THANKSGIVING

I loved it! I'm just a little bummed it's already over.
We had a GREAT day in Clayton on Thursday and my family came Friday and left after church today. Thought I'd share a few pictures.
The Williams Family
Grandmama and her Great-Grandchildren
Gracie held Eli for a while, and she kept singing "Lullaby and Goodnight." SO SWEET

Granny Beck and Eli
I should have done a lot better with pictures from The Browns trip (Katie's girls are really cute and I have no pictures of them!!), but I'll share what I have. My first Thanksgiving meal at our house was a success. Everything came together about lunch time, and it all turned out pretty tasty. We had 13 people in my house all weekend, and I hope a good time was had by all!





My dear husband is in the kitchen right now cooking up some homemade vegetable soup using the hambone from our Thanksgiving feast. He's a self-procalimed "old school" cook. He's very proud! Me too-Yum! :)

And I'm So Thankful!

So far, so good on having 2 babies! I LOVE it more than I thought possible!
There's definitely a lot of crying, lots of messes, lots of diapers, lots of blankets (seems like they're EVERYWHERE), and TONS of laundry, but man please...I love these kids of mine! I like how they keep me so busy, and they make me feel important :). I'm definitely sleep deprived, but my newest little guy is starting to stretch out the time between feedings at night, so I can't complain!
Sweet Eli will be 1 month old tomorrow! Wow-Wow-Wee!
Sawyer man and His Beloved Lawnmower
If you drive by our house, there's a good chance that this is what you'd see! Sawyer would cut the grass 24/7 if we'd let him!

I have had lots of sweet company lately. My friend Jan from UAB that now lives in Opp and her sweet little girl came last week, and Walker's friend from forever, Shea, came and spent the weekend hanging out with us. I do love company!
Shea with the Williams boys
Sawyer and Bethany Burgess

Thursday we're headed to Clayton for the day to spend Thanksgiving with the Williams family. Friday Katie and her crew, Mama and Daddy, & Allyson and Wes are all coming for a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. I admit that having them come to my house for Thanksgivng makes me feel like a grown up, but that's okay. (I have to remind myself-I am a mama of two!)
Katie mentioned The Elf on the Shelf on her blog. If you don't read her blog, you may want to check it out. I think I'm going to have to get one of my own too. Katie's girls REALLY do love it, and I think Sawyer would like to find that little elf every morning.
I have to share my newest find-Bear Creek Soup Mix. Have y'all ever tried this stuff? It's SO EASY and so good! We've had the potato and tortilla soup. I added chicken and corn to both, and they were very tasty-ESPECIALLY considering how easy they are! If y'all have any other recipes/ideas for suppers that are this easy and this good, please send them my way!
My other good news is that I have a real friend in Enterprise! THANK YOU LORD! I don't take this for granted! I have several actually, but I'm really excited that Summer and I went to aerobics for the first time yesterday and are going to try and start being regulars! THIS MAKES ME HAPPY! I needed both! :) It's really amazing how God has always provided me with really good friends wherever I've been! Seems like I need to add the song, "Thank You For Being A Friend" from the Golden Girls to my playlist...but I'll just stick to the Christmas music today!
Anyway...I hope all of you have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! Enjoy your time with your family! War Eagle! I love y'all and am thankful for you!!!!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I've Got the Spirit!

I just wondered if anyone else is hanging up their Christmas decorations yet? Walker brought ours down from above the garage yesterday, so it's all sitting in the garage ready to be put out. I definitely can't put up the tree until Walker and Sawyer are around though. I think that's a big deal, and we should all participate! :) Last year we got out the video camera to video Sawyer's reaction to decorating the tree. I can remember Mama putting on Christmas music in the living room for us to decorate the tree, and we enjoyed it. I imagine I'll have it done by next weekend anyway.
I'm so excited about Christmas! There's lots to look forward to this year! I heard Santa made his debut at the Dothan mall on Friday night. I'm looking forward to seeing what Sawyer-man thinks of all this! PLUS...Allyson's going to have a baby! She's due December 22nd (35 days from now), so we're not heading to North Alabama like we always do, but we'll be Christmasing closer to PCB! I'm pumped up about this! What a PERFECT little Christmas present-little Caleb Michael Harper!
I know it's a little early, but I figure it's Jesus's birthday celebration, so you can't start too early! :)

Quick Update

I really do love to blog! I'm really, really tired and it's really quiet at my house, so I could easily go hop in the bed, but I enjoy blogging enough to stay up and do a quick post! (I had to stay up until 10:00 anyway to finish the CMA Awards!) :)
We're still here, and we're doing pretty good! Today was day #2 without Walker at home which is really good considering Eli is 2 1/2 weeks old. We go to the doctor in the morning for a checkup. He seems to be a healthy baby. Praise the Lord! He's growing a lot, and he was able to take his first bath tonight because his umbilical cord finally fell off. We DO LOVE bath time at our house, and Eli's thinking seems to "fall right in line with management" (as Walker would say). He seemed to enjoy his first bath.
I'm definitely in love with this little face!

In other news...Sawyer had a meltdown today when I dropped him off in the nursery at church, so we were home from my 9:00 Bible Study by 9:30. I was big-time frustrated-especially considering I had stayed up late to finish the Bible Study and gotten my 2 kids up and ready to go this morning, but I got home and read Darby's blog about appreciating little things and trying to please God and not man. I realized it was not a big deal if my 1 1/2 year old had a bad day. Thanks again, Darby, for being so smart and sharing your heart!
We were also blessed with a visit from the sweet Earnest family yesterday. I think they are a PRECIOUS family, and I always enjoy seeing them (Sawyer did too)! They love my boys, and I'm thankful! Hunter and Taylor are two SWEET, SWEET boys, and I'd be glad for mine to turn out so well!

I'm off to bed. Peace out.

Some Things Just Make Me Smile...

Like these two that came to visit this weekend. I kind of like them A LOT, and I LOVE having them around!! THANK YOU FOR COMING TO VISIT US, HARPERS! WE LOVE YOU A CRAZY AMOUNT!

(I haven't mentioned our story of the night I went into labor. The nurse sent us to walk for 2 hours to help speed up the labor, so these 2 came and met us at Wal-Mart in Enterprise. Walker and I walked the first hour and then Allyson picked up the second half. We got a FEW stares! Two very pregnant twins making laps around Wal-Mart!)

and a picture of my new little man in his swing

Trick or Treat

Here's some pictures from our trick-or-treating outing last night. We had so much fun! Sawyer had been practicing all day saying, "Trick or Treat" and ringing the door bell. HE LOVED IT! :) I did too! One of our neighbors said Eli should get an award for the smallest trick-or-treater of the year. He really may have been, but he slept right through all the fun.
PS...for anyone interested, the sling so far has been the ticket! It's so nice to have both hands free and still be able to hold him.