Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good!

    Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I love eating turkey, watching football, and spending time as a family.  I love all of our Thanksgiving traditions and everything we do each year. On Thanksgiving day we get up and watch the parade, my Mom normally makes a huge meal, and we play and watch football. Dad always reads to us from the bible and we pray as a family giving thanks to God.  (and we eat leftovers all weekend!)   This year we are doing things a little different.  We are traveling, which we don't usually do.  My Dad is off work this year for Thanksgiving and he hasn't been off for Thanksgiving in a long, long time.  He has not been to Virginia for a whole year so we are glad to be taking this trip.  I am excited to get to spend Thanksgiving with family members I don't get to see very often. 

      Thanksgiving is most importantly a time to thank God for everything he has done for us.  We can get focused on our teams, and our plans, and what we will be making for Thanksgiving dinner, or who is coming over, or where we are going. To help us remember to give thanks, Mom came up with this really cool idea to roll out a huge piece of paper and for us to write down everything we are thankful for.  In this one year God has given us a new baby sister, a new house, and a new van.  God has also done so many things for us I realize.  If we take the time to stop and think about it we will come up with so many things.  (We came up with 63 things in just a few minutes and we are still coming up with more!)

I am most thankful for Jesus, his death on the cross and resurrection, God's forgiveness of sins and my salvation, my family, my school, friends, our church, my health, and all of the many ways God has blessed me.

This week and the next try not to get all caught up in the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and just stop all through out your days and thank God for everything He has done for you. 

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.  Psalm 118:1      

Happy Birthday Dad

     Today is my Dad's birthday!   The little kids made him cards and Ethan and I got him something that has not come yet.

 I decided to make Dad a cake for his birthday.  I made him a chocolate train cake. (perfect - since my dad is a terminal trainmaster!)  It turned out better than I thought it would.  ( I love to bake cakes, cookies, and anything sweet.  Last year, for my mom's birthday I made her a chocolate cake with chocolate icing completely from scratch.  It was a lot of work but it was worth it!)

He loved it!  He took a huge piece of it to work with him.

Good thing Dad doesn't have to do the paper work for this train disaster!

  

Happy Birthday Dad!

     Some friends of ours from Virginia are making a documentary about adoption.  Jonathan and Joshua Hedrick are their names and they are also working with a family in California.  The title of the documentary is Rescued:  The Heart of Adoption and Caring for Orphans.  Here is a link to their website to see a trailer.  Here
 I watched the trailer and it looks really good!

PLEASE CHECK IT OUT!!

2011 NACA National Champions...ALMOST!

N  nearly
A  almost
C  came
A  away with a championship!

We lost!  It was so close and exciting.  We were losing 1 to nothing at halftime and then we scored with just 3 minutes left.  We went into overtime, and then double overtime, but still a tie.  Then we went into penalty kicks.  We made our first two and then missed our next two.  They made three and missed one.  They won and I couldn't believe it.

We were all upset.  We had done so well and came so close to the championship. We came in second again just like last year.  Second place is not all bad.  Our team got a nice trophy.  We can say we are the second best team in Division II, and there is always next year!        
     Even though we lost we are still giving praise and thanks to God.  He is with us win or lose!  God is always with us!  I want to thank God for a wonderful week up in beautiful Dayton.

Here are some pictures from Friday.

Even though it was cold, Clare still watched the whole game.  (and she has lots of new friends!!!)

Beautiful!

The tournament's location was amazing!  The drive up there each day was breathtaking.  I want to go back sometime soon!  We stopped on our way home after the trophy presentation and bought apples from an apple orchard and had the most delicious apple fritters I've ever tasted.

Tournament So Far

The night before the tournament Mom starts cooking food for us to take at 11p.m.!

We thought she was taking sandwiches, but no, she made CHILI!!!!

Breakfast...day one...early!

Tailgating between games

Clare has been the best little soccer sister!  Here's how she watched one of our games.

Mom - night 2 of the tournament...after midnight!

We played in the rain...what can I say?

We are headed back up to the tournament in just a little while.  We are playing in the Division II championship at 12:45 p.m.  We played 4 games to get to the championship...2 wins, 1 loss, 1 tie.  By the way, even though there are teams from New York and Alabama and Indiana and Maryland and Florida and North Carolina and Ohio and Georgia and Kentucky, and all kinds of other places, our team (Chattanooga) played our first game against a school from Blacksburg, VA.  They are from only a few miles from where we used to live. ( They were our tie.)

We are the only team not staying on sight and it has been exhausting driving back and forth which leads me to this thankfulness list...

I'M THANKFUL FOR:

Parents -who drive me, bring food, wash clothes at midnight, and cheer us on!
Our van - that holds our big family and other players when needed.
Safety- driving back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth to the tournament.   AND We've had no injuries on the field.
The opportunity to participate in the tournament and the gift that helped with that.
Healthy bodies
Our coaches
Christian friends on our team
My big cheering family and my adorable my little cheerleader sisters!
My 2 little brothers serving as ball boys for the games.
Being on the soccer team with my best friend, Ethan.

NACA Tournament

     The Chattanooga Patriots high school soccer team is participating in the NACA tournament tomorrow. (National Association of Christian Athletes)  Ethan and I are on the team and we are so excited about playing in the tournament.  I don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight.  The tournament is being held in Dayton.   There are going to be teams from Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Alabama, Indiana, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, and of course our team from Tennessee participating in the tournament.  The Patriots did really well last year but lost the last game in PKs.  Our coach says we have a chance to win it.  I hope we do!
     3.2.1........
Go Patriots!

Our Halloween

Ethan - the master carver!

Meow

There's no place like home!

It's a bird...it's a plane...IT'S A TRICK OR TREATER!

Queen of the jungle!

Nerdy Nic

Mom's special Halloween spread.

Trick or Treat, ain't I sweet?

SURPRISE!

On an ordinary afternoon....all of us were a little sad due to a situation we can't change...
the doorbell rang

Mom?  Did you order something?  Nooooooo...........It's a package from Uncle Gabe!

Mine.  Mine.  Mine.  Mine.  Mine.

THANK YOU Uncle Gabe!

"Thanks Uncle Gabe for being the one to remember it's my first Halloween!"