The New House

As I mentioned earlier this month, we recently moved into a new house. Now it's been quite a feat just to keep people fed and clean while slowly and surely unpacking and organizing. The last time I moved, I didn't have kids which means 1 of 2 things-- for of all, I got to work and pack and unpack distraction- free-- I could unpack until the wee hours, sleep until I was rested and get up and start again. This time, oh no no no no no! I have to keep normal hours AND work steadily so as not to go into pre-term labor. Secondly, after having kids, your amount of stuff quadruples for each child you have-- our rate of increase has been dramatic!

But alas, it's time for some pictures to display our new digs... there are still lots of piles and there aren't any adorable pictures of my cute men on the walls, but maybe by 2014 :)

Here's a little tour to give our out of town family and friends a peek:

Here is the baby room- it's Jack's for now and once the baby sleeps through the night and is moved out of our room, it will be the baby's and Jack will move in with Max. It already has curtains but my handy man hasn't gotten to this yet....

Max's room is huge with a HUGE closet. Oh how this makes me so happy :) The boys share a closet, there is a dresser in his closet, and there's still lots of room. He's still in need of a head board- I found a cute baseball one-- his room is obviously sports themed. AND his dresser I got for $45... and painted it and added those knobs... I LOVE IT! (Oh and by "I" painted it, clearly I mean Chad did.) And in the bottom right hand corner, there is still tons of room for Jack's future crib and there will still be floor space. Oh happy day!

This is Max and Jack's bathroom and the one visitors use... which means we don't let them brush their teeth in there, ha!

Next is the master bath... as you may remember from before, our last bath was so tiny that we literally couldn't both fit in it.... now our whole family can have a party in there :)

Chad re-did all the bathroom cabinets and kitchen cabinets, as well as painted the whole house. The cabinets were all good solid fine and dandy pine but now with his hard work they look brand new and fancy fresh. So fun to feel like you got a brand new kitchen, but without the big money!

Here's the kitchen...

Here is our living room with no knick knacks... mainly because I'm knick knacked out, and not books on the shelf or anything fun or Bowman-ish, but you can see the direction it will head eventually....

And here's Gabe's bathroom:

Also, a delightful thing... a HUGE playroom, with plenty of play space plus even more play space... we clean up every other day or so, and it's amazing because I don't have toys stored in my living room anymore, wahoo... I'm a big girl now!

Lastly, we have the craft room (aka heavenly) that also doubles as the perfect laundry folding space which you'll see in the pictures... it's also our school room as well-- right now Gabe prefers his desk in his room, but this is hear as he needs it, along with all the boys craft stuff, my craft stuff, and even a gift wrap station... ohhh la la!

And it has this little secret storage closet... the only downside is that I haven't had any time to organize it and make it my happy place, for now it's the catch all, but what woman wouldn't die for this closet??

As I mentioned, it's all a work in progress... there are piles that have to find a home, boxes that need unpacked, and of course lots of pictures need to be hung on the bare walls. I also didn't include any pictures of the master bedroom because the bed isn't made and I'm about to go crawl in it.... or Gabe's room because his bed frame is still in storage at my parents from when we outgrew our other house about a year ago... it will be retrieved by the end of the month, for now, the boy has a mattress on the floor... but he told me this make bed making a lot easier :) And lastly, I didn't include any of our garages... not the big double one that fits my mini van and Chad's big ole truck along with storage shelves and we can fully open our doors and not come close the the walls and big pregnant ladies can walk all around it while carrying babies and such... and then another full garage with a second driveway off the other side of the house that is organized with all Chad's tools and work stuff, all his fishing and man hobby stuff, all the bikes and swim/ beach stuff, with room to spare. 

If you can't tell, there are many things to love about this house but the thing that pushed me right on over the edge is the storage... it's unreal :) Thank you Tracy for making this home ours-- the Bowmans love it and are so grateful for you!

Double Digits

Valentine's Day doesn't really get the place in our lives that Hallmark would like it to get. That's because Chad is the most loving and romantic man ever and he's always sending me flowers and chocolates, leaving me cards, and taking me on fancy dates. Oh wait, that's not it....

No, actually, Hallmark is rather sad that we don't particularly participate, but that's because we're busy celebrating a birthday and this year, it was a big one... Gabe busted in to double digits on Valentine's Day! So naturally, we started off with a trip to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. This made everyone's day, and I especially loved that the donuts were heart shaped.

