Kelly and I did our second annual "Thanksgiving Day Practice" with our Bible Study group. This means a dinner for about 30 plus people at our house. It is alot of work but is also alot of fun.

This is our backyard before the event, you can see our patio cover Kelly and I built turned out well, at least until the first big winds hit, then I would recommend NOT standing under it.

We put one of the guys in our group in charge of Decorations. Give a man a chance to decorate and you don't get fancy decor, elegant centerpieces, or other sorts of things that add class to a dinner, instead you get a 7 foot tall blow up turkey! Oh YEAH!

We just ate the Dickson's turkey and suprisingly are still smiling!

Well we are smiling because we actually threw our turkey away!

And we're smiling because we are not the suckers sitting outside in the cold!

Our Tuesday night Bible study group decided to celebrate Halloween a day early. WE all carved pumpkins and Kelly looks for any chance she can get to dress up.
Dude, you haven't even carved anything yet!

Man, that costume most be hot! Got to get air to the pits!

There are a few great pieces of art in the world; pieces like the Mona Lisa, the David statue, Sistine Chapel, and Dustin's pumpkin.

My pumpkin is the good one (just pick your favorite and I will take credit for it, what do you know? You weren't there.)

I bet you did not know a giraffe could be so freaking good looking!

Well, Kelly and I thought we had lost our camera. Turns out my parents have it but we have not not had a chance to take pictures since the Family reunion in August. However, Kelly's sister has been scanning old pictures so I figured I would put some of those up instead since they are adorable! When looking at this you have to wonder... does Kelly come from some sort of Asian descent?
Kelly was (is) such a good swimmer, that she like to give the other girls head starts.

Now that is a face we can finally recognize (notice awkward sister in background)

Apparently, the smallest swimsuit ever made was still a little big in the back side.

Here are some more:
These backpacks are DANGEROUS. Just ask Derrick about how good of capapults they can be.

Is it just me or does she look like she has no idea what is going on and is wondering why she is wearing that silly hat?

No, that is not a blond haired boy hanging out with Jamie. THat is my dark haired, green eyed wife. HOT!

So... ahhh... was this a drowing competition?

Now that is a good one.

Well, Kelly and I spent my part of my birthday weekend building a pergola (patio cover) in our backyard. Actually, the materials for it was a present from my father in law. Wasnt that nice of him giving me a present that create a full few days worth of work for me! Just kidding. It was something we have wanted to do since we had to remove our trees and lost