Our First Thanksgiving at Home

So, Ryan and I have been married for seven years, and we've always gone home for Thanksgiving. Even when I was 5 days from delivering Trevor, we made the trek home to Fort Wayne. This year, I had to take my turn at the hospital to work, and Ryan had to work the day after Thanksgiving. Life has been crazy busy with work, school & church, so we did our best to create our first memories at home. We truly deliberated between cooking at home or going to The China Buffet. I opted for a home cooked meal.









I loved the idea of creating a "thankful tree", so Wednesday we went out and cut a limb off our pear tree. I cut out leaves, and during dinner we took turns writing what we were thankful for. I made three for each of us, and when we were finished Ryan said, "Don't you have any more leaves? We still have more blessings to add." I agreed with him. We do have much to be thankful. I hope to laminate the leaves and continue to add to them next year. I thought I would share some of our thoughts.

Trevor:
I am thankful for
1. My daddy
2. The earth (thanks to Tam, his eyes have been opened. She gave him the LeapFrog globe.)
3. The scriptures

Kayla:
I am thankful for:
1. For Jesus
2. My mommy
3. The new dog

Ryan & Melissa:
We are thankful for:
1. Our family. We truly have the greatest families. They so willingly sacrifice for us. Like roofing for 4 days straight in the rain without complaining!
2. Our health.
3. Our oven. Read previous post. Ryan wrote on his leaf, "Mama's thankful for the oven; Daddy's thankful for what come out of the oven."

Although we were away from family this year, we enjoyed our first one together.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Is that a plie?

Last Sunday while I was making lunch, this is what I caught Trevor doing. Kayla received some dancerella video from one of her friends for her birthday. Trevor decided to give it a try last week. I love that my very "tough" boy can do a plie!

Kayla's 1st Piano Recital

Kayla started piano lasted February, and has done wonderfully. She has developed,thus far, a love and a talent. Today was her first piano recital. She played "Ode to Joy." I asked her if she was nervous, and she kept saying she was fine. Once we entered the church this afternoon, she turned to me and said, "Okay, I think I'm nervous." She was the second one to play, so she didn't have long to be nervous. We don't have a digital cam corder, so all we have are pictures. But, while my sister was here this weekend, she recorded Kayla with her camera, so hopefully I can post her practicing the song at home.
The first pic below is Trevor's excitement through the recital. I do have to say that his sleeping through the recital helped us to enjoy the program a little more. The bad part is that the kid is heavy.

Our New Addition

No, it's not a baby. It's a dog. Ryan and the kids have been pleading to get another dog. We had "George" in Cincinnati, and well, we just didn't get along. He found another home when we moved here. Ryan did some research and found that he really wanted a havanese. He found Micky online and today he ordered him. We have to drive to Missouri to go pick him up, but here's a preview of him. Ryan and the kids are way excited!