Thanksgiving 2010

This year Justin's parent, grandma and grandpa Martin were with us for Thanksgiving. They came November 14th and have been here since (about 2 weeks) to help with us having the baby.  It has been a real treat to have them in our front driveway and spending so much quality time with the kids.  Fortunately Westin came on the early end, which we literally prayed for considering they would be here and we Justin had 10 days off for the holiday.  So, they've gotten to spend lots of time all the kiddos and the new baby while they were here.  

So, one week after Westin was born we celebrated Thanksgiving.  Such an awesome month to bring home a new baby and again see the miracle of His creation in a tiny, precious little angel.  It is a strong reminder, amidst all our other daily reminders, of God's perfect hand in our lives.  He knit that little guy together in my womb, brought his life to fruition by His will, predestined a plan for him and sees all the days of his life.  Such an amazing thing and I never tire of it.

So for Thanksgiving we celebrated with the grandparents and Grammy and Papa along with Josh and Kara and their 3 kids, Taylor, Colin and Morgyn (and the little one growing in her tummy too).  We started the family day at about 12 noon as everyone brought their portion of food to contribute.  It was an awesome spread, all prepared by hand, including two turkey's and a ham with the primary focus being on dessert.  My Father-in-law LOVES dessert!!!


After we ate we visited while the guys watched the football game and the kids ran around playing.  We looked at Black Friday ads and discussed good shopping strategy to save money!  Auntie Kara did a cute craft with the kids making Turkey's out of apples and assorted candies.  They turned out so cute, even Brynn made one.  


My Brody bear had a fever most of the day and sat on the couch near mommy and Westin resting and falling in and out of sleep. I don't even think he ate lunch or dinner that day, which if you know my Brody, is unusual!  When we put him to bed that night we gave him some Tylenol and by 12:00am when Justin checked him, his fever had broken.


After the boys had each had a mini nap and the football game had come and gone, we decided to get out some games while the kids watched Prancer in our bedroom with Grammy and Papa.  Josh and Kara brought two fun games; Wits and Wagers and Would You Rather.  It was a lot of fun to watch them play, hear their answers, and watch them laugh together.  One of the challenges was to lap water from a bowl for 30 seconds of something of that nature. You can see Josh and Justin doing that in the last picture.  It was a lot of fun. 


After everyone said their goodbyes and we planned to go to a movie the next day and Tangled with the kids, Justin and I headed to Toys R Us to maybe try and do some 10:00pm shopping.  That was quickly stopped when we approached the store and saw a line wrapping around the entire building and a parking lot packed full of people waiting to get in.  CRAZY people.  We headed home to the warm comfort of our bed and our sleeping babies.

It was a great Thanksgiving. We are so blessed to have friends, family, children, and all of life's provisions that we literally can say we are without REAL want.  Our life is abundantly full of love and laughter.  We are cared for in more ways than we can say.  As we look forward to Christmas, I'd like to keep the spirit of SATISFACTION alive and take this year to teach our children again just how LOVED and BLESSED we truly are.