Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thanksgiving and Post-Thanksgiving Traditions

Barely making it, but wanted to get my Thanksgiving post on the blog before December 1st.... Get ready for picture overload....

Aaron's preschool welcomes the Thanksgiving holiday with a feast for the kids where they get to dress up as Indians and Pilgrims and eat together. It is seriously super cute. Here is Aaron's class below:


Just had to sneak in a little picture of Aaron's special friend that happens to be a girl he is not related to, Grace is her name.... =) They seem to be quite fond of each other.
As you can see, Aaron has to always act in strange ways to try to get her attention. I'll keep you posted if anything serious develops between these two. ...The important thing is that Aaron did tell me that she loves Jesus, which he knows is my main requirement when it comes to little lady friends =)

On to Thanksgiving Day, which is so chaotic with 30 something people invited, but it is a total blast....

Aunt Nancy bought all the kids gingerbread houses to make and they had a good time creating....

The best part is having people come into town for the day that you haven't gotten to see all year. It makes it that much more special to have them there to celebrate with....



All the cousin kidlets..... Not too shabby of a picture considering it was the end of a long day together.
And this is one of the many reasons why we will miss Uncle Kyle and Auntie Sarah in our future Thanksgivings while they live in Uganda....


Noel was obviously nervous just watching this craziness.... =) Love my family!

The day after Thanksgiving seems to already contain some traditions for our young family at this point. We are ready to begin looking toward Christmas so that means getting the decorations out as well as the tree.....

It also means the beginning of Papa Bob's light display at his church, which the kids love to be a part of. Aaron gets to help "flip the switch" for opening night and it is a "vewey impotant job Mama!!!"

Thus, Thanksgiving weekend in a nutshell. We had a lot of fun with our family and friends!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Birthday Bash

We are fortunate to be surrounded by much extended family, so anytime there is a birthday, we try to celebrate it together. The first birthday of course, is no exception.....

And we got to celebrate a combined bday with Noel's cousin, Lincoln, who is just three days older than Noel....
Noel with Papa Bob and Grammy....

The birthday kids with their beautiful grandmas....

The big boys together.....




Such a fun night! So glad Noel can grow up being loved by so many!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Baby Girl Turns 1

Can't believe it, but it happened - Noel turned one! And what a lucky girl - she got to turn 1 with a few other friends (incidentally, all boys =) ) so we got to celebrate all of them together this past weekend......

(Boone, Titus, Lincoln, Noel, Elliot, and Ezra)


I have been friends with these boys' moms for several years and it has been fun to share in this experience with them!

In this group is one of Noel's cousins, Lincoln....
And Ezra who is at Harvest with us.....
Noel definitely loved hanging and playing with all these boys!
We are having a family party for her later in the week but I tried to catch a few shots and do some fun things on the actual birthday (Saturday).....
Noel showing you she is 1 as she maintains a very funny facial expression....


Happy birthday sweet Noel! We love you and are so blessed that God brought you to our family!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Lee's Bday/Halloween

October 31st is always a busy day for us - We celebrated Lee's 33rd birthday with family with brats before the trick or treating began.....

My sister-in-law, Sarah, is so stinkin' funny.... Here is her artwork and guacamole contribution to the meal that evening:
We are so blessed that Aaron has second cousins to trick or treat with. They had a great time together. Here is our Aaron the Army Guy, Noah the Sherriff, and Caleb the UPS guy.
Yes, sometimes UPS guys need guns, okay?

Noel was a honeybee - and a cute one at that....


She wasn't sure what all the hoopla was about, but she definitely enjoyed her sucker.