Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!

Serve the LORD with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the LORD, he is God!

It is he who made us, an we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

I decided to post one of my favorite pictures of each of my three grandchildren as a reminder of just a few of the many blessings God has given me.

Bryce, taken last April. I just think this picture is adorable of him.

Mia--taken last Thanksgiving when she and Krista came to visit. I love this picture of her.

Here's newborn Collin--he's only 4 months old now, but he's changed so much. I just think this is cute, and since the pictures of the other two were older, I thought I should post an "old" one of Collin.

God has certainly blessed me beyond belief. His mercies never cease to amaze me and His grace gives me the strength for each day and is so wonderful. I pray that in the year to come, I learn to share the grace and love of God with the world around me. May I see the needs of others and share His love with them.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone. God bless you all!!

Temple Tots Thanksgiving Feast

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Temple Tots, where Bryce goes to preschool. Because it was Neighbor-2-Neighbor day at church also, his daddy couldn't get off work to go, so he invited Nana to go along, as well as his mommy. His teacher, Miss Stacy said that he was excited all morning about Mommy coming to eat lunch with him. :)

The feast was really nice. The folks at Temple Baptist Church had gone all out with decorating, food, etc.

Collin got to go also, decked out in his Thanksgiving hat. I told Jayme that he looks like the Thanksgiving Butterball. :) He's a sweetie. He got to enjoy his lunch at the feast also. Then, it was a nap for him on the way home.

This was Bryce's placemat he made for the feast. We got a little bit of food on it, but it was so cute. He said Miss Stacy helped him draw his hand to make the turkey. :)

This is Bryce's plate of food. He did pretty well with it. Except his favorite part was the bowl of candy corn on the table. I did talk him into a bite of real corn and then a piece of candy corn. That worked for a few bites. He's got a sweet tooth, that's for sure. And, who knows where he would get that??? :)Here's Mommy, Bryce and Collin--all at the feast. Aren't they cute? Happy Thanksgiving--as you can see, I have MUCH to be thankful for....these 3 and much, much, more. Thank you God for my wonderful family.

Fall Carnival

So, I thought it would be fun to take Bryce and Mia to the Fall Carnival this year at Valley Elementary. I hadn't been for years--probably since my kids were in elementary school. Bryce had been watching a Boz video where they went to the carnival and he envisioned rides, huge games, etc. Well, it didn't quite measure up to that, but they both had a great time. Bryce was ready to go and excited when we went to pick him up. He had been counting down "sleeps" until he got to go. We stopped to pick Mia up and she just squealed and made her excited face. (Which is hard to describe, but she squeezes her fists and makes a little well, excited look!) She really got excited when she saw that she was going to get to ride in Nana's car and the DVD was already on!

Once we got there, Bryce was ready to GO! He wanted to just see what all there was. They had games set up in different rooms, many in the hallways and huge inflatables in the gym. Some of the games were above the two of them, like throwing real darts at balloons--yeah, we didn't go there!

Here is Bryce "fishing" for a prize. Mia is looking at the fish that looks like Nemo. She fished after Bryce did, although she preferred to just point at the fish and see the different ones on the board.

This was one of Mia's favorite games. The other favorite was also a pool, filled with water that had ducks floating in it. You were supposed to pick a duck, show the girl the number on the bottom of it and then you got a prize. However, Mia wanted the ducks that had the numbers on them. And, this game, she wanted the balls, not the prizes they had. She is a silly girl! :)

Bryce was trying to get the football through Brutus's hands. I don't know if you can see where it is, but he's pretty close for a 4 year old. Mia is cheering him on. She wanted the football after he finished. They were going to let her throw it, just for fun, but she didn't want to throw it--she wanted the football. I guess at 15 months, you don't really understand the concept of games, you just like the equipment!

So, as you can see, they both enjoyed the carnival a lot! Next year, Collin will have to go along with us too. I felt bad that we didn't take him, but I didn't figure he would enjoy it. And, someone would have had to carry him (which is a BIG task in and of itself). :)

After the carnival, we all went over to Granny's for dinner. Here is Collin, sitting on Bippy's lap. Jayme says she wants to get him a Santa suit to wear for Christmas--he already has the rosy cheeks!

What a blessing my family is to me! This was a great day--got to enjoy the kids for a few hours and then enjoy my extended family at my mom's house. God is SO good.

My Cute Grandkids

This past week has been a hectic one, to be sure. Hectic, but enjoyable. Thursday, I got to go over and stay with Mia while her mommy went to a doctor's appointment. Mia usually naps from noon until about 3:00 or so. However, that day, she went to sleep about 11:45 and then by the time I got there about 12:30, she was up! Personally, I think she knew Nana was coming and wanted to get to see me. We had so much fun. We went for a walk up the road then came back and played in the leaves for awhile and I pushed her in her little red car.

