Thanksgiving

Catching up...Thanksgiving celebrations

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Crosby's teacher sent some pictures from their class feast.

super cute dressed up as a pilgrim boy :)

C with Mrs. R and also with their student teacher this semester, Miss S...so thankful for them!

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The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Flippin for an early holiday meal with my family.  The kids and I went Friday evening and Lane came after work late that night.  Alexee helped mix up the dressing and made place cards for the tables.  The boys also helped peel sweet potatoes.  

Love these ladies...my Mom, Sister & Grandmother

Much to be thankful for!  It was a great weekend.

(I wish we would have done a group photo, but things got so hectic with getting the food on the table that we forgot.) :(

Mom also made my annual red velvet birthday cake-yum!!!  She found my baby album to show Lane and the kids my very first red velvet cake.  :)  I've had a lot of them now! 

Fun on the farm

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During November we had a thankful jar in the kitchen, and we read the slips of paper on Thanksgiving Day.  They wrote lots of sweet things, and I loved hearing them read through them. 

C doing some reading while I cooked breakfast. 

Lane had to work that night, so the kids and I left that afternoon to go back to Flippin.  That evening went to my Aunt Judy's with Mom and Dad.  It's always fun to see everyone there.  

We had a great time laughing and looking through old photo albums.

It was a great Thanksgiving.  Wow--how November flew by!

Silver Dollar City Lights

I really cannot believe the holiday season is here again!  Mid-November is a nice time time to visit Silver Dollar City to see Christmas lights.  It's not as cold and crowded as it is in December.  We went one Friday evening recently and had a great time.  We watched the parade, rode a few rides (no lines) and ate lots of yummy, unhealthy things like tater-twists, a funnel cake, fried Oreos, hot chocolate & wassail.

                           

(Poor Rhett--see his expression in the top right picture above?  He was very grumpy at first because we made him leave a friend's house to go on our family Christmas outing.  I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or be mad with him, so I think I did all of that.  He didn't stay mad for long though.  :)  We really did have a fun evening together.)

So many pretty lights!  I love the toy soldiers and the red trees.

Time with TX Friends

A few weekends ago (Nov 5-8), two of my dear friends flew in from Texas to visit.  I was so excited to have them here for a few days...I just wish they could have stayed longer!  There were wide-spread storms the day they flew in so Stacy had a few flight delays, but everything worked out.  I picked Heather up at the airport first, and we went to grab a late lunch and do some shopping while we waited for S's flight to arrive.  The 50 minute drive home from the airport was kind-of stressful because it was raining so hard I could barely see the road.  I was so happy to finally make it to our driveway!  Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it back in time for Alexee's 3rd grade music program that evening, but Lane and the boys were there for her and sent me this cute picture of her with some sweet friends at the performance.  We dropped the girls' suitcases off at home then met up with Lane and the kids at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  

Friday we had a relaxing morning at home drinking coffee and catching up, then we went out for lunch at Sugar Leaf.  After lunch we had some time to shop before picking the kids up at school.  Then when Lane got home we went to the movies to see War Room.  It was so good!

Lane had to work on Saturday so Rhett rode to his out of town football game with his coach.  Heather, Stacy, Crosby, Alexee and I had lunch at the Keeter Center then we went to Alexee's last volleyball game.  They won!  It was a really fun season for her.  I definitely think she will want to play again.

H & S brought me this sweet birthday package...full of things I love!  Thank you, girls!  :)

Saturday night we had dinner reservations at Top of the Rock.  It was such a nice night out!  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life.  Heather and I have known each other for 20 years...that's hard to believe!  I'm so thankful we lived across the hall from each other our Freshman year and thankful that our friendship has grown over the years, even with so many miles between us.  And Stacy and I met a little over a decade ago when Rhett and Logan were babies (along with their friends Lawson & Garret).  Then we all had baby girls next and things got even more fun!  We had many chaotic play-dates and lunches with all those babies and toddlers...but those were sweet times and memories that I cherish!

It was such a fun weekend.  I hope they will come back to visit soon!

Halloween Weekend

We spent Halloween weekend in Little Rock again this year.  We met Mom on our way so that Rhett and Bogart could go to their house for the weekend.  We missed having R with us, but he wanted to go to Flippin to work on some projects with Dad, so he had a great weekend too.  We arrived in LR around 4:00 but didn't have dinner plans until 6:00 so we went to the Martins' house to hang out for a while.  It's always wonderful to see them--we miss them so much, and it's always super sweet to see the kids go right back to playing together as though they still see each other all the time!  And Crosby always goes straight for the pantry to get a package of fruit snacks at their house.  :) At 6:00 we were excited to get to meet the Miles for dinner at Larry's pizza!  We were so happy to get to see them/catch up!  They have two precious children that have grown a lot since we last saw them, and they are in the process of adopting a little girl from China.  We can't wait to see what God has in store for their family!  Thanks for meeting up with us, Miles family!  I also ran into another friend there--it was great to give her a hug too.  Then we drove to Hot Springs after dinner to visit with Lane's parents and spend the night there!  Grammy made a big breakfast Saturday morning, and Lance and Jennifer came over to eat with us before we went back to Little Rock for Halloween.

Back in LR...

We ate lunch at Local Lime & walked around the Promenade.

Then we went back to the Martins' house to carve pumpkins and watch the Razorback game.

While the guys watched the end of the game, Emily and I took the kids to a fall carnival for a little while before we all went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

It was lots of fun meeting up with our neighbors from the street we used to live on.  We miss them!

Alexee was so happy to see all the girls!

It was also great to be at our old church on Sunday.  I still miss it every single week.  We had lunch at Big Orange before we left town.  And as always, it was hard to leave.  

We were glad to get Rhett and Bogart back!  Here's a picture of Rhett working with my Dad on Saturday.  They had a good time together.

My Birthday & C's Field Trip

The kids made me such sweet cards for my birthday (11/16).  Crosby went out in the yard to cut these roses for me, and Alexee made me a flower out of modeling clay.  They know I love flowers!  I'll treasure all of these things forever!

And that night we went out to eat Mexican food for my birthday dinner.

Later that week I went back to Dogwood Canyon with C's class for the 1st grade field trip.  We had a great time, but it was very chilly!  The kids didn't seem to mind at all.

Class photo

He is so precious to me.  I loved getting to spend the day with him.

Miscellaneous Fall

I've loved driving by this stunning golden tree lately.  Mom told me it is a ginkgo tree.  I found some interesting information about it here.

Fall is my favorite!  I'm always sad to see it go.

We recently finished flag football season.  It was so much fun.  Crosby loved it, and we got to know some sweet new families.

Alexee also finished her volleyball season, which she enjoyed!  She also made new friends and learned a lot.  I'm so glad she was willing to give it a try.

And Rhett's team completed their season last weekend with a two day tournament in Harrison.  My Dad met us at the game Sunday evening, then Rhett joined the team for a pizza party afterward.  R said he would miss going to practice.  I'm really glad he played--I think it has been so good for him.

We've had a busy but fun fall!  I can't believe it's time to think about the holidays.