Thanksgiving Memories

This Thanksgiving we went to my aunt's home in western North Carolina. I meant to take a picture of everyone at the table, but this is the only one I got of our time together at dinner. Beckett and his turkey leg......

 My mom's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, so later that night we had birthday cake! Here is a fun picture of her blowing out the candles!

 I thought this one was sweet. Helen was explaining the pictures on her home-made birthday card for Grankaki!

 Grankaki with her grandchildren!

 Beckett and Helen had fun with my sister.(Aunt Susi) They don't get to see her very often, but always have so much fun when they do get to hang out with her!

 Susi has a cool I-phone with lots of fun games. Here is a picture of Will watching Beckett play a game on her phone! Sweet!

 Helen had my camera for a while and took all kinds of interesting pictures. I actually liked this one of Will because you can see the windows that are just his size and the beautiful view of the mountains from my aunt's living room! (Not to mention the adorable little boy!)

 My uncle was able to join us for Thanksgiving for the first time in a LONG time. In fact, he had never even met Helen and Will. It had been 7 years since we had seen him. Hopefully it won't be that long until our next visit! Here is a great picture of my mom with her sister and brother! I love this picture!

 My three kiddos joined them for a group picture! Love that my uncle is playing Beckett's game of giving bunny ears! Boys will be boys!

 We returned home on Friday evening. On Saturday, Sean and Beckett went to the UT/Kentucky football game, so Helen, Will and I got out the Christmas decorations, turned on the Christmas music and started decorating! Here is a picture of Will enjoying the Mickey Mouse ice skating rink that Marilyn gave them. He and Helen pull up a chair and just sit there and watch the characters "skate" all around the pond!

 On Sunday afternoon, we attended our hometown Christmas parade. Helen was all smiles as she filled up her Santa hat with candy!

 Helen and Will holding hands and watching the parade go by.

 I would be re-miss if I didn't share a few of the interesting parade participants. They never cease to amaze me! This guy was riding down Broadway in a recliner! He had his remote control and everything!

 The kids really liked this giant shopping cart!

 Last but not least, the big guy himself! Santa Claus!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and that you are anticipating the coming Christmas season with joy in your hearts!

A Thanksgiving Prayer

God our Father,

God our Father,

We thank You!

We thank You!

For our many blessings.

For our many blessings.

Amen

Amen

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Thanking God for our many blessings here at the Harper Hullabaloo!

Braves Win!

Yes, I know. Baseball season is over. I have two big boys who are sad about that. But before the Atlanta Braves lost to the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants in the National League play-offs, we went down to Atlanta and watched one of their last games of the regular season. I've been wanting to post these pics for a while so we can have a record of our trip and I'm just getting around to it! So six weeks ago, we took off one Wednesday afternoon and drove down to Atlanta for a 4:00 baseball game! Here we are before the game!

Welcome to Turner Field ~ Home of the Atlanta Braves!

 This was the view from our seats!

 It isn't a baseball game without some nachos!!

 Sweet little Braves fan!

Although Will enjoyed the game, he and I spent a bunch of time away from our seats because he couldn't sit still and kept bumping into everyone seated around us. He had fun playing "keep away" from me behind this chain.

 Another one of the views that Will and I had. He explored many parts of Turner Field!

 He really did watch some of the game....as long as there were snacks to eat!

 Braves Win! They beat the Florida Marlins!

After the game, we went to "Big Pie in the Sky" for dinner! Sean and Beckett had learned about this restaurant on the Travel Channel show, "Man Vs. Food." Adam Richman, the star of the show, had visited this restaurant in Kennesaw, GA and he took their Carnivore Challenge. Since my birthday was the next day, and I LOVE pizza, it was the perfect place to eat dinner! Beckett and Helen had their own challenge with their slices of pizza! They were HUGE!

Helen was ready to dig in to her cheese slice!

 It was almost too big to handle! Neither Beckett or Helen were able to finish their challenge, but it made for good leftover lunch the next day!

 Will enjoyed his pizza and also discovered that he likes parmesan cheese! He would ask us to sprinkle some on his pizza and then he would lick it off!

 The outside window of the restaurant advertising their Carnivore Challenge!

 We got home that night at midnight, but it was a great day trip with many fun memories!

For Your Thursday Enjoyment!

A serious Justin Bieber sing along!

Silas Came to Visit!

Our friends the Luchts came by to visit on Friday and had lunch with us. They were going to the mountains for the weekend and they stopped by to visit for a while. It was so good to spend time with this precious family that we had the pleasure of traveling with to Ethiopia when we brought home our boys! Silas and Will were at Hannah's Hope together in ET and it is always great to re-unite these buddies. We really enjoy our time with the Luchts and look forward to watching their family grow as they wait for their Ethiopian princess to join them! Trying to get these two to smile for a picture is always a bit of a challenge.....

