A Tale Of Four Thanksgivings

 This year we celebrated Thanksgiving four times!  Our first time was last Sunday at church.  Our church always holds a big Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixin's and it is a wonderful time of fellowship. 

Mom at the church's Thanksgiving!

 

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Then on Tuesday we traveled down to Edisto Beach where my aunt and uncle had rented a beach house for Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice time there and the weather was beautiful.  We had the beach pretty much to ourselves which was also very nice!  Our cousin, Dustin, graciously took some family photos for us, but those will be on a seperate post!

 

Our family

Dad at the beach house

Mom and Savannah

 

Uncle Fran

 

Me

Noah and the twins at the beach.  The water was about 54 degrees, and we didn't bring swimsuits, but the boys just rolled up their pant legs and ran in and out of the waves.

Ethan

Aunt Kim, Dad and Uncle Fran

Vanna

The boys and the twins dancing around on the deck of the Edisto Marina.

Mom, me and Savannah

(The wind was blowing our hair every which way, as you can tell by the pictures!)

 

The twins....can YOU tell then apart???

Elaina with her "sheshell" !

Katelynn

Aunt Kim and Savannah holding our cousin, little Julianne.

Sisters...

Dad walking along the beach

Thanksgiving dinner #2:   Tuesday night at the beach, we had Thanksgiving dinner with my cousin Dustin and his family.  His work is transferring him to Germany, where they will live for about 3-5 years, so it was nice to be able to spend a few days with them before they leave. 

 

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On Wednesday, Dustin and his family had to head back home, but my other cousin Lisa and her family came, so we held another Thanksgiving dinner with them.  Wednesday night we packed up and traveled home, but we had a lovely visit with everyone and were very glad for the chance for a little get-away!

 

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On Thursday, the real Thanksgiving day, we went to Gram and Pop's house and had Thanksgiving with Mom's side of the family.  We enjoyed yet another day of fun, family, and fellowshipping.  We played some of our family's favorite games, like Parcheesi and Euchre.  The more people that you can get to play, the more fun, and we had enough this year to hold a Euchre tournament!

Even Toby (Mom's dog)  got to come!

 

 

Dad carving the turkey

We had two games of Parcheesi going on at the same time!

 

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, visiting with family, remembering the Lord's goodness and your many blessings, and simply relaxing!

 

"O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good;

for His mercy endureth for ever."

-Psalm 107:1

 

 

Swimming with a bunch of "Hamms"

Our cousins, the twins, just started school, but a couple of days before they did, they came over to our house to spend two more days with us! 

Katelynn, Elaina and Noah posing for picture. 

No, no, Noah.  Not a goofy picture!

I guess that one will have to do...

 Elaina...

 Katelynn...

Jordan and Savannah...

Mom...

 We got such a kick out of this one.  The two of them came up with the idea that none of the sidewalk should stay dry, so they spent about 15-20 minutes trying to get the whole sidewalk wet!

If you look closely you'll notice Elaina is wearing one of our swim caps.  Both of them thought they were the neatest things and had to try them out. 

Why do they look better on them???

It was a fun day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  Maybe, by looking back at the pictures, they enjoyed themselves a bit too much! 

Twin Sisters

Katelynn and Elaina
(Our Twin Cousins)



Twin Sisters

Twin sister, here beside me,
hold on to my hand tight.
For we know not what lay ahead,
but next to you I'll be all right.

When you fall down, I'll help you up,
you do the same for me;
You'll get a bandage for my cut,
I'll kiss the boo-boo on your knee.

Twin Sister, here beside me
together we will walk,
Together we will cry and laugh,
together we will talk.

One of these tomorrows,
our childhood will end.
So promise me, Twin Sister
that you'll stay my dearest friend.

Someday in our Lord's good time,
I know we both must die.
I will go to meet my Savior Jesus
in His home up in the sky.

So promise me, Twin Sister,
that you will belieive in Him as well.
Jesus loves you, dearest sister,
He wants to save your soul from Hell.

Jesus wants you, dearest sister,
to spend eternity with Him.
Won't you receive His gift, Twin Sister,
repent of your sins and let Him in.

And someday, Twin Sister,
when we meet Jesus in the sky,
We'll have no fear, we'll have no dread
we'll have no need to cry.

I'll say "Twin Sister, here beside me,
Hold on to my hand tight.
We know our Savior waits ahead,
and with Him we'll be all right."



Elaina and Katelynn

 Posted by Jordan

Katelynn and Elaina Are 4!

Katelynn and Elaina are our twin cousins who Jordan babysits every weekday.  They just celebrated their fourth birthday!  They are so sweet, and we just love them to death!  They are more like sisters than cousins!

Katelynn is on the left and Elaina is on the right

Katelynn practicing her sewing

Elaina practicing her sewing

Katelynn on the left, and Elaina on the right sitting on our picnic table!

KATELYNN:                                                    ELAINA:

Kind                                                      Energetic

Able                                                      Laughing

Talkative                                              Amazing

Easy going                                             Interested in everything

Lovable                                                 Nice

Yet to find a job they don't like to do      Adorable

Neat

Naturally curious

Planting the Garden

We have started planting our summer garden. So far we put in potatoes, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, and sugar snap peas, along with the onions and garlic from the fall. About two or three years ago we learned about "lasagna gardening". It's where you layer your garden with leaves, hay, manure, cardboard, newspaper or anything else that you want to put in. You never till up the ground; you just dig a hole big enough for the plant, put newspaper around the plant to keep the weeds out and the moisture in, and mulch with straw or hay. Before we started using this method we were to the point of giving up on gardening because by summer the weeds were so high in our garden that you couldn't see the plants. And we also had really sandy soil. But after only a year of lasagna gardening we now have rich, black dirt and TONS of earthworms tilling up our soil for us! It works great!

Step 2 On The Dairy

There is a huge pile of clay in our side yard right now. We have had to get loads of fill brought in for where our dairy is going to be to make it all level. (We finally found the "perfect" spot to put the dairy barn! Not too close to the garden so that we have room for expansion, but close enough to the house so we can run to it easily in the rain or the cold,...not in the way of backing up vehicles, but also not too far down the hill where the ground starts to slope! You get the idea! And this is only the beginning! The small hills on our land sure do make for a pretty landscape, but are not very practical for building!) So as the man drops the clay off and goes back for another load, Dad is diligently smoothing it out with the tractor. He was even working on it in the dark last night until it started raining, and then finished it this morning. We are all enjoying watching the loads of clay come in, especially Noah and the twins. They stand at the window and watch every single load! So, we are on step two of the dairy barn. The next step will be cement pouring...
Posted by Kelsey

Country Fun!

This is what Southern, country kids do for fun when we don't have snow!!!
This video is of Noah disk sledding (or being pulled behing the golf cart on a disk sled). It looks a lot faster than it actually was. Trust me...this is perfectly safe....and loads of fun! (The next is of Katelynn and the last is of Elaina.)



Posted by Kelsey

The Twins

We snapped these picture of our twin cousins doing dishes! We babysit them Monday through Friday and they are like our little sisters. This moment was too cute to not get a picture of. They took their job very seriously. They didn't even know we took these pictures.



The picture on the hay bales with Ethan and Noah was while we were fixing up our baby goat pens. Katelynn is on the left, Elaina is on the right. The four of them are quite a group!