thankful for thanksgiving :)

It was so good to be back home for Thanksgiving!  Three months away from home is just too long. (don't worry, I do realize that it will be far worse when we move to Papua New Guinea!  God's grace will be sufficient, that's what I keep going back to!)

We had about 4.5 days in Indiana, and we made every moment count :)  It was a very busy weekend...filled with family and friends!

We started out by visiting my dear grandma, who had moved into a nursing home since I last saw her.  It was so good to visit with her!  I love my grandma :)

The first night, we had a double birthday party for Layla and Ivy.  They both have November birthdays, and Jill and I thought it just made sense to do a double party.  The girls were very excited, as you might imagine!  Here they are, decorating for their party...

I just love this picture of my dad with the birthday girls :)

Matching "Frozen" gifts...if you couldn't tell by these pictures, these girls like that movie!!

My mom had some crafts planned for the girl cousins (same craft I made as a child!  Love those star ornaments, mom!!)

It was so much fun to just be with our parents and Aaron and Jill's family!  By the way, epic fail on my part--I didn't get any pictures of us at Nathan's parents' house!  So sorry Dad and Mom M!  I'll make up for it at Christmas :)

This was a very cooooold day!  But I don't think these girls even noticed!

Nathan and I had a fun date together--in the middle of the night!!  Last year we did the same thing...we went shopping on Thursday night after our kids were in bed.  It is so much fun and just so strange to be shopping at Kohls and Target with tons of people at midnight!  We also met up with our dear friends for a Starbucks date at 2 am...so much fun!  We dropped into bed around 4 am...and I felt it the next day, that's for sure!  Totally worth it, though :)

Another of the evenings, we were so glad to get together with friends!  It was great to get these two cuties together again...

Our friends who hosted us also planned a fun game.  It was a dads/boys vs. moms/girls game, so right away that made it super fun.  By the way, the girls' team won :)

Here are the boys, ready to dominate us girls!

Each team had to complete five "missions"...such as this one, where us girls had to make brownies without reading any instructions.  Let's just say they turned out...interesting :)

The boys' team had to make a pyramid...good job, guys!

I just love stick on mustaches...so adorable :)

I was also so glad to be in town for my friend Christy's baby shower.  It was so fun to sit with these ladies and reminisce about high school days...haha!  We've all grown up a lot since then :)

It was such a fun weekend, but also good to get back to training.  We only have 3 weeks of training left until we graduate...and I cannot believe how fast it has all gone.  Wow.  More to come soon!