handsful

Abbey regularly grabs little L and whisks her away for a project.  Today they were looking for changing leaves…quite a daunting task here in North Florida.  Luckily, our dogwood tree has beautiful color right now, so they collected leaves from it and other trees and made a beautiful collage for Lainey’s room. 

After this, they went around to find more nature things and made another frame of those.  Lainey adores spending time with Abbey, and I love seeing my oldest take such sweet time with her baby sister. 

As I type, Abbey is pushing Lainey in the hammock swing – wish you could hear her giggling hysterically with her eyes squinted shut! 

I’m so thankful to have a “handful” of kids…

If only her eyes had been open!

Thanksgiving. 

Our Thankful Tree was full of blessings that we were thankful for…

We cooked. 

A lot.

While others of us snuggled and read books. 

We posed for pictures. 

And, posed some more. 

We watched a tug-of-war with a wishbone. 

We laughed.

We smiled a lot. 

And, we ate even more.  No pictures of the feast…too busy eating. 

Some of us finished our dinner with a chocolate pilgrim hat cookie.  Messy, but good. 

Thanks, Granma and Granpa, for sharing Thanksgiving with us!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  May you feel thankful for all that God has provided this year!

Our “old” friends from NC, the Clade’s, dropped by for a visit.  They were on their way to see family down south, and fit us in their schedule!  Awesome.  We’ve known them for about 15 years, and our oldest kids are less than a year apart.  Val and I learned how to be moms together :)

Speaking of our oldest kids, here Abbey is showing Zack how to work his new Facebook account. 

Interestingly, our youngest kids are also less than a year apart.  Josh and Lainey take a swing together. 

Marley and Danielle are about 3 years apart, but have always been close friends. 

The big kids…Ethan is holding Christopher.

Bob and Val, we LOVED having you here…when we get together, it’s like no time has passed.  Can’t wait till you stop in again soon :)

When most everyone else is pulling out sweaters and jackets, we’re still in flip flops.  So, when we do get a “cold snap” (no laughing), we make a fire.  Every year, we end up chasing at least a few lizards that wound up on top of the damper.  We rescued one, and another one disappeared into a crack in the back.  To safety, I’m SURE.  The kids love having a fire, it’s just a shame we don’t need it more often!

3 days till Thanksgiving…is YOUR turkey thawing in the fridge like mine??

Two years ago today, we saw our daughter’s sweet face.  We were sent 3 precious photos, including the one above.  We had waited so long to see our Lainey, a child that we somehow already loved!  Today, Lainey is a joy and the absolute most perfect child that God and China could have gifted us with. 

Taken today :) 

Happy Referral Day, Lainey!