Thanksgiving

Not living near any of our families definitely has some disadvantages.  One of which is that it makes getting together for holidays much more difficult.  Yes, it makes the times together that much more fun and special, but it takes a lot more planning.  This past year Jon's side of the family all moved to Louisiana.  Instead of either group traveling so far, we opted to meet halfway in Texarkana, Texas.  It is a little bit unconventional to spend Thanksgiving at a hotel and eat at a restaurant, but that's not what Thanksgiving is about anyway!  It was nice for everyone to be together!

I made some yummy treats to enjoy while hanging out at the hotel.  They were delicious, if I may say so myself.

(I made individual trifles in mason jars.  Death By Chocolate and a pumpkin spice trifle.)

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without watching the Lions lose some Lions football!

We played lots of games together which meant there was a lot of laughter!

Luke wasn't much into playing games, but he was all about getting to go swimming!

Thanksgiving dinner was served at Cracker Barrel.  The wait was long,

but it was fun to watch the kids play together and just sit out on the porch and enjoy each other and the beautiful day that it was!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my breakfast.  I have a lot of Texan friends that I thought would appreciate this!

Luke loved playing with Toby during our visit!

Look at these two little monkeys!

(Unfortunately, I didn't get any group pictures.)

We had a really great time visiting with all of the Grief's!  I'm so glad we were all able to get together!

What am I thankful for this year?  I am thankful for so much!  I am SO blessed!!  I am thankful to serve a God that loves me no matter what.  I am thankful to have a husband that loves me and takes care of me and our family.  I am thankful for my three healthy, active children. I am thankful that I am able to be a stay at home mom.  I am thankful that my foot is on the road to recovery.  I could go on and on, but let's just say, I AM BLESSED!!

A Little Trip To Cajun Country

In the last few months all of Jon's family has moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  (Remember this?)  It meant that his parents would be farther away from here, but his brother's family would be closer than they had been in Virginia.  We were happy for all of them as we could see how the Lord was moving each of them.  It wasn't long before we started talking about a visit.  Jamie (Jon's brother) asked several times when we could come down.  Jon and I had decided a while back that since we are saving for Ben's band trip that we wouldn't be doing any traveling over the summer.  However, Jon really wanted to go and I could completely understand!  It helped that Jon was going to be off the whole week of 4th of July.  Sooo...we made plans to go!

Louisiana bound!

These were sure signs that we were getting close!

Nathaniel is amazing on the guitar!  We have seen videos of him playing, but it was neat to get to watch and listen in person!  He is very talented!

Since we were there on a Sunday we got to go to church with all of the Grief's.   It was nice to see where they all go and here a great message!  After church we headed out for some traditional, local food.  Yep, that means seafood.  I am not a fan of seafood, but when in Rome... right?  It really wasn't bad.  We didn't get too crazy.  Jon and I had some shrimp and catfish as well as some alligator.  Yes...alligator!  It was actually really good.  A little rubbery, but not bad.  (:  Let's not get too excited, I'm not turning into a seafood lover!  I still prefer land creatures!  Ben and Abby were thrilled with the idea for seafood!  Abby loves shrimp and Ben had a shrimp po' boy.  Luke, our super picky eater, begged for catfish and loved it!  WOW! 

Jamie really wanted to show us the capitol building while we were so close.  Their family has been a handful of times and he really enjoyed it and wanted to share it with us.  It's pretty neat that you can go up in an elevator and get out on the observation deck and look around.  Those with a fear of heights weren't so thrilled, but it was a beautiful view!  The inside of the building was pretty neat too.  Ben and Abby loved the "For Governor Only" elevator.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip!

I love my family!!

As we were driving back to Jamie and Anne's house, I couldn't help but notice the beads hanging on this street sign.  We really are in Mardi Gras country!  Crazy!

There are so many beautiful plantations down in Louisiana!  I hope that we can go on a tour on our next trip!

