Thanksgiving

We have SO VERY MUCH to be thankful for this year! Last year we were in the midst of a valley begging God to heal our little boy and make him healthy again. This year, we are on the mountaintop praising that same God for a beautiful home, a wonderful family AND a healthy little boy!!

Thanksgiving actually started a little early for us since LAST Sunday was our Thanksgiving dinner at church. NO LIE, there were 9 - 8' tables completely FULL of desserts that all the wonderful Baptist women cooked for the event. It took 10 women an hour to cut into all of the cakes and pumpking pies and pecan pies and organize the cookies and brownies. It was HEAVEN! (And Malachi enjoyed it too!!)

Here's Daddy and Mommy and Messy Mali!

When I say he was "stuffing" his face, I MEAN it! His FAVORITE Uncle Daniel (and, doesn't Kadi Jo look cute too??)
Whip Cream Face!

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had been looking for some cute Thanksgiving desserts to make and found these at bakerella.com! So, I decided to try them, only as cheesecake balls instead of cake balls. Cousin Morgan and I worked at Aunt Dena's house for about 3 hours on them! We had so much fun and even though they don't COMPLETELY look like Bakerella's (a professional baker, might I add) I was pretty happy with them! Too bad they were so rich that you could only eat like 1/2 of one!!

What do you think?

Otherwise, Thanksgiving went SMASHINGLY!!! Thomas and I were in charge of the ham for the first.time.ever. But, I think it turned out pretty well! We cooked it in 3 cups of Apple Juice, 1 cup of orange juice and then 30 minutes before it was done, we smothered on a brown sugar/honey glaze!

Here's my handsome hubby carving the ham and my daddy carving the turkey! YUMMO!

We took lots of pictures...

Our family

Me and Cousin Mo-Mo

Malachi and Grandmommy

Malachi and Kadi yelling at Gracie - the Chihuahua who ran away with the hambone

Hannah, Kelly, Aunt Dena, Grandmommy, Lolli, Cousin MoMo and Me

...ate lots of yummy food, including the turkey balls...

Kadi and Karter ...and made it home to Lolli and Pops' house just in time to nap, watch the Cowboys play and admire Lolli's tree...
...from underneath... ...while it spun around! (Yes, their tree rotates...does it GET any cooler than that?)

And, finally, I leave you with a couple of pictures and a video of Malachi helping Lolli peel potatoes for her famous mashed potatoes!! (Hint - if you're reading this on facebook, please had over to http://www.tjandmallen.blogspot.com/ to see this video! It's TOO TOO CUTE!)