HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well, I don't have any pictures from today..yet! My mom and Bryson did take some photos, but I haven't uploaded any yet. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We started Thanksgiving yesterday by delivering Thanksgiving baskets to those that weren't able to afford a Thanksgiving meal this year. The Karate center has provided hundreds of families, for the last several years, with Thanksgiving meals (including full turkey, whole pie, and all of the sides)! They do what they call a "Kick-a-thon" where the kids do hundreds of kicks to raise money for these families. It's pretty awesome!

We woke up this morning, dropped Ansley off w/ my parents and participated in providing Thanksgiving meals to families w/ our church! It was really neat to see what our church was able to do for everyone. We went to a local highschool (Newnan High) and served free Thanksgiving meals to anyone who needed/wanted a meal. In addition to providing a Thanksgiving meal, the church had filled the hallways w/ tons of toys and clothes for people who needed them! It was neat to see that these people were able to come in and fill bags w/ clothing for themselves and their families! It was also great to see that Joe could be such a great help to several of the hispanic families...he was one of the only ones there that could speak spanish! One of the homes we delivered to today was the residence of an elderly couple. When the man came to the door he wished us a Happy Thanksgiving and said "Thank you so much! We really appreciate this! If it weren't for you guys we wouldn't have a thanksgiving meal this year. My wife is in the hospital and I get to go and pick her up, so it will be nice to have a meal together! God bless you all!" The kids were so happy to see how such a simple gesture can go so far for someone!

After delivering meals, we headed back to my parents house and had a nice and relaxing visit and a great meal. We were able to talk to my cousin Anja and her husband, Matt, in Germany, and we also got a phone call from James! Although I didn't get to talk to him this time (he has very limited minutes), it was awesome to hear from him and know that he is doing well!

We finished our evening by making Gingerbread Houses together! Joe helped Aleigh, I helped AJ and my mom and dad did one together. We had a great time! Now I get to look forward to EARLY morning shopping! Kohls opens at 4am!! I don't know that I will make it that early (it's 12:30 am right now)! I'm actually debating on whether or not I should even go to bed! I'll let ya know how that goes tomorrow!

CHRISTMAS ALREADY?!

We have a little boy who is just like I was as a kid, when it comes to Christmas (any other time he is just like Joe)! It just never lasts long enough for AJ! He has been asking us, for the past two weeks, if we can put up the Christmas tree and set up the Polar Express train that circles the tree. He, like a lot of us, is a little confused by all of the Christmas stuff that has been set up since Halloween at a few of the stores we have been to! If the stores are decorating already, why can't we? Well, we would have waited until the day after Thanksgiving (like we usually do), but because we are trying to clear out our garage by taking a bunch of stuff to the storage unit, we had do bring in all of the Christmas stuff. So...our tree is up, only one of them though! The kids each have a small tree for their bedrooms, we put one up in the dining room, and then last year Joe started his Texas tree and that one goes in our bedroom.

Here is a picture of the kids on Christmas morning last year.

We all LOVE christmas and are especially excited this year because we get to spend a week in Disneyworld! We haven't been in a couple of years, so the kids couldn't be more thrilled! Who am I kidding, Joe and I are WAY EXCITED too! I am thrilled that we are going to be in Disney while it's decorated for Christmas and the weather is nice.

Even though Disney is going to be a great way to get into the holiday spirit, Christmas will not be the same without James here! We are going to try and send christmas to him in any way that we can! Here is a cute shot that I caught of James playing barbies w/ aleigh last christmas! He was being so funny!

I was telling the kids all about my holiday memories as a kid in Utah. It was always so much fun to have the snow and visit family during Thanksgiving and Christmas! I loved seeing all of my cousins and calling them all on Christmas morning to find out what they got! As a kid, that's what the holidays were all about...lots of family and good food!!! We still have great food, my mom and dad are great cooks! I have hoped, for the last 17 years, that we can go back to Utah for Thanksgiving and maybe it will snow so the kids can enjoy it! It's just not easy to try and purchase plane tickets that close to the holidays. We will make it out there one year! Maybe next year and maybe James could even meet us out there! We sure miss him and wish he could be in a more pleasant place for the holidays this year! He is amazing though, I am sure he will make the best of it!

Ansley's photos

Just wanted to let you know that Ansley's pictures are up on the "Heart Is Found" photo gallery! If you haven't had a chance to check them out go to: www.heartisfound.com , sign in, and the code is: aaa

I have to say, they are pretty cute! Malin did an amazing job, as always!

HALLOWEEN

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! This year we had a Pink Poodle, Supergirl, and Valdemort (from Harry Potter...and I probably spelled it wrong)!

Ansley and I were very congested so my plan was to keep both her and I inside for the night at my mom and dad's house and let Joe take the kids trick-or-treating w/ some friends of ours. Well, I did leave Ansley in w/ my parents, but decided I wanted to go out! It was a lot of fun, but probably not a good idea since I had the worst sinus pressure ever by the end of the night! My head was aching SO BAD! It was a cold but fun night! We were out until 9 pm this year which is the latest we have ever been out on Halloween. The kids have TONS of candy and aren't even interested in it...crazy! Joe hasn't gone near the candy and believe it or not, I haven't either! If ya want some candy come on over or I'll send it to ya!!!

Ansley wasn't too fond of her pink poodle costume! So Daddy rescued her!

What started out as a night of Trick-or-Treating w/ AJ's friend, Devon turned into a night of lots of friends! We went to a neighborhood w/ a lot of big houses fairly close together. Robin wasn't going to go out for the same reason I wasn't, she was congested too. Like me, she decided she would go out and join us. Then some friends of ours called (The Bannister's) and asked where we were trick-or-treating this year so we met up w/ them and a few other families from Karate. We were all walking in a big group when we ended up at a friends house. They were done for the night so they gave us their limo golf cart to use! It was SO NICE! Only in Peachtree City do you see tons of people trick-or-treating on golf carts! :)