Happy birthday, Kennick!

Sadly, I forgot my camera last Friday when we went to Kennick's birthday party. I'll have to get some pictures from Bubba and Sara and post them later. But as for now, Happy 3rd birthday to the most animated, curly-headed little guy I know! We love you, Kennick Richard!

November 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Thankful for memories-in-the-making

On Sunday afternoon, we had our last Thanksgiving get-together at my Granny's house. My parents, sister and her family, my aunt and uncle, two cousins and their family/girlfriend were all there, too. We even had an extra-special visitor, my great-aunt Janette came to see all the "little ones" and eat lunch with us. It was a loud, fun, yummy afternoon!

Here's Grandad with his two big boys. He had to eat and run because he had a special band practice for an upcoming event.

This is my cousin Josh with his niece, Kenle. She's in between Cash and Kennick in age. We love having a little bit of girliness in the middle of the rough and dirty boys!

Where was B? He was sitting in Grammy's lap eating some Italian Creme cake, of course!

Pile on! Cash, Kenle and Kennick ran and jumped on my cousin, Jeremiah, and Derek. It was a tickling, laughing, squealing couch of fun!

Can't you tell?

And here's Gran-Granny with the great-grandbabies. I had to include this picture first for laughs. When Granny originally sat down, she kind of squished little B. It took awhile for Kathy and I to recover from laughing to actually take pictures. :)

This one was a little better...

But this was is the best shot that I got. Not perfect, but as good as it gets with 4 squirmy ones!

Someone loved sitting in his Gran-Granny's lap. He was definitely winding down and getting a bit sleepy.

Jeremiah hid behind the couch to scare the big kids. Hilarious! I think by now Aunt Janette had left to go home. I'm not sure she knew what she was getting into when she agreed to lunch with this bunch!

The afternoon ended with some funny faces shared between Josh and Kenle.

What a blessed group we are! It was an afternoon of food, family, fun and lots of laughs!

Family on Thanksgiving day

After naptime on Thanksgiving afternoon, family started arriving. We were actually hosting the Doggett side for a Thanksgiving dinner at our new house! Heath was excited because it meant he would get to fry our third (and last) turkey for the week. Cash and B were excited to see Nick, and I was just excited and thankful that the entire side of Heath's family were willing and able to come. We don't get together much with Heath's side of our family, and ever since we lost his mother in 2008, things have been rocky.

Here's Marlo and Heath getting ready to lower the turkey.

PawPaw and his youngest grandson, a very sleepy-looking B

Turkey's done -- time to carve and eat! We got tickled at ourselves because after Heath carved it, all the adults started picking the meat that he missed. Who needs a fork?!

Nick and Cash played up in the playroom until supper time.

B mostly hung out downstairs with us. Here he is turning on some music while I finished the mashed potatoes.

Then they all played in the giant cardboard box downstairs in the foyer. Everyone had a good time, but there was still a void in the whole event. A void in the conversations, the meal, the fellowship, and huge void in the laughter. We definitely miss Nana!

Thankful for Play-doh

Is that silly? To be thankful for Play-doh? I don't think so. You should see how much my boys love playing with Play-doh. We usually get it out one or two mornings a week. We make letters with our Play-doh. We make animals with our Play-doh. We roll it out smooth, and then we roll our trucks, tractors, rollers, etc. over it to pretend we're making a new road or plowing a new field. We practice our counting using balls made of Play-doh. We make an endless supply of spaghetti with our Play-doh, too. Are you getting the idea here?

We love Play-doh so much, that instead of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade together, we played with our Play-doh together. Even daddy!

Here's Cash making some grooves in his Play-doh. He loves rolling it out flat, making grooves, and then driving his John Deere over it. Rough field, I guess. :)

This is B's favorite by far. He actually got this for Cash last year for Christmas, but he's always the first to grab it when the Play-doh basket comes out. "Make sketti!"

Oh, yes, and Heath joined in the fun!

See? Endless supplies of spaghetti. Heath somehow convinced him here that he needed to make some fettucini, too.

I made a Play-doh turkey. Talent, right? Not really, just hours of Play-doh fun under the belt! :)

Plastic knives -- some of the best Play-doh tools ever! (Note the tongue -- concentration!)

The boys loved that he was home for a day of play. Sometimes when he's home he has to work in his office, and it's hard for the boys to not get to play with him. But on this day, daddy was free to play with the boys all day!

