"Thanksgiving 2011"

What a blessed Thanksgiving for our family this year. Since my sister's recent diagnosis of cancer only 8 weeks ago, our world and our priorities have flipped on their heads and changed dramatically. We have all come to appreciate and be grateful - I mean, a deep, heart-felt gratitude, for the simple things of life, the day to day, ordinary blessings that so many of us miss on a daily basis. A cloud, the way the wind blows, the way your child says your name, the smell of a candle, the sound of a bird calling in a far away tree, the sound of your spouse's car as he/she pulls up in the driveway each evening, and even a dirty house - for it means that you and your family have a home and spend time in it together.  Thanksgiving this year was so much more than eating the traditional Thanksgiving meal and watching  football all weekend. It was truly a time to reflect and give thanks for our countless blessings - some of which seem insignificant, but really are of utmost importance.  My faith and salvation in Christ Jesus, and my family, are truly the most important things in my life and it was a wonderful weekend to reflect on both.  Jay and I spent the night before Thanksgiving at our church's annual Thanksgiving service.  Jay was preaching that evening and we ended the service with Communion. It was a beautiful and intimate service, and a time for us to reflect on Christ's sacrifice to us, which even He did with a grateful and thankful heart. It, very much like a Christmas Eve service, set the tone for us for the next day of Thanksgiving.

We were most thankful that my sister had the strength to drive down from Birmingham to be with us for a few days. We were hoping Jay's family would also be able to join us, but due to an illness in their family, they were not able to be with us - and we missed them greatly. We spent the day at my grandparents' house in the country.  The kids had the whole day and the whole yard to run around, ride toys, feed catfish, fish, and ride the mower and power wagon. The 3 of them loved it, and the parents loved that we could turn them loose to enjoy being children. We made a day of it, getting there around 10:00am and leaving well after 6:30pm.   It was the perfect day to be outside and none of us had any kind of agenda.  We relaxed, with no place to go, and enjoyed family - and lots of good food.

The next day, we spent some time with the other side of our family.  My cousins Lisa (drove down from Birmingham), and Lauren (drove across and down from Kansas) were able to be with us and we were so thankful to have everyone together. We didn't get to spend as much time with them as we had hoped, but we were grateful for the time that we did have. It was such a fun reunion seeing them, and having all of the little cousins together too.

After EB drove alittle too close to the pond, we realized we had just turned him loose on his tractor without giving him clear boundaries about where he could ride and where he couldn't.  This picture is Daddy giving him the boundaries!

EB and Bradford, deep in conversation or conflict resolution about who gets to ride the tractor!  It was a peaceful exchange this time, which is improvement!

A boy and his beloved John Deere

A momma and her beloved husband :)

33 weeks pregnant

Uncle Jay and Bradford - she is so light and petite and can fly! I am not sure if Jay realized how much she could fly though. He is used to our solid boy! She was squealing with delight every time though, so I assume she was okay :)

EB pulling Wyatt on his "scootch".  Ingenious Chris - nice job!

Elliot giving love to Bradford - special mommy and daughter moment

And EB pulling Bradford on "scootch"

"Sitting on the dock of the bay" - or the bank of a pond!

EB and Wyatt looking for the fish. Still makes my stomach drop seeing them hanging over the side of the rail.  I suppose there are some good things that come with a drought and almost dried up pond - if they fell overboard, they wouldn't sink very far!

Good old-fashioned boy fun - playing in the mud

Little "Huckleberry Finn"! This was before he stepped in a fire ant bed and was bitten about 30 times on his little feet.

Trying so hard to get a picture of all of the kids, although I think Bennett had ducked and run out by this point.  Lisa was playing a game with them to get their attention to look at the camera!

We thought maybe if the mommies sat with the kids, we would be more successful. And, I think it worked!

Lisa, Elliot, Erin, and Lauren (the 4 cousins) 

The weekend really was about as perfect as they come, and I was grateful for every second with my family. There was a verse of Scripture that kept coming to my mind all weekend and that was, John 1:16, "From the fullness of His grace we have all received, one blessing after another".