For the Lord is good...

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100 has been Evie's verse for November and we all enjoyed meditating on it this Thanksgiving season. We are so thankful for all the gifts God has given, especially the wonderful gift of little Gracie this past year. :) Last Thanksgiving I was only about 9 weeks pregnant. It was so fun having such a happy, smiley 5 month with us this year. :) We stayed in Virginia again this year for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time celebrating with Nathan's parents and our friends, the McHenry's.

We started the day off with our new favorite Thanksgiving tradition - the Williamsburg 5k Turkey Trot. :)

Last year just Nathan ran it and on race day I felt very left out. This year he ran and I walked with the girls and my friend Karen.

Nathan walked back to us once he was finished and Karen and I did get to run a tiny it at the end. I love starting off a big day of eating this way! It removes all guilt from the feasting. ;) Evie didn't want gloves or a blanket during the race and the poor girl was quite cold by the end. She and daddy had a warm up time together after the race. :)

After the race we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for a day of relaxing and feasting. :) The girls always enjoy playing at Grandma and Grandpa's. Evie has been particularly taken with their rocking horse lately. We've decided to call him Seabiscuit. ;) Apparently Seabiscuit didn't look much like a race horse either, so don't let this little guy's looks deceive you! Evie's pretty intent on her riding

Gracie maneuvering her way around the floor. She's actually quite mobile for not crawling yet! 

While Evie napped Gracie joined the rest of us for an intense game of Ticket to Ride Germany (don't ask me how it went. Still a little bitter... jk ;)) Nathan pretty much dominated eastern Germany and put Gracie's hat on like this, saying she was his Russian ally. Poor baby!

Our friends, Peter and Molly, came over with their girls for the Thanksgiving feast. Molly made the best pies, though I think the turkey was Evie's favorite part. :)

After dinner the girls had a great time playing together. Evelyn and Margaret liked tops with Grandpa and looooved the coloring stuff that Grandma brought out. You can tell how hard they are concentrating on their pictures - Evie's brow is furrowed and Margaret has her tongue out - lol!

Caroline was a little disappointed that Gracie doesn't do much yet. She kept pointing at her, grunting, and bringing Grace all sorts of non-age appropriate toys (like small cast irons pans) trying to get her to play.

Don't worry Caroline, Gracie will be big enough to run around with you in just a few more months! :)

While the girls were busy coloring and playing, Nathan, who had been playing around on Grandpa's dulcimer all day, and Molly started an impromptu Thanksgiving singing time with Peter joining in on drums... aka Grandma's exercise ball. ;)

It was a wonderful, fun filled day! We are so thankful for God's blessings in our lives! Thanks for hosting, Grandma and Grandpa!!

Sisters

So, Nathan and I pretty much have to stand on our heads to get Grace to really laugh. Evelyn just has to be somewhere in the house. Gracie adores her, whatever she is doing. :p

Hillsdale Reunion!

Yesterday we drove up to northern VA for a reunion with five Hillsdale couple friends (or mostly Hillsdale friends... Aaron... :)). Our friends, Paul and Kathryn, recently bought a lovely town home and graciously opened it up to the 10 of us, our 8 children, and Kathryn's parents. :) Elliott and Kelly live in OR but are in Boston for three years for Elliott to attend Harvard Law. We're trying to make the most of their time on the east coast! Kjerstin and Nick drove down from Baltimore, Aaron and Laura from Charlottesville, and us from W'burg. :)
There is a lot to pack when traveling over meals, naps, and bed times with kids but you'd THINK that the camera would always top the list when getting together with good friends, but of course, in the quick change between church and hopping in the car, we left it at home. :) These pictures are all from Nathan's phone - sorry for the blurriness and funny eyes - but you'll get the idea. ;)
The four new babies chillin' with their dads and meeting each other for the first time (Grace (5 mo), Will (1 mo), Thomas (6 mo), and Linus (3 mo) :)).
Our futile attempts at getting a good picture of the four older girls - lol. :)
It was really fun watching all the kids play together. Evie and Margaret played on the steps with Mickey, Minnie, and Abby Cadabby for quite a while. :) They had quite an imaginative story going. :)

The girls loved reading with Kjer. They were all enraptured with her stories - this one is something about a goat, rooster, dog and donkey scaring away robbers. :p
How many girls can fit in the bean box??

