Thanksgiving Days

Today is the last day of November. Wow, time flies.  We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we celebrated with our church. A Thanksgiving dinner was served after the morning service with a time of praise hymns and testimonies of God's goodness following the meal. 

On Thanksgiving Day, we enjoyed time with my large extended side of the family.  It was our first Thanksgiving with family in six years!  They are a riot!  A weather system came through that day, turning the world a wintery white.  The freezing rain that preceded it along with a wind that picked up later in the day, made for rather yucky road conditions for the trip home that evening.  I was very glad Josh had gotten time off work to join us that day, and thankful he was there to do the driving that night!

The next day, Friday, we had a family get-together with my hubby's side of the family.  There was much yummy food, fun games and in the evening, a horse-drawn parade in a nearby town.  The temperature was a brisk 14 degrees...brrr!   Even though it gets cold here, it is good to be back in Minnesota and to be close to family again, though we do miss our friends in North Carolina.  

I found some free downloadable Thanksgiving preschool papers here through Pinterest that the boys enjoyed doing around the Thanksgiving holiday.  I love making learning fun.  And it's so neat to see the boys comprehend new things!

Josh and a friend put in a couple good days of work on the garage this week, and it is really looking nice!  The new soffitt, fascia, window, door and siding are giving the garage a much needed facelift.  Josh and another friend got a good bit more siding on today.

This is the garage yesterday.

We celebrated our oldest son's birthday this week....he is FOUR years old now!  Talk about time flying!  It makes me sad to think my firstborn is quickly leaving the baby/toddler years behind him, and at the same time it makes me happy to see the boy he is becoming.  I did a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for him this year as he really likes Mickey Mouse.

For a fun birthday activity, the birthday boy got to do some target practice with Daddy!

Some of the Mickey Mouse theme

Mickey Mouse brownie...I made a stencil and sprinkled powdered sugar over it to make Mickey's face.

Present time :)

Four years old!  Oh, I love that boy!

Indeed, we have much for which to be thankful.  God gives us so much more than we deserve!

Give Thanks

O give thanks unto the LORD;

for he is good:

for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 118:29

Happy Thanksgiving
from our home to yours!

Two little Indians

Settling In

Yes, we moved into our home November 2nd!  It is feeling like home and a sense of normalcy is once again returning.  While it was a blessing to be able to rent my uncle's lake house for a few weeks, there is just no place like home!  Even though we are waging the mud war here (when it's wet) from all the ground work that was done (water line, propane line, new septic, stump removal, grading), and a train with a very loud whistle rumbles by at 4am, it is great to be settling into our own nest again.  My family and mother-in-law where a huge help with moving.  Josh and my brother re-shingled the garage a couple weeks ago.  A man from our church did much of the ground work mentioned above.  It's so nice to be rapidly checking things off the to-do list!  By summer we hope to have this old property whipped into shape.  And right now we are enjoying Indian summer temps!

Four Months

Our little cutie at four months!

Slow But Steady

We have been chomping at the bit to get moved into our mobile home, but obviously we need to learn some patience first!  Our mobile home was moved out to our place a week ago and since then, it seems like one thing after another has been postponed....due to weather, work (but we are thankful Josh has a job) or things not being available.  However, the electricity has been put in and hooked up, the propane tank was brought out and we have heat now, and some of the water work has been done, so there has been progress. Hopefully this weekend Josh can get the decks built.  Also, we plan to clean our mobile home and get more stuff moved in from the garage soon.  The septic will hopefully be put in next week.  Maybe in a couple weeks we can move.  Exciting!!

Our home when it was on the sale lot  (Our camera needs new batteries, so I can't post a current picture right now.)

Picture Post

Our third son, 1 week old

The camera captured some interesting expressions!

Our boys, ages 3, 1, and 1 month

Me and my brood

Smile!

Sentimental about leaving our first home

Family picture before leaving North Carolina

Ready to hit the trail--only 1400 miles to go!

The cute little old house on the property we bought in Minnesota

Unfortunately, it is beyond repair, so we are moving a mobile home onto the place.

I wish it was in better shape, so we could get to enjoy this house's old-fashioned charm.  This stairway is one of my favorite things about the house...

...and I would love to transform this kitchen with some paint...sea foam green walls, white cupboards with new hardware.  Oh, well, maybe in our mobile home!

Jeb's first fishing trip with his uncle and cousins and he caught his first fish!

A lovely view a couple weeks ago from our rented lake house

2-1/2 months!

Five Years!

05.26.06 

We met...

  06.04.07  

He popped the question...

  10.06.07 

I took his last name!

Yesterday marked five years since our marriage!

My hubby had to work away from home part of the day, so we are postponing our main celebration (a fancy date) until a later time.  We did get to have a couple special meals together as a family when he was able to be home yesterday.   (Side note--His new job is more hours and less pay than he had understood, so we aren't real thrilled with that.  But God has a purpose in everything, and we are thankful Josh has a job.)  I am so thankful for my handsome godly husband, and I'm so glad I get to grow old with him!