We Heart Branson!

One of my favorite holiday traditions is going to Branson the weekend after Thanksgiving! We don't go every year, but we try to go as often as we can. We've been going since I was a child, and I love getting to take my own children now! 

Brent's parents were at our house before the sun rose, and we hit the road! 

We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barell in Conway...filled our bellies up and the boys picked out some fun little activity books for the road. :)

Our first stop was Branson Landing down on the river. We did a little shopping, but Levi's favorite part was watching the ducks play. 

After lunch, we were finally able to check into our condo. We stayed at Fall Creek, and we loved our condo! It backed up to the water, was super roomy, and was in a great location. I'm sure we will be back!

Dinner Friday night was at Fall a Creek Steakhouse - one of our favorite places :)

The boys thought catching the rolls was so much fun!!

Brody had his "class pet" Alex for the weekend, so he and Beckett had fun sleeping with him on the couch bed. ;)

All of the breakfast restaurants were packed Saturday morning, so we ended up at Krispy Kreme! Yum-O!!

After breakfast, we headed to Tanger Outlets for a morning of shopping! It was so so crowded there, so we didn't stay too long, but we got what we needed. :)

For lunch we found a new favorite place! It was a BBQ place near our room, and it was delish!!

After naps, we finally made our way to Silver Dollar City - my favorite place! 

We rode rides, watched a Frosty the Snowman show, and then watched the lighting of the big Christmas tree at dark. There's nothing like seeing their little faces take in all of the sights and sounds of Christmas. :)

Levi's favorite thing was riding the Silver Dollar City train!

When we got off he said, "Dat was an awesome train!" 

We ended the night with the Christmas parade, and the boys loved it. I'm so happy they got to see it all :)

We had a late supper at Red Lobster...poor Brody didn't last long. I think we all would have liked to do this ;)

It was a short trip - we headed home on Sunday - but we had a wonderful time! I think we are all in the Christmas spirit now!! 

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my grandparents house this year! They live on a farm way out in the woods and it's so fun to take my boys there to play. 

These two really enjoyed listening to Papa play his guitar and sing. And he loved having a captive audience! :) I have so many memories of him doing the same thing in that very chair when I was growing up. Love that my children get to experience it too. 

They had the best time playing outside!

Tara even took some "Christmas card pictures" for us all :)

Cute cousins!

Dinner time! There's just nothing like a delicious Thanksgiving meal :) 

Beckett's favorite - Pumpkin pie!!

I think they say and looked at airplanes and animals in the encyclopedia for an hour. This picture is so sweet to me. My Papa is an amazing man. He has the biggest heart I've ever seen, flew in the US Air Force, is so incredibly creative, and has thousands of neat stories that he loves to tell. I'm blessed that he's my grandfather, and I'm thankful my children are able to know him too. 

And I sure do love this pretty lady! Don't know what I'd do without my Mama :)

We also prepared Lennox's Christmas package on Thanksgiving night, which also happened to be the one year anniversary of his referral. I was a little heavy-hearted thinking about him being so far away, but I know our Lord is doing a mighty work with his story! 

Halloween 2013

Life Lately

I've got a lot of catching up to do here! Just going to do a picture post of the last month!

Mailing a care pkg to Lennox

Bubble fun!

Book Charachter Dress-Up Day

Shopping with Mommy ;)

Dorado Grill!

An afternoon of football

And a date to the movies - just me and this stud muffin. 

Hayride! 

Hugh Goodwin Veterans Day parade 

We LOVE Fall

Provision

One huge way I've witnessed the Lord's provision through this process is through the friends He has placed in my life to share this journey with. The ladies pictured in this post are all adopting little ones from South Korea through Dillon International, and we all have ATK's just a few months apart. We all talk throughout the week, offering up listening ears, words of encouragement, and understand that you can get nowhere else. I love that God crossed our paths at this time, because their friendship has been invaluable to me. I love each of their babes so much and can't wait to rejoice with these families as we bring them home!

Last weekend, we all went to Dallas for a few days to attend the Tapestry adoption conference. I left loaded down with information but so so blessed. It was amazing to spend three days with these ladies, and I can assure you that very few minutes passed without us talking about our sweet sweet boys! 

(This was our table at one of the evening conferences...hehe. I think we were the only table there with a snack station. )

We heard some excellent speakers share their stories (including two Korean adoptees), some amazing professionals speak about attachment and bonding, and I can honestly say I do feel more prepared to bring our boy home. Our boy who will be hurting and grieving and will have just lost everything he's ever known. We want to do everything we can to heal his little heart. 

We also had some fun! We spent one evening shopping at IKEA!

Our last night there, we ate dinner at a Korean restaurant called OMI. It was the first time I'd had true Korean food. Some of it I loved, some was just ok, and some I had to pass on. But I am more excited about the eating we will do our few weeks we will spend in Korea! :)

Thank you, friends, for a much-needed weekend!! The fellowship was wonderful, and I'm praying we are all traveling soon!