Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for these sweet cousins, although this is the best I could get of all four kids out of about 25 pictures!

I am thankful for this family!

And I am eternally grateful for this amazing little boy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wisconsin

Leif, Liam and I took a trip to Madison the weekend before Thanksgiving to introduce Liam to Leif's extended family and hunt. Well, Leif hunted at least. Mostly, we just chilled with Liam's paternal great grandparents!

Liam ran free at the airport to get it out of his system before the flight. Not too wild though...a constrained free run, I'd say.

In the wheelchair that had so many amazing characteristics:

And hanging by the window:
He did pretty great on the 2-hour flight, confined to our laps. Only complained on the descent!



Every evening Grandpa Sherry built a fire and Grandma Sherry provided aperitifs whilst preparing supper. Here we are relaxing with our drinks at the hearth. Well, Leif and Liam aren't relaxing too much. This is Liam's new favorite game:


Three generations of Sherry men (missing one in the middle, though):

Still not relaxing:

Keeping Mama entertained, though:

Our first morning we attempted an outing to the swing set. Poor kid's fingers practically froze:

Later that day we visited Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The inside was warm and humid, the outside...not so much.

Waving at the goldfish:

(At one point a little quail scurried right past Liam as he sauntered carelessly down the path. It scared the kid silly!)

We were crazy to go outside (and the only ones doing it) but we all wanted to see the Thai Pavilion.

Grandma Sherry, our fearless(albeit hat-less) leader:

There it is!

You see that we did buy Liam some mittens before this excursion:

His smile looks just like his cousin, Kaylyn's, here:

The next day, Leif went hunting and Liam and I watched the Badgers game with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Jill. We also hit the library for an afternoon outing. I have no pictures to prove any of this happened, unfortunately.

Here's Leif in his tree stand, at least:

I don't know why the picture is upside down, but c'est la vie!

Early (early) plane ride back the next day. Liam was a little more squirmy (and Leif a little more snoozy), but we made it without any major mishaps!

"...No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" Liam's favorite new rhyme:

Good trip and a great visit with family! Hope to see you all again sometime soon!!!

Party Time! Excellent!

A couple of weekends back, we had a Two-Party-Saturday. Liam is a very popular kid, you see. The first party rolled out with a John Deere theme for Mr. Sanders Wiggins, age 3.

I took Madeline to help out her swamped mother. I LOVE this picture of her in the tractor!

What a goof ball!

Eli Spikes with the birthday boy on hayride #1:

I would have had to pry that CapriSun out of Liam's fingers in order for this pic to be fantastic, but he wouldn't have stood for that injustice!

I was pretty stoked about his threads this day:

Ahh...while the big kids attacked the tractor pinata, we snuck the little ones into bounce house #1. Liam with Brody & Braden Brubaker:

Army crawl:

Happy birthday Sanders!!!

Now, onto party #2. It's a train theme for Mr. Dominic Rinaudo, age 2. Liam spends his weekdays with Dominic and loves every minute of it...as long as he's not being tackled!

The boys and the balloons. LOVE Dominic's conductor garb!

Bounce house #2 and, yes, that is Dom tackling Liam:

Hay ride (train ride) #2 with a couple of Dominic's awesome cousins:
The boy got a sweet new ride!!!

Happy birthday Dominic!

Good partying. Good day. Good night's sleep!

EMMA!

The third and (according to her parents) final Farrell girl has arrived!!! The first night Liam and I went to visit, we were disappointed to find Emma stuck in the nursery getting a tan. But last night, we were in luck!

Ta-da!

Sweet sleeper:

Sweet kids all around (but missing SG!):

Emma Katharine is named after my maternal great grandmother and my paternal great aunt. She weighs in at 5 lbs., 8 oz., is 18 inches long, and she is all fingers and toes!!! Lovely girl!

Liam and Sarah Grace's First Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treating in Southern Trace without a golf cart was a little dicey. It is dark out there and there aren't any sidewalks and the cart traffic was pretty substantial!!! Otherwise, the evening was quite a success!

Duckling, Hannah Montana, and Butterfly:

The little ones were really funny! We didn't really explain to Liam and SG why they were dressing up or what they were supposed to be doing, but they got the hang of it quickly. March down driveway, bang on door, touch all the candy in the bowl, march up driveway, repeat...

The kids wandered pretty deep into this house before we could corral them! Good times!

The Un-Pumpkin Patch

Liam and I went with Elizabeth's family to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday afternoon to get the quintessential Fall Pics, but our snoozing led to losing. The Patch was a pathetic cluster of rotting rejects. What to do!?!

Well, we sent Chris to Brookshires to buy pumpkins and met him at Norton Art Gallery. I thought I forgot my camera (it was actually just under the rubble in my car!) so Beez took this and sent it my way:

A mess of an outing, but a cute picture emerged, nonetheless!

Then Sings My Soul

This Sunday morning, the FBCS choir (of which I'm proud to be a part) will be singing possibly my all-time favorite hymn. It is an amazing rendition and I'm thrilled that we will be able to share it with the congregation! The only down-side is that we won't be practicing it anymore...

For your consideration:


Oh Lord My God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hands hath made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder.
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
Then sins my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

And when I think that God, His son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!