Honoring our soldiers

During the second week of November, our "school games" were all related to a theme. I couldn't think of a name for the theme except Patriotic. I wanted to incorporate Election Day and Veterans' Day into our lessons so Cash could begin to have an early understanding of them, but knew that it would be difficult to get a lot of resources that were age appropriate. It was a struggle, but we had a fun week.

It started off the weekend before with a barrel of soldiers, tanks, fighter jets and a double-blade helicopter. I had seen this at the toy store a month or so earlier, and when they went on sale for less that $5 I knew it would be perfect. The boys loved playing with them. I tried to set them up, but it seemed that the fighter jet and Baylen just wanted to knock them all over.

It wasn't until Bryan and Jennifer came over that it started to be productive play. Cash loved playing with Bryan. He taught him some of the names of the different pieces, put the stickers on the tanks and planes, and explained some things to Cash. (I didn't take pictures when they were here, though. Bummer.)

I explained to Cash that Bryan was a real soldier. I'm not sure Cash understands yet, but I'm hoping that he will grow to have an appreciation for all that our soldiers have done and do for us.

I got tickled at Cash. He held up one soldier and said, "This one has a sippie cup in his hand." Bryan said, "No, that's actually a grenade." :)

B liked playing with it all, too. I think his favorite was the actual barrel that it all came in. He used it to stand on to reach the light switches for the rest of the week. Lovely.

We also colored pictures for two of our favorite soldiers. We colored one and sent it to Bryan later in the week, and Cash colored a picture of an Air Force veteran for my uncle David.

We also painted many, many (I'm not sure why it was so much fun) pictures of the American flag. I tried teaching the Pledge of Allegiance, but we didn't get very far. I found some great books, though, at the library that we used during the week to read through the pledge.

I was a little bummed because we were supposed to meet my uncle at Aviation Park that week. He had agreed to show Cash and B the three planes they have there and tell them all about them. It was actually really cold and windy on the day we had planned on meeting, so we had to postpone it. The weather has just been cold, windy and rainy since. I'm hoping that we'll still get to go over there with him sometime.

We did, however, make it to the Glasgow Veterans' Day parade, and Bubba went with us. :)

Here they are, ready for the parade!

The KY State Troopers were there. Cash pointed out the "guys with the guns" and "our country's flag!"

B took one look at this and said, "Wow!"

Jr. ROTC from Barren Co.

and veterans on motorcycles

It was a very short parade, and sadly, there weren't many people on the streets to watch it. It hurts me to see the lack of respect for so many that sacrificed so much. I can only hope that as my boys grow up, they will have an appreciation for the people who defend our country so bravely.

Thankful for friends

For the past three years, we have always hosted our small group Thanksgiving dinner. Eight couples that are some of our closest friends come over, we catch up, eat an awesome meal, and just fellowship in the love that we have for each other and give thanks for the blessings we have. Here are some pictures from our first Thanksgiving get-together (2009):

Beth and Ben with sweet Leah (only 3 1/2 months old)

Bryan and Jennifer

Lara and Nathan with little Lylah (also 3 1/2 months old)

Kristi and Xander (Kevin had my camera and was taking pictures the reason he's not in this one)

Laura and Will with Hunter (only 5 months old)

Laura and Caleb

Here's an idea of what last year looked like. Eight couples had added two more babies.

And here's what this year's get-together looked like:

Heath and Cash filled the turkey fryer that afternoon. It was beautiful weather, and we had invited everyone to come early in the afternoon so we could catch up and the kiddos could play.

Everyone arrived, hugged, chatted, played, and then it was time to eat. I am certainly thankful that we have friends that are such great cooks. I think Nathan was, too!

Kristi, Xander and Taylor

Here's the little kid table. 

Hunter, Lylah, Leah, Baylen and Cash

Hannah was excited about our Thanksgiving meal, too.

Bryan, Laura and Hunter

Here's the latest addition to our group. Hudson is only 2 1/2 months old.

And here's Caleb with Charlie who is another 2011 addition. He's 5 1/2 months old.

This was our attempt at a kid group picture. We didn't have the highest of expectations. It was getting late, and they had been playing hard for hours. 

But looking at these pictures, it shows just how awesome God is. He has truly blessed this group over the past years. Nine of the eleven kiddos here are 3 and under. :)

Hunter was so sweet. After everyone got up from taking the picture, he just sat on the couch. So sleepy!

This is where we found Leah later -- in our bed hiding in the pillows!

Of course, the gals had to get a picture, too. I love each of these ladies, and I'm thankful for how God has used them in my life.

Last picture of the night, Leah and Cash sat in the little chairs and watched some Tom and Jerry. What a perfect end to a perfect night!