Thankful

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend, but I took very few pictures.  My brother and his lovely new bride and their new "baby" (picture below) came for Thanksgiving Day but went home Friday to prepare for their first Thanksgiving feast at their home on Saturday with her family.  We also had Mike's parents, aunt and uncle with us for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Here are a few random recent photos along with just a few related to our actual Thanksgiving.  Regardless, I am so thankful for innumerable blessings.



Two dollies.



Dane in Uncle Benny's glasses. Reminds me of Ralphie from "The Christmas Story."

Nora and our neighbor girl wanted to be twins one day.



This is a little rocking chair I bought about 7 or 8 years ago because it matched the chair I had as a little girl and blogged about here.  I really wanted to make it match Nora's room, so I recovered it last week.  However, I was able to do it in such a way that I can easily revert back to its original covering for nostalgia's sake.



The finished product.

Nora loves it!

Dane went pheasant hunting (without any luck) with Daddy and Teddy last Saturday just as it started to snow.

Pretty frosty morning one week ago.

Just a bit of snow on the ground earlier this week.  It all melted away by the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day.

Making snow angels.

My Thanksgiving cactus that I nearly killed this summer bloomed right on schedule.

Ben and Jen brought their sweet little Tupelo to visit for Thanksgiving.  He's so lucky they adopted him after living his first few months of life as a "street kitten."

Our Thanksgiving table in the sun.  We later added drinking glasses, lots of food, and some of our favorite people!

Pretty old barn bathed in a Thanksgiving sunset.

Beautiful colors to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Dane dressed up 50's style to celebrate the 50th day of kindergarten.

Nora playing doctor with her baby doll.  Interesting choice for an exam table!

Another year luckier

I celebrated the 4th anniversary of my 29th birthday at the beginnng of November.  As usual, Mike spoiled me perfectly.  The last weekend of October, he surprised me by taking me and the kids to a nearby resort for the night.  The kids loved the indoor waterpark.  I enjoyed not feeling guilty about laundry/dishes and the other necessities of keeping a home. I also must admit that I loved the spa treatment I was treated to as well!

As if that wasn't enough, he also got me a beautiful new kitchen faucet.  I am very happy that I was finally able to get rid of the plain faucet and the nonfunctioning water spigot next to it.

 Ahhhhh... much better!

 The kids are now more eager to help wash dishes with the new sprayer!

My brother and his beautiful bride got me this fun T for my birthday.  Perfect!

 The rest of these pictures are unrelated to my birthday, but need to be shared!

My sweet morning kitchen helper making pancakes.

Celebrating Benji's 3rd birthday last weekend.

Nora wrote her name all by herself last week.

Evening jungle gym with Daddy.

Little mini ornamental corn ears from my garden.

Delicious pumpkin soup!

A piece of our 47 acres. Looks like a lot of mowing to me!