I love that Max is copying Gabe and flicking us all off in the process, ha!

At the end of the day, we did dinner with Gabe's close family-- us, his mommy and Kimbrel, Granny and Papaw, and Grandma Bernice, his great grandmother who is just a gem. When I was talking with Gabe about where he wanted to eat for his birthday, he suggested Steak n' Shake. Umm....?!?!? So I gingerly pushed for something a little nicer. Next, he suggest Chipotle. You know, a little bit slower than fast food mexican. So I pushed again, explaining that it was his birthday and he should pick something he really loved, where we could all sit together at a table. He decided that it had to be mexican... which led us all to 7 Tequilas in Woodstock, GA to celebrate. Hilarious. The kid is easy, what can I say?

His celebrations will continue all weekend, with a Monster Truck Rally with his Mom and some friends, a family birthday dinner on Sunday with the Noblitts, and then a fun friend outing next weekend that involves cosmic roller skating... this totally speaks Gabe's language!

Gabe is a special young man, on the cusp of manhood. He's at the age where he bounces back and forth between the two... we all did it, you know where you want to be treated like a little kid but have the freedom of a big kid. The child eats more than Chad and pregnant me at every meal. I'm serious. And he's a great eater-- I'm pretty stern on protein and veggies and he'll eat it right up. I got him several new pairs of jeans for Christmas and they're borderline too short already. His long skinny feet have by-passed mine already and his hands are close. His skin is still baby soft and his bright blue eyes shine just like that did when he was a tiny tot. His curls are getting tighter and he's proud of them, which is awesome, but like most 9/10 year old boys, he prefers to spend about 17 seconds in front of a mirror, total, each day, so we're having to keep the curls cut shorter until he's ready for the full deal... that's a lot of hair and a lot of responsibility, people!

He's adjusting well to homeschool and recently told us that he wants to do it next year as well. Of course, I've never stopped bragging about his ability as a big brother-- he knocks that duty out of the park, and his brain is something as well! His best subject is math- he loves it, and he's an avid little reader if you set aside time for it. His imagination runs wild and he is REALLY into Ninjago and the lego sets right now. He's a great picker upper and likes things in it's place, which is nice. And of course, he has soccer in the blood, so we're weeks away from starting his spring season. 

Gabe,

You are an incredible man and I love how the Lord is shaping you. I know my expectations are high for you, but I'm going to be honest and let you know that isn't going to change... but that's because I believe in you and I want the absolute best for you. My prayer is that God will stay at the center of who you are and draw you closer to Himself with each passing day. You are a blessing to us and we thank God for you! Happy 10th Birthday buddy-- so glad we all got to celebrate you! You are SO loved!

Here I Grow Again

Welp, believe it or not, I'm standing here 29 weeks pregnant with baby #3. I canNOT believe how fast this is going. If this baby is like Max, we have 11 weeks to go, but if it's like Jack, we only have 6 weeks to go- yikes! Honestly, I'm hoping for some middle ground, a little closer to Max's timing but not quite full term. Pre-term babies aren't fun, even if they are precious and adorable.

29 wks and ?? days pregnant with baby #3

Here is an old post that shows me pregnant with Max and Jack at 28 weeks... dare to compare... I've yet to do pregnancy the same way twice, ha!

I'm carrying much different this go around- everything has been different actually- but I'm not sure if that's because it's a girl in there or if it's because I've spent 4+ months in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 pregnant.... I think that could do it to ya too! It was Chad's choice this go around not to find out the gender and it has actually been a lot more tolerable than I expected... even almost fun! I have a small stack of pink clothes and a small stack of blue clothes washed and ready for baby (obviously the pinks are borrowed since we own no such thing in this Bowman boy house!) and now we just wait for him/ her to show it's little face ( well booty, but you know what I mean!)

We've picked out 2 names, too... but it's funny not calling the baby by a name like we have with the others. I knew them by name for half of the pregnancy and their name was normal in our language, but not this time! It definitely adds an element of mystery to the whole thing! If it's a boy, baby will be Sam Joseph. Sam because it's cute yet manly and strong for his later years, plus it goes great with Gabe, Max, and Jack with it's "a" sound. And yes, it's just Sam, like it's just Max, and just Jack. My brother is actually Samuel- so it's not technically after him, but it's not not after him either. Clear as mud? And then we always do a family name for the middle name, so Joseph is after Chad's grandpa Joe whom he just adored. I never got to meet him, but I've heard stories, that's for sure!

