Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Feast

Every year the preschool puts on a Thanksgiving show and feast.  We were sure that Lily would run down crying, but she actually did a great job. She sang and did all the motions.  It was especially cute to see her do "Row Your Boat".

 Thanksgiving in Memphis

We spent a lot of time at the church gym to fit everyone.

Lily's traditional apple turkey

We did Thanksgiving in Memphis again.  I was really nervous with all the people and the new baby but I got a blessing and it went really well.  We were glad the Ropers, Steve's Family, Joe's parents and us could all be together.

Lincoln's First Lost Tooth

This deserves a separate post.  Lincoln finally lost his first tooth.  He's in second grade and over 7.5 years old. Lily helped him out by banging into his mouth.

Fall Happenings

Lots of Showcases

I actually sat close enough to Rachel to get a picture of my phone.  She loves to sing and is even doing choir this year.

 Fall Leaves

 My kids get excited when fall comes to jump in the leaves.  Second to the awesomeness of jumping in leaves is squishing them down in the yard waste bin.  Joe started this tradition and I can't get rid of it.  We look super trashy.  Pardon the pun:).

Lily the Hoarder

Lily has a hard time sharing.  She loves to take all the toys from the play room and collect them in the corner and then sit with all of them.  She enjoys just spending time with Mom and Whitney.

Cute Baby

 I found that Whitney does well shopping if I lay her in a blanket at the front of the cart.  This is also a good display of the weird way she sleeps.  Like she froze.

Halloween

We Trick-or-Treated with our Friends the Ashtons.  We did a potluck dinner before.  It was a beautiful night and our kids had a lot of fun.

Hannah was a princess, Rachel was Jasmine, Lily was a lion, and Lincoln was Pikachu.

 Decorating Halloween Cookies

This is Hannah and Laura's house during the time of Whitney's blessing.  We went to a Halloween Event at the museum near by.  The kids loved being able to dress up.  There were scary stories that my children didn't take part in.  They do not do scary.  They must get that from me.

Baby Blessing

Whitney was blessed on Saturday, October 24th in Nashville.  My sister Laura was blessing her baby then so we decided to drive down so my parents wouldn't have to make 2 trips.  It went pretty well considering how new Whitney was.

(photograph a little later by Deanna)

Joe's brother Steve and his family were able to come.  We were glad they could make it. 

 This is Whitney in her blessing dress. She looks troubled.  She made a quick exodus from the dress since we knew it would get dirty and it was too slippery.

Both sets of grandparents were able to come.  Lily loves to have her pictures taken and requested these pictures.  Lily is normally shy around anyone besides our immediate family so we're glad she warmed up quickly to the grandparents.

Soccer

Rachel and Lincoln did soccer in the neighboring, smaller town's YMCA.  It was close, low key, and awesome.  Absolutely no traffic.  It was just what we needed at that point of our lives.  They both enjoyed it and Rachel's team even won the championship.  (There were 4 teams:).  It looks like we didn't get any pictures of Lincoln.  Oops.

 

My Reason

I've not been good about updating the blog, and this is the reason why:

This baby loves to be held.  She's always been content as long as she's held though.  Really I love it.  She's so calming and such a sweet baby.

Joe gets his share of holding her too.  This is his Sunday nap with her.  You'll notice Whitney's gloves.  She likes to tear her face off. 

Nap Time Pictures

These are pictures of when both Whitney and I should have been taking a nap.  No one told Whitney so we took pictures instead.

My Helper

 

Lily has a tendency to hit and be jealous so I was worried before I had the baby how Lily would handle it.  Lily's done great.  She loves Whitney and takes great care of her.

Random Picture

 

First Baths

 Whitney hated baths.  She's just getting used to it at 3 months.  

 My Big Helper

Rachel is such a good helper to me.  She not only helps me when I ask, but she also helps her siblings...even when they're not very fun to be around.  I'm very blessed to have Rachel as my first child.