Ya Ya's Island

Friday morning we found a new treasure in Paducah - a new play place called Ya Ya's Island. It was loads of fun for all. Shane, Sumer and Corey and I were just as excited as the boys to explore this treasure cove.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Nana's house in Kentucky. On the way there Nathan did not want to even stop to eat & play at Chick Fil A because we were going to Nana's house. And what a wonderful time we had. Nanny (Aunt Mary) and Nana and cousins and more to play with and declicious homeade cooking galore. You just can't beat it. We are very blessed by the Lord to have him as our Heavenly Father and Savior and then to be blessed with such wonderful families here on earth. Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Life is a Highway

Nathan has had the best time playing with this eighteen wheeler truck that my brother Philip sent him for his birthday. He loves to play out the scene from Cars where Lightning McQueen is riding in the back of his transport truck "Mack". He very quickly picked up on the song "Life is a Highway" that plays in the background during the movie.

Calvary Thanksgiving

Wednesday night at church we had our annual thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious! My first taste of turkey and dressing for the year. Now I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving Day. We are very blessed to have the church family we do. They are our family away from home. This weekend is an exciting weekend for Calvary because we have a prospective pastor coming. Please pray for us that we will know the Lord's will and follow his leadership.

Vrroom! Vrroom! I Like Trucks!

Nathan is a lot like his dad in that when something new comes around he is all about it for the next few days whatever "it" is. Wednesday, Shane was up at 7:30 downloading the Netflix thing for the XBox Live which came out that day. Which I thought was crazy but it is actually a pretty cool thing. Wednesday afternoon Shane found some Fire Engine and City Street Truck videos for Nathan to watch and Nathan loved them. We have now been playing Garbage Truck with his dump trucks for the last few days.

Playing Cars with Daddy

Today Shane got creative with a box cutter and some spray paint while Nathan and I were napping and turned some empty diaper boxes into a little Cars town for Nathan. When he woke up from his nap he played with his cars for probably an hour and tonight when he was saying his prayers he said "Thank you God for playing cars with Daddy." Too sweet.

A Beautiful Compromise

Two weeks of sickness and travel have made Nathan forget that he has to sleep in his own bed. Tonight he would not calm down and proceeded to scream for all told over an hour (if you add up all the the different times we tried to just let him cry himself to sleep). He refused to go to sleep without his mommy and I refused to let him sleep anywhere other than his own bed. This was our compromise.

There aren't many beds that are too short for my sweet wife, but this is one of them. She folded herself up in his little bed and after they posed for a picture it took him all of two minutes to go to sleep.

It was a very beautiful sight for me. Meredith became like Jesus for our little boy tonight. There were rules that couldn't be broken. He couldn't come and be with us, so she chose to be with him. It was a magical moment.

--Shane

Visit to Franklin

Today while Caleb and Silas were at school Nathan got a special trip to the cupcake store, Ivey Cake, in downtown Franklin. We got downtown just as the Veteran's Day parade began so he also got to see lots of cars, soldiers (ROTC groups) and high school bands playing too.

Life with the Yates

This week while Shane is at a Lifeway writer's conference Nathan and I are staying with the Yates. Nathan is sleeping with the big boys (Caleb and Silas) in their room and we are having lots of fun playing together. We've played lots of Cars, Handy Manny fix-it, Warehouse Mouse searching with wobble goggles and yesterday Aunt Sumer set up a cool obstacle course challenge for the boys including a tunnel crawl which Nathan loved.

War Eagle

Saturday we went to the Auburn Homecoming game. We tailgated with some of our friends we went to college with and enjoyed catching up. Then we went to the game for a little while. Nathan was so excited about going to Auburn to see the football game and have popocorn. He talked about it from the time we got up Saturday morning till we got to the game. He loved watching the football players and the band until... the popcorn ran out. Then he was done. We would have enjoyed watching more of the game but I guess a two year old can only handle the crowd for so long. We did have a good day just being in Auburn again.

Football Fever

Saturday we went to spend the day with my family in Pell City. It was wonderful to see them all. Nathan had so much fun visiting with everyone and especially playing football with Uncle Jonathan.

My dad pulled out this child size football helmet that was his when he was little. Nathan thought that was the greatest. It was still a little big for him but oh, he was in heaven with a football helmet and playing tackle with the big boys.