Thanksgiving 2010

We had Chris’ family here for Thanksgiving this year and having everyone together is such a rare event!

I am definitely a work in progress with the whole “hostess” thing, but living far away from our family has definitely encouraged me in the right direction. Having such hospitable friends here in Virginia has also been key in developing a love for sharing our home. I hope our family will look back on these sweet times and remember the blessing of family.
And because I delete all the pictures where I am speaking firmly to my children through gritted teeth, they should be none the wiser 😉 Remind me to tell you sometime about how I had the camera on the tripod and set the timer as a test and then walked away to give my boys some correction … you know the kind where words are not really necessary? Yeah, well I kind of accidentally caught that moment on film.
Needless to say that pic didn’t make the cut.
Since the pics are numerous I will break it up and do a series of Thanksgiving posts. You all can wager on when I’ll forget to keep posting.

Chris’ brother Scott, and his wife Robin, drove up from New Orleans and spent the week with us. We met their insanely precious baby, Lili, for the first time.

See what I mean?
She stole a piece of our hearts when she left and I think being privy to so much of her daddy’s life before she got here makes it all the sweeter.
Scott was about Hannah’s age when Chris and I began dating and he has been like a brother to me the last 20 years. I have watched him grow from a mullet-headed punk to this adoring husband and daddy that loves his girls more than life.
He was always a doting uncle to my girls and so much of their early years are sprinkled with precious memories of him in their lives … to the point that Emma listed: Dad, Mom, Hannah, Emma, & Uncle Scott on her family tree during preschool 10 years ago.
And believe me when I tell you that it was around that time that I was pretty-darn-well-certain that settling down and starting a family were not on the horizon for him. Of course I was plotting against his evil plans of Corvettes and lake houses with prayers and petitions to match.
So those prayers, combined with meeting sweet Robin, were too much for my bachelor brother-in-law to resist.
God’s providence is so good!
And sweet Lili is such a reminder of His grace …
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Thankfulness … Day 12, 13, 14, & 15

So I fell behind. Boy am I thankful this doesn’t count as a grade 😉

I am going to bullet some things that I found myself grateful for in the past few days in no particular order or importance … just my thoughts

  • Church! I missed going to church these past few weeks and we made our first trip as a family of 7 this past Sunday. Everything went really well and we even made it to early service which meant leaving the house at 8:20 in the morning!
  • Good nights with the baby! Cause I think I was taking those for granted until we actually had a bad one.

I mean a really bad one.

As in, she didn’t actually fall into a restful sleep until about 6:00 AM. I told her I was very sorry for my lack of gratitude for her very peaceful evenings and I promised to never ever take them for granted again 😉

  • The sunshine is here! After so many days of cold and wet we are so grateful for the sun! We plan on having some outside time this afternoon after a very productive morning.
  • The vibration feature on the bassinet is working again!

What on earth did they do before the invention of the vibrating baby product for goodness sakes?

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Thankfulness … Day 9


When we brought Clara home from the hospital, there was quite a bit of kicking and scratching to get to her and smother love on her with great affection.

Seriously, I had to keep track of who held her and for how long because the kids were lined up and ready to argue their case for why it should be their turn next!

Benjamin mostly wanted to identify her “MOWWW!” (mouth), “EYE!” (eyes) and “NOOOOO!” (nose) by gouging her with his grubby index finger … But of course it was done with great affection 😉

When I tucked Sam in that first night I will never forget his sweet face and these words that he spoke as his big brown eyes filled up with tears:

“Momma … You know Momma, sometimes people cry when they are happy … You know?”

(as tears spilled down his cheeks)

“And Momma … I am real (sniff) happy … and I just … just … I JUST LOVE BABY CLARA SO MUCH!”

(as he burst into tears)

I am thankful for this sweet little boy who has a gigantic heart that gets so full sometimes … it makes him cry with joy.

A blessed baby sister just minutes old with her big brother …
An old soul