Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving the girls and I celebrated in Virginia while Andy was with the basketball team in South Carolina. We got back in time from the Virgin Island for me to run up to VA but Andy had practices and games and couldn't get away. We had a very nice and quiet TG with Mimi and Papa plus Uncle John and Aunt Kim.  

There are too many cooks in this kitchen…good thing two of us are more concerned about tasting everything that's being cooked than cooking it:)

I am thankful for a warm fire in the fireplace and for good company:)

the twins, enjoying some relaxing time 

My three blessings. I am so thankful for my girly-girls.

I am so glad we were able to see Granny right after TG. She has been such a blessing to me and I love how our girls just adore her!

The girls are so happy to be back in Clemson with daddy!

All smiles

This girl decided she wanted to learn to knit…patience…ugh!

She is doing well and I hope I can continue to encourage her to persevere through the tough parts of learning to knit!

We had such a nice November and TG. We have so much to be thankful for this year! May we continue to spend each day being grateful for all that God has done for us and for who God is!

St. Thomas

This year the Clemson men's basketball team had a tournament in the Virgin Island, right before Thanksgiving. My parents graciously agreed to watch the girls so Andy and I could have this time away together. It.was.a-ma-z-i-n-g! I am so thankful for parents who are willing to shuffle their schedules around and take on my three girls for a week. The good thing is that my girls adore their Mimi and Papa and always behave much better for them than they do me;) So, since I knew the girls were in great hands, I had a great time relaxing!

The welcome sign as we left the airport.

the view from one side of our hotel.

the view from the other side of the hotel

 the view out the front (our hotel was on the tip of the island so we had a three sided view of the ocean).

aaaaaannnd, the view from our hotel room…womp-womp! Oh well, we hardly spent any time in our room, so this was just a laughing point for us all:)

down at the boat dock before taking a water taxi to the nearest town

these little guys were EVERYWHERE! They'd just sit right in the middle of everything and stare you down. Slightly freaky.

My view for most of the week! Paradise

crap, look who came calling…not invited fella, not invited at all

sitting on the infinity edge of the pool, over-looking the ocean

our friends, the Sikes, and us. We stuck together….and also had the same hotel room views;)

because I'm a dork;)

just chilling

We had one excursion off the island. Everyone went snorkeling at Turtle cove to see the reef, huge turtles and other marine life. We had a great time. It was different because the water wasn't that clear. St. Thomas is where the Caribbean and the Atlantic meet, so the water isn't as clear. It was still beautiful though:)

there was a beach on one side of the hotel that was nice. The ocean was pretty rough on the beach, so we didn't spend much time down there. It was still beautiful though!

this little waterfall next to our hotel, fed into the ocean. It was hidden and pretty cool.

the last day there were more little rain storms that blew in and out. After a long one (probably 15 minutes), this little rainbow came out. It was pretty cool.

more beach pictures

Some pictures before one of the team dinners outside of the hotel. We've got to document this time together:)

I am so thankful to be able to go on these trips with Andy! We had a great time and got to spend some time together without our girls, which is always a blessing. It was fun, but I'm glad to be back with our crazy girls!

Alley is 7!!

I'm not sure Andy and I really believe Alley has turned 7. I mean, really, she's still our little bundle of loud screaming and crying, I mean, joy;) Alley has grown up so much in the past year. She has become very independent (makes everyone breakfast, likes to vacuum, dust and clean the bathroom - thank you lord!!) and always wants to help her sisters, even when they don't want her too. She is doing well in 1st grade and has even started to learn French…poor child has me as a teacher and I never even took french. Thank goodness for friends and family who know french and a great french program with CDs!! She still loves arts and crafts and will make huge disasters while creating such sweet cards and pictures for people. She has fallen in love with sewing and is desperate to learn. She also wants to learn to knit…goodness, I need more hours in the day for this child!! She learned to ride her bike without training wheels at the beginning of the summer (and suffered through it all with a bike that was way too small for her loooooooong legs!). Alley has a huge heart and such a love for God. She talks about God all the time and has some pretty deep questions that I've had to ask Papa or some friends I know who are in seminary! Yikes! I love that she wants everyone to hear the gospel. She even met a little boy from Iraq this summer and proceeded to tell him the gospel and ask if he wanted to have Jesus in his life. Wow! We can all learn from her. God is going to use this child regardless of my bad parenting! What a joy and breath of fresh air she is!!

my little/big 7 year old!

opening presents…these faces are hilarious

Our traditional donut birthday breakfast. Alley lucked out this year, Anderson just opened up a KK AND we had to take our car to get fixed in Anderson that morning….so, she got KK instead of DD. She was in.heaven.

I love these three monkeys!

Happy Birthday to such a sweet older sister, first child and huge mommy helper! We love you so much!

Fall hikes and farmers markets

This has been a busy fall and we haven't gotten to hike as much as we wanted to. We had to get one last hike in before the weather turned cold though! We had fun wandering the trails and scaling the rocks at the waterfall:)

Daddy and his girlies

our sweet and crazy girls!

 this little one must be worried about daddy's driving skills;) She got a new helmet and wanted to wear it everywhere!

Kendall…my goodness that girl has her own sense of fashion!;)

Our local farmers market had some entertainment and even asked the girls to help them out. It was so cute! They are playing the washboard and even had some kazoos:) 

Oh MC…you look like a  flapper with that head band. It's not the 1920s anymore;)