Shout for Joy!

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us, and we are His;

we are his people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations."

--Psalm 100

This was the thanksgiving message Bro. Johnny delivered this year. How wonderful! SHOUT for JOY! Why shouldn't we? I must admit, though, that joy is something I have had to pray for specifically this year. It's not that something happened this year to make me lose my joy. Quite the opposite, really. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to be stressed with a new baby around, but how awesome is it to be a mom? (Most of the time...)

For Thanksgiving this year, Kyle took a couple of extra days off and we decided to drive up to my parents' house on Tuesday night. Luke was still sometimes going to bed between 6:30 and 7, so I thought he would sleep like an angel all the way. He did sleep until just north of Birmingham, which was a really good nap to get him energized.

After the excitement of driving the rest of the way home and of seeing Granmama and Grandaddy when we got there, he didn't cry himself to sleep until about 1:30! Driving at night was a bad idea.




On Thanksgiving, his cousin Kate let him borrow her pink car. Kids love these things. His other cousin, Dirk, wouldn't let him drive, but he was nice enough to let him ride along...



More cousins, Dylan, Charlie and Reid, playing a game of 'shirts and skins' in the front yard:



It was cold, but a nice day to play outside.






And for learning new tricks:



And for feeding Sophie pickles:



Later on Thursday we made it to Albertville for more Thanksgiving fun with grandparents and great-grandparents.





Luke and Madelyn say: "These people are crazy!!"




I love this picture. Love the hair, love the outfit, love the belly. Madelyn's, not mine, of course.



On Friday, Luke spent the whole day and night with Grammy, Paw Paw and Aunt Kim while we watched the Iron Bowl and had another Thanksgiving feast with the Rodens.



This is their living room. How cool is that?


We made it back to Dothan on Saturday, exhausted. So much to be thankful for this year. And that night, we kicked off the Christmas season with big boy flannel PJs. So cute!