Wonderful Long Weekend

We all love the longer weekends, don't we ~ oh we sure enjoyed ours. We got some "things" done around the house and "out and about", enjoyed a date night seeing the sold out movie "Blind Side" and.....

Enjoyed an evening over dinner with a long-time, special friend, Russ (visiting from the state of Washington). Russ and his wife Margie have been friends for over 35 years now. What a treat for us to spend some time together.

Our house shifted from "Thanksgiving" to.......

to Christmas :)

Fa La La La La La La La La

Where's Alden????? :) Love my "silly" man.

Viewed AND selected our tree in about 5 minutes....possibly a record for us! Alden and his pick-up ~ a happy man.

Now....in a minute when he is putting the lights on the tree, maybe not so happy. Hmmmm.

Merry Christmas ~ one and all

More Thanksgiving ~

The pictures say it all ~

What a special day ~

Thanksgiving ~ Favorite day of the year

We had 23 of us here today at the Smith house ~ we love Thanksgiving Day! We are above all thankful to God for His blessings on our life.

Let the pictures tell the story for now.

the whole crew

The "older" generation of our family ~ sisters and husbands

our kids ~ "older" cousins

grandkids ~ "younger" cousins

the sisters ~ Dorian, Kim and Susan

Content ~ wonderful day.

More tomorrow......:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving ~ with grateful hearts we come to this day. We thank God for His abundant blessings on our lives and His hand in the midst of life as we walk through each day.

We are about to enjoy a wonderful day with family ~ Dorian's side of the family. There will be 23 of us ~ and we can't wait! We are missing my one sister and her family ~ Dianne, Chuck, Leah and Jeff.

We are so very thankful for family and friends ~ you bring much joy to our lives.

Saturday ~ totally fun day

Hannah had us over to her new home in DC. She and her roommate and friend, Sarah, had "the parents" over for lunch. We LOVED being in her home!

Lunch was absolutely delicious. The time with friends was wonderful. We have known Sarah for many years and know her parents as well. We all go to the same church and have for years. The "dads" are both retired military. Sarah's sisters also came and joined us. We had such a FUN time. Thanks girls for having us ~ love you Hannah AND your new home. We love that your dream has come true.

The parents :)

the sisters

The Bistro ~ so cute

beautiful dining set

Alden and the girls putting up lights on their deck

Thanks for having us girls ~ we loved being at your house! THEN.......We went home....... to babysit Phill's kids, while he and Christy went on a date. They had tickets ages ago to go to the Toby Mack concert. They were so excited! They had dinner before and enjoyed the concert.

And......Brittany and Hazel ALSO went to the concert. Their church took a group of the kids ~ what fun for them. :) So do you get the picture? Phill and Christy plan this date ages ago....and now "the parents" AND the teenagers are at the same concert! Too funny...of course, they all did fine. Sat WAY for away from each other. :)

Alden and I, Andrea and Ayden and Steve had fun together. We played. Ate out for dinner ~ got ice cream afterwards......

Got ready for bed......

played some more

Got Ayden to bed...........

Then Andrea and us watched a movie ~ and Steve played us some songs.

Too fun ~ we all had a great time!!!!!

Remembering

Our dear friend, Lee Parker, who has passed from life on earth.....to heaven.

We honor his service to our country ~ a dear husband, father, grandfather, and friend.

Pray with us for Linda ~ his wife ~ and their children and grandchildren as they

process this loss.

There is hope ~ in Jesus! To God be the Glory!

Home this weekend and loved it

We had a great weekend getting things done around the house ~ hmmmm, really felt good. We also had a short, but sweet visit by Hannah, Steve played a show last night, church was great (and we did nursery during Sunday School ~ those sweet babies), I enjoyed a "clothes party" with neighborhood ladies, Redskins WON (yahoo!) and we enjoyed a "photo shoot" for Courtney and Pat's family for their Christmas picture (I will not share those.....you will enjoy seeing those from Courtney!) and then we watched Courtney and Pat's kids while they went Christmas shopping. Enjoy by pictures.....

We took Rebekah, Joshua, Bailey and Sawyer for a walk before heading to dinner.

There is a water reserve (kind of a run off area for rain water) not far from Courtney and Pat's house....and they built this bridge all the way around it. What fun!

Sawyer got a ride from Papa ~ We loved feeding the ducks....and the neatest thing happened while we were there. A couple of flocks of geese (50 a piece) came flying in....and yes, landed right there in front of us in the water. So fascinating! Don't you just love nature?

We then went to dinner at Red Robin ~ yum and fun (Papa and Joshua)

Sawyer is ready for his food!!!! This boy knows how to eat!

Grandma and Rebekah

Papa and Bailey

Of course, we had to do some arcades before leaving :)

Rebekah even won a stuffed animal!!!!! Way to go!

Joshua was determined to win one too.....candy would do!

Headed home....got jammies on and watched some.....

Tom and Jerry (and Little House on the Prairie)

Tucked the kids into bed.....and once Courtney and Pat got home from shopping....we got to visit for awhile (such a blessing!).

Yep, we had a great weekend. :)