Happy Thanksgiving!

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
- Psalm 100:4-5

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

On this Thanksgiving and every day of the year we have so much to be thankful for.  The Lord has truly blessed us.  I want to share two of our special blessings with you.

This is my paternal grandmother, Ruth.  

She is 97 years old.  This picture was taken the last weekend in October.  Mike and I had a business trip in Charlotte, so we took a little drive down to visit with her.   Do you have someone in your life thats just "special" to you?  You can't explain why that person has a special place in your heart, or why you feel such a connection, just that you love them?  Well Gramma (she always signs it this way instead of Grandma) is that person to me.  When I made decisions that everyone else questioned, she just loved me and "knew I'd be ok".  When she could have judged, she just loved.   As we visited with her, we listened to her reminiscing about different times.  She told us of the first time she met my Grandpa and of the last words he spoke to her before he died.  Some of her stories I had heard before, and some of them the facts seemed to have "changed" over the years (she is 97 afterall!), but I am thankful for the moments with her.   She's a remarkable lady.   

I read this quote earlier and its actually what inspired me to write the blog update.

"one of my greatest joys in life is the sweetness of those friendships built on many years of shared experiences, joys, sorrows, battles, and victories. You will only have a few in life, and they are very precious—so tenaciously hold on to them! " - Doug Phillips

This quote perfectly describes our relationship with the S Family.   We have known this family for almost 15 years, since before Mike & I were married.   She was the first friend that I was around when she was expecting and her first child was my "first baby" (well besides my dog of course!).   Between the 2 families we've had 8 children, and lost 2 babies that are now peaceful with Jesus.  We've been through business growth, and business being flat.  We've rejoiced in the big things and the small things, and we've prayed together and for each other countless times.  We've shared numerous books, good and bad, and many yummy recipes.   When we are together, there is no pretending - we are ourselves and we always have a great time.   Our kids adore each other and we adore that they adore each other (did ya catch that?).    Bookgirl loves having the sweetness of having sisters for a while and their "I" loves that comraderie of having brothers around.   Its a great match!   We share a love for Jesus, the United States, Freedom, nutrition, homeschooling, and chocolate!  

Our schedules this year have been different and we did not see each other for almost a year.  We were more than ready to spend some time together. A few weeks ago, the kids and I spent a day with them at Downtown Disney. 


We got to build bricks that were put into making an 8ft tall Buzz Lightyear!  Here is Mr S helping Little Sponge, and his son, "I"  and myself, helping spunky "E". 

We all wished that Mike could have been with us this day.

Mathboy and "I" were born 2 months apart and have always been the same height, but this year, "I" has passed him.  They enjoy being together and I got a few cute shots of them just being buddies.

And here are a few more group shots

Baby New Year isn't in those 2 pictures because he decided he was done :)  Here he is asleep in my Ergo Carrier.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!