Shepherd Knox Swart turned 2 on Thanksgiving Day. He is our first grandson to carry the "Swart" name. He's a cutie! 💙
All our family plus Mom gathered in Eureka Springs, AR for our Thanksgiving time together. I waited too late in trying to secure accommodations for all 16 of us in NWA or Branson. So when the girls and I were searching for a house big enough, we came across a rental in Eureka Springs. Since Avi's dad lives in Eureka, I decided that would be a good place to be in hopes we could see her at some point. It turned out to be great. She spent Thursday with her Dad and his family and then all Friday with us!
We all met at the house on Thanksgiving Day. We had a Mexican meal that night and then had our little birthday party for Shep:
Super Hero Cake for the kid who is all into "super heroes!"
Blowing out his candles while we sang to him
Carman had me get him a Paw Patrol Semi for his gift from us:
Cute Super Heroes 😍
(Avi was at her dads)
Shep's Super Hero Family 😀
The Swarts!!
Papa and DeDe with the birthday boy!
Proud Dad
Uncle JJ and Moosh
Cousin Avi
Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Ray Ray
That evening is also when Josh and Michelle told us that their baby girl's name was Saylor Faye. I talked about the importance of the name in the posting above this one. We love it and can't wait to meet this precious baby girl! 💖
Friday, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast provided by Rachel and Carman. Sadly, Michelle had been up most of the night very sick. We were so glad that she did get to feeling better on Friday and was able to enjoy the day.
Rachel made some "slime" for the kids to play with.
Copeland's face expresses that the slime was pretty messy 👦
Laine and Avi playing a silly game with the funny mouthpiece
3 different "living" areas with TV's which was great for football or kids' movies, etc.
They were playing a game here too -- using the TV in another living area and their phones/Ipads to draw pictures and try to guess what the drawing was (similar to the way we use to do the game on a white board).
We had a huge Thanksgiving Feast mid afternoon on Friday, complete with turkey, ham, Grandma's homemade noodles, Carman's dressing, Josh's green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, hot rolls, etc.
Fresh fruit salad, veggie/relish dish, cranberries, etc. on the side buffet
Desserts including Teresa Falling's apple dumplings, Derenda Shoemaker's chocolate pie, Jaime Boyes' peanut butter pie (all Mission Team fundraiser desserts), Grandma's pumpkin pie, Avi's banana bread and Shep's birthday cake.
There were also 3 different eating areas -- the kids took the restaurant booth area
After dinner was all cleaned up, we headed outside, right before sunset, to get some pictures with Jonathan's camera and tripod.
Eisley just wasn't in the mood for pictures!! 😁
Sure do love these kiddos!! (Gideon kept kicking Copeland in the head)
The cousins 😍
Josh, Michelle, Avi and Saylor Faye
Andy, Carman, Laine, Ellie, Shep and baby #4
Jonathan, Rachel, Copeland, Eisley and Gideon
A beautiful sunset that night (and unseasonable warm)!
Rachel took this picture. I love it!
Trying to get a picture of us with the sunset behind.....didn't quite work - ha!
The back of the house we stayed in.
Playing....
Great Grandma and Baby Gideon 💗💙
Some miscellaneous pictures
After we got all the little kids to bed that night, except for Avi and Laine, we played a couple of large group games around the dining table: 9,8.7 and Don't Peek. That was a lot of fun and made for a late bedtime for us! But it was worth it and Laine and Avi enjoyed the games too! I didn't think to take pictures 😞
Breakfast our last morning together
A couch full! 💖💖
A couple more pictures before we all had to head home 😢
And to close out the posting--our two beautiful pregnant mama's!! 💓💓
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and the Swart family have so very, very much to be thankful for!!
Most of all for Jesus who makes it all possible!!
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