Since Baton Rouge is only about an hour from New Orleans, Jon and I knew that we would like to go check it out.  Ken had a doctor's appointment there that day, so we decided to all load up and head out for the day.

Abby could hardly contain herself when she saw the massive clarinet  painted on the side of this building!  She was beyond excited!!

Our time in New Orleans didn't go quite as we had hoped.  It was a pretty rough day, but the pictures are fun! :)

Jon did a little exploring on the computer/GPS and suggested a different route back to the house.  We decided to take the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and I'm so glad we did!  It was pretty neat!  For a little while there was no land to be seen!  It was also fun to watch the elevation on Jon's iPad.  At one point we were below sea level!  The whole drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge was beautiful!  It was so green and lush!

What could be better after a crazy day than a blast from the past?  Hungry Howies!  Pizza that we used to love when we lived in Michigan!  YUM!!

Since we were in the area we thought it would be fun to go see Mike the Tiger, the LSU mascot.

I couldn't get over how beautiful the campus was.  It was gorgeous!

I love this picture of all the cousins!

I loved the way that the girls picked up right where they left off!  They hadn't seen each other since Christmas time, but you never would have known it! They had so much fun playing together!  I don't think I ever heard any of the say that they were bored the entire time we were there!  They played games, did each others hair and makeup, made friendship bracelets, watched minimal t.v...they had a great time together!

And this is what Ben and Nathaniel did the. entire. time.  I guess this is just what boys do, but they had a great time just being together being boys!

Luke had  a great time too.  He had to work a little harder to find his place with all of the big kids.  He did a great job, but one of the things that I was so proud of was how well he slept.  That's one of those things that you never know how it's going to go when away from home.  This little guy did such a great job every time he was put down!  He was either being very obedient or he was completely wiped out.  I'm thinking it might be a little bit of both.

We took a little time out to take Katie, Emily, Abby and Luke to the water park.  It was HOT!!  Not only was it hot, but it was insanely humid!  Way more humid than here!  (I will try to refrain from complaining about the humidity here in Oklahoma now that I have experienced that humidity!)

While we were at the water park Jon took some pretty cool pictures! The top left picture is my favorite!

On our last night in Louisiana we had a cookout at Ken and Jeanie's.  They have a little pond behind their house which was like a magnet for the kids!

We headed home on July 4th.  It was so neat to be driving through this beautiful country and listening to the patriotic music on the radio.  There was just something about it.

We took the scenic route on our way home.  Did you know that Oklahoma has mountains?  I had no idea!  Jon mentioned it to me after he went hiking there, but I still couldn't imagine mountains in Oklahoma!  It turns out he was right.  The Kiamichi Mountains run through southeast Oklahoma and are absolutely beautiful! They are certainly not the Great Smokey Mountains or the Rocky Mountains, but they are beautiful and a huge change from all of the years we spent in flat Kansas!  I'm thinking a camping trip needs to happen down in those mountains!

We played the license plate game while we were on the road.  We saw 28 different state license plates.  The best part is that we saw Alaska and Hawaii!

We had a great trip!  It was so nice to see family that we don't get to see very often, see some of this beautiful country and just get out of town for a while!  We are all looking forward to heading down to Louisiana in the future! 

Thank you, Ken, Jeanie, Jamie, Anne, Nathaniel, Katie and Emily for taking care of us while we were down there!  You guys made it so fun!  THANK YOU!!

Changes in Hutchinson

Big changes are happening in the Grief family.  After about 15 years in Hutchinson, Kansas, Jon's parents are moving away.  They are moving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Jon's brother and his family moved there recently.  Ken and Jeanie felt like they were being led out of Hutch and it seemed like Baton Rouge was the most obvious choice.  To listen to the story, it is so amazing to hear how God put everything together and made it so obvious that Ken and Jeanie are doing what they are supposed to do.

