A Tankersley Thanksgiving

We always celebrate Thanksgiving with Jeff's mom's side of the family the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We meet up at Uncle Wayne's Farm in Madison. It is SO beautiful there. So serene! And there are COWS. So the kids love it ;-)

Everyone brings a dish or two and we all pig out around noon for a heavy lunch. And typically, there is a UGA game on so most of the family gathers round to support all of their alma mater. Except Jeff, who has a major disliking for UGA, likely due to the incredible love the majority of his family has for them ;-) (Too much of a good thing, youknow?). Plus, he's just not a football guy (Thank you sweet Jesus!). So we usually use that as a chance to get out with the kiddos and roam the farm and check out the cattle.

This year, though, Uncle Wayne walked with us!!!! He told us all about the farm and we had a GREAT time!

Mack had a GREAT time running around but there were 2 concerns that we both had:
1. Cow Patties are everywhere
2. That fence is electric ;-)

So we had to keep him closer than he would have liked, which led to some screaming (Shocker!)

The cow on the right was preggo and expected to deliver in the next day or so. There was also a cow who had just delivered the day before who was in the back of the pasture with her calf where they were more secluded and could have some privacy. Rhyan LOVED hearing about the baby calves and preggo mama!

Jeff, again, keeping Mack from the fence while he screamed! haha... it was a fun memorable day for sure.

Here, you can see that Uncle Wayne planted a particular kind of grass that stays green in the winter (Rye, maybe?) and fenced it off so as to control how much the cattle eat.

I'm so relating to Emily Parker here... my pic with Mack, I get this face... And Jeff gets a smile. Really?!

Jeff, acting like a tiger prepping for a pounce on Rhyan. She thought it was less than funny, which WAS funny

Such a boy.... eating straw!

And here you can see that we were IN the fenced in area where the grass was planted. Jeff helped Uncle Wayne move the electric fence over a bit to give the cattle more grass to eat. But there is an obvious difference in where they've already eaten and the fresh, uneaten grass. Its so pretty!

My hero! On the way back up to the house, he carried BOTH kids for a bit. Seriously, they had both already stepped in cow poo and we were trying to salvage their shoes. Oh, and my back was hurting ;-)

I thought it would be nice to get a pic of me and the kids on the swing but we had 2 problems, again:
1. The wind was blowing
2. Mack wouldnt sit still

And then theres always the issue of "i look fat". So I called it quits after about 10 shots. Oh well.

My sweet mother and father in law!

Mack was obsessed with going in and out, in and out of the slats in the railing.

Sweet baby Chas and his Aunt Samantha

And sweet baby Elle and her daddy

Awwww.... Mack! Why so sad?! The answer is who knows ;-) He's a temperamental little thing! haha

TWINS!!! So cute!

We had a wonderful time visiting with all the family, although, I feel like since we had the kids that we do very little visiting... we're too busy chasing the babies! But we love all of the extended family and its such a blessing to get to see (most) everyone.

History Channel: Bible Story Series {Giveaway}

Has anyone seen the previews for History Channel's newest series? I'm SO excited! I love learning about the bible and even though I love to ready, I'm really not imaginative at all so its hard for me to envision what the stories may have "looked" like...

And now, with this new series, I know that these bible truths will be etched into my brain!


The series starts TONIGHT at 8pm EST.

I dont know about you, but I'll be setting my DVR and want to have this series recorded!

And another great thing is that the History Channel is doing a GIVEAWAY of a copy of one of the official The Bible companion books to my winner! (Prize will be chosen randomly from the book titles below)
        A Story of God and All of Us (HARDCOVER)
        A Story of God and All of Us (REFLECTIONS)
        A Story of God and All of Us (YOUNG READERS)


 

SO... the series starts tonight! And the entries for the giveaway of one of these great books starts today!

There are FIVE entries per person allowed and the winner will be chosen at random using random.org on March 17th (saint patty's day).

For your First Entry: Share a link to this blog post on your facebook wall. Then, leave me a comment letting me know you facebooked it!

For your Second Entry: Share your most anticipated Bible scene you are excited to see come to life!

