"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". 

"Blog going private"!

So, I have been debating this for quite some time now, but I think it's time.  This blog is about to go private in a week or so.  I want my friends and family to still have access to this blog, so if you want to be included, just let me know - either sending me an email through my personal account, or if you are comfortable, you can leave me your email address in the comment section of this post so that you can be "invited" to read it (according to blog). I am still trying to figure out how setting up a private blog works, but I do know that you will have to have a google account and possibly sign in each time you want to read it.  Sorry y'all - I know it's an extra step and might not be as convenient for many of you, but I just don't feel comfortable with it being public anymore for many reasons.

Thank you for your understanding!  We'll still be around and I will still be blogging regularly so keep checking back!

"Just some pictures"......

Love this picture - he wants to be just like his Daddy!   The one above is his new favorite way to help me around the house. He LOVES to vacuum.  He asks to do it all the time, and is actually pretty good at it. His new-found love of it comes at a very good time, since pushing the vacuum right now is pretty tough for me. 

Not really sure why this picture is alittle blurry, but thought it was cute anyway. I am trying to document these final weeks of the pregnancy. Have not done a good job of it this go around.  (32 weeks)

This is "no-shave November", in honor of cancer awareness. That is why Jay has his beard! We keep getting told by many people that we would make a very good Mary and Joseph this Christmas with his beard and my big ole' belly!

"HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY ELIJAH BROOKS"!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIJAH BROOKS!!   Well, my "baby" officially turned 3 years old this week.  He's been mistaken for 3 for nearly a year now because of his size, but now it's official.  Wonder if he will get mistaken for 4 now?  We had a low key day on his actual birthday (the 7th), and just did whatever he wanted to do. We woke up and I made him a birthday "star" pancake with sprinkles and 3 candles.  After breakfast, he opened 2 small gifts we had given him and then it was time to get ready for our day.  I asked him the night before what he wanted to do on his big day, and his response was, "go to the John Deere store, ride the train at the zoo, and get an icee at Nancy's Italian Ice"!  So after Jay went to work, Elijah Brooks and I headed out to do exactly what he wanted to do.  It was the perfect morning, and he and I made so many memories together.  He was exhausted after the morning out and took a good nap. After his nap, we surprised him with dinner at "Chuck E' Cheese" with his grandparents, Bebe and E-Daddy.  He was elated that he actually had some tokens to use for the games.  When we go to some kind of place like this with games, we usually just give him 2 or 3 tokens. Because it was his birthday, he got a cup full of tokens when we bought pizza. I guess that's just part of the birthday dinner package maybe.   He was so happy be able to play so many games and we just let him play until his little heart was content - and we ran out of birthday tokens!  It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

The next day, we went to the pediatrician for his 3 year well check.  He received a perfect bill of health, weighs 39 lbs, and is 41 inches tall! 

Today, the 12th, we had his birthday party. I was so pleased with how well it went.  He had so many sweet friends show up, and we were so humbled. I decided to go with a "wheel" theme this year, since he is still very much into wheels. He is still obsessed with John Deere, but we had a John Deere party last year, so I thought we would try something different. There is an indoor, roller-skating rink here in town that has what's called "toddler roll around" days during the week that Elijah Brooks and I have been attending for a few months now. He has really enjoyed getting to take his riding toys to the indoor rink and ride around for 2 hours until his heart is content. Good thing for us that they do birthday parties for the toddlers!  So today, we had 18 sweet kids bring their various riding toys (bikes, scooters, tractors, big wheels, plasma cars, etc...) out to the rink for a "roll around" party!  Ironically, this is the same rink that I had my 8th birthday party when I was a little girl!  The lights were dimmed, there were disco balls hanging from the ceiling, colored lights flashing on the floor, kid-friendly music playing loudly, 2 bouncy houses set up in the back of the rink for the kids to jump in, and 1 1/2 hours of sheer birthday delight!  I am so thankful that there were no major catastrophies. We had a few collisions, but nothing serious!  We did take a break to have cake and snacks, but not too long. The kids wanted to go back out on the rink after about a 10 minute break to ride their toys some more. It was so nice to be able to turn the kids loose in a big, wide-open space, and just let them be kids. They had all the space they needed to spread out, get some exercise, and just enjoy being kids.

I could not have been more pleased with the way the party turned out.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and that really made me happy. I just wanted everyone to come out and have a great time, and it appeared that they did.

