Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! Lots of food...turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potato souffle, broccoli casserole, carrots, rolls, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, orange salad, and pumpkin pie. It only took me seven hours to make all that food...haha. I started at 8 am, and I finished at 3 pm. We did miss family this year though.


 

Today Peyton and I put up the Christmas tree, well, really just me of course. The only place we ventured today was Walgreens and Family Dollar.
 

Thanksgiving Indian

our little Thanksgiving Indian

Great...Not

This is always the kind of news you want to hear about the city you live in...

This was an article on Foxnews.com
New Orleans Ranks as Most Violent U.S. City, Study Finds
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans ranks as the most violent U.S. city, with more than 19,000 reported crimes and 208 murders in 2007, according to a study released Monday.

I miss this little guy...

Ever since the hurricane wiped out Six Flags in New Orleans we don't get to see this little guy any more.

Have you ever wondered...

Have you ever wondered what a one year old does for fun on the weekends?


She pulls stuff out of her cabinets.


And has a good time doing it.


She steals her daddy's baseball cap and walks around with it on her head.


She dumps her milk out on the floor and plays in it. Secretly of course. I knew she was being mighty quiet for some reason.


She also "helps" her mommy pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.

What a fun weekend little one year olds have!

Spiritual Emphasis Week

This past week at work, we had a "Spiritual Emphasis Week" for our students. We gave out devotional booklets to our students. Tuesday, we had a Thanksgiving lunch and one of our professors gave a devotion. Thursday, we had hot chocolate, cookies, Christmas carols, and decorated our Christmas tree. Our tree is gorgeous! The picture here doesn't do it justice.

One Year Old Pictures

I am going to post some pictures of pictures. I know it's kind of goofy, but Olan Mills didn't put these pictures of Peyton online. So, to let you see the pictures, I took pictures! The quality isn't so great, but hey, it's the best I could do!

The Christmas Spirit

Hey! How do you like my new Christmas-themed blog? I love it! And I'm so proud that I learned to copy and paste html code junk so that I could have a new blog template. I've never done a new template, Arnold always does it. So I was a little scared that I would do something crazy like delete my whole blog, but as you can see, I did it! Now, there were so many cute blog choices, but I wanted to pick a Christmas blog because I CAN'T WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!!! I'm ready to put up my tree RIGHT NOW, but I'm going to restrain myself and wait until Thanksgiving day. I'm not sure why I got in the Christmas spirit so early this year, but I'm just so super excited. Christmas is going to be great this year. I get to spend a whole two weeks in South Carolina visiting family and friends! (The only bummer is that Arnold is going to be staying behind to work on his dissertation because it has to be done by March).
I've also tried to restrain myself from listening to Christmas music yet because I don't want to be sick of it by the time Christmas actually gets here. Have you been in the Christmas spirit early too?

Peyton loves cameras

Peyton is gone to the doctor's office this morning to get her booster shots. Here is a small video of Peyton playing with her new toy...

Last Weekend

Last weekend, my roommate from college and her friend came and stayed with us for a few days. It was so great to get to see her again, since we figured it had been five years since the last time I had seen her. She's been in Africa for that long, and is coming back to the States for a year or so. Of course we had to work, so that was a bummer, but her and Norman got to see some of New Orleans.






Now this weekend, you'll never guess, but we've been sick AGAIN! The daycare called us Friday afternoon telling us that Peyton had been throwing up. Yuck! What a great way to start the weekend. So basically I've been home with her all weekend. She seems to be feeling better now. You're never a true mom until you clean throw up out of clothes and sheets. And it's pretty obvious that Peyton is swallowing a lot of food and not really chewing it. I know, GROSS!

Here is a cute picture I took of her before she got sick. She loves papers of any sort.

