Grateful and Blessed - Hicks Thanksgiving Visit

 We were excited this Thanksgiving to welcome our long-time friends the Hicks' family as they came down to visit their son Erick, who has joined the Navy in Jacksonville.  Usually we are with the Grodack large gathering for Thanksgiving but they went to Europe this year, so it all worked out perfectly!

With having company, Karis stayed at home from the morning golf round, but Zachary still went and had a good time with friends.

While Hicks were here, there was lots of cooking (thank you Kevin for being so helpful and Rhonda for always jump in to help prep and to clean up!).  It was super helpful as Amy had fallen off a curb that Sunday and sprained her ankle - although with a fasting protocol, anti-inflammatory regimen and elevation, it improved enough by Thursday that she was able limp around pretty well - but super grateful for Kevin and Rhonda's help!  Those are the best kind of guests to have - bless you both and we look forward to seeing you all again!

For Thanksgiving meal, we had Bergherms (sans Jennifer who was in Europe with Corey), Hicks and Lyle/Mom

Whenever we are with the Hicks family we always enjoy playing,  so there was lots of that!

We had Cochrans over Friday as well to visit with the Hicks as they too were friends from college

Rhonda introduced us to "earthing aka grounding" and oddly, placebo or not, Amy slept so much better that week that it was something she was determined to continue.  However, with the bug bites on her feet, she figured out how to get an inside mat and sheets - thanks Rhonda, we will see if it continues to help!

All of us outside, except for Addison as she was in bed. 

Come back anytime, we loved seeing you all!

Girl Gatherings!

 Addison is shifting this year from hanging out with mostly boys at school to now having mostly girl friends - it has been fun to watch her form these new friendships this year - many are girls that she has known for years, attending church and summer camps with.  Her bestie currently is Elin, and they of course have known each other since birth!

With school ending for Thanksgiving holiday, Amy took the afternoon off and hosted a girl play date - complete with s'mores, hot tubs, inside games, pizza lunch and all manner of fun.

S'mores

Warming up

A moment just before this pyramid topples over

She was invited to Victoria's belated birthday party in which they went to the movie Wicked - complete with outfits and a limo van!

Elin, Victoria and Addison

Karis determined that it was time for Amy's moms house to be painted, so the male Zs tackled it over the weekend of Thanksgiving break.  Thankfully it was pretty quick and it went from a peach/pinky color to a light grey (one of Mom's favorite house colors).

Thanks boys for your help!

Karis hit the gym with the boys - good old male bonding time - Zachary loves to go to the gym - he has set his goals for bench press weights etc, and Kaleb is starting to work out more at home now on the Tonal. 

Random pictures: 

Sweet moment - holding hands with her brother at church

Aria - posing for her picture for the Christmas ornament 💕

Tailgating Sabbath

 The Forest Lake Church has a once a year tail-gating potluck and this year's snuck up on us all -- but the weather was beautiful and we hung out visiting with folks for hours that day!

Our long line of tables set up

Pockets of people enjoying the shade

And some enjoying the sun!

Hmm - do we know this dude? 

Johanna and matt joined us this year

Lady time!

Addison had her class chapel in November, in which they are able to get up front and lead in the singing.  Amy and the grandparents were able to make it.

Amy's hospital (AH Winter Garden) received its first Leapfrog grade - A!  That's super exciting, so we threw a party for the employees - complete with green tutus and frog ears.  Ach, the things that we do to help create excitement 😋

Amy had a few fun outings with the kids - one to Jeremiah's for Addison's Singin' in the Rain celebration and one to Kohls where the boys are starting to choose colognes for themselves.

Not sure how much you can smell after smelling so many different samples - but the boys chose at least the first round of their favorites

Singin' In the Rain

 After many weeks of hard work and many practices each week, the long-awaited Singin in the Rain production weekend was here!  Amy helped behind the scenes with costume changes - Addison had 5-6 different costumes

The kids did an amazing job - it was very well done and Addison had a few lines that she had a solo for, lots of scenes that she was part of, and she was not one bit nervous - good for you girl!  There were three performances between Saturday and Sunday.

Production 1 - right hand side stage actors ready to go!

And Production #2 - ready to go!

This is one of the scenes that Addison had a few lines to sing as well as choreographed moves around the stage. 

In one of the final scenes, Addison sits out in the audience and stands up to say her lines - so we reserved seats beside her so that we could go over and be beside her during that portion of the play.  Super fun!

Proud daddy

Sadie and Tori thought it was quite something to be able to sit beside her as well!

Backstage pictures:

What a fun experience - the kids are always sad when it is over

Elin, Erik and Addison

Getting her hair and make-up done.

Ready for the show to begin!

There were many adoring fans that came to see her - we are all biased of course! 😄

Miss Esther

Good job Addison, we are excited for next year's version!

First Time Voter & Serving Sabbath

With Zachary turning 18, he can now vote for the first time. That was a fun new experience for him!

Early November was the Serving Sabbath - always a day that we enjoy very much in which we take the Sabbath and go out to explore helping out a non-profit in the community.  We usually try and change each year so that we can learn what non-profit organizations exist in the community. We helped Harvest International this year, and we sorted donated table clothes and napkins that will be sent to 3rd world countries to be used as diapers etc.  

Hmm, it was hard to get to the bottom of the boxes so the little ones got into the box to help pull them out for us, but we had to be sure they didn't get too rambunctious.

And afterwards it was the church luncheon.  Karis being silly as usual, and Londy hanging on Kaleb's leg.  All in a days work 😂

The church held their Fall Festival right after Halloween - Amy was part of the welcome team as community and church members arrived.  Super fun to see all of the little kids coming to enjoy the fun!

Elin and Addison had a fun playdate, and made themselves a multi-course meal - complete with fettucine, home-made French fries and strawberry shortcake.  Ladies, you are hired - it was delicious!

Even Aria wants in on this meal!