If baby is a girl, her name will be Lila. I fell in love with this name about 6 months before I became pregnant and just no other name could compare. Her middle name will be after Chad's grandmother- Ruth Mae-- so it will either be Lila Ruth or Lila Mae. We have good reasons for choosing both and just haven't finalized yet. Lila Mae is just adorable and if that's her name, she'll probably get called that a lot,  and a good double name is always appreciated here in the south. But Lila Ruth is great too-- Ruth after Yang Yang, Ruth like my BFFA Ruth who has a heart and a kindness any mother would love to see in her daughter, and then lately, after so deep studying in my BSF bible study of Genesis, just learning how Ruth, a Moabite, let her faith in the Lord lead her away from her pagan culture, and her love for God eventually led her to be in the line of Jesus-- if we have a Lila, I'm praying for a faith like that, even when the world around her goes the opposite direction. And just for a quick note on Yang Yang, she's Chad's grandmother who passed away last year- she was just a dear part of all of our visits to Texas, she's such a hard worker, and an admirable, beautiful woman. Chad was a great post on her here.

I have no idea if this is the last time I'll be pregnant-- somedays I'm certain it is, and then other days I find myself hoping for one more. Chad is in the same boat. He was originally adamant that this would be our last one- which after this baby, he will have fathered 4 wonderful children, can you blame him? But it still grieved me to make such a call without feeling like the Lord led us there. Well without me saying anything, seriously, it's rare, I know, the Lord made it obvious to Chad too that it's God's plan, not ours. We're waiting for that tender moment when we have all our babies in our nest and hear a whisper from above that says "You're all here". Then we'll know we're done!

Until then, I regularly lament about my many chins, my ham hocks for arms, the sciatic issues I'm experiencing this go around and the fact that this baby thinks it should use my bladder as a pillow, literally, and my diaphragm as a foot rest. If I'm not peeing, I'm out of breath. I still feel really strong about the fact that your pregnancy it what you make it-- it's hard to grow a human and carry another 25+ pounds around, especially while taking care of lots of little people and moving, and still keeping up with normal life. But what an honor and a blessing it is that God saw it fit to grow children inside of my body-- children that I get to birth and then love and raise-- so far, it's been the thing I've adored most about my life here on earth. And unfortunately, I'm surrounded by many women praying and begging for such a moment as this, wanting to feel knees and elbows slide along inside their belly. So even with the hardships, and the exhaustion, this mama is filled to the brim with joy, and isn't taking these blessings for granted.

Breaking the Silence

When the New Year struck, the only goal I gave myself was to blog more. The main reason is that I'm raising seriously hilarious people, and one day, when they're grown and gone, I'm going to need these stories to read and cry over to keep me company! And really, I just don't want to forget this stage... even though it's hard and crazy and takes everything I've got, it's oh so fun and rewarding, and I get to see Jesus in my everyday, everyday! So here I am, February 5th busting out my first blog of the year... what an over achiever I am :) But really, I have an excuse... one that I'm going to share with you and then promise to put it all behind me and move on like the diligent, disciplined blogger that I am, so that antics of the Bowmans are forever saved in cyber space and in my printed blog books for centuries to come!

So I made my decision on January 1st to blog more... and on January 2nd we flew home from a week in Texas visiting Chad's family, getting the luggage in the door and the kids in bed just moment before I collapse in slumber myself... only to wake up on January 3rd and be slammed in the face by life.... I'm not even sure how to start, so we'll just start with first thing that morning:

Upon waking up, I got a call from Gabe's mom that unfortunately she and his stepdad were splitting and due to scheduling and all the instability and craziness in her life as she walks this out, could Gabe stay with us full time. Um, of course! We always want him full time, whether it's good timing or bad, and I've shared my thoughts on this before, children are HARD to share and I wish there was a way that we could all have him all the time. But alas, that's not the way it is, and that's why divorce sucks and that's one of the reasons that God's plan is for marriage to be forever. (Hello runon sentence!) But thanks to Adam and Eve, sin entered the world way back when, and so we all live in sin now. Thankfully, Jesus already won the battle- we're just waiting for Him to come back and rectify it all and in the meantime, learning to live and love more like Him. Easier said than done, but God is so big and so kind and so caring. He's walking with us every step of the way.

