Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone is ready for Thanskgiving festivities and then a few days of Christmas shopping. We will be with family in Alabama. This is the big rival weekend of football for Alabama too. Alabama will play Auburn on Saturday. Since our Titans lost this past weekend, we are hanging on to hope that Alabama can finish with a perfect season. I wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I imagine that we will be putting up our Christmas tree by Friday night too. Our new movie theatre just opened this past weekend so maybe we can also catch a good movie over the weekend. We are only a little over a mile from the theatre :) I see a lot of movies for us this holiday season! Love to all - Stephanie

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Football Heaven

Seriously folks - football doesn't get much better than this. Alabama is 8-0 and our own Tennessee Titans are 7-0! We are lovin' some football this year!

Everyone is doing great here. Dad got to start back to work and that is just an awesome accomplishment considering all that he has been through in the last year. The kids are doing great in school too. Doesn't get much better :)

Halloween Tea Cakes and Fall Flowers

Fall is my favorite time of year. Cooler weather, pretty leaves and beautiful flowers. My favorite part is baking cookies with the kids. We have been having some fun with an old recipe of my grandmothers.

It took a little bit more to talk Jonathan to join in the baking this year, but I think he ended up having fun too. Jessica really gets into it....notice the food coloring on her hands!

We also made a bit of a mess, but sometimes getting messy is just as much fun as getting to eat the cookies!

Jonathan is very serious about the decoration on his cookes. He was picking up pieces of sugar one at a time to make sure they were placed just right on his cookies....or should I say his work of art :)

Where to begin?

We have had a lot going on the past month so I hope to catch everyone :)

Jonathan turned 14 a couple of weeks ago, and we had a small party at home.

We worked on a social studies project for Jessica. This is our Indian camp setting. Pretty neat!

Time for Fall Break so there was plenty of time to play! Jessica had to take time out for a nap though so that was the perfect time to aggravate Jonathan. He may be getting older, but just threatening to tickle him gets him laughing.

We also got to go to our very good friends football games and celebrate their victories.

Then there was time for fishing. Both of my kids love to fish. They were catching these little ones as fast as the hooks could be baited.

Hope everyone is doing well and I will have more pictures from this weekend. I will try not to take so long to get updates posted :)

School Daze

School has started off great for both of the kids. We are already at the end of the first 6 weeks. First report cards will be on the 25th. This is also normally the time of year we are planning our trip to Orange Beach. Unfortunately, we are having to put our Fall trip all this year and start our goal for a Spring Break trip. I wish I had some updated pictures of the kids. I will work on getting some this weekend and getting them posted.

I have been reluctant to really chronicle all of the past few months of trials for our family here on my blog. Most all of you know that my dad has been fighting cancer for the past couple of years. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 2006. He had surgery and was responding to a mild treatment for over a year. Things were going great. Mid last year, we knew by blood work results that the cancer was growing again somewhere and we were on a search and destroy mission. The cancer was found growing in his lungs. After a few more tests for baseline, he began chemo the week of Christmas 2007. The first few months were ok, but then the treatment started taking more of a toll on my dad. Dad became very ill in April 2008 and we have been on a long road to recovery since that time. I am so very happy that my Dad is doing very well at this time. He is on a new experimental treatment and is body has become so much stronger. He has had to work VERY hard to get to better. He will have scans next month to see how/what the cancer is doing. This past Wednesday, he was able to attend church since being home from the hospital! I am so very thankful that even when we don't know how to pray, the Lord knows our hearts. I thank you all for your endless support and prayers. His hair is really beginning to grow back and it is VERY dark. He still has some gray, but the majority is dark. I will have to get him to let me take a picture to post.

Please be patient with me. I am trying different things for my blog so there might be a few more changes before I settle on what I really want :)

Love to all

Prayer Request

Please remember the Ruotsala family in your prayers in the coming days and months. This morning, their beautiful son went home to be with Jesus. This precious baby was just 3 years old. I do not know this family personlly, but this story has touched my heart so very much. Please to www.caringbridge.org to read Coles's story.

My love to all
Stephanie