We have much to be thankful for, both now, in the Thanksgiving and Christmas season and throughout the year. Our sweet little boy just warms our heart, he is a true joy. We are blessed to come from loving, caring, and generous families who continue support us in many ways. We are thankful for our friends who love and support us and share life with us. I am thankful that God has provided such a loving, caring, and supportive husband who loves me day in and day out, no matter what.

Finn and I headed to Mansfield Tuesday evening in preparation for our annual Hosta Seed Planting and greenhouse covering adventures. Seems as though dad and I aren’t as productive as we once were – we only planted a small handful of trays on Wednesday – yikes! Finn was pretty spoiled as he was the only grandchild there on Tuesday evening. He was soaking up Grandma and Grandpa’s attention. The rest of the troops arrived on Wednesday. We were fortunate to spend time with both of our families on Thanksgiving Day. We enjoyed the Armstrong gathering at Dave & Gayle’s where Finn played with Grandma and Grandpa. He loved going outside to see Boogey and Joe, Dave & Gayle’s horses.  To this day if I ask Finn about Boogey (he refers to him as Booger, lol, which is somewhat telling I hear), he says “Doe”, for Joe. He has an amazing memory, heck, I often can’t even remember things that he does! We also joined the Beilstein’s for dinner and a short bit of play time before bed.  All of the food everywhere was delicious – we are fortunate to eat twice 🙂 Black Friday began with our traditional breakfast at Bob Evans, followed by lots of shopping at Polaris and then a bit at Easton along with dinner at Bon Vie. It was a packed day, but a fun one for sure!

These two went off on a few adventures together. 

And these boys are two peas in a pod with their lovies. 

This is Boogey (aka Booger, if you’re Finn). He’s playful and is sniffing my head here in our selfie. 

And here is Joe.  Lots of younger cousin play time happening! Oh, and I snapped this picture of an Olan Mills photo of the cousins from 1979. Kevin is the top row, left. He is 16 years old here! Todd is next to him, then Scot, then Sean. Middle row is Brett and Jason. Bottom row is Juan, Carmen, Ashley, and Jared.  Some cousins aren’t in the photo – as they weren’t born yet! We jumped out of the car and snapped this photo on our way out of town. It is near farmland that was once farmed by Kevin’s grandfather. Pretty cool, right?

Silly cousins…. And Lily photo bombing this one…… All of the boys wanted to sit in the rocking recliner together!
This is a pretty typical scene – Lily with a bone amid a bunch of toys!

Let Black Friday madness begin!

At this point we were reaching deliriousness – running up and down the men’s suit selection and hiding and giggling. Followed very shortly thereafter with screaming and crying as he was beyond done!We ventured to Cackler Family Farms again this year to search for the perfect tree to cut. We were on a mission, as it was the OSU-v-Michigan game day! We walked around a little bit, but pretty quickly found the tree for us. A 13′ Cannan Fir. Finn loved riding in the sled. It was pretty breezy, but he was a real trooper, getting right up with Kevin to “help” cut down the tree.And here are a few random photos from the week.  Finn brushing his teeth while sitting in a box I had just emptied. Then he decided to cuddle with Lily and a short while later he was playfully crawling all over Cameron, and testing the waters by standing on a bin in his rooms – arms up, none-the-less!