Unfortunately, this terrible news also included a terrible conversation with a little 9 year old boy that was enough to leave us all sobbing and praying for God to heal all the brokenness. I must say, he's a strong little booger though, and does pretty well picking himself up and moving forward. And his story continued to get crazier that day...

A few hours later, Chad headed out to take care of some business stuff and give someone an estimate, and I sat on the couch just processing... I was supposed to be buying bunk beds for Max and Gabe, as we had decided back in November to stay at our little but quaint house, despite our growing numbers, but instead, I was sweating what these changes means for my everyday-- how to get Gabe to and from school, how it effects nap time for Max and Jack, how is effects our teeny tiny house, etc... and so I just ended praying that God would open my eyes and heart to His ways in all this... and I totally forgot to buy the bunk bed!

Once I moved past the details, knowing I wasn't going to find all the answers today, I discovered that I had missed several calls from Chad... who when giving his estimate had discovered the perfect house for us. You know, the one we spent months and months trying to find, and prayed for God to drop it in our laps, but never found it, so decided to stay put? Yeah, that one. Well the homeowner's name is Tracy, and I worked with her for several years at North Metro church, and I loved her, and well, by 7pm on our first day in GA since Christmas, we had also fallen in love with her house and it's floor plan and it's perfection for our family, and had made an awesome deal with her to rent her house as she was embarking on a new journey of her own in CALIFORNIA! The house itself is perfect (pictures to follow) and the location is even better- so near our church and all our wonderful church friends, which I've been yearning for for a long time, and it still keeps Chad close to all the main roads since his work is all over the place. 

NOW back to Gabe... this new house was too far from his current school to let him finish the school year there-- so we thought of 2 options, called his mom, Angela, who said she trusted us to make the decision and we had our 2nd major conversation with the 9 year old that day: He could either switch to the elementary right around the corner from our new house or he could homeschool with me through the end of 4th grade and then we'd get our plan together this summer for what's next-- he IMMEDIATELY wanted to homeschool, was in love with the idea, and was excited. Now of course he was also worried about friends and lots of change and such, but loved the idea of being home, doing bible stuff for school work, escaping his dumb bully that was harassing him at school, etc....

SO God gave us this house we weren't looking for, lined up everything, set it up so we got Gabe out of the school and out of the situation without us even knowing it needed to happen or manipulating details, and got us in our ideal area without us even knowing "making" that work either. All of that to say-- we're elated and overwhelmed and as of Saturday, we're officially living and sleeping in said new home-- despite being pregnant and all the other major life changes that struck us on January 3rd, 2013. But let me just say, that during this time of unknown and new and hard and excitement, God's hand and provision has been so evident. We are so blessed and so thankful, and seriously just relishing in joy. I'm tired and achy and hormonal, but to say 2013 is off to a great start is seriously putting it lightly!

So here's to our new wonderful home, all of our boys big and small, our marriage that God continues to bless, the wonderful, beautiful, anticipated baby that's growing in my belly, and all all other things 2013 will hold for us.... now for reaching my goal and blogging consistently.... let's see how this goes :)

The House Game

So we're having another baby. And we're super pumped about this and as mentioned in my previous post, we totally planned and prayed for this baby. But that doesn't change the fact that with said baby's arrival, we will have out grown out house. By like 2 people and a dog.

True story.

We have a great home-- it's older and we've fixed and changed and moved things until it's just as we like-- we have an amazing back yard for little boys-- it's fenced and big and flat, and they can play and play while I stand at the sink washing dishes, putting dishes away, and/ or folding laundry all while keeping them in my eye sight. For a mom, that's like seriously heaven-- to be fully aware of your children and their safety while not being able to hear them at all-- can I get an "ahhhhh" sigh of bliss?? We also have a long flat driveway, with a perfect parking pad for Chad and his truck and work stuff, with a garage for me and all the babes I load and unload in the rain, sleet, and snow. Ok, mostly rain, because we live in Georgia, but it's a perk nonetheless.

