McEowen Family Thanksgiving 2010

The McEowen family gathered at Mom's & Dad's to celebrate Thanksgiving.

There were some intense games of checkers this weekend.

Emily gaver her Dad and Mom a piano lesson.  ;)

Jeremy mocked my mocking of him and his grumpy eyebrows.

Mom & Dad prepared the turkey ahead of time.

The kids made festive signs and hung them throughout the house.

At the request of Krampa, Annah and Sylvia played some Christmas duets they've been working on

Aunt Marcia brought her handbells, and Aunt Needy helped the kids play some songs.  

Here, Annah, Megan, Caeden, Clayton, Sylvia, and Wanda and Dad attempted Jingle Bells.  

We took Little Bear the travel bug to a new geocache down the road from Gram's & Krampa's house, and Megan went along for the ride.

Little Bear started out in Germany and has now traveled over 4,700 miles.  We helped him go 187 of them, and got him to his second state in the USA.

Gram has been saving this dress until Annah grew in to it.  It was mine when I was in 4th grade, and of course Gram made it.  Annah looks a *little* like I did at the same age.

Annah helped Emily with her breakfast yogurt...so sweet.

It was Emily's turn to get her picture taken in the McEowen heirloom dress.  All the McEowen girls have been photographed wearing it and posing on this hearth. 

The kids helped Gram put up and decorate her tiny Christmas tree!

It was a weekend full of blessings and thankfulness and love!

Too much of a good thing...

After we had tucked Caeden in bed, he came back upstairs a while later, saying his tummy was hurting really badly.  We tried to tell him he was just tired, but he continued to feel worse.  He said his heart felt funny, so Gram took his blood pressure.  It was fine.  

I tried to put him back to bed, but he cried and moaned.  He asked me to pray for him and ask Jesus to heal him and help him feel better, and I did.  A few minutes later he asked me to pray harder and with all my heart because he was feeling so bad.  

Jeremy tried to tuck him in again and make him stay in bed. I could tell he really was feeling bad now, so I stood outside the door and listened to him.  He cried and begged Jesus to take back the pain.  He prayed and prayed, saying that he knew he had done lots of bad things, but he was so sorry.  He begged Jesus to forgive him and help him feel better.  (Of course, I was standing in the hallway crying, listening to this!)  So, I brought him to bed with me, and kept a dim light on.  

About 12:30 a.m. I looked at him, and his eyes popped open.  I could tell he was about to get sick, so I tried to get him to the waste basket.  Poor little guy had eaten WAY too much food and sweets, and his little body just didn't like it.  He has never gotten sick before, so he was quite surprised by the whole experience.  And it must have been the overeating, because he only got sick the one time and was so relieved and more comfortable afterward.  

I guess it's just not the holidays unless someone is getting sick!  Ahhhhh...

DeHaven Thanksgiving 2010

This evening we shared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with the DeHaven side of the family.  Eric & Marti were gracious to host us all again.

Of course, the kids were SO excited to play together.  Our kids thought their racetrack was cool!

This pooch is a very well behaved lady of the house!

Jeremy and Eric watched some more football, and Joey was so kind to share his DS with Caeden.

Simon wanted me to take lots of pictures of him.  Who could resist, with that great smile?!

Great Grandma watched her family enjoy time together.

The boys had made a bunch of great gingerbread cookies.  Aunt Marti let each kid have a bowl of icing to color, and the kids had tons of fun decorating cookies together!!

There was  a lot of frosting eating going on!

Lots of childhood memories were shared...those it's-a-miracle-we-lived ones. ;)

Wilson shared some lovely music with us!

What a wonderful time together!!

Crabill Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!  We were so happy to get to share Thanksgiving dinner with the extended Crabill family at Grandma's house.  It has been years since we have seen some of them, and it was great to have some time together!

There are so many kiddos right now, and they all had fun playing together today!

Madison, Bailee, and Kiya were happy to see my camera, and kept finding different spots around the basement and asking me to take their pictures.  Beauties.

A bunch of the kids started a kickball game with an old flat basketball and couch cushions for bases.

Susan and Kraig were there!  We hadn't been able to connect with them since before they moved to Wisconsin almost 5 years ago!  It was so wonderful to see their family!

Little Miss Lucy, played some foosball.

Beautiful Ada enjoyed a ride on the horsey.

Collin and Logan bonded over the DS.

Cutie-pie Caden carefully took a turn.

Of course, there was football on the TV for these guys.

Grandma and Kay got in some dominoes.

Uncle Dick showed Aunt Patsy and Uncle Ed the plans he'd drawn up for their new entertainment center.  Apparently, it started out as a TV stand, and now it's looking more like the Taj Mahal...

Baby Marley is ogled over...

Conner tries to keep his dad from enjoying his Thanksgiving nap.  I don't think he was very successful; Rob was snorin' away all afternoon long.  :)

Aunt Patsy collected photos of everyone in the family and had a friend put together this collage for Grandma.  It was fun to look through and find everybody!

I'm so thankful for this family, and the blessings that we share!!!

Autumn Leaves of Red and Gold

We were blessed with a Saturday at home today, and it was a perfectly gorgeous day to be outside!  In fact, this has been probably the most beautiful Fall we've experienced of the 9 since we've lived here.  The colors have been rich, and we definitely had more leaves fall in our yard than ever!  Jeremy raked them up into a huge pile today, and the kids had a blast playing in them!

I live for little moments like that...

Today the kids were released from school early for a teacher inservice day.  It was SO nice to have them all home with me for the afternoon!  I miss just hanging out with them all day every day!

We made chocolate chip cookies together, and ate some warm out of the oven with cold milk...mmm!!!!

This evening, after Daddy came home, we watched Scrooge together. It is one of our family's favorite Christmas movies.   When the time in the movie came for the 3rd spirit to visit Scrooge, Caeden got a little scared,  and asked his sisters to snuggle him.  I think they were a little scared too, and definitely didn't mind snuggling up!

It was definitely a sweet day together.

Annah's 1st Pet

On her birthday, Annah received the little betta bowl and food, in promise that she could pick out her very own betta fish--her first real pet!

Today, she was able to do that, and chose this pretty blue guy.  She decided to name him Bubbles.

His home is currently in our den on a bookshelf, and he seems to be adjusting nicely to his new life in our house...