Life As We Know It: November 2008

Thanksgiving Snapshots

We spent Thanksgiving with my family. It was great! We have so much to be thankful for.

I'm Not Kidding

I just packed the family for our Thanksgiving trip. Pictured below are the clothes ready to be packed. How long will we be gone you might ask? Two weeks? Three? We will be gone for FOUR days.

I actually think this was good for me to see. I should be feeling a big sense of accomplishment for doing a week's worth of laundry!

Shout Out

Happy Birthday (a little late) to my awesome husband!!! David, I am so blessed to be your wife. I am especially aware of how great you are this year! Thanks for being such a wonderful man!

Happy Housekeepers

The girls love to help around the house! Well Ginny does anyway. Brooke just likes to do whatever Ginny is doing. Now my floors are sparkling!

A Good Sport

Ginny's latest project was dressing David up as a "prince". Poor guy.

Friday evening brought in a strong cold front...very windy. Mom noticed the clouds were looking really funky. Ginny likened the clouds to fingernails. I would have to agree, maybe those of Cruella Deville. By the way, no I did not take this picture while I was driving. Mom took it from the passenger seat.

Star Student

Austin rounded out his first week at his new school with a special award from his art teacher: Star Student! We are so proud of him! We celebrated by going to dinner at Planet Pizza. He also got the "Red Plate" at his next meal at home. We look forward to celebrating many more successes with Austin.

Going REALLY fast on this ride with David

Ginny loved this one.

Playground Fun

To the Dallas Zoo

The girls and I joined the Parents of Preschoolers (PoPs) group from church for a day at the Dallas Zoo. We had a great time!

Ginny especially liked the part when we got to feed the birds a cup of worms. I thought she might be afraid of the birds landing on her, but she wasn't at all! She was so brave.

Brooke talking about the birds

Checking out some sleeping ducks

This is Patrick the gorilla. Luckily he was sitting really close to the observation window. Ginny got very close to him!

Calvin

Ginny came out of her room at 7:00 this morning carrying a tub with a book for a lid. The first thing she said was, "I don't have a Calvin anymore." (Calvin is the kids' big sweet German Shepherd that just moved to NB to live with the grandparents.)

She lifted the book and revealed the tub full of all the stuffing from her pillow. She continued, "I am going to make a new Calvin. I am going to make a white Calvin."

Mom and I didn't quite know what to say or think; Ginny has been reminded several times to leave the stuffing inside the pillow. But we just thought it was so cute. Ginny is extremely creative. We ended up with a compromise. We made a "picture" of Calvin out of the stuffing. The pillow and the rest of the stuffing are now in the top of the hall closet.

Pocket Full of Poseys

I just had to add this sweet picture of the girls and friend Grace. They made the most of their time waiting to get into Pump It Up by singing and dancing to "Ring Around the Rosie".

Getting to Know You

As you can guess from the lack of posting, we have been very busy around here. I knew this would be a tough week, and it is. We are keeping in mind that things will get better with time, once we are all used to each other. We have had wonderful moments each day that we are so thankful for. Here are a couple of pictures from the week...

Not looking too excited for the first day of school. Don't worry, he ended up having a great day!

Prayers for the Big Move!

So Friday is the big moving day for Austin & Ginny! Please pray that everything will go as smoothly as possible in such a complicated situation.

Unfortunately some unnecessary stress has been added as our plan has met some opposition within the family. Without going in to detail, just know that your prayers are appreciated very much! God is all over this move, and He will take care of us. Every day we are so thankful for the huge amount of support we are receiving from all our friends and family.

Totally unrelated but funny.

Brooke's new favorite pastime is taking diapers out of the bag and spreading them out all over the room.

Kendra's Party and Our Awesome Friends

Saturday Brooke and I made a quick trip to Austin for my niece Kendra's 4th birthday party. It was also a chance to remind Austin and Ginny that they were coming to our house in just six days!

Austin, Kendra, Ginny, and the cake

A nephew in a tree

Grammy & Brooke

A Little Mermaid

AND while Brooke and I were gone, guess what?!?!? David and our friends Jonathan, Chad, and Billy built the playset in the back yard! By the time we came home it was pretty much finished! We are so thankful for our awesome friends!

THANKS GUYS!

Halloween Toddler Style

We had a fun Halloween! Since Brooke loves her costume so much, we began the day by dressing her up in her costume for story time. Later that evening, we headed over to our friends' house to celebrate and trick-or-treat. The kids were adorable!

At Story Time