Newly made and long time friends and family coming together! One of the Joys of Thanksgiving, is being able to get together and enjoy the fellowship with those that are closest to you. Praise the Lord for the blessings we have in one another.

Marybeth and her new found friend, Ethan!

Kristine and her surrogate niece, Marybeth.

Aunt Diane with her niece Melissa.

Crazy Uncle Randy, with his brother-in-law, my Dad or, as Kristine has labeled him, to go with his new look, the Leprechaun.

The ever so lovely husband and wife...Bob and Rhonda (otherwise known as my second set of parents)

Uncle Kevin with his nephew Brent.

Aunt Linda with her great niece Alice Christine. Alice has the same middle name as her Grandma Morris and Cousin Heather and Aunt Melinda!

A few high-lights from our Thanksgiving Day feast.

The official Turkey carver! :)

Uncle Randy, Me, Cassie and Alice...looking forward to the delicious food prepared by many loving hands!

Mr. Bowers entertaining the kids.

Brent and Aedan looking for the O-plaanne (as Aedan would say) So cute!

Oh how Alice makes us laugh!! I can hear her laugh in these pictures and I just love the tongue sticking out.
We had a family picture day and my dad captured some great shots!! I will post them later..till then enjoy Ali!

A FALL HIKE

Steven, Kristine and I decided to venture out to the beautiful area of Silver Creek Falls and get some well needed exercise...we went back and forth on whether or not to brave the cold air or continue to enjoy the warmth of our humble abode...I am happy to say that we did not choose the latter, as tempting as it was. With Steven as our chauffeur, me has the navigator and Kristine our source of entertainment we braved the cold, wet and beautiful afternoon and had a wonderful time together!

The journey begins! We ended up hiking, approximately, 6 miles on this beautiful day, passing by 7 of the 10 water falls

Kristine and I hamming it up for the camera. Another great shot taken by Steven!

Brother and Sister, striking a pose! I feel so blessed to have such a loving and kind brother. I have been especially thankful for the past year the Lord has given us. God has strengthened our relationship and it is all because of the Love of Christ, I couldn't ask for anything better!

The scenery was beautiful with all the fall leaves all around. Steven took a lot of great pictures...he seems to have an eye for it!

Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces!!! The farm we visited had a little theatre in the loft of their barn...we watched 3 minutes of Charlie Brown...it was a good photo opportunity, that's about it. :)

The proud Grandparents, looking on at their offspring!

Grandma, Auntie and Ali riding on the hay ride, enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather!!

Silly boys! Steven and Daniel getting in on the fun.

Brent was mesmerized by the tractor the WHOLE time while on the hay ride, there was no comparing the big tractor and the 4 Mules that pulled the other trailer.

Cassie would love to see Brent own his own farm one day.

This is the sweetest of them all, he is so serene!

"Hurry up take the picture! She's getting ready to roll!"

The little man and his entourage looking on. He really did enjoy his ride on the pony named, Beau, though it was a spendy $2 for one lap around.

Can't resist the title of "Boys and their Toys!" It is rather fitting for these two.

The look on his face is so priceless.

Brent is in his prime when he is around any kind of utility vehicle, especially tractors!! Later I will post a sequence of pictures showing him watching the tractor tires the whole time he rode on the big tractor.

OH MY!! Our little one is growing up so fast!! He doesn't have his baby face anymore. I love this years picture, such handsome guys, there will be more pictures to come, I just wanted to show how much Brent has grown in a year! Last year, this time, Cassie was pregnant with Alice!

Note: These pictures were taken in pitch black! The first year Brent wasn't too sure about a dark maze, compared to this year, you can see the excitement all over his face!

One of Brent's favorite things to do is to pull Alice around in the wagon, and of course, Ali has no complaints! :) They are so sweet together. My favorite is when Brent starts laughing really hard and then Ali joins in because of Brent, I am going to have to attempt capturing the two of them on video. Ali already adores her brother and wants to be around him all the time...Brent loves his sister too however, you can see some frustration on his part when Ali interrupts him in anything. At first Brent would get really mad and yell and hit her however, Daniel and Cassie are doing and excellent job in teaching Brent how to control his anger and frustration and now Brent has learned how to tell Ali "no, nooo" in a nice voice and calmly claim his stolen item. It is pretty darn cute!

Here is the famous trio. It may not look like it but I think Beau secretly loves these two. ;)

Below is the video of Brent pulling Ali and Beau...the funniest part is at the end where you will see him straighten the blanket before he starts pulling again....he is is mother's son!! When ever there is something messed up Brent is there to fix it and make it look nice! What a wonderful natural habit to be blessed with.

Jess posing for the classic picture in down town Portland!

Kristine put it best, "Finding solid men is what we do in our spare time."
I love this picture!!

A lovely walk in the rain...always a photo opportunity! This has now become my favorite picture of the two of us!

Such hams! Jess and I seem to have a lot of pictures of the two of us walking on beams... makes for more adventure. Kristine caught this one at the perfect time! Way to go!

So, of course we had to ham it up a little more and again Kristine did a good job capturing the right moment!

Good times with good friends! These pictures were taken all the way back in March when our friend Jess came to visit us...the next few blogs will be catch up time for me. The first wave is us hiking up Beacon Rock (as you will note below!)

On our way up!

We enjoyed some yummy soft serve ice-cream after our hike up and down Beacon Rock! It seems to have become a tradition to go to this particular ice-cream shop after the hike. They use to make them MUCH taller for only a dollar, however, times have changed and they have shrunk for a greater price! :(

Here are a few pictures of the Kevin Morris family down in California! These were taken when Steven went down there to visit them in August.

In this picture Madeleine is around 9 months. So cute!

Kevin and Jenny on the big swings...most of these pictures were taken at a park designed for adults.

Sweet brotherly love....they are 11 months apart!!

I love this picture of Marybeth and Aedan...I think the like Uncle Steven's motorcylce! :)

BTW...we get to see them for Thanksgiving!!!! YEAH!!! They will be heading up here and spending a week with us. I am looking forward to having the whole family together again...it is fun to see the Morris family grow!!