For your Third Entry: Become a Blog flower and Post a comment telling me you did so (or that you are already a follower. Just scroll down on the blog and on the right hand column there is a link that says "become a member of this site". You will not receive emails or anything ;-) 
 {Ex: I am already a follower! OR I am now following your blog!}

For your Fourth Entry: Post a comment saying you will be watching the series!

For your Fifth Entry: Take and Post your results from the Bible Scene Quiz (above)

I hope everyone will explore the Bible Series App above! Its actually pretty interactive and cool!
Hope everyone enjoys the series!

Growing Up

I'm amazed at how quickly Rhyan seems to be growing up. Its so true, the old saying that with children "The Days are Long and the Years are Short".

 One day, Rhyan came in the kitchen with her magnadoodle... she had drawn her first ever, by herself "R". She was kinda bashful about it, but oh so proud of herself.  I couldnt believe it! We work on letters some, but I rarely can get her to attempt to write one. She is very much the first child perfectionist and has the tendency to not want to try things unless she knows she can do it well... or at least practice in private where no one will see her struggle or try until she gets it "right".  So really... i was SO proud!

Back in December, we decided to let Rhyan try out gymnastics! We let her do a couple of "trial" classes at extreme tumbling in winder (not far at all from us!) and she seemed to like it, so we signed her up. She goes every monday for 45 minutes. We went through a brief period of her saying she didnt want to go (right after we signed her up, of course) but that quickly resolved.

This was on her first official class. There were 5 girls in the class. Now... there are two. And sometimes the other little girl doesnt come so Rhyan gets a private lesson! haha.

Rhyan really enjoys her "nastics" but doesnt really like to practice at home or show off what she's learned. Again, goes back to her not wanting to do things in front of us (specifically her parents... she'll try things in front of strangers more than us!). So, we try to get her to work on her bridges and handstands and flips, but she usually says she doesnt want to. And thats ok. We're not looking to train an olympian or anything ;-) Really, we signed her up to give her the experience of having something to do that is just "hers" before she starts school in the fall... but with this, I can look through the window in the observation room and see how she interacts with other kids and how much confidence she has/lacks. It serves its purpose.

Lost and Found

You know how sometimes you think you have a GREAT idea and then it turns out horribly wrong?

This happened to me 2 Christmases ago when I thought it would be perfect to use a separate memory card in my camera for Christmas eve morning. I mean, how smart to have Christmas all on one memory card so that its not all mixed in with the other "random" pics.

Well, turns out that my new (at the time) DSLR camera uses a LOT more storage than my old point and shoot. So I got about 15 pics and it was full. And i panicked! So I put the memory card somewhere safe and put in my other memory card.

And then... yep, you know it...

I COULDNT FIND THE MEMORY CARD! The "safe" place was so safe that I couldnt remember it :-( And I was devastated. It was Mack's first Christmas and all of the pics him "opening" the gifts that we gave him were gone :-(

Fast forward to tonight... recently, while perusing pinterest, I found this great idea on how to organize your batteries (which we have to keep a ton of b/c practically every toy uses them). And in the midst of my organizing, I came across that "safe" place :-)

 My sweet girl and I made breakfast together... she's a great helper in the kitchen!

 We started doing our family gift opening on Christmas eve morning a couple of years ago (actually, i think this might have been the first year?). Christmas eve night we go to Mommie's, Christmas morning Santa comes and Christmas evening we go to Jeff's parents... so I wanted to make sure that our little family has some time!

We got Rhyan her own apron! With her name on it :-) (um... she never uses it... probably b/c i never use mine? My Mommie ALWAYS used an apron when i was growing up but its so hard to remember!)

 And she LOVED her computer! She's played with it a good bit over this past year!

 Every baby needs a glow worm!

 And every little girl needs slippers (something else she never wore... but she got a new pair this past year and she loves them! what a difference a year makes)

 My Mama took Rhyan "secret santa shopping" at our church and she bought a flashlight for her daddy! Sweet! (hmmm... apparently he liked her apron? haha)

 My little family, Christmas eve morning with all of their loot. That blue box, btw, were black converse for Jeff... he was dying for some and I had told him to forget it (cause I think they're ugly) but of course caved. And now, I kinda like them... and kinda bought pairs for each of the kids this year... haha!

TA-DA! Christmas, 2011!