Sunday, November 26, 2023

A Beautiful November

November has been a beautiful month. It's been a little bit of a slower pace too which has been nice. Here are a few things that have been happening in addition to Mia's birthday.

Ken Rada does a great job with the school's pictures. I can't bring myself to buy them though because we always do our annual pictures with Allison. We are thankful for Stonehaven and the people here.


We were glad to have Grandpops in town for a weekend; it's always fun to visit with him. The evenings were so lovely, so we enjoyed time around the firepit together.
My two favorite turkeys!
Lily is a part of Stonehaven's choir. Mrs. Myrick has done such amazing things with this group; they sound so beautiful! They had a competition down in Macon one day where they received an "excellent" rating. While at Cracker Barrel for lunch, they had a lovely older couple ask them to sing for them which they did. Lily said the couple was brought to tears; they prayed for the students, and the students also prayed for them. I'd say this day was successful in more ways than one!
Ryan and I love our community group which meets in our house every Tuesday evening. We were happy to host a "friendsgiving" a few days before Thanksgiving. Ryan smoked this fabulous brisket for us, and then everyone else brought sides and/or desserts. It was so good and a wonderful evening of fellowship together.
Thanksgiving Day was beautiful! The girls and I enjoyed being over at Sid and Elaine's house; Ryan was unfortunately home sick. Mom and Dad were happy to have all their grandkids (now including Bennett!) together.
I am very thankful for my parents. They don't come any better than this!
My dinner plate...oh my goodness all this food is so good!
The girls and I hanging out with Caroline, Natalie, and Emily. We always like it when we can spill outside.
We like putting our Christmas decorations up in November each year. These decorations bring us such joy; the ornaments especially hold so many great memories. We decorated our tree and included all our new ornaments from the year. We've got the Bible History Center (Ryan's first field trip as a teacher), Hawaii, Six performance in Greenville, Nashville, Eras Tour concert, and eight from our London trip. What a year!
We couldn't resist getting an adorable Grinch tree this year too. Grandma Jan gave us this perfect little Grinch statue to stand by it. I love this!
We may have purchased a Grinch sandwich press at Hobby Lobby too; what can we say? We love the Grinch! We enjoyed a nice little Who feast one evening which included Grinch grilled cheese, who hash browns, red pears, green colored vanilla pudding, and Grinch juice. It was delicious and fun!
This is one of my favorite views in my home. I love reading in front of the fireplace while seeing our tree and decorations up. I'd say we are ready for the Christmas season!
What a lovely month it has been!

Mia's 15th Birthday!

Happy 15th Birthday to Mia!

Mia was ready by 6:30 on the morning of her birthday. She and Ryan stopped by Chick-fil-a for a birthday breakfast before they headed over to the Dept of Motor Vehicles. Mia had been studying, and she passed her learner's permit test with flying colors! Way to go Mia!

She couldn't wait to start driving, so she and Ryan headed over to the church so she could start practicing. She's picking this up pretty quickly! We are confident she'll become a great driver.
We had Mia's requested lunch of prosciutto and cheese on baguette. We were happy to give her some birthday presents to start the celebration. Granna and Papa came by too to wish her a happy birthday in person. We were excited to welcome Paige Pennington and Rylie Leverett over a little bit later. We sang happy birthday and enjoyed some cookie cake; it's always fun to have dessert first!
I then took Mia, Paige, and Rylie to Medieval Times in Lawrenceville. Mia has been before and really enjoyed it. I was so excited to get to take them! We were assigned to the Red Knight's section, and we were ready to cheer him on!



This was such a fun evening celebrating Mia!

Mia is an amazing young lady. She is generous and compassionate. She is funny and intelligent. She cares about people deeply. She loves to read and always has a good book in tow. She is creative and loves to sew. She enjoys video games as well, especially the Zelda series. She really loves the theater too whether she's performing in it or just watching. She has many gifts and talents, and I cannot thank the Lord enough for how he lovingly created Mia!

We had dinner at Melting Pot one evening to continue her celebration, and it was fun to ask her our annual birthday questions. Here is 15-year-old Mia's current favorites:
Color - Black
Movie - Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
TV Show - Only Murders in the Building
Book - Ember in the Ashes
Drink - Coke
Food - Wagyu steak
Friend - Rylie Leverett
Bible Verse - Psalm 73
School Subject - Biology
Activity - Acting
Place to Go - Rehearsal
Game to Play - Tears of the Kingdom video game
Restaurant - Melting Pot
Animal - Tiger
Memory from the Last Year - 13 camp with Brylliant
Most Thankful for - My friends
Goal this year - Improve dancing skills for theater
We are so thankful for Mia, and we pray this upcoming year will be a wonderful one for her where she draws closer to the Lord and continues to grow into the woman He has designed her to be. 

