State Football

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. The weekend after Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to watch my little brother play in one last football game. While the game didn't go the way we would have liked, it was a privilege to even watch him play. I know there a lot of kids who would have given up just about anything to have the chance to play in a state football championship game and Joe got to play in TWO! And he even won one! I truly believe that 8 times of 10 Hutch would have beaten that team. Unfortunately, this just wasn't one of those times. I spent most of the game curled up in an ball because I was so nervous, and after the game I was so sad. I was so sad for Joe and his friends...they deserved that win! They wanted it so bad! But as my mom whispered something in Joe's ear I saw him smile and knew if he was ok, then I shouldn't be as sad as I was. When I asked her what she said she told me (and this will be a bit paraphrased), she said "I told him my joy doesn't come from watching him win a football game, it comes from watching him do something he loves with people he loves. And I told him I was proud of him." It was just a game. :) Here are a few pictures from that day!


The town pep rally the night before the game...


Bones giving his speech



Love a good town turnout :)






Coach Dreiling asking the town to come out and support the boys the next day!


Getting introduced before the game


Coach Nac went around and shook hands with all the players...Joe got an extra pat on the head. :)




Dreiling went down the line shaking hands with each of the seniors. I teared up watching.




Great signs, girls! :)
















It was a truly great season and I couldn't be more proud of Joe Henry and his teammates!

Thankful

I am thankful all the time, for all I have been blessed with...but I still love that Thanksgiving break gives me a little time to spend time with the people I am most thankful for.

The other day Tedder instagramed the picture below and said "Blessed to be loved by such amazing people." I couldn't have said it better myself. Blessed am I.








I had a wonderful five days off. Tomorrow I'll be back with a bigger post about Thanksgiving and a small recap of the state football game. The Salthawks gave it their all and even though we didn't come up with the win, the tears I held back after the game weren't because I was sad we lost, but because I was so proud of Joe Henry and sad that amazing experience had ended for my little brother and all of his best friends. Until then.... :)

Dillon Grandbabies

I got to spend the Friday morning after Thanksgiving taking pictures of these adorable kiddos! Jeff, Heather, and Katy are all Rob's cousins, but sometimes I forget that since I knew them before I knew Rob! LONG before I knew Rob. In fact, they get the credit for introducing me to my sweet husband. Without them who knows who I would be married to right now! :) When I was younger I looked up to all of them...they seemed so grown up and fancy (I think this perception was a result of seeing them go to high school dances) and just awesome. As I took pictures of their kids on Friday and saw them trying to corral everyone, make sure nobody had snot on their face, trying to stop crying babies, keep everybody in the general vicinity of the pictures being taken, etc. fancy wasn't the word that was still coming to mind. But don't worry guys...I still think you are totally grown-up and awesome. :) Hope you enjoy this little preview!

Little Lucy did not like me or my camera. Basically anytime I started to take her picture, she started crying until one of her folks came to the rescue. As a result...Jeff ended up in a lot of the great grandkid pictures. Oh well. :)


First up, Brooks and Lucy!





















She looks so sweet here...you would never know the was about .2 seconds away from screaming at me. :) Gotcha, Lucy!


 Next up, Hank and Lily!





















Snuck another one of Lucy in...she hadn't see my camera yet.

On to Teddy and Benjamin!





Check out Teddy's amazing eye lashes. When I was going through and editing some pictures I kept being drawn to his awesome, long lashes. I am so jealous.





















And two more pictures. This is one of those family pictures that will haunt Lucy for the rest of her life. :) As my sister said between laughs when I showed it to her, "That is award winning!" It sure is. I feel like everybody is showing such awesome personality. Which is why I couldn't help but add thought bubbles. :)

 Annnnddd without the thought bubbles. :)

 After I took that last picture, Jeff asked me to grab a pic of Lucy crying. Can't wait to see how many birthday, graduation, and wedding slide shows that shows up on! Sorry, Lucy! :)

 

Thanks for letting me take your pictures, guys! See you next weekend!