Thanksgiving Week

Our Thanksgiving week was a wonderful week packed full of activities. Seems I uploaded the pics backwards order, so we'll start with the most recent events and work backward through the week! :) Above is the annual picture from the Fantasy of Trees. I am so pleased with it!
Here's Josiah talking to Santa.

The kids enjoyed visiting with Santa so much that I had to call them onward in order to allow other children a turn with Santa, too! How different from the years when the kids were afraid of Santa.

Zac took this one of the four of us at Fantasy of Trees. I love it!

Here's Granna, Z-Pa, and Mackenzie and Josiah.

My two precious babies. Aren't they sweet?!

Uncle Zac with Josiah and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie

Josiah wanted his picture taken on this rock at Dollywood, so Mackenzie jumped in, too!

While at Dollywood, Granna and Z-Pa let the kids go "mining" for arrowheads! They loved it, and they found 6 or 7 arrowheads. That was a highlight of the day, I do believe.

Granna, Z-Pa, Mackenzie and Josiah with the arrowheads.

Earlier in the day, as we entered Dollywood, the kids got to feed the ducks.

Fun times.

Two sweet kids enjoying the ducks at Dollywood.

Candid pic of the kids with Uncle Zac at Dollywood.

Uncle Zac, Josiah, Mackenzie, Granna, Z-Pa

Here's our table set for Thanksgiving Day!
I do enjoy having Thanksgiving at our house.

A humongous THANK YOU to Betty for all the work she did in the kitchen to prepare for Thanksgiving. I helped, but she surely did the majority of the meal.

More food. What a blessing, indeed.

Ariel view of the pies. I made the chocolate and pumpkin pie, Betty made apple and cherry, and Uncle Dale (Betty's brother) brought a lemon meringue and chocolate chip pecan pie! The kids had specifically requested chocolate, pumpkin, cherry, and apple. That was funny. We made them all and were happy to have Dale join us for Thanksgiving. The kids were admiring the pies that Dale brought. Josiah exclaimed, "Wow! A spike pie!" When he saw the meringue. Too hilarious.

One last food picture from Thanksgiving Day. We had the four of us, David's parents, David's brother, David's Uncle Dale, and our two neighbors from Bulgaria, Geri and Trifon, all together for Thanksgiving at our house.

Even earlier in the week, on Monday night, David and I went on a date...just the two of us. Thanks to David's parents for keeping the kids so we could go out. We enjoyed dinner at The Flatwater Grill. It was fabulous. The walls of the restaurant are glassed in windows right on the lake. What a date!

One morning, while David and I were both at work for a few hours, the kids got to make things with the Easy Bake Oven and Cupcake Maker, thanks to Granna and Z-Pa's help!

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Zac, though I think most of the pictures are of Mackenzie with Uncle Zac. Josiah latched onto him and was quite the little shadow for Uncle Zac! I don't think Uncle Zac minds too much. ;)

And even earlier in the week, on Sunday, November 21, 2010, was Zearl and Betty's 40th Anniversary. We got them this cake to celebrate with our H2H group that evening at our house.

A wonderful week. Good company. Good visit. Wonderful memories made.

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving, as well.

Deer & Hayrides

As Josiah and I drove from our house (in a neighborhood) to school yesterday, this is what we saw crossing the road! 3 Beautiful deer!
We paused long enough to take some pictures from the van.

They really blend in with the bushes in the above pictures.

Then they heard another car coming and all 3 ran! What a fun and unexpected surprise on our way to Josiah's hayride.

In the above picture, I waiting with the kids for their turn on the hayride. From left to right: Josiah, Logan, Ava, Me, Callie. Callie kept calling me, "Friend." It was hilarious. She kept saying, "Friend, will you sit with me?" Josiah was quite happy just to hang out with his friends and know that I was there. He's a confident kid. I am thankful that I was able to be there with him and his friends.

Above is Josiah's 4 year old Mother's Day Out class. Left to right: Lexi, Logan, Josiah, Callie, Mrs.Wendi, Brooke, and Ava. That's really his whole class! Only 6 of them. I love that as each child gets so much wonderful attention.

Zoomed in on the group.

Here's Josiah's class with those of us Momma's who were able to attend. In the back, from left to right: Logan's Mom, Lexi's Mom, Me, Mrs. Wendi (teacher), and Brooke's Mom.

Lexi's family provided the hayride experience for the kids. Allison, Lexi's Mom, drove us all around the school parking lot! :)

Lexi, Logan, and Josiah enjoying the hayride.

