A Kentucky Thanksgiving

Dear Wildcat Country,

Thanks for giving us that home feeling at the end of a road trip. 

Thanks for your rolling hills, bluegrass, country cooking, barns and love of basketball.

Thanks for creating some of our favorite people in all the world, and for making our Thanksgiving feel just right.

Thanks for giving us cousin time, grandparent love, date night time (lunch and THREE movies, people!), large amounts of chill time and some serious home cooked eats. 

Thanks for the time with a sweet, crazy good cook in her grandma's apron mom.

Thanks for lots of extra papaw and his girls time. 

 

Love ya, Bluegrass State.  See you again soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've been having lots of fun with our two little turkeys!

Shelling on Sanibel Island

Drive over the bridge onto Sanibel Island and the magic begins.

Busyness?

Insignificant when your little toes touch the cool,
foamy water of the ocean. 

Distraction?

Fades away when shoreline breezes hit your face.

Frustrations?
Become a little less weighty. 

Stress?

Melts in the sunshine.

To do lists?
No point when you can make castles in the sand.

Plastic toys.  Techno gadgets.  Commercialism.
Have no place when the beach is dripping with big, unique, almost too perfect to be true shells.   

Thanks, Ani, Gina, Papa and Mimi for an afternoon of island perfection.

We've been sorting and resorting shells ever since.

When can we go back? 

Island life is for us.  

Turkey For You, Turkey For Me

Our Turkey Day festivities in FL were lots of fun. 
Thanks to Ashley, we had super sweet, hand sewn matching dresses to get gussied up in. 

Our friends and family all felt safe with this guy watching over our feast!!

(These pics are for you, Aunt Jen. 
We bet he'll be prowling around in your house someday.) 

After an overload of eats at Papa & Mimi's and treats at Aunt Ani's house,
we needed to swim off some calories the following day!

Every day with these two is Turkey Day! 

Let the Sun Shine In: Thanksgiving on the Water

Thanksgiving 2011 found us hitting the road and the water.
With a couple days off and growling bellies,
we headed down to the Sunshine State for
Turkey Day with Papa and Mimi.


While the turkey got golden brown in the oven,
we headed out for some time on the water.

Knowing that we'd probably be hitting the water,
Sophia prepared in advance by securing her boating license. 

Both girls took their captain duties very seriously. 

Of course, a boat ride just wouldn't have been a boat ride without
"Duck" as our first mate. 

Sunshine and a boat ride on Thanksgiving = family memories. 
Thanks, Papa, for the good time!

Three cheers for blog post number 1000!

Gratitude Tree

One of our biggest goals as parents is to teach our children gratitude.  Because our culture is focused on material things, we find this to be a battle.  One that we plan to fight. 

Out of this desire came our first gratitude tree.  On our water color (coffee filter) leaves, we brainstormed things we were thankful for.  Much to our delight, the littles listed all of their favorite people first.  Then came books, art, food, hot chocolate,"kid mail", etc. 

This tree was not just to be decoration.  For each blessing (leaf), we came up with an action...a response...to go with it. 

Our responses included things like:

~art being mailed because we are grateful for art and grandparents

~candy bars to Sunday school teachers because we are grateful for church

~canned food donated because we've been blessed with food

~treats to library workers because we are grateful for books

~"kid mail" sent to some of our favorite kids because we are grateful when we receive it

We are still working through our gratitude list, and feel certain that we have a new family Thanksgiving tradition.

 In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  ~1 Thessalonians 5:18