Happy Thanksgiving!

A little pre-dinner Guitar Hero: World Tour!

Tally's beautiful and delicious fried turkey!

The table!

The men giving Tally moral support while he carved the turkey!

Tally carving the turkey!

Patiently waiting to eat!

Elizabeth and her sweet girls, Reagan and Bella!

Dinner is served! Let's eat!

Dinner time!

Kenan loved all the Thanksgiving food! I wasn't sure he was ever going to stop eating!

Chris rocking the bass guitar!

Tally jamming with the guitar!

The three preggos! I have a head start!

We had a Thanksgiving feast with our friends here in VA! We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and we feel so blessed that they are a part of our lives! God has always provided such wonderful friends every step of the way during our Navy career!

We celebrated with Chris, Amy, Tanner, Julie, Emma, Pat, Eliza, Daniel, Elizabeth, Reagan, Bella and our family! We had so much fun! Tally fried a turkey and it was delicious! We also had dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, sweet potato casserole, green bean roll-ups, cream corn, giblet gravy, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ooey gooey cake (Paula Deen recipe), and chocolate oreo cake (at my request for something chocolate)! Everything was delicious!

We had a moment of sharing what we were thankful for and found out that Chris & Amy are expecting their first bundle of joy! We are all so excited for them! So of the four couples there, three of us are expecting and Elizabeth just had a baby six months ago! Our cups runneth over with these wonderful blessings!

What would a gathering among friends be without a little Guitar Hero: World Tour bash? We rocked out the house with our (or lack of) skills! I would call our evening a success!

We truly are thankful for all the Lord has done and provided for us! We owe everything that we are and have to Him!

Snow!

Last Friday this is the scene that Kenan and I woke up to! SNOW! The snowflakes were huge! It didn't really last long and it didn't stick but it was exciting to see it! However, it also meant that the boat and Goldie were delayed from coming in due to the weather! Luckily they did finally make it in late that afternoon! I guess I should go out an buy a winter coat - it might actually get cold here! ;)

Bedroom Furniture!

We finally got new bedroom furniture! When we moved this time I told Goldie we should just leave our old furniture and start new! My parents and Goldie's parents had given us some furniture when we married that we used in our bedroom for over nine years! Obviously it didn't match so while Goldie was on his first deployment I stripped it all down and painted it black so it would match! I also changed all the hardware to match! It looked pretty good but after a few years the paint was starting to chip away and I was ready for a change! Plus we had never had a headboard or footboard for our bed! We kept saying we were going to get new furniture but something else always came up! Getting rid of furniture and living out of suitcases for 6 weeks is great incentive to get out and get some! We went to many different furniture stores but kept coming back to this set that we saw several years ago in Jax! Nothing compared to it my mind but it was a little more expensive than I wanted to go! You know they say three military moves equals a fire! Well, long story short we ended up special ordering it and getting a great deal, too! The Lord always seems to bless our patience by providing unbelievable deals! Thank you, Lord! We now have our furniture set and we also got new bedding! I still need curtains which hopefully we will be getting shortly! I love our new bedroom!

Our Little Man

Rooting for the Aggies! They need it this year!

All ready for church!

I love to read!

Dirty Laundry!

I read every chance I get!

Our Eat Crow List

I got a chuckle the other day as I ran across a list that Goldie and I composed long before we had children! It is our list of things that we hope we will not do or will do when we have kids! We put it in writing to help hold us accountable! Now mind you we wrote this several years before we had Kenan! I thought it was pretty comical so hopefully you will to!

On Parenting....
- Do not always talk in baby talk - especially when teaching or disciplining
- If a child needs disciplining, do it, and do it consistently
- Be positive around your kids - never bad mouth other people or speak ill of someone in front of them
- Never put your kids against your spouse
- Love each child differently according to their personality but EQUALLY
- Spouses should agree on all (or most) decisions and if they don't discuss it in private
- Be consistent in punishment - don't threaten to do something and then not do it
- Pray daily for your children's salvation (obviously until they are saved), their walk with the Lord, safety, health, who they will marry, etc...
- If your child ever has to ask if you are going to church on a normal church day and they truly do not know the answer then something is wrong! Make church priority over sports and other activities!
- Play with your kids and rough house with them - you don't want them to be wieners ;)
- Don't think that speaking with a lisp is cute
- Send the kids outside to play so they don't become wieners ;)
- Get to know the parents of their friends
- Limit how much tv, computer, video games they can watch/play
- Keep them on a schedule as much as possible
- Don't be scared to let them cry as a baby!
- Don't let the baby/child sleep in the bed with us!
- Remember that the baby is an addition and NOT THE FOCUS.
- Remember to date after the baby is born! Your marriage is #1 after God!
- Have daily chores for each child when they are able
- Pray for wisdom and instruction for raising Christ-like children
- Do not let the schedule dictate your life to where you don't do anything (e.g. go to church). Be flexible while still maintaining

These are in no particular order! As we thought of something we wrote it down! I'd love to hear your thoughts or things you said you would never or would do!

Our cute boy

Already...

I talked to Goldie this morning at around 1030 and everything was fine! They were pulling up the brow, while we were talking, getting ready to go out yet again! Have I mentioned how much I love the boat? Well, I'll save that for another day! So at noon I start preparing lunch and I turn on the faucet and absolutely NO water! Are you kidding me? Did I pay the bill? Are my neighbors without water, too? Or is it just me? I finally called and found out that a water main in our neighborhood is broken! She said they expect it to be back on sometime around 1400! As far as I know Goldie hasn't even pulled out of the dock yet and things are already starting to go wrong! Let's just hope that this is all that happens during this underway period!