With a Thankful Heart

We started our thanksgiving with our annual service at church. We ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and had a sweet service of communion, worship, and testimonies of God's faithfulness this year.

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with family on Thursday. We have spent a lot of time lately getting the old "Store Building" ready for Daddy to use as his music room. Adam's daddy has worked hard for us the past few weeks working on it and then Adam and I did some cleaning and arranging for us to use for Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious as always but of course wayyy too much food! We ate with my family around 12:30 and then cleaned up, and looked at sales papers, and cooked some more food to take to Georgia's for Adam's family's thanksgiving.

We went over about 5:00 to spend time with them. Adam's brother Chris got to come home so that was great! The other Chris cooked a great meal for us. We ate supper, then hung out a while, watched the annual "Punkin Chunkin" on TLC and also had an amazing performance by Anna, Morgan, and Ethan! They were soo cute singing for us! Love them!

Such a great picture of Alabama and her cousin Ethan! I love it!

Thanks Georgia!

We have so incredibly much to be thankful for. This year I am thankful for:

God's grace and mercy

Our amazing church family at Grace Baptist

My wonderful "real" family

My husband and the hard work he does each day

God's provision to meet our every need

Being able to stay home with Alabama and see her grow and learn

A job where I can work with my Daddy and take her with me

Great Christian friends

My sweet little girl

Fair Fun!

We went to the Columbia County fair last night and had such a fun time! The weather was great and it wasn't too crowded either. It could have gone either way, but Alabama loved it! When we first got there, she (and Adam) wanted to see the dogs doing tricks. She was so intent on it! ha! The first ride was the cars. She loves to drive cars, so I thought this would be an easy transition. I think she liked all the rides but was still a little uncertain with them, too. Next was the fish ride. Then she rode the Rockin Tug with Katie. I don't think she was too sure about that one. Next up was the Tea Cups. She rode with me and Katie. It was just like the Tilt-a-Whirl but it closed up all the way. Much fun! Then Mimi rode the Carousel with her! She kept sliding off the horse the whole time.

Next she finally got to ride the boats (which she is still talking about!) She drove the pretty sparkly pink one!

I think that was her favorite ride of all. After all the rides were over, it was time for my favorite part of the fair - the food!!!! I had a corn dog, Culler's fries with vinegar, and Alabama shared with me.

Mimi bought a bag of cotton candy that was almost as big as Alabama! ha!

Of course, she wanted "mo". She also had a bite of Alicia's caramel apple that she didn't want the rest of.

My what a difference one year makes....last year she was so little and couldn't ride anything and this year she could! Here we are last year at the fair.

Fall

Sorry, I've been a bad blogger, but we've been so busy and my internet has been out, too. We've been having a lot of fun this fall! The funnest part is the cute outfits we get to wear!!!! My Mama made Alabama this candy corn circle skirt. We saw the idea here. She looks soo cute in it!

Also, I am making an exciting announcement.......I sewed my first dress!!!! Mama helped me cut, pin, measure and such, but I sewed every stitch myself (I totally wanted to write "she sewed every stitch with love" right there! ha!) It turned out so good and wasn't as hard as I thought! (Sometimes if you want to get something done, you just have to do it yourself....and maybe learn something at the same time!) I can't wait to make some more in the near future and maybe have a sewing night with some girls from church. My favorite part about these pillowcase dresses is that even though it's a lot of work for one occassion, she can wear it again next year as a dress, and then a couple more years as a shirt!

I tried to do a little fall photoshoot in this cute Punkin' shirt but the sun was too bright so she wouldn't look at the camera. And then it rained like every day that week. And now my mums aren't blooming. I still got a couple of good shots but I hope to try again later for a better one.

Update

I updated my blog profile....click on the actual blog to see for all the friends who subscribe in a reader!

Steed's Dairy

On Saturday, we went to Steed's Dairy for Ryan's birthday! They had such a fun time!
First, we looked at all the different animals....

Alabama kept her distance but liked seeing them. After the animals, we took a quick photo shoot before she got completely dirty. (It was so cute..Alabama and Ryan had to ride in the same wagon all day!) It was very hard to get a good picture. She wanted to pick up every single pumpkin and she didn't like the hay and also the sun was making a lot of shadows...anyway, she looked cute in her pumpkin shirt! Then we played on the swings/slides for a few minutes. She liked the horse swing. The main attraction of the farm is the corn maize...I like it a lot better than the one at Kackleberry because it's not sooo long that you can't find your way out. Casey, Adam, Alabama and I went through it together.

When we made our way out of the maize, we took a break and played in the corn seeds. Alabama wanted to fill her bucket up one handfull at a time. She's so meticulous about stuff! ha! We also took a little hayride around the field. It is a really pretty property. Here is Alabama with Casey

and with her Daddy

Before we left, we jumped on the jumping pillow.

I didn't think she would like it but she laughed the entire time and loved it! She did NOT want to leave. We went back to their house and had pizza, the cutest pumpkin cake, and ice cream. Ryan had fun opening his presents and Alabama wanted to play with all of them, too. They gave her a cute little pumpkin bucket with crayons and a little pumpkin Ryan picked out for her! It was so sweet and we are so glad they invited us to come!

Playdates and 100th Post

This post marks my 100th post! I'm so glad I stumbled upon blog land! I love "knowing" people from all over through their blogs and I love having a place to record our life, too!

We've had lots of fun playdates lately so I wanted to share a few!

Annalise came over a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon and Alabama was so happy to have a friend come and play! We played in the new playroom, jumped in the bed, "took a nap" on the towels, played in the playhouse, and even went swimming (the only time we've been!) in our new pool that we got from Bo and Kathie. I think they will like the pool even more next year when they can touch the bottom.

Last Friday, we went to play at Ryan's house. We went to the playground and had a lot of fun! Ryan loves him some Alabama! ha! *When we ask Alabama if Ryan is her boyfriend, she says "Daddy!" That's right, girl! ha* Just kidding, we love Ryan!

Also, when we got back, Casey helped them make pizza for lunch! It was really good and a great idea for them to help with. (I think Alabama ate more cheese than went on the pizza!ha) We had a fun time together!

I don't have any pictures, but we also went to Monkey Joe's on Monday with Georgia, Morgan, and Ethan. I thought if there is ever a chance Alabama will like MJ's it's if Morgan is there with her to play! At first she still was scared, but she warmed up to it finally and didn't want to leave!

Baptism

Morgan and Ethan were saved last week and were baptized on Sunday night! I am so proud of them for making the decision to live for Jesus all the days of their life! Here are a few pics from the baptism at Sharon Baptist. Alabama did sooo great during the service! We were very surprised but very happy! ha! This is a great picture of the family!