Thanksgiving and More

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend! We spent Thanksgiving day with family at Tim and Tanya's this year. Tim and Tanya did the turkey and for that, I am so thankful. We had a fun time being with family and sharing what we are thankful for! The excitement for the day was when the sweet potatoes caught fire. What a scene that caused and just thinking about it still makes me laugh (we weren't laughing at the time though).

Friday I was able to get some shopping in with Audrey and found some great deals. Gotta love that. However, I am no where close to having my Chirstmas shopping done.

Saturday we went with Phil and Audrey to see the movie The Blind Side.....and LOVED it! What a great movie. Afterwards we walked across the street and got some coffee and a doughnut at Krispy Kremes. Oh yum! Nothing like a fresh hot doughnut with a cup of coffee! Later that evening we all met up and saw the lights at Glendale Glitter. It was fun to see all the Christmas decorations and even more fun to see Carly enjoy all the lights. It was a full day of fun!!

And now for a tid-bit of other info....

My brother and sister-in-law celebrated their wedding anniversary earlier this month and as I was thinking of that date, it reminded me of a date we celebrate...or maybe I should say a date that brought a lot of change to our family. It was ten years ago this month that our family packed up our house, said goodbye to all our family and friends in Washington and moved here to sunny and HOT Arizona. I find it so hard to believe that we've been here that long. Moving here was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I never thought I would raise my family anywhere but in Washington, where I still call my home. It seems strange that our kids will consider Az. as their home. But as hard as it was leaving, I knew that the Lord was clearly leading us here and even though I didn't understand, I had to trust Him! Our ways are not always His ways. I see now, as I look back on the last ten years, there have been many blessings that we have received in our lives had we not moved here to Arizona. One being......Carly.

Also, this month, we once again went through the process to update our home study for our China adoption. It has been 3 years since our paper work arrived in China. Wow! When we started the process (back in Jan of '06) we were told that once we have our LID (log in date) it would take about 8-9 months for a referral. Well, obviously not. But....even though the wait is long, God is good and I know we will travel to get our little girl on His timing...so we wait.

Well, we say good-bye to November and welcome December. My favorite time of year!

Thanksgiving Day






Ready to see the lights at Glendale Glitter

Tim, Tanya and family

Phil, Audrey and family

The crazy guys!

All the cousins .....but Henry

18 Months!

Connor's Birthday

Surprise!

I love to surprise people! For Connor's 13th birthday we surprised him good...but was it ever hard to keep quiet. We actually had two surprises for him. His birthday was on Tuesday and the hard part was that he wouldn't get his surprise til Wed. On Wed. he best friend, Jacob, flew in to town from Idaho. Jacob turned 13 the week before. His mom and I met in our Labor and Birth class and have been best friends ever since. The boys don't get to see each other too often now that we live in different states, but when they do get together they just pick up right where they left off. Jacob was with me when we picked up Connor from school Wed afternoon. Connor got in the car and saw Jacob and just stared at him for a minute like he couldn't believe what he was really seeing. He was so excited to have Jacob here....he said this was the best present ever! But what he didn't know was that was just part one of his surprise!! For dinner that night we had planned to meet family to celebrate together. At dinner I told Connor he has one more gift. I made a word jumbo puzzle for him to solve and once solved it told him what his gift was. He was going to Disneyland. Now Carter did not know any of this either so he was just as surprised as Connor was! Oh what fun!!!

So, Thursday morning we loaded up the car and headed off for Disneyland. We had 3 days of fun just ahead of us. Of course this was Carly's first time going and I wondered how she would do on the rides and meeting the characters. The first ride we took her on was the Toy Story ride. She LOVED it. She sat there and giggled as she pointed to everything she could see. Her new word for the day was "ride". She caught on real fast what this was all about. She was a great trooper! The boys had a great time, as well as mom and dad, and by the end of each day our feet were tired!

I know Connor loved going to Disneyland but what made it all the more fun and special was to have his buddy with him. We are so glad Jacob was able to join us. Now we just need to plan for our next trip! (maybe Carter's 13th birthday.....)

Happy Birthday Connor!

We now have a teenager in the house! Today Connor turns 13. Sometimes the memories are still so fresh that it feels like just the other day we were walking to our hospital room ready to have this baby and excited to meet him, and yet it seems so long ago that he said his first word or took his first step. We are so proud of Connor and who he is today. He is a young man who has a heart for the Lord and longs to learn more of Him. We thank the Lord for Connor and pray that he will continue to grow in His love.