Here she is--posing for me. I'm not sure what the face is about. She's a funny girl! She's starting to have such a personality--so fun and so beautiful!

Fun in the leaves! I was throwing leaves up in the air and she was cracking up! I'm not sure what was so funny about it, but she loved it. :) She's a sweetie! Patronizing Nana!

On Thursday, after Krista got back and I visited with her for a few minutes, I went out to Elbrooke to help my hubby clean out his mom's stuff from her room. That was a task that none of us really wanted to do, but it had to be done. I was doing o.k. with it until I opened a plastic box that contained her "Grandma" sweatshirts. That made me pretty sad. It's funny how we all take people and things for granted until they are gone from our lives. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way.

After working out there for about 3 1/2 hours, I went and picked up the boys so that they could stay with us while their parents had Bible study at their house. We had a fun evening, although Baby Collin was a little fussy. He had gotten his 4 months shots that day--poor baby!

So, then comes Friday. We made a trip to Walmart, then about 4:30, the boys came over to spend the night with us!! Their mommy and daddy were taking the teens from church to a Big Daddy Weave concert. Thankfully, Uncle Josh came home on Friday too--he was a big help in playing with the boys, etc. Bryce and I (and Uncle Josh) baked some cookies on Friday evening. I decided we would make some sugar cookies and make them look like Ninja Turtles.

O.k., I know I'm not talented or artistic, but he was thrilled with them. He had a lot of fun dumping in the ingredients, using the mixer, and then putting the icing on the cookies. He put the green on and then I did the mask. He did lick his knife a few times. :) Surprising, huh?

Another shot of him showing off his cookie. He ate it and thought it was delicious. Actually, he ate part of it and then finished it for breakfast. He said that he sometimes asks Mommy if he can eat a cookie for breakfast and she says "Sure, you can eat cookies for breakfast". :)

The Little Guy was a little fussy again on Friday, but we enjoyed him anyway. He and Papaw hung out some while Nana and Bryce did the cookies. Here he is on Saturday morning, just an hour or so after he got up--went back to sleep. Isn't he beautiful and precious? I love the little rosy cheeks. :) (O.k., the chubby, rosy cheeks!!)

Saturday evening, I had the chance to go to Huntington to hear Dr. Bill Brown from Cedarville University at River Cities Community Church (where Josh is going). I also got to see the Duncans and was able to hug Jennifer! It was a great weekend. Hectic, but great. I love my family so much and enjoyed spending some time with the kids!

Trick-or-Treat 2008

I'm a few days late posting about trick or treating, but things got real busy there for a few days. I want to say "thanks" to all of those who have been praying for our family during this time of grieving the loss of Ralph's mom. She is so much better off though. There's no more pain, suffering or sickness for her! Praise God!

So, anyway, here are a few of the pictures I snapped of the kids on Thursday when they went trick-or-treating. They had a great time and so did I to be honest.

First we have sheriff Bryce--a rootin' tootin' cowboy! He went to preschool on Thursday as Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but wanted to be a cowboy for trick-or-treat. I think he's a very handsome little cowpoke! He had a great time and was very polite to folks...always saying "trick or treat", then saying thank-you. The cutest was when he went to one house and they gave him 2 Tootsie Rolls (small ones). Lois said he looked at them and she thought he was going to say something about "only" getting 2 little Tootsie Rolls, however, he said "Mamaw, I got TWO Tootsie Rolls"....he's growing up! (And, of course, he loves Tootsie Rolls)

Next is Little Bo Peep Mia. Krista originally wanted to make Mia's costume and spent a lot of time making her a chicken costume. However, when she attempted to try it on her, she screamed, held her breath, closed her eyes and just generally threw a fit! So, Nana ordered her this costume, got a sheep and made her little staff. She was adorable with her little costume--complete with a yellow bruise between her eyes! :) Gotta love the bumps and bruises! Mia got some cheese curls from Grandpa (Bryce's grandpa) first thing and she held on to them the whole time. She would look at them and say "Yum"....

And, finally, it's Baby Collin as a Turtle. He would smile everytime someone said "Turtle, turtle" to him. It was a perfect evening for his costume. It kept him pretty warm with the chill in the air. He had a good time riding along in the stroller. Isn't he the cutest turtle you've ever seen? He didn't carry a pumpkin with the other two, but I think he enjoyed the evening anyway.

Here they all are! The Greene family and the Dunham ladies. (David had a stack of papers to read and grade, so he stayed home). We had a good time and I hope we can all remember the fun part of this day instead of the end of the day. God is SO good--He has blessed me beyond what I could ever imagine. I love my family!!!