Thanksgiving

All of Georgia was extra thankful on Thanksgiving as we awoke to rain and there was heavy rain until the early afternoon.
Our river which was almost all mud on our side (the shallow side) is running high once again. It is great to see.

My parents joined us for our first Thanksgiving in Georgia. We loved having them with us for the weekend. It was especially nice since Robert and Alyssa left for Utah, for Matt's funeral, and missed having Thanksgiving dinner with us. I dropped them off as I was picking up my parents from the airport. Robert and Alyssa were able to stop by my parents' arrival gate and see them before they needed to board their plane.
With the run to the airport Thanksgiving afternoon, we had our Thanksgiving dinner Friday. (Logan is not in the picture because he went down for a nap right as dinner was ready) It was fun being in the kitchen with my mom all morning cooking and talking. The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa Lehnardt here to play with and walk around the woods with and read books with. Their visit was short, leaving Saturday evening, but wonderful.

We had rain again that started Sunday afternoon and continued through Monday evening, a good steady rain. We had a beautiful RED sunset last night. With some parting in the clouds the red from the sunset turned the sky red and glowed red off the red leaves and the red clay ground . . . it was GLOWING red outside. Natalie wanted to take a picture, but some things just can't be captured in a picture. We drove to school, to drop off Natalie, today with a beautiful sunrise shining off the patchy clouds in the sky. We are grateful for the beauty of the world and the moisture we have received here.

TRIBUTE TO: Matthew Wayne Baker

Matthew Baker, our nephew, cousin and best friend, passed away early Wednesday morning, from cancer.
We love him and will miss him always.
His is a life that touched ours for good. We are grateful we lived in Utah, right down the street from him, for 5 1/2 of his almost 10 years.
We cling to the gospel truth that we know he is with his brother and other family members that have passed on before him.
We cling to the gospel truth that families are forever and can be sealed for eternity in the temple by the power of the Holy Priesthood.
We cling to the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for Matt and for us and the comfort we can feel from that love as we pray for the Lord's spirit to stay close.
We want to cling to Matt, but for now that is not possible.
We cling to the gospel truth that we will again. We look forward to that day when we will once again be with Matt.

Matt we love you.

The Fire Pit

Another Saturday, another project. Robert took Alyssa and went with his friend Larry (the one who helped with the benches) - and his friend Larry's truck, to a place where you can get scrape granite for free (as long as you load and haul it away yourself - well worth the price!).


With the load they brought back, Robert built our fire pit (with some help from me: where we should put it, moving rocks from one part of the yard to the other, and verbal encouragement). It started out in one part of the yard and square shaped. It ended up on the other side of the yard in a circle. The bench beside the fire pit is on two pieces of stone and the wood beam was found in our woods. While walking around looking at other trees in the woods, Larry found another beam (he has quite the eye for spotting wood) and Robert has already hauled a larger one out of the river. The land will ever surprise us, especially in the fall when most of the leaves fall and allow a clearer view through the foliage.
We will need to check on outdoor fire regulations (with the drought) before we can test the fire pit out. The girls are looking forward to toasting marshmallows every night!
It looks great and Robert can now get a better feel for his desire to do a paver patio out of the free granite and stairs down the hill beside the house (where we are planning a tier garden).
There are still some rocks left over. The kids were nervous, but we didn't take ALL of their stones for stepping over the "hot lava" of the back yard, they just need to size down the "lava pit".

RAIN!!

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and heard dripping. I listened for a sink, toilet, the humidifier in the boys room before I realized it was coming from outside. I had to open a window to double check. It was raining!! and I was hearing the dripping of water in the rain gutter pipe. After many weeks it was great to hear the rain and see the wet ground and trees this morning. We hope this is the start of many more showers, as we are far from alleviating the drought conditions, but we are grateful for whatever rain we do get.

Robert's Project

For the last couple of months Robert has been working on making benches at his friend, Larry's place. After lots of cutting, sanding, more sanding, oiling and coats of varnish they are done. He has made these three. Two small ones and a large one. Jake and Logan are sitting on the large one and the picture of the top bench is of the big one as well. We have used the small ones as benches at the table when we have guests over for dinner and for extra seating for visiting, in the living room. They have worked out great and we haven't had to buy a new couch.
Of course that means that Robert has been trying to sell them to the house budget at a discounted price (to be transfered to his budget), but that didn't fly with bring home fish and it won't work with the benches either! :)
They turned out beautifully!

Catch Up

Now that we have a new camera and I can blog with pictures again, I thought I would catch up a bit on what happened in October.
We had a great long weekend with cousins when my brother Mark came down with his wife Rana and children Celeste and Grace. We had a great time at Fall Festivals (school and county), soccer games (Celeste was a great cheerleader, we were glad she was cheering for our team), and playing. We were sad to see them go but were so glad they came down.

We carved pumpkins at our friend's house - the Ritz's. The girls made faces as they pulled out pumpkin guts, but did it and got their pumpkins carved. Jake drew his face on and then left to play, leaving Logan to dive right in. Logan would get mad if I grabbed too much, thinking I wasn't leaving enough for him to take out. Once the pumpkin was cleaned out he wanted to take the knife to it as well. After it was all done he kept mushing his hands in the bowl of pumpkin insides and threw a fit when we were done and left. For sure there was more pumpkin to play with. We know who will make sure we have carved pumpkins for Halloweens to come.


The Watkinsville fire station had a Halloween open house. I took Natalie, Jake and Logan. It was great. All the fire engines and ambulances were out. They had game booth, a big slide, sno-cones, cotton candy, hot dogs and chips, popcorn, soda and boiled peanuts. Natalie took one smell of the boiled peanuts and opted not to try them out. We wish we could have stayed long enough to go on a hay ride, but we needed to get home.




The weather is turning cooler and we are loving it. Saturday Natalie told Robert she wanted to move back to Utah, that there was nothing good about Georgia. Robert laughed and said. You are playing outside in shorts and a tee-shirt in the middle of November, I think there is something good about Georgia! We are still praying for rain. The drought here is getting really bad and we are doing our best to conserve. We wouldn't mind some flooding (we are uphill) if it means the lakes will fill up a bit. :) Any rain would do.

Feeding Chickens

Jake got to help Robert feed some chickens one Saturday. Alyssa was jealous, thinking she was missing out on seeing baby chicks. Jake told her it was REALLY stinky and he had to hold his nose the whole time. When they went into the rooster area, it was so loud Jake covered his ears and asked to leave. I don't know how eager Alyssa is to go help feed chickens next time!