Proposition 8

As stated in a previous blog, I am a subscriber to World magazine. I read an interesting, but alarming, article the other day that told the story of a pastor from Sweden who was sentenced to prison for "disrespecting" homosexuals, a.k.a. preaching that homosexuality is wrong. The article went on to say that basically because the pastor had threatened to appeal to the European Union, the nation's Supreme Court decided not to convict him. (Kind of reminds me of Paul appealing to Caesar, except it was not to his benefit.) Anyway, a few weeks ago, this pastor was speaking to churches in California urging them to support Proposition 8, the measure that would amend the state constitution allowing marriage only between a man and woman. Isn't this kind of scary? This has finally come to America, but a lot of people still think it could never happen to us, that our free speech will never be taken away. This pastor senses complacency and urges people to "wake up!" And if you don't think this could happen here, you need a reality check. We are headed in that direction, maybe only a few years behind Sweden. Especially now with our new president and his liberal agenda, Christians need to be bold sharing the love of Christ with the lost and standing up for our freedoms.

The Big Frog

Here is another picture of Peyton that I have been wanting to post. For her birthday, my grandmother (her great-grandmother) bought her a really big, bright, colorful stuffed frog. The thing is huge! I never ever thought we would be able to get it home since we were flying, but Arnold somehow managed to stuff it in our suitcase. Well sometimes Peyton likes to "ride" the frog, like it's a horse or something. So now here's the picture...



and this next picture shows one of Peyton's favorite toys, the lawn mower that makes A LOT of noise. But what I really want you to notice is the pink wash cloth that she LOVES. Did you notice it in the picture with the frog? She carries that thing around a lot. She loves hand towels too. I tried giving her a blanket to carry, but she wasn't interested. Do any of your kids have something they like carrying around...a favorite doll, toy, blanket? Of course Peyton would love an old, beat up looking wash cloth. Kids are so funny.



OOPS...I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT ARNOLD HAD POSTED SOMETHING ABOUT BILLY GRAHAM ONLY FOUR MINUTES AGO. WE WERE OBVIOUSLY WRITING POSTS AT THE SAME TIME! SEE BELOW.

Happy Birthday Billy Graham

Hard to believe, but Billy Graham is 90 years old today. You can click on the link below to wish him a happy birthday. People estimate that he has preached to over 210 million people in 185 different countries. His wife, Ruth Bell Graham, died last year four days after her 87th birthday.

In all, he has published 27 books, met with a variety of kings and presidents, but always had a love for the common person.

"Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are,” Graham stated. “I have discovered that just because we grow weaker physically as we age, it doesn't mean that we must grow weaker spiritually. In fact, we ought to be growing stronger spiritually, because our eyes ought to be on eternity and Heaven – on the things that really matter.”

Happy birthday Billy Graham.

The Ballerina and the Pumpkin

I'm not even going to comment on the election. Well, one comment....what are people thinking?!

Okay, I'm just going to post pictures from Halloween now. We went to a trunk or treat at church. It was a lot of fun, and Peyton got to enjoy it with her little friend Gabriel.


The ballerina and the pumpkin


Peyton clutched that package of Starburst for a good 30 minutes.


still clutching the Starburst


and the Starburst again


now a cookie with the Starburst


and finally...still holding the starburst

Mike Huckabee Show on Fox

Here is a small clip from Mike Huckabee's show on Foxnews Channel. He did a great job in discussing religion with Bill Maher.

Voting

I hope you will be going to vote tomorrow. If you are still clueless about this election and the candidates, I have included where the candidates stand on the issues below. This information is from the Louisiana Family Forum. These issues are very important to Christians, so I hope you will do your civic duty tomorrow and vote.

Laws to Protect the Right to Life
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Defense of Marriage Act
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Gun Rights Obama-
NO McCain-YES

Special Privileges for Homosexuals
Obama-YES McCain-NO

Offshore Drilling
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Repeal the Death Tax
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Show Photo ID to vote
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Make Bush Tax Cuts Permanent
Obama-NO McCain-YES

Set Deadline for Pull-Out from Iraq
Obama-YES McCain-NO

Supreme Court Appointments
Obama-NO McCain-YES
(John Roberts, Samuel Alito)

For sources, go to www.lafamilyforum.org