Thanksgiving

This year for the Thanksgiving holiday we had 8 kids 8 years old and under in our less than 3000 square foot home!!!!! :-) Now that is a lot of happy in a small amount of home! We had a great time playing and eating and laughing and eating and talking and eating some more! Here are a few pics from our fun little holiday! My bro-in-love took most of these pics, so I have to give him credit for the photography!


Erik Daniel and Pop were inseparable! Erik Daniel simply adored him ~ cried every time Pop put him down or gave him to me. He wanted his Pop!!! And, I think the feeling was mutual!!!



Pop was surrounded by love from his grandkids!!!!





The kids played outside a good bit and had a blast!!

This is pretty Katey, one of my nieces. . .
Jen and baby Ella. . .
The kiddos preparing to jump in a pile of leaves. . .1. . .2. . .3. . . JUMP!!!
My dollbaby. . .

Another pic of Pop and his little buddy. . .
I love this picture of Joshua and Caleb. . .
This is Aunt Kete (Erik's mother's sister). She and Erik's Uncle came and ate Thanksgiving dinner with us. . . Jen and I planned our Thanksgiving meal a week or so before Thanksgiving Thursday. We chose to make all of the things that we thought Erik and Jason's mom would make if she were with us. The two things that Mom was famous for making on holidays were her very, very sweet sweet-potato casserole and her Mississippi Mud Pie. It was our hope that the boys (Erik, Jason, and Erik's Dad) would feel her near, so to speak, when they tasted these trademark dishes of hers. We also decided, somewhat last minute, to use paper plates instead of china dishes because we knew that Mom would have wanted that! She was all about practicality and making things easy! I wanted to tell Aunt Kete why we were eating on paper plates, but I couldn't bring myself to say it without falling apart! It was definitely a bittersweet holiday. After we ate dinner, I left the table to put a very tired Erik Daniel down for his afternoon nap. When I came back to the kitchen I saw all the dishes filling the sink to overflowing. I think I missed her most as I washed those dishes and handed them to her sweet sister who loaded the dishwasher for me. I was fighting back tears as I thought about how she would be helping me clean up if she were here. We had some of our sweetest conversations while working in the kitchen together. She was such a servant. Serving was her life, and a great deal of her loving service took place in the kitchen.
Elijah took a special liking to his Aunt Jen. In fact, I was not allowed to do much of anything for him when she was around. He wanted her to do it all!!! I can still hear his sweet southern voice calling her. . . "Aunt JAY-YEN!!!!!!"
And, a picture of Jen and I ~ this rarely happens!
The kiddos' Thanksgiving table. . .
After dinner it was outside for some good old fashioned running and playing. . .
Jen snapped this picture of my little Lijah with his cute little curl that he creates by twisting his hair!! What a cute little guy he is ~ so happy and full of life!
Later that evening we put the new Veggie-tales Christmas movie on for the kids. . .

and the men. . . We'll end there! It was a great holiday! We have so much to be Thankful for!!!