 Just laying around.....

 and playing with some puzzles....

Other weekend activities included Helen strapping on her new (used) roller blades that Colby Grace gave her. She was moving pretty slow, but was excited to be learning to skate!

Today was Orphan Sunday and we all wore our different adoption t-shirts to church this morning but Will doesn't have one! He wore one of his traditional Ethiopian tunics and looked so handsome. I'm sorry I didn't get a family picture! Anyway, it was a WONDERFUL Sunday as our church leadership announced that we are going to be starting an adoption fund! We talked to many people who were so excited about this news and we just can't wait to see how God is going to move in the lives of families in our church as we make orphan care a priority!! We came home from church and watched an Ethiopian man win the NYC Marathon, so we were pumped up! I dressed Will in his ET hat for the first time in a long time, and he kept it on! SO cute!

 Just loved this one of him watching our neighbor mow his grass. So enthralled.....

Backing Up to Will's Birthday

Just one year ago, our baby looked like this....

He couldn't even walk! But FAST forward one year and here is Will's 2nd birthday picture with the birthday flag.....

He has gotten so BIG! On the day before his birthday we had a party to celebrate the big number 2! Will's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins came to party with us and we had chili with all the fixin's, hot dogs, individual carrot cakes for the grown ups and cup cakes for the kiddos! Here is the "party table!"

Kathy let me borrow her cupcake stand! I need to get one of these...they make a simple cupcake look so much more special and festive!

 At least he didn't freak out when we set the cupcake down in front of him like he did LAST YEAR.

 He was happy to get to blow out the candle! (with a little help from Helen)

 Then we moved outside to open presents. He had lots of help!

Looks like Papa and Grankaki could have used some help! How many grandparents does it take to open a child-proofed package???

"Mike the Mower" was a huge hit! He has "mowed" all over our backyard and all through our house!

Another great gift that all three kiddos have had fun with is this guitar/piano. Here is a pic of Will checking it out!

Will got this purple bouncing toy from his cousins. Again, all three kiddos are loving it! As well as every kid that comes to our house! It is lots of fun!

It was a beautiful day and a wonderful time of celebration with our big boy!

A Little Trick or Treating and Fall Family Frenzy

Helen, Will and I started out the Halloween weekend with a trip to a local nursing home on Thursday night to do some trick or treating. They enjoyed visiting the residents in the re-hab center as well as the assisted living wing of NHC. This was Will's first time to trick or treat and he learned what to do very quickly! Since he hasn't had a whole lot of candy in his two years, he didn't know what he was getting~except when they offered him suckers because he IS familiar with those and he loves them! Helen dressed as Princess Jasmine and Will wore Helen's hand-me-down Bugs Bunny costume with the flopped down ear! Sweet! 

On Friday night, our church held our annual Fall Family Frenzy. Over 5,000 people attended! It is such a great event! Here are my three kiddos in their costumes. Helen didn't want to be the princess again, she wanted to be a rock star! We just winged it and came up with this costume at the last minute. Will, once again was Bugs Bunny and Beckett decided to be Brian McCann from the Atlanta Braves. I LOVE cheap and easy costumes!

 Helen ran into her pretty in pink cowgirl friend Sophie so they posed for a pic!

Not only do they have games, inflatables, rock climbing walls and live animals to pet, but families sign up to decorate their trunks and just hand out candy. This was one of our favorites....a Volkswagon Bug that is decorated to look like a big mouth!

Beckett found his buddy Matt at the beginning of the evening and we didn't see him much for the rest of the night. They had a great time! I got a little worried when I bumped in to him at one point and he didn't have his bag of candy. I asked him where it was and he replied, "Well, I'm just eating each piece as I get it, so I didn't think I needed to carry the bag anymore." I gave him a little reminder about his final football game the next morning and how it wouldn't be fun to miss it because he was sick from eating too much candy, so I think he backed off! Next time I saw him, he was eating a hot dog! At least it wasn't candy!

This is Will with his buddy Colby Grace. She is so sweet with Will and he loves her so much! She will soon have a little brother from Ethiopia and we are so excited for her family! Will kept taking candy out of his pumpkin bucket and giving it to Colby!

 Helen with our hippy friend Emma! They had fun walking around together for a while!

Here is Will with Anna. Isn't she adorable? I think this is their first picture together. (and of course, Will isn't smiling) He really does have a great smile, he just likes to stare you down when you are trying to get him to smile! Anyway, Anna has been home from ET with her sweet mom Julie for about 10 months and we love getting to see them each week at church!

 I think Will was trying to tell Anna about the tractor that was pulling the hayride!

 And I'll end our Halloween post with a picture of Bugs riding on his daddy's shoulders!

Still have lots of catching up to do, but thought I'd go ahead and post our most recent pictures first!