out laundry room that even Cricket would be proud to have in her home!!!

A Rabbit Hunting Squirrel

Daddy and Squirrel let Brownie (Possum's rabbit dog) out to run for a few minutes this morning. As you can see, Brownie found a rabbit for them. Squirrel enjoys going hunting with her Daddy as much as Possum does. I think I have seen her more excited about going hunting with him than anything ever. She is definitely a Daddy's girl!