What a fun, memory-filled week, watching my sweet boy cross yet another milestone. 

Talking to his Aunt Elliot, Uncle Chris, and cousins as soon as he woke up on his birthday

Blowing out the "birthday star pancake" candles

Riding some toy at Chuck  E' Cheese

Taking a break to eat pizza

My personal favorite!  Never seen "Skee Ball" played this way, but it worked!  I know, we shouldn't have let him stand on this, but hey, it made for a cute picture.

A total surprise for him and us too! My sister and her family, and my parents went in together to get this for him. He was estatic, although it took him a few minutes to realize that this was his, and not his cousin's. They have one at their house that he talks about constantly, so I think he thought they just brought theirs down. Once he realized it was his, and he didn't have to give it back, he was elated. We wanted him to learn how to pedal his bike before getting any kind of motorized toy, which he has. Thank you all so much for making this boy VERY happy!

The party favors - round sugar cookies that say, "Hope you had a 'wheely' good time at my party"!  Love, Elijah Brooks

The invitation

The cake - so delicious! And no, I did not attempt to make it this year. Too much going on this year. But, I need to give a "shout out" to Doris, the bakery lady at Costco!

Cousin Wyatt on his "scootch"

Aiden, his buddy from church riding his "Thomas bike". Cage and Kellen, also from church, were there but stayed in the bouncy houses most of the time so I didn't get a picture.  We were missing a few other special friends from church and beyond.

George Owen, on his plasma car

Charlie, friend from gymnastics and Ashton, playdate friend on bike and tricycle

Sweet Sophie - her mom and I went to school together kindergarten through 12th grade!

Joshua on his bike - friend from our neighborhood

Bramley and Bradford - cousins.  Ava was also there, but I didn't get a picture of her for some reason. She and Elijah Brooks go to Mother's Morning Out on Thursday mornings together, and have gotten to be good friends.

Cameron on scooter, Jack on plasma car, Elijah Brooks on Thomas big wheel, and George Owen on bike

Caroline on big wheel.  Her mom and I have gotten to be friends through various playdates and MOPS. Her sister Sophie was somewhere else on the floor - didn't get a picture of her for some reason.

Birthday boy blowing out the candles

Daddy, birthday boy, and Mommy

Who needs a fork?

Having fun with his E-Daddy

Wyatt and Uncle Chris

"Cousin Birthday and Halloween"

I am trying so hard to play catch up on my blog.  I have too many "irons in the fire" right now, but I want to make sure I stay up to date on my blog.  My nephew Wyatt turned 6 a few weeks ago, and we went to Birmingham for his party. Everyone was supposed to wear their "team colors". Very cute and fun party.

We also enjoyed an evening at "Farm City". Elijah Brooks fell in love with the goats and especially the sweetest cow in the world, "Bluebell".  He lay down on her and pretended like she was a giant pillow!

Halloween this year was very fun. Last year, he didn't know what was going on, but this year he was very excited. I took him to a "trunk or treat" one evening and he wanted to wear his Spiderman costume.  The next evening was Halloween and we met a group of church friends at their home for an early dinner, followed by a hayride around the neighborhood to "trick or treat".  He had a blast - stayed up WAY past his bedtime, but had an absolutely wonderful evening.

Wyatt, Bradford, and Elijah Brooks

He is definitely going to be a left-handed athlete - if not left handed altogether.

What trip to Farm City is complete without sitting on an antique John Deere tractor? It's been nearly 1 1/2  years and counting - he is fascinated with John Deere.

Sweet "Bluebell".  I mean, who wouldn't want to take her home?

The sweet teenage girl painting his face at a church (not our church), was alittle miffed that he wanted a black cat with orange eyes.  I told her just be glad that I convinced him not to get a "scary ghost" on his face, which was his first request! We don't even talk about that kind of stuff in our home, so who knows where he heard it from. I honestly thought that she was going to kick us out of the church for that request - and then the black cat too!  He's a toddler for goodness sakes - totally harmless request in my opinion.

Yep, left-handed ball thrower for sure.

Buzz Lightyear.  And no, that's not makeup on his left cheek.  That same morning, he missed the curb at the park and didn't brace himself with his hands and his cheek smacked the concrete. It was not a pretty scene. I was just thankful that he didn't break his cheekbone or knock some teeth out - or bust his head wide open.