Annual Family Pictures

I am always thankful for time with Allison Mauer to get our annual family pictures. We visited Whittier Mill Village this year, and it was a gorgeous morning. These pictures turned out great!








I am so very thankful for my people!

A Late October Post

October was a busy but fun month. We started out in London, so it doesn't get much better than that. Then we celebrated Lily's birthday just after returning home. The rest of the month had lots of fun happenings too.

The Stonehaven volleyball team continued to have a great season. It's so much fun to watch Lily and her friends play. They even won their region for the very first time! Go Knights!


The girls eventually lost in the playoffs to a really great team. It was a really fantastic season! 

I am still enjoying ordering my Goldbellys from around the country. This Fall Kringle from a bakery in Wisconsin was a pretty big hit. It was really yummy and the cinnamon apple flavor brought a welcome taste of fall.
We were happy to have Paige come over to spend the night with Mia one evening. Butterbeer mustaches are always fun!
The Upper School completed their Color Run; it was quite the colorful event again this year! Lily, Avery, and Katie sported their colors beautifully.
Mia has been sewing again! It's so fun when she gets creative and makes something awesome with her sewing machine. She made this sweet red Peter Pan quote pillow for our little friend, Wendy, as she celebrated her first birthday. She also made this adorable fantasy stuffed animal which was so cute!
I had a blast taking Lily, Lauren, Mia, and Yabsera to see The Eras Tour movie one afternoon. It was fantastic! The girls and I loved reliving this concert, and we all had fun singing along.

Ryan couldn't resist buying this little Grinch waffle maker at Hobby Lobby one day, so we had to try it out. The waffles were super cute with that Grinch smile on them. What a fun breakfast-for-dinner!
Lily and Addison threw a surprise 18th birthday party for Lauren one evening! Lots of friends from school came, they played some pickleball, and had a great time celebrating sweet Lauren.
We always love when Bama comes to visit! We enjoyed a fun weekend together which included teaching her how to ax throw. She got the hang of it!
Earlier this year Ryan and I decided to invest in season tickets to Broadway in Atlanta at the Fox for our family. We were all pretty excited that the season is now underway! First up was MJ. This musical about Michael Jackson was fantastic. We all loved it. The way they told this story was really well done. We did have to explain a little more about MJ's story to the girls as we left, but we were glad to really introduce his music to them.


We learned in intermission at the show that the girls had never seen the Thriller video, so of course we had to watch it as soon as we got home. We then spent more time looking up some of his famous dance moves to show them too, so they could see him perform them. This was a fun evening!
Halloween arrived, and Lily had fun hanging out with friends in the Charlton Forge neighborhood. She was dressed as Tweety Bird's basketball player from Space Jam. Such a cutie.
Mia unfortunately was sick and had to miss school that day. I took her to CVS that afternoon; thankfully she tested negative for covid, flu, and strep. Even though she didn't feel great, she was able to enjoy an evening at home with Ryan and me. We made some spooky cheeseburgers, graveyard pudding, and chips with (salsa) blood. That's as much Halloween celebrating that I do.
This was such a fun month from beginning to end!

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Happy 17th Birthday Lily!

 

Happy 17th birthday to Lily! 

Lily's birthday fell just two days after we returned to London, so we really didn't have a big celebration for her. We always let the birthday honoree get to pick dinner. Lily wanted me to make taco bake and have her friend Lauren over. We then picked up some Chick-fil-a desserts, and we all watched the season finale of Only Murders in the Building together (and find out a Season 4 is coming!). It was a really fun evening together celebrating our sweet Lily.

I always like to ask about favorites to see how things have changed over the years. Here is a list of some of Lily's current favorite items:
- Color: Pink
- Movie: Little Women
- TV Show: Only Murders in the Building
- Book: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Drink: Dr. Pepper
- Food: Chicken Biscuit
- Friend: Lauren Martin
- Bible Verse: 1 Timothy 4:12
- School Subject: Spanish
- Activity: Volleyball
- Place to Go: Hawaii (always a tough one to answer)
- Game to Play: Hues & Cues
- Restaurant: Chick-fil-a
- Animal: Otter
- Memory from the last year: Going to Hawaii
- Most Thankful For: My family and Decker
- Goal this year: Get all A's and pass her AP exams

Ryan and I are so incredibly proud of what a fantastic young woman Lily is. She has such a great sense of humor; her wit is outstanding. She's incredibly smart, and she works hard in her classes; you can see the gears always turning in her head. She's a loyal friend which is such an admirable trait. We can see that she is diligent, just, and trustworthy. I love that she's always reading an interesting book, and it's been great to see her grow in her volleyball skills this year. Really, she's just a fun person to hang out with; we always enjoy our time with her.

We pray that Lily grows closer to the Lord in this next year and continues to become the woman He has designed her to be. We know it's an amazing one!