Thanksgiving in Arkansas

We are here and we have been sewing and playing and eating...Here are a few images that capture our last few days very well.

A little Thanksgiving day football with Shannon and SOME of the boys. A tradition since Shannon joined our family.

Playing in the rain.

A little deer 'hunting.' Anabelle was dancing around the living room singing, "I'm going to the deer lease, I'm going to the deer lease." Then I heard her say, "I don't even know what the deer lease is." Taylor was a little apprehensive about wearing the orange. She thought it looked 'silly.'

Is it wierd that my one year old has to take her bumper pad with us on every overnight trip? Will she have to take it to college?

Our little miracle baby Whitley, has grown into a cute little man, who played so sweetly with Caroline.

Rushings on Mission

A few weeks ago our sunday school class went on a family mission trip to help a church near Nashville run their fall festival. It was a great opportunity for our girls to get some LIGHT exposure to missions. We continuously reiterated the point that this trip was not about us, but it was about serving others. The girls did great. Despite an entire day outside in 40 degree temperatures. They were exhausted after 'testing out' all the jump slides, rock walls and hay rides during the day. It was a great trip.

Caroline even got a pretty good nap in. My sweet friend Jill rocked her to sleep and held her for almost an hour while she napped.
While in Nashville we got to see some of our favorite Leonards. David and Natalie came to meet us for dinner and we were all so excited. Taylor kept bringing friends over to our table to 'show off' her friend the rockstar. ;) Love them! So glad to see them, but our visits are always so short.

Halloween

My chef, cowguhl and ladybug had a great halloween.

Taylor went to trick or treat at her teacher's house. Her sweet teacher is exactly what every first grade teacher should be. She's WONDERFUL! We love her. She if def an answer to prayers.

We have a standing trick or treat date with some of our great friends. Check out last year's picture on the stairs. Everyone has grown so much.

We were all taking 1000's of pictures and my favorite quote of the night came from sweet Owen after they walked from the house. "Is it lightening?" No sweet owen, your parents and their friends are just a little camera happy.

A laugh a minute.

These three girls make me smile so much. We were attempting to make a picture for Mawmaw who is still in the hospital. Turns out the best picture was the first one. Isn't it funny how that works out.

....and the wheels are off the bus.

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating...My sweet Anabelle talks more than anyone I've ever seen. Today she and her big sister and I were just enjoying some time working on a little project and she was just jabbering away, when Taylor said, "Mommy, I wish she would give her mouth a rest." Anabelle's response was, "I talk a lot because I'm a talker. Do you know what a talker is? It's someone who is really good at talking. I'm really good at talking. I talk all the time...." and on and on and on. I think she's still going. She did tell me the other day that she is really smart. She's like ten feet smart.

Sunday photo shoot

We had such a fun time getting these pictures. (For the record, that is not how I would describe most photo shoots with three kids). But this was just funny. Check out Miss Caroline's personality. What have I gotten myself into???

Arkansas vs Alabama

After MawMaw had a stroke a couple of weeks ago we headed home to see her. That meant changing our plans of having some Alabama fans over to watch the game. Thru qtrs 1-3 we were really wishing we had our AL fans to gloat over, but by the time the final score rolled around, we were glad the trash talking was limited to txt messaging. It was really fun to feel the electricity all over the state on Fri and Sat morning. We enjoyed driving from Al to Ark in what seemed like a caravaan of AL fans. What wasn't so much fun was driving home Sunday amid all the celebration. What a perfect Saturday to watch football. It was beautiful weather to enjoy most of the morning, and kick off came just in time for C's nap. :)

It's FINALLY Fall!

We had an amazing afternoon we had yesterday, before the REQUIRED Sunday afternoon naps of course. Can you hear her saying "CHEEESSHH"?