Fun with family and a wonderful surprise!

Adam, Kim, Emily, Nathan and Abigail got here Monday night. Oh the joy that fills my soul! It has been so great having them here!!! We have really been enjoying the kids playing together. Shelby LOVES having her cousins to play with all the time. And they enjoy entertaining her.

Adam is a crazy uncle that has been turning most of Shelby's books into crazy songs. Shelby just sits there and stares at him. It is pretty cute.

I didn't think things could get any better and then yesterday my mom showed up!!! She drove down from Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with us! Josh and my mom had this all planned out and I found out about it (oops). But we kept it a surprise for the Bonus family and that it was! We are all enjoying some wonderful time with Grandma!

We were not expecting to see Josh much today, but he has today and tomorrow off for his weekend! What a blessing! It has been complete with him here.

We made the pies last night, late. :) And we made a wonderful, yummy Thanksgiving dinner today; we ate around 1:00. Now everyone is off hiking the hills while Shelby sleeps. In fact, I think I'll join her. :) When everyone is back we'll have the pies! Pumpkin, cherry and apple. OHHH! Adam and Kim brought Sheridan's custard from Dallas for us! So we'll have that to enjoy with our pie. YUMMMMM! Yes, they totally rock, because not only did they bring vanilla custard, but they also brought me a pumpkin pie "blizzard" from Dallas! (Dry ice works great!) Sheridan's takes a real piece of pie and mixes it in with the custard. It is scrumptious!

Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us family. We praise Your Name and lift You up!

(There are lots of pictures, but this is a good start. The Bonus family is planning to leave on Sunday and my mom will probably leave on Monday. So we'll post more pictures later.)

We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are wishing you were here Dad! And the rest of our family. :) Love to you all.

DIRTY!

Today Josh helped a friend who is building a house here in Sanderson. Shelby and I stopped by on our walk this morning and ended up staying almost 2 1/2 hours. Shelby had a great time with the other kids. I wish I had my camera there, but here are the pictures from when we got home.

The mornings here have been very nice and calm; however, by noon the wind picks up. As you can imagine, an open lot creates a lot of dust. Toward the end of our time at the lot Shelby sat down in the dirt and started playing. After chasing her all over the floor of the house, trying to keep her from falling off the 4 foot drop-off, I let her play in the dirt. She loved running her fingers underneath the dirt and lifting her hands up so that the wind could blow the dirt off. But then something would get in her eyes and she would take those unclean hands and rub them all over her eyes and face. There was no stopping her. She also enjoyed putting the dirt on her legs and shoes, as well as anyone else's shoes that she could reach. It was fun watching her play!

We walked back home just after 2:00, took some pictures, took a shower, and put her down for a nap. I made zucchini bread while Shelby slept and we headed for Bible study this evening. It was a fun day!

Just wanted to share

Shelby is so stinkin' sweet. The other day she was playing with these bottles, trying to stack them. It was so precious. Very soon she will be 18 months old and we can hardly believe it!

My sister-in-law

If you don't already know about it, I'll tell you now! :) My sister-in-law, Kelly Griffin, has a new blog and it is great! I hope you can check it out: http://www.fru-gal.org/. It is about "frugal living for the grace of giving."

What it looks like

Just over a week ago we found out that Josh's friend from high school, Owen, has been in San Angelo, TX for about seven months. He is in the Air Force and was in school/training for those months and he is leaving for Colorado this week. Josh had Wednesday and Thursday off and so we headed up to San Angelo to meet up with Owen. Wednesday evening we had a nice (yummy!) dinner with Owen and a few of his friends. Thursday morning we were going to hang out with him again, but he was not feeling well (flu) and didn't want to pass it on to us. So, we started our grocery shopping early. Since we were in a big town we had planned to do all of our shopping and space it out over the two days. Wednesday we found shoes for Shelby and a few other little things. Thursday we did some "dry good" shopping before lunch, then ate at Chick-fil-a, then did the rest of the grocery shopping and headed home. We got home around 7 :30 and were in bed before 10:00 PM! What a trip! I'd have to say that we are all getting a little sick of Chick-fil-a - never thought I would say that. haha

So....here is what it looks like when we go grocery shopping 3 hours away and for 3 weeks worth of meals. This trip we had 3 coolers of cold/frozen food with ice and dry ice. Our turkey stayed frozen and we are happy about that!

Shelby was tuckered out!

Josh is a very good packer.

And I am embarrassed to even think about what we paid, considering my sister-in-law who is very good at shopping with coupons! One day (probably when we live in a town with stores and go shopping more than once every 3 weeks) I hope to be better at being frugal and using coupons as well. :) We love you Kelly!!!!

We'll be having Adam & Kim and their kids here for Thanksgiving and can hardly wait!!! Josh and I are just hoping we bought enough food. :)

It's rented!!!

Last Friday we had a lady come and look at our condo. Lori, our Realtor, showed it to her anticipating a sell. Turns out Maggie "just" wanted to rent it. So Monday morning Maggie looked at another place and decided to go with ours. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers!