Of all the days to take our car into the shop for a tune up I picked this morning. It's like 20 degrees outside right now! Thankfully our mechanic is only about a mile from our house... so the walk home wasn't too bad. Carter looked so cozy and warm when we got home that I had to snap a few pictures of him before we came inside. I love that we really could survive without a car... I mean I wouldn't want to... but it's nice to know that we could.

Happy Birthday Papa/Dad/Carter

We wish we could have been there to celebrate with you!

Decorating 2008

A 99 cent stocking with a little bit of puffy paint may not seem like a big thing when you think about it... but when looking at it through the eyes of a 13 year old boy... it's a pretty incredible...

Last night we decorated our Christmas tree. This is our 3rd Christmas living at Joe's Place but only the 2nd with the boys here. It has turned into quite the event in our house. There is something so different about being able to celebrate with these 4 guys and to experience the excitement with them. Tyre couldn't stay away from the stocking with his name on it. I'm pretty sure the paint I used to write his name with is a little messed up because he just couldn't stop touching it.

Last night, Matt (who is a friend and also an intern at our church), joined us for the fun. He is working on a documentary about Joe's Place. He'll be at the house a good bit over the next year getting footage of the guys. The only hard part is that the guys want Matt to hang out... so it's hard for them to totally ignore him. I think this picture is great because they talked Matt into playing a game with them.

Tyre also wants to keep looking through the lens. Matt has been so great with them.

Steven continued the tradition of being the one to carry in the tree.

I was the one who ended up doing most of the tree decorating because apparantly working on the outside lights with Dan is much more cool.

Steven did help with the tree topper. It's actually a picture of Dan. When Matt asked him on camera why he put a pic of Dan up instead of the star... Steven said it was because Dan is our angel. I think he was kind of joking... but it was still sweet.

I guess we're going with a blue and white theme this year... which I just realized makes sense because those are the school colors.



The almost finished living room...


I also wanted to post the link to a story that was in the St. Louis Post Dispatch today. The article is about safe haven laws. Dan was interviewed for it over the phone yesterday. I thought they did a great job explaining Joe's Place.

Thanksgiving Morning

I think I've said this before... but there are days when lines from Carter's books pop into my head. Today the line was... "and happy Thanksgiving yelled everyone!"

We had a great day today. My sister and brother-in-law (Cari and Scott) made the 14 hour drive from Colorado to spend four days with us. There's just nothing like being with family during the holidays. We started out the morning with our traditional Monkey Bread and the Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was fun this year because Carter wanted to help make the bread.



After the parade Cari and I started on our desserts while the boys played in the backyard. The weather was amazing. Dan built Carter a fort to play in... but of course all he wanted to do was park his cars. Still lots of fun!




Check out the bobby pins in Carter's hair. I want his hair to grow out just a little more... but it's always in his face right now. Dan didn't let me leave them in very long...

Thanksgiving Evening

Fred and his older brother, David, came over around 3pm to shoot hoops and watch a little football before dinner. We had a blast!

Here is a picture of Cari and I in our Grandma Harris' old aprons. It was really special to have them this year. We are holding 4 of the 5 desserts we made!

David jokingly asked to be in the picture. It kind of snowballed after that...

Dan with the leftover turkey...

Scott holding Zephyr and Fred with a dish and dish soap. We were all laughing pretty hard.

Pecan pie, homemade chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, homemade coconut cake (thanks to Audrey for the recipe, pans and coconut!) and coconut cream pie.

David and Fred... they ate so much dessert and then even took some to go. Before they left we spent a couple hours playing Mario Cart in the basement.

Enjoying some pie.
It really was a great day! We have so much to be thankful for.

Oh yes he did...

Or maybe I should say... they did...






This afternoon is the much anticipated annual basketball game between the middle school class that brought in the most canned goods for the food drive and the faculty. Dan wanted to add a little spirit to the game. He's supposed to shave the rest of his hair off as soon as he gets home... but we'll see... He'll be attending the Thanksgiving Service at our church alone if he doesn't!

Trying out his skateboard from Papa...

Well... it's been a sad weekend in our house. Our high school football team lost their first game of the season... which translated to their last game of the year and probably Fred's last game ever. It was the game before the state championship game and the same game they lost this time last year. It was very sad.

Thanks to a good friend, Dan and I had the chance to go to the game together and leave Carter at home. It was freezing... but still well worth it to be there for Fred's last game.

Fred coming off the field...


Steven taking pictures for the school newspaper...

And here's the ambulance that eventually took Fred to the ER with a concussion. It's not the first time Fred has been taken away in an ambulance... but it was the first time I was sitting in the crowd. I thought I was going to throw up. Steven looked up from the field and screamed my name as soon as it happened. I looked up and saw Fred laying in the middle of the field.

They were eventually able to move him to this bench. He actually waited to leave until the game was over. Dan spent a few hours in the ER with him and then brought him home to our house for the rest of the weekend.

Fred loves football... but his main sport is track and field. He'll start training for that after Christmas. We're just thankful we're entering the non contact sport portion of the year.

Listening to Carter put words together has been so much fun. In the last couple weeks his vocabulary has exploded. We can now understand what he is saying almost all of the time.

So... this morning Dan let me sleep in... when I finally came downstairs I found a roaring fire in the fireplace and Carter and Dan sitting separately each with a book in their lap. So fun! I sat down next to Carter and he eventually began to park his trucks on my feet. When I told him I was going to get up and get coffee he told me he needed his trucks to stay on my feet. I asked him if he would go get some for me. So... he got up and helped Dan fix every part of my coffee and then "helped" Dan carry it over to me. After that he decided he needed some coffee of his own. We're teaching him the right way to spend his mornings!

Something to stand still for...

Leave it to my Dad (who lives in CA) to forward me an article with a picture of (and a line about) Fred that I had no idea about. This ran in yesterday's Suburban Journal.

The high school football team has had another amazing season. They got this far last year... but lost the game they will be playing this Saturday. You can see a little bit of Fred in the picture... he has his arms around the guy that is being tackled. I don't totally understand the game... but this morning he was telling me that he only needs 168 yards on Saturday to bring his total to one thousand. I guess there are different types of yards... and he already has more than a thousand of a certain type but needs 168 rushing yards... maybe... I don't know! We're just really excited for Saturday's game!!