We made a trip to Hutchinson for one last visit, Ken and Jeanie's garage sale and to help with bringing boxes and furniture up from the basement.  Whatever needed done.

Jon, Ben and Ken worked hard and got so much done!

Jeanie also planned to celebrate mine and Luke's birthday.  Fun times!

Of course, we had to take some family pictures.

(I love that little monkey in the tree!)

The next time we see Ken and Jeanie it will be in Louisiana. 

Christmas in Hutchinson

Jon's brother and his family were making the trek from Virginia out to Hutchinson, KS for Christmas, so we headed up for a visit. The whole Grief family was together!

The cousins were all happy to finally see each other after a whole year!

Emily and Luke got winter hats from Grandma and Grandpa. Too cute! Luke LOVES his Angry Birds hat!

Luke enjoyed some quality time playing dinosaurs with his Uncle Jamie.

Ben and Nathaniel got new knives and couldn't wait to check them out!

Abby and Katie got manicure sets. I loved seeing them getting manicures from Grandma.

We played a rousing game of Headbandz! FUN!!

A fun family weekend!

Holidays in Hutchinson

Since we moved to Oklahoma over three years ago, we have gone back to Hutch for Thanksgiving. This year we had different plans for Thanksgiving, so we thought we would head up the week before.

Our family was excited to be able to go the Hutchinson Christmas Parade. For several years, Ben and Abby participated in all of the parades. It seems so different to be watching the parade with them instead of participating in it!

Luke really loved the parade! Everything that came by was so exciting to him! I love watching things like this through the eyes of my little guy as he sees these things for the first time! It was very chilly at the parade, however, so we ended up leaving early. Luke wasn't very happy when he found out that we missed the horses! Next time!

One of the things that I love to do while in Hutch is so see my friend, Athena! We don't get to see each other very often. For the past several years we have been doing our Black Friday shopping together. This year, we won't be together. :( This weekend we were able to meet up at Chilie's for a Diet Coke and some appetizers and catch up with each other! We had a great time! I am so thankful that Athena and I have been able to maintain a friendship since I moved! Thanks, Athena, for taking time out of your busy weekend to get together with me! I treasure your friendship!

Ben was also able to spend some time with his buddies while in Hutch. I am amazed that these teenage boys have been able to stay connected! I have said it before and I will say it again, I believe that these boys are going to be life-long friends!This is Luke's favorite thing to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house...

He loves to play with Toby! Thankfully it hadn't been too long since Luke had seen Toby last, so it didn't take very long for him to warm up!

I know this picture is blurry, but I think it so cute! I had to run out to the van to get the camera and capture this before either one moved! (The camera was cold from being outside.)

Abby enjoyed playing the Wii at Grandma and Grandpa's house! The two of us also enjoyed cable! We don't have all of the good channels at our house and got involved in watching cooking shows until midnight!

Since we weren't going to be together for Thanksgiving, Jeanie made an amazing meal in celebration of Thanksgiving while we were together. YUM!!

Thank you, Ken and Jeanie, for having us for the weekend!

Christmas/New Year's With The Grief's

On New Year's Eve, Jon's whole family came down for a visit. As you know, his parents, Ken and Jeanie, live in Kansas. His brother and his family live in Virginia, so we really don't get to see them very often. We decided that we would celebrate Christmas with everyone together instead of shipping gifts. It was so fun to see everyone and have Christmas all over again!
Luke loves his pillow pet! So cute!
Brother bonding!
When we all lived near each other we loved to play games together, so it was great to hang out at the table and play a game! We even let a few kids join in!
Waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. The nice thing about living in the central time zone is that the ball actually drops at 11:00pm local time! We could watch the ball drop and then call it a night. But we didn't! We waited up until midnight and watched it again.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)
Three beautiful Grief girls!
The cousins were all happy to just be together!
All of the Grief's!

We had a great time all being together! It stinks to live so far away from all of our families! The good thing is that when we all get to see each other, it makes the time that much sweeter!