Thanksgiving Pictures

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving in Florida.  They are all taken with my sister's camera and are mostly of her baby daughter, Lilli, who stole this show while we were there.    The boys frequently took turns holding her and then wanted us to take their picture doing it every time.  Also, there are some pictures from a family photo shoot that we did on the beach Thanksgiving morning, taken by a photographer friend of my dad's.

Next week, we pack up again and head back to Florida for Christmas with Anthony's family in Lakeland.  December is flying by!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Family Photos

Snow!

So, we woke up to all this snow this morning!  Anyone else--Riggs or O'briens?

Now I just have to figure out how to get down the mountain to a holiday market that I'm selling at starting at 10am this morning.  At least this weather should help get people in the spirit to Christmas shop!

rbt

Ridgehaven

We are back from Thanksgiving and will hopefully have pictures to post of that soon.

Meanwhile, here are a few pics from our two-day trip to Ridgehaven a couple weeks ago.  Ridgehaven is a PCA-owned conference and retreat center in Brevard, NC.  We were hosted there with a couple other Covenant College family and treated like royalty; we had wonderful accommodations and the food was great!  Wallace Anderson, a former VP at Covenant College who is now working for this camp, even lined up babysitters for us all so the adults could all go on a two-hour hike through the beautiful countryside where we saw waterfalls and crossed over many creeks.  The boys got to go on a hike of their own and even did the junior ropes course and a climbing wall.  The weather couldn't have been more beautiful.  For more information about this camp go to Ridgehaven.org.

All the chillins

Stuffing our faces full of good food in the dining hall

Group photo beside the lake

Happy 9th Birthday, Bode!

I couldn't have asked for a better kid.  It's been a honor to be his mom.  Happy Birthday, Bode!

Bode's Birthday

On our way back from a wonderful trip to Ridgehaven, we decided to throw an impromptu soccer birthday party together for Bode.  We didn't know how many people would be available on that short of notice (the party was today, we began making the phone calls yesterday afternoon), but miraculously most of the people we called were available.  This was Bode's dream birthday party--thanks to all his wonderful friends, and their parents, who were so willing to carve time out of their day on such short notice to celebrate Bode's birthday with us!  Below is a link to an album of pictures of the play-by-play action from the game.  It was intense and the score was close, but everyone was a great sport--no injuries and no arguments...nothing but fun times!

Bode's Birthday

Quote of the week

I made some oilcloth journal covers for the kids in Myers' class (all three of them), to cover the composition notebooks that they use for their writing class.  They each wrote me a thank-you note in class and Myers delivered them to me yesterday.  One of the lines in Myers' thank-you said, "You are a great mom."  I was very moved by these affectionate words, which rarely come from any of my boys, and thanked him for saying that.  He replied, "My teacher told me to write that."

Nice.

Staying Busy

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while.  Still no working camera and rbt Bag's schedule along with family commitments related to the upcoming holidays are keeping us busy and slightly overwhelmed, but I'm sure many of you can relate.  As I sit down to type this, Anthony and the boys just headed out for a special trip to Taco Bell; one place they know they can go and get to leave me, the only girl, behind (:

This upcoming Thursday and Friday we get to take a family trip, along with Troy and Sarah Duble's family and another couple from Covenant, to Ridgehaven in North Carolina.  I don't know a lot about the place, but I understand that it's a Christian camp for groups and families?  Either way, we're excited to go and see what it's all about.  We've had unseasonably warm, sunny, dry weather--seems that November is making up for our miserable October--and so we anticipate good weather for camping this weekend.  Once we return, we get to celebrate Bode's 9th birthday on Sunday.  Monday, the 23rd, my dad flies into Chattanooga first thing in the morning.  The boys and I will pick him up and head straight to Florida from there--my dad is offering the sacrificial role of being our driver for that trip.  Then, on Wednesday, Anthony will fly down and meet up with us at my parent's house for Thanksgiving.  Also, we'll be joined by my sister, Laura, and her husband Thadd and their new baby, Lilli, whom we can't wait to meet for the first time.  They've come to the states for three months from Germany, where they are missionaries.  We've not seen them in nearly two years.  Also, my grandma and my other set of grandparents have rented condos on the beach for the month, so we'll get to see them too.