And did I mention that our mortgage is really small?? We bought it when the economy tanked right before Max was born and so let's just say that it's one of those monthly bills that isn't exactly fun because can "bill" and "fun" be in the same sentence? But it doesn't hurt like it could, and when Chad's business gets slow after the holidays as it always does, we can still make all our ends meet, thanks to our Heavenly Father... lovely!!

So after speaking with my favorite handy man/ contractor/ builder... aka my father in law... we decided to get an estimate to build onto the back of our house-- we wanted a little sitting room that would temporarily be a baby room and once baby was sleeping and got move up with the other kids it would turn into a playroom/ sunroom of sorts, and a master bedroom/ bathroom, because apparently back in the 70's when our house was built, it was a great idea to make the master bed/ closet/ bath the SMALLEST in the whole house and face it, my wardrobe consisting of before children that I'll never wear again but refuse to throw away, maternity that I like to wear for 9 months every year, skinny post children which takes me at least 6 months post-baby to fit into, and fat post children which I spend way too much time in, just doesn't fit on my 2 feet of hanging shelf. Basically Chad's Dad helped us think through it all, then we conveyed it to a contractor who was great and took measurements and pictures and came up with this beautiful drawing that made my heart flutter... all to the tune of $65,000..... um, hello, if we had $65,000 cash in our pockets to throw on a house, we'd just go buy a new one.

So.... we proceeded to option #2-- renting for a year or so until we were ready to buy again, all while keeping our house and renting it out as well. (Chad wants to keep our house long term, even once we really do buy another because he loves it and because it's a great rental property.) So we've been looking and looking for months and months and seriously, nothing fits what we want. It's been so frustrating. A lot of the houses we really liked wouldn't fit my car in the garage. I drive a minivan people- nothing fancy- and not a tank. Just a regular ole swagger wagon. OR lots of houses have drive under garages... um I won't get into details but picture a post-pregnant woman lugging a 3 year old, 2 year old and baby up and down a full set of stairs, not to mention bags, groceries, and all the other luxurious items that come with motherhood... it wouldn't be pretty. Our garage to house now has like 7 stairs and some days it's a mountain-- I can't imagine a whole staircase. Seriously, we would have to order in each night unless Publix began delivering in Woodstock. We also saw houses that were dirty or didn't have storage or worse yet-- no back yard. And when you look at renting, you have to be willing to live there AS IS for a full year otherwise you're throwing money away, because it's not your house so any updates/ additions wouldn't be to your advantage and you'd get nothing out of it.

Finally on Friday, we found a house that was doable-- there were some things that weren't awesome and but we had resigned ourselves to just settle... and after we left the house and headed to dinner, Chad ran into a concrete post in the parking lot with his truck tire and his truck tire alone-- no other part of his truck-- and it still managed to total the thing. Not even kidding. He was going like 5 miles an hour, if that, swinging wide to park, and bam. It left him with burns and bruises on his arm, and the tire hit just right so that is broke the frame of his truck in half. My instant reaction was relieve that he was fine and no one else was involved. He instant reaction was total annoyance, calling himself names and questioning what God was teaching him or trying to show him. By the time the weekend was over, I realized the lesson was for me-- simplify Lauren-- wait for Me Lauren-- don't settle to fit your timeline, listen to what I'm saying.

God had been whispering in my ear that we just needed to sit tight in our house for a bit and it would literally make my eyes water... with tears.  Tears of a baby not getting her way... tears of a mommy wanting the new baby to have a place to sleep that wouldn't disrupt the rest of her brood... tears of wanting more and bigger and better. But it took this little truck incident for me to get it-- and when I got it, it was instant. Who the heck cares if Gabe and Max share a room with bunk beds?? Certainly not them! They think it's going to be a party. And so what if the we need to re-arrage our room to fit a bassinet long term, and so what if Jack and baby both have cribs in the same room?  Seriously, we were about to pay a lot more money to settle elsewhere, when we can just "settle" on the number of bedrooms for a bit, and save money, continue making improvements, AND wait for the Lord to show us what's next--- maybe it will be adding onto our house after we win a mini-lottery, or maybe this time next year, the perfect house will open up and we'll be ready to put another down payment on a house-- but in the meantime, let's just stay and settle in to our home a little more... not to mention, settle into God's plan for us, instead of mine.

I'm so grateful for a patient God who continues to work on my heart-- and a patient husband who continued to walk out this housing road with me, although he was content with what he have the whole time. I'm a lucky lady-- the only thing I need is more Jesus!