Linus chillin'...

The babies bonding... Sorry Thomas and Linus for the Gracie hands in your face. ;)
Gracie showing off her newly acquired skill of rolling from back to stomach. :)
All of us girls made Christmas wreaths again from live greenery from Kathryn's yard and surrounding area... I have mine on our front door already although it's not technically Christmas yet (shhh).
While we did our craft, the little girls got to decorate a gingerbread house! For some reason all the girls seemed to have a sugar rush after this project... hmm.... Nathan ended up getting to be the sole supervisor of this project. He looks pretty excited in this first picture - lol. I do think he enjoyed it as much as they did though. :)

The finished product!

Thanks again, Kathryn and Paul, for hosting! Already looking forward to next Thanksgiving's reunion! :)

We have a 2 year old!!!

Yesterday was Evelyn's 2nd birthday. She had been anticipating the day much more than I thought she would or thought she could understand. For at least a week prior she would announce to whoever was around, "My birday tomin' up!!!" (She says some of her "c"s as "t"s right now :)) For at least a full week before she would also randomly remind us that "Aunt Katie tomin' soon!!!" Last year we celebrated with quite a large party (like 40+ friends and family) so this year we decided to go much more low key and just had Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Katie over on Saturday evening.
When Evie woke up Saturday morning she was very pleased to find the streamers and balloons in the kitchen. It's hard to eat breakfast when there are exciting balloons you could be playing with. :) 
When she woke up from her nap and the table was all set, she got even more excited!
Aunt Katie of course helped make it quite exciting. ;) 
"It's a lot of responsibility to be 2..."
There were a lot of cards in the mail for Evelyn that day too. She loves getting mail so this just added to the specialness of the day. :)
Aunt Nancy, Uncle Chris and Kevin sent a card that came with penguin stickers! Evie decided that everyone at the party need one and took her responsibility of choosing a sticker for each person very seriously. :p Nathan was a little offended that I got a flower, Aunt Katie, Gracie and Grandma and Grandpa all got cute penguins, seals or sea gulls and he got a crustacean, but that's what Evelyn picked for him... ;)

The first present Evie opened was an Abby Cadabby doll from Grandma and Grandpa. In case you're not a huge Sesame Street fan :), Abby Cadabby is a newer SS character. We don't actually ever get to watch Sesame Street, but Busch Gardens has a whole Sesame Street area and Abby Cadabby is Evie's favorite character there. :) She was was thrilled when she opened her own doll. :p All she could do was whisper "Dabby! Dabby!" at first. :)

Abby is a fairy and so of course then Evie needed her fairy wings and wand as well. ;)
Evie was a huge fan of the party hats... as you can tell... ;) Even Abby got one!
Dinner was of course pasta and broccoli (Evelyn's favs) followed up by cake. Now, you may not know, but back in middle school I was very into cake decorating - took classes, made friends' cakes, etc. However, apparently cake decorating IS a skill that you lose if you don't use. ;) So, no judging the cake. ;) Plus, all my tools are still back in Ohio. ;)

(Yes, I did help her blow it out - she was a little perturbed that she couldn't get them out despite all her blowing, so I subtly helped. ;)) And apparently it as good because soon the fork wasn't fast enough. ;)

Yesterday, Evie's actual birthday, was gorgeous - sunny and 70s! We enjoyed as much of it as we could outside, mostly including swinging and going to the Second Sundays art festival down town.
Evelyn needed a break half way through our CW walk so she plopped down on the curb. ;)
We ran into a lot of friends down there, including neighbor girl, Lily, and her mom. The kids craft stand had indian head bands for the kids to make and Lily made one for Evelyn that said "happy birthday" on it. Evelyn opted to wear it around her waist though instead of around her head. ;) Here she is with Lily dancing to the live music.

We had such a great weekend and we are so so thankful for our little Evelyn Ruth and the 2 wonderful years we've had with her!! We love you, Ev!