Thanksgiving and a Birthday

We had a special Thanksgiving this year.  It was the first one in our new house.  We were blessed with finding a huge dining room table that filled up our huge dining room nicely just in time for Thanksgiving.  Jacob flew up here to spend a few days.  We had such a good time.  For anyone who can't believe how much time has flown by Jacob will be graduating this year.  I know, right??
The other little girl in the pictures is my little sister Olivia.  She stayed with us the week after Thanksgiving.  Sorry, I still haven't learned how to turn the pics around.  Anyone want to clue me in?

 Next came Liberty's Birthday!  She turned 8!  The only thing she wanted was to go to Build-a-Bear.  Our first solo trip into Roanoke was fun.  We went to a nice mall compared to the wannabe mall by our house.  She had a blast building her bear and we ate at Chik-fil-a.  She also wanted chicken alfredo pasta and a German Chocolate cake for her birthday.  Those are one of the most time consuming cakes you can make.  So after a full day of driving and walking the mall, I came home and cooked.  At 8 years old Liberty is in the 75% for her height and the 95% for her weight.  Oops.  I think our whole family is in the 95% for our weight these days. 

Whirlwind!

Between a new puppy, Thanksgiving, Liberty's birthday and Christmas I have been busy! 
Our new little puppy is far from little anymore.  At 4 months he is towering over Maggie and still has plenty of growing left to do. 

Meet Recon.  As in Recon Ranger.  Guess who named him?  This is Darrell's baby.  He picked him out, named him and has loved him more than he ever thought about loving poor Maggie.  I have wanted a German Shepherd for awhile now.  I didn't think it would happen for a long time but we had some criminal activity on our property while I was home alone with Liberty and we knew it was time for a big dog. 

His favorite things include taunting Maggie, playing rough with Maggie, stealing Maggie's bones, stealing Maggie's food, stealing Maggie's affection and just plain making Maggie's life miserable.  Poor Maggie.  At almost 10 years old she didn't know what to think of him.  It has been fun to watch his ears.  They go from flopping forward to standing straight up to flopping backwards.  Sometimes one ear will be forward and one will be backwards.  He has been a good boy with the exception of many, many accidents.  Thankfully we have all wood floors.  He has learned to ring the bell at the back door when he has to go out.  For the most part. 

Now that I've caught you up on the dog, next time I will cover Thanksgiving and Liberty's 8th birthday.