Let's Mote!

Hopefully you all exercised your right to vote today!! We sure did and we're grateful for the privilege!!

Max loves to "mote"... as in vote. Our polling place is at a big church just down the road from our house and so every time we drive by, Max says "that's where we mote." And it's not like he has a bunch of experience with this, let's be honest!! Chad and I met there to "mote" in July and the boys got a sticker and then got to play on the playground at the church afterwards, so really I think that's the draw :)

Priorities!!

Anyway, for this presidential election, Anna and I decided to vote early at the library just up the road. Of course changing locations really threw Max, but we thought that if we went together, we could tag team as needed. BUT when we got there this past Thursday, we were able to walk up and vote right away.  It was awesome! 4 years ago, none of our babies were here yet... so this was their first time voting for President of the United States... so we had to capture it!

But regardless of how the numbers add up tonight, it's a big change for our country! But just a reminder, you can't put your hope in a man, even President-- he's just as human and sinful as the rest of us-- instead, our eyes need to be on our sovereign Lord and our prayers for all the leaders of our country. God, please bless America!

Halloween and our other October Festivities

This year, I did manage to break out a little bit of fall decor-- both inside and outside. But I didn't really manage to capture it on camera... oops! But Max loved the pumpkins, Jack loved the candy corn, and Gabe always appreciated decor :)

We also had a pumpkin painting party with some of our favorite little men, and again... no pictures... but my friend Danielle did capture and blogged about it-- check it out on her blog here: Pumpkin Party Playdate

And of course, we did our annual pumpkin patch visit with the Spivas. We went to a new one- Cagle's Dairy farm not too farm from our house, and got to enjoy a pumpkin patch, a jumping pillow with a special one just for younger kids (yay!), a corn maze, and then a good hay ride that took you to a big open field filled with bon fires-- they even provided sticks and marshmallows. Honestly, the big fires did make me a little nervous with the 4 boys under 4 between us, but with 4 parents on duty we all survived unscathed :) But again... no pictures!

(This was at dinner afterwards... and Max had to have his clothes changed due to a "can't hold it anymore accident" and we're missing baby Grant, so for that reason, this picture doesn't really count...)

Then the weekend before Halloween, we attended the 5th annual Canup fest put on by our dear friends the Canups-- they to a fire pit, smores, food and fixins, lots of fun games for the kids, and even had the GA/ FL game on a big screen outside. And did I mention that is was a costume party? Well it was! I honestly haven't participated in dressing up in years-- but this year Chad and I were the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar-- it was awesome!!
Reason #1: Because I found an amazing dress at goodwill
Reason #2: Because I seriously LOVE Michelle Duggar-- have you ever heard her talk-- what a heart, what wisdom, what a lady!
Reason #3: Because if didn't fear my insides falling out and my husband running away with no forwarding address, I would SO have 19 kids :)

But just FYI... I DID capture this event and I'd like to make a mention that although I am truly expecting, that is a bath towel up under my dress and NOT my baby belly!!!

Of course, we also concluded the month with some pumpkin carving but unfortunately we had to do it without Gabe :( The month flew by and before we knew it, we had one night to carve the pumpkin before trick-or-treaters were coming and it wasn't a Gabe night/ weekend for us-- bummer! So I did get some cut pictures of the boys and Chad in action but it isn't the same without our big brother.

And lastly, we wrapped up the month with some trick-or-treating with the Prusa's and this year, Max and Lizzy's costumes coordinated!! You should know the Lizzy wanted to be a princess and wanted Max to be Prince Charming but he could NOT be talked out of being Mickey-- he had his mind set on it, and once we laid eyes on what he deemed as the perfect costume, he would so proud every time he slipped with on, which is so unlike him. Lizzy was flexible, PTL, because they were adorable!

And of course, we had a baby cow with us and lil Evie was Raggedy Ann-- it was a cute, fun time! Not near as cold as we expected, either-- win/ win!!  We made it to about 10 houses before Max was ready to go back and hand out candy- he thought that was the true highlight of the night :) Jack thought the lollipops were the highlight.

And just like that, October flew in and flew right back out! We're so grateful for wonderful friends, wonderful weather, wonderful traditions, and our wonderful family. Now onto November and a thankful, grateful focus that will hopefully carry on throughout the year!