Just Us

It has to be the first time I have ever experienced the craziness of shopping at midnight in Branson the day after Thanksgiving. Allison, Leah and I braved the winding roads into Branson in hopes of finding some Christmas gift DEALS! Little did we know the adventure it would be! Here is a picture of the girls pre-shopping.....note the smiling faces....Leah-Starbucks in hand....we were ready to shop....tired but excited! :) We arrived at the outlet mall to discover a parking lot packed with tired, crabby shoppers looking for a parking place. After a long wait and some flashing lights, we finally found a spot to park and the shopping could begin. We had lots of laughs even in the midst of long lines and our own exhaustion. The last picture would be a result of a late night....I mean morning of shopping together. So much fun.....would do it all over again....as long as we were together! :)

Family........little niece......little nephew.......laughter......joy........time together......most importantly, the gift we have in Jesus. The forgiveness and love we receive each day that continues to shape us into who we were made to be.....people that love and forgive without condition and without restraint. That is our prayer and will continue to be our prayer into this new year. Thanksgiving was yet another reminder of how wonderful it is to spend time with family. Al and Debbie rented a cozy cabin outside of Branson and we all met there.Uncle Dick and Aunt Pam made the trip as well! :) It was a weekend FULL of lots of laughter and LOTS of wonderful food by Debbie and Aunt Pam! In Allison's words, "YUM-O." Faith LOVED all the leaves outside and was always willing to give us her best "cheezzzzzz." I don't know who had more fun....Faith playing or all of us being entertained by her! We can't believe how much she has grown up already! It seems...

Have you ever felt like you were moving so fast and dong so much.....that when things finally slow down...you aren't sure how to relax?!?! This has definitely been my day today. Dan and I have had such a busy couple of weeks and are SO glad to be relaxing a little this weekend together. Last weekend, I headed to Des Moines with the cheerleaders for their first state competition. They did wonderful and placed 11th in our division. A 10 point deduction for a hairband kept them from an 8th placing. So placing in the top half for their first time...is pretty amazing! :) We were very proud of them. Parent-teacher conferences were this past week as well. And I survived. It makes for a really long week, but it is good to connect with parents. Month without TV update: Dan has one more day to go!!!! Tomorrow he has class and then we plan to go out to a movie...or to a couple! Hahaha. It is pretty amazing how much more time we have for other things when we aren't watching tv. ...

On Thursday night, Mel came over for our annual FALL FUN NIGHT! :) We were really brave this year and did some tricky carving. These are our finished products after hours of carving and sipping cider. We took these pumpkins over to Grandma Daisy's for the trick-or-treaters on Saturday. Grandma was pretty excited. I handed out candy, while Dan sat in a ground blind out on the farm....waiting for the BIG one. The BIG one did not make an appearance this weekend.....but I have sure been learning a lot about all that goes into the GREAT hunt. Did you know that this man wears deer pee on his shoes just to attract deer?!?!? Wow....I think I will stick to jewelry..... :) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Here we are.......happily enjoying our new ride! :)

This weekend we made a really exciting decision and bought a Dodge Dakota. Yes, "Buying a truck" happen to be one of the things on Dan's Without the Tube list. :) Here is one picture for you, family! More to come soon! :) Love you all!

Wow....was our last post seriously in July?!?! Thanks to little Miss Leah Maria...my goal is to do a better job of actually posting. :) So much has happened since July! School has started and fall is finally here. Dan and I have been enjoying the early darkness....doesn't make us feel like nerds when we are snuggled up on the couch in our pjs by 7! :) We have had lots of visitors that make our weekends extra special and are so EXCITED about Quincy's arrival in December. The first pictures are of Deid's shower. Grandma Terri is pretty excited. Let's just say....Quincy is going to have enough quilts to keep him warm until he's 50. :) All the excited aunts and Grandma T. The wonderful SOON-TO-Be Great Grandma Dunn. I think I get my smile from her.... :) The next pictures are of a trip we made to Columbia to visit Leah, Nate and Faithers. Isn't she such a cutie-pie? We are pretty much in love with her! These are a few of her "Aunt DD? Seriously?" ...