Is this a great picture or what???

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was very busy this year! My entire family was at our house for Thanksgiving Day, we did survive, and we spent Thanksgiving night and most of Friday with Nick's family. I love having everyone at our house for the holidays. It is a lot of work getting everything ready but it is worth it. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You get to just enjoy spending time with family and eating all the yummy food! :) We just returned from our weekend trip to Callaway Gardens. We rode the trolley through "Fantasy in Lights" Saturday and visited the other attractions including the butterfly center Sunday. It was really fun. The lights were awesome and the kids really enjoyed the Christmas Village were they had their picture made with Santa.
Olivia had her face painted and loved visiting with all the various Christmas characters. Austin just wanted to shop and thought he was too big to get his picture made with the Christmas characters. The weather was rainy at times but could have been worse. We look forward to going back in the spring when the weather is better and we can enjoy more of the events at Callaway.
HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT THANKSGIVING!

Fern Bank Museum

Since the kids were out of school Nick and I took the day off work to spend some time with the kids. After voting we took them to Fern Bank Museum. I had not been since I was little kid. The kids loved all the exhibits and the hands on activities. Austin's favorite was the dinosaurs and the science exhibits. They had different science experiments that you could try. Olivia loved the polar bear and penguin exhibit. They had an area where the kids could "dress" like a penguin and slip down a wavy slide on their bellies. It was really cute. We also watched an IMAX movie that was really cool. It was about the Ocean and based on a specific area off the cost of Africa. It was beautiful, informative, and interesting. I loved it, that was my favorite part. It was nice having a day to just hang out with the kids.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was a blast this year. We participated in "trunk or treat" at our church, this was the first time we had been to a "trunk or treat". I decorated the back of our car in a spider theme and had a kid friendly Halloween CD playing. Austin dressed up as "Anakin" from Star Wars and Olivia was "Vida" one of the fairies from Tinkerbell. Austin disappeared half the night and I thought for sure he was in the jumpy thing but I found him later sitting in the "trunk" of another car playing PSP. Olivia was given a set of scary vampire teeth from one trunk and immediately put them in and wore them the remainder of the night. She loves those things. I did get some cute pics and video though. It was fun doing something different than just walking miserably from house to house. We got to hang out with friends and meet a lot of people in the community. You could tell some of the kids that came really did not have a lot and had pitiful costumes if anything at all. It was nice to see the church providing a free fun event and seeing the smiles on their faces. Along with the candy from trunks the church had provided 2 jump houses and lots of food. This will be a yearly event for us from now on. I just love our church! :)

We joined our church only a few months ago but in the short time we have been there it has changed our lives. It amazes me everyday to see the difference in my life, my kids lives, and our relationship as a family and our marriage. I have always grown up as a christian, active in church, and once Nick and I married we attended church regularly. I now realize the difference in attending church and really being an active part of a church and submitting my life entirely to God. It has changed everything.