Thanksgiving in Virginia

E's Thanksgiving project from school
While in VA, they set up the turkey and
used it as target practice.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Dana's family. The kids played outside most of the time. Since Poppa Claus and G-G live out in the woods, the kids had to wear hunter orange anytime they played outside. All were pretty good sports about it---with the exception of Z on some days. I did not get any indoor photos, but most of the action was outside anyway.

ROLLing along

We were able to go to an Alabama Crimson Tide game for their Senior Day. The Tide played against Tennessee--Chattanooga, and though TN-C never scored, the game was still very exciting. Dana and I were able to take MG and E with us while D-D and Z stayed with a neighbor for several hours, playing with friends exactly their size. :o)




To show you how huge this stadium is, and to give you a taste of where we were sitting, here is a picture of our sister bleachers and an arrow to show you how high our seats were in relation to the field.

Do you see us? We are the ones wearing red! :o)

Ballerina Birthday Party

One of our neighborhood friends had a birthday party to which MG and D-D were both invited. MG just wanted to watch, but once we got there, they had a brand-new ballet dress for her. It was a very bright yellow (not our best color)and was sleeveless...she was a bit shy about the whole thing (especially since she was the oldest girl there by about 2 to 3 years), but she played along pretty well. Since MG made more faces at me whenever I took her picture, there are not as many of her as I would like. Here are several shots of the girls at the party....D-D was in 7th Heaven:

Hide and Seek

D-D wanted to play hide and seek. It took me a little while to find her. Took some pictures of her hiding in her spot...it was a good one:

While Working

Dana has been working on getting the house ready to show for when we put it up for sale. I love that even when he was cleaning the back patio, he was thinking of me. :o) He's such a great guy:

MG thought it looked like fun, so she tried her hand...and then helped Dana wash the entire patio:

Kids

Here are a few pictures of the kids playing outside, striking some poses.

Playing With Pals

November has been a fun month of jumping and running and hollering and crunching of leaves. The air has been crisp and cool and when the rain has stopped its downpour it has fairly danced and sparkled---and has definitely been filled with the sounds of children playing!!

Love this one

This is a song that gives me such encouragement anytime I hear it. It took me a few minutes to like it the first time I heard it on the radio, but as I began to understand the words she was singing, I grew to love the song. Fortunately this "video" has the words on it, so you will not have to decipher it as I did. :o)



There is a verse that came to my attention just today (thank you God and Beth Moore, too!) and for me it goes along with the above song. It is in Isaiah 49:16 where the Lord says, "See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand." Throughout the book of Isaiah, God says that he holds us the the palm of his righteous hand. Often when reading those verses, I would picture his palm held out and open, holding us like we would hold a little butterfly. However, the verse in Is. 49 tells me that God isn't JUST with you, nor does he JUST have his hand open as we sit precariously in his palm, but that He is holding on to us so tight that we have been engraved (or cut into) His hand!!! How encouraging! His shield is not something that is held out in front of us, but according to King David, God is "...a shield around me..." (Ps 3:3). How awesome is our God, our Lord and Savior, our King and defender!