Logan and Josiah on the hayride with the school in the background.Incidentally, Mackenzie's classroom is in the building you see pictured in the background! I am thankful that both kids are near each other in proximity during the days when they are at school. I am thankful for a good school environment. Such a blessing!

The kids each made a fall leaf picture frame craft before the hayride. I had fun helping Mrs. Wendi with the craft. Since I had a camera, she asked me to snap individual pictures of each child. We then had the pictures printed while the kids were in school that day and by the time they went home, they were toting a frame with a picture of themselves in it! Cute idea. I had fun taking the pictures, though I'm certainly not professional. Above is Josiah's individual that is in his frame.

Here's another group pic of the whole class: Mrs. Wendi, Lexi, Ava, Brooke, Callie, Logan, and Josiah.

Mrs.Wendi, (back row) Lexi, Ava, Brooke, (front row) Logan, Callie, Josiah.

Cute kids. Fun group. Fun times!

Work & Play

Today was a day when I needed to spend a little bit of time at work, and since the kids are on fall break, they came with me! I am so incredibly blessed to have joined a wonderful team of over 300 nurses in this area this past July. Then, in September, I received a phone call. Suffice to say that I said yes and am now a part of the case management team with the same company! What an unexpected blessing. While I was there today, I was included in the Christmas Card photo.
Each year, the management team sends out a Christmas card to all our patients in this area.

I was excited to get to be a part of that this year. Not everyone was able to be there. There are about 20 case managers and a handful of office staff. We are obviously not all in the above pictures, but it is a fun group!
After we were done in the office, the kids and I pulled through Sonic and headed to a wonderful park.

Mackenzie stopped long enough to pose for a picture.

Josiah did, too.

I love this one of the kids at the top of the huge slide.

Mackenzie at the bottom of the huge slide.

Josiah at the top of the same huge slide. This gives you a little perspective about just how huge this slide is. It is certainly the biggest slide I've seen in quite some time. We all enjoyed our time together today. The kids enjoyed seeing where I work, as well as our time at the park. I had fun showing them off to everyone.

On a funny note...Josiah kept singing today. He has been singing, "Jingle bells," a lot lately. After our trip to the park, we headed to Kmart. All through the store he sang, "There's smart, and then there's Kmart smart! Mom, you're Kmart smart!" Then he'd sing Jingle Bells for a while and begin the process over again. Suffice to say that he brought smiles and laughter to a lot of strangers today. While at Kmart, we found very nice Zhu Zhu pet costumes on clearance for $4.99 each. Josiah excitedly began to pull down his pants to reveal his underwear and exclaimed, "Mom! I think these are Zhu Zhu pets on my underwear!" Oh, boy. He keeps me on my toes. Through our laughter, Mackenzie and I had him pull his pants back up. (He only had them part of the way down, not all the way to his knees or anything.) I explained that he has ground hogs on his underwear, though they do look a lot like Zhu Zhu pets. Funny guy.

Halloween

In all your spare time, to see all the updated posts, you'll actually have to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and click the "older posts" button. That will take you back further...like to the other posts from the last part of October. Ha. ;) We enjoyed Halloween with our dear friends. As you can see, the four kids had a blast trick or treating together in their new neighborhood! From left to right: Mackenzie, Lauren, Allison, and Josiah.
A couple weeks ago, Josiah announced to us that he intends to marry Allison when they are all grown up. I love hearing the kids thoughts and plans. Somehow, on the heels of that announcement, I caught this picture and HAD to post it! Allison is putting on chap stick, and Josiah's expression is priceless. This picture is a classic.

Here's Mackenzie and Lauren. It was colder, so I suggested that Mackenzie wear her jeans under her outfit to keep her warm. I'm glad she did!

Four precious kiddos: Allison, Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren

Here's our whole gang on Halloween night. Cindy, Bill, David (and me behind the camera) with all four kids.

Mackenzie as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. (Notice she put a small white dog in her bucket as Toto!)

Josiah, Clone Trooper from Star Wars, showing off a piece of candy!

Checking out his loot!

Can you see how full his bucket is? Some people were even handing out full size candy bars! Generous neighborhood, that's for sure.

Mackenzie and her overflowing bucket!

Checking out her loot.

My tired boys, ready to head home after a fun evening of trick or treating with friends.

Then Josiah surprised us by jumping onto David's shoulders. Cute pic! :)

And on that note, I'm caught up! That covers the month of October. Whew. Busy month, but wonderful. Full of friends and memories.