Last Friday, while we were in Temple, the kids and I helped my parents decorate their tree! We do this every year right after Thanksgiving. This year, it was finally Asher’s turn to put the angel on top of the tree!
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| grandpa lifting Asher up |
Thanks to my sister, I got in a picture!
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| Rilyn peeking at me |
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| ella |
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We hosted Thanksgiving for James’ family again this year. We celebrated on Saturday and had 15 people here! It was a great time had by all and I think we can call our dessert portion a success when we had 6 pies/cakes, cookies, and chocolates! We all ate some vegan dishes too, thanks to aunt Mandy and Allen! James said the vegan strawberry cheesecake made the list of the top 3 cheesecakes he has ever had!
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| yummy |
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| the kids table |
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| Rilyn’s beloved aunt |
Our guest of honor for 2 years in a row is James’ maternal grandmother. How special is it for my kids to spend the holidays with her?
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| great gramma |
I started a new Thanksgiving tradition this year at my house that I found on another blog. Here is the link if you want to print the banner flags for next year. Every year I plan on making another banner and so each year, I will accumulate another banner to decorate my house! Each banner will be full of all the things we were thankful for that year! By the time my kids are grown, my house will be FILLED with banners during Thanksgiving time!
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| I made each person write what they were thankful for . (Asher really told me those things!) |
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| 2011 Banner will be hanging up next Thanksgiving 15 flags long! |
We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at a local park in Temple. The daddies were going to the Aggie game. (So, so sad.)
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| cousins. |
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| This park had the old school dangerous merry go round. My kids loved it! |
And I mean what I say when I say “dangerous”.
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| rilyn! |
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| ella |
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| They had a high merry go round that the girls could sit on and spin!!!
They loved it! |
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| Asher jumping off a “climbing wall” |
We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family on Wednesday! I believe this is our first posed group shot since Jessica’s wedding 2 years ago.
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| Eric, Jessica, James, Julie, Jeff, Becca
Ella, Grandpa, Caden, Grandma, Asher, and Rilyn |
Of course, we always do the “around the dining room table” shot!
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| Thanksgiving meal |
Grandparents with the grandkids! I love Asher and Ella’s faces in this picture!
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I had this fun photo shoot yesterday downtown! Click here to see the rest of my favorites!
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The girls had movie night Thursday evening at school. They loved going to school at night in their pjs to watch Rio with all their friends! Asher loved it too!
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| Rilyn watching the movie |
This afternoon, the girls had Thanksgiving feasts in their grade levels. Rilyn’s was buffet style. Look at Rilyn trying to get Asher to come in line with her to try some food!
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| come here little brother! |
And this is what Asher was doing. Sigh. Is there hope for this one? 😉
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| Asher just being Asher |
And in the kindergarten wing, they ate “Indian style”! Literally, dressed as Indians and sitting Indian style! 😉
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Why does my child want to smell the deli meat?
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| She isn’t a fan of deli meat at home, so I was impressed when she took a bite! |
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| and I figured this reaction would be coming! |
Mercy: a blessing regarded as an act of divine favor or compassion (Webster’s Dictionary)
I love when God gives us signs of mercy to remind us we are in His will. Yesterday, Ella came home from kindergarten (public school) and gave me this.
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| (Cell phone pic) I love how she misspelled “God” with “Good”. He is a good God! Phil. 4:6 |
This is the girls’ Bible verse to memorize for the week. I immediately asked Ella if she wrote this in class and she said she did. She told me that she finished her seat work early and asked the teacher if she could practice writing her verse (she has a card with the verse on it in her backpack.) I said, “Did daddy tell you this idea?” (Because he drove her to school that day.) She said, “He just told me I need to practice my verse.” So then I called James and he said he didn’t tell her to write the verse at school. This was all Ella’s idea.
I just love that she came home from public school with the Truth, the Power, the Word. And I’m thankful for a teacher that let her do it in class and understands how we are raising our children.
Thank you God for signs of mercy.
Today marks my 32nd and a half birthday! I moved to Texas, from southern California, just after I turned 16. You do the math, and I have lived in Texas now more than I have lived in California because I am 32 1/2! I remember doing the math when I was 16 years old and thinking 32 years old! Wow…that is sooooo far away! Crazy to think how much has happened and that I’m so established in this state now! I’ll probably never move out of it! So, James says I’m officially a Texan now. Hmmmm, I don’t know about “official”, but it is kinda cool to acknowledge a fun date such as 11-11-11 as the day I became an “unofficial” Texan.
And in the spirit of flashback Friday, here is our Christmas card photo on our last Christmas in Texas (1994). We moved in early July of ’95. I’m sure you aren’t surprised to hear that this photo was my idea. I just love creative Christmas cards! 🙂 So, here we are as the Beverly Hillbillies! (And yes, I actually thought most Texans wore cowboy hats, bolero ties, rode horses around town, etc.)
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| Texas or Bust! |
Took some sweet photos of this little boy on Saturday with his loving family! To see more go here!
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| a kiss for momma |
Rilyn was lucky, (we have tried to obliterate that word from our vocabulary as we believe all things are from God!), blessed enough to be able to go to an Aggie game this season. It was Ella’s year to go, and she did, but there was an extra ticket this past weekend, and Rilyn got it! We had to stop at the bounce houses before the game started!
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| pre-game festivities |
Rilyn wanted to bring her beloved panda to the game who also shared in the Aggie spirit!
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We dressed like it was cold (when we woke up it was in the 40s), and it felt like 90 degrees plus because the sun was beating down on us the entire game! Ugh!
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We allowed Rilyn to whoop even though she is not a senior. 😉
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So, unfortunately we lost this game against Missouri in overtime! It was so sad, because the night before a certain Missouri baseball team beat the Rangers in game 7 of the World Series. The state of Missouri is not high on James’ “places to visit” list! 🙂
After the game, they open up the field to let the fans take pictures on it, play football, etc. Rilyn never got to do this yet and really wanted to, even though all we wanted to do was leave this crummy game!
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| Rilyn throwing the football with James! |
the paquettes 