Hope I get to post pictures of something soon.  If not, at least you'll know where we are and why you haven't heard from us in so long.  Love to all!

Birthday Celebration and Other Things

Anthony's parents came in town last weekend for their annual visit and my parents came as well in order to watch Bode and Myers play soccer on Saturday.  My parents were came Friday night and left after lunch on Sunday, while Anthony's parents flew in on Thursday and stayed until Monday afternoon.  We really enjoyed the time with everyone and wish we could do it more often.  Thanks to my parents and Anthony's parents for making the long trip to be with us!

When we picked Anthony's parents up from the airport on Thursday, we headed straight to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate Davis' fifth birthday!  It was a wonderful treat to have Anthony's parents there to help celebrate and I'm sure that they couldn't have asked for a better reception upon their arrival than to be treated to a fun-packed evening at Chuck E. Cheese's!

Davis' best friend, Acree, joined us for the evening as well!

We all became slightly addicted to Mario Cart.  Lyndon quickly found out his legs were too short to steer and reach the gas peddle at the same time, so we took turns letting him press the gas while we steered the cart!

This may have been the only game Urban braved all evening, but he loved it.

Davis and Acree, joined at the hip as usual!

The birthday boy--can't believe he's five!

Engrossed in a roller coaster ride

Saturday morning, before the big soccer day, Anthony got to try out his new griddle by cooking french toast for eleven people!

Ya Ya plays with the boys and Davis' new playdough set

On Sunday, we were all invited out to our friends', the Frierson's, property on the back of the mountain to celebrate their son's birthday by fishing in their lake and enjoying marshmallows and hotdogs over the fire.  As soon as the word "fishing" was mentioned, my father-in-law was ready and raring to go!  I was impressed that grandma and grandpa were so willing to head outdoors and brave the cooler October temperatures, but we were all rewarded with a beautiful fall day and great fellowship.

You can seen grandpa in the background of the picture below.  He got a hold of that fishing pole and we didn't see or hear from him again for quite a while!

Even grandma joined us around the fire (she's the one in the black jacket).

Roasting a marshmallow...

Blowing off the marshmallow...

Devouring the marshmallow...

A long line of very patient kids waiting their turn to hit the pinata.

A special thanks goes out to our neighbors, the Joneses, for loaning us their camera for the weekend!

new update on urban

Well, we woke up this morning and were no longer convinced that Urban didn't have a fracture.  We just didn't feel right about the pain he was in whenever he tried to put pressure on his leg.  So, we got a hold of his x-rays and contacted an acquaintance on the mountain who is an orthopedic surgeon.  He was very kind and agreed to look at the x-rays and give us a second opinion.  The conclusion is that he has a torus fracture, which is a sort of buckling of the bone.  He said that most of the time they self-heal and that he wouldn't recommend a cast unless it made us feel better.  He thinks it will take about 10-14 days to heal.  Until then, I guess we're sentenced to carrying him around, but I'm okay with that now knowing better what's going on.  Thought ya'll would want to know.  My lower back is hurting from lugging him around all day, so I may be getting an adjustment from my father-in-law when he comes into town later this week (:

Urban's saga

Well, we spent the morning at the doctor getting x-rays.  We are relieved to say that there is no fracture.  We're still not entirely sure what is wrong, but the doctor is hypothesizing that there must be a very bad bruise deep down.  That is even hard to fathom as there is no bruising at the surface of his skin.  Yesterday his ankle was bruised and swollen, so we're still pretty certain that he sprained his ankle.  But today, his ankle looks fine.  The area that seems to be affecting him is actually in his shin.  He continues to refuse to put any weight on his right leg and I continue to carry him EVERYWHERE.  I'm weary of that responsibility, but his leg does seem to be legitimately hurting.  The doctor said if he still can't put any weight on it by Friday, we'll have to take him back in for more x-rays.

Currently, he is chilling on the couch in front of a movie.  I'm getting a brief reprieve from holding him and carrying him.  It's hard not to feel like he's milking this attention for all it's worth (:

That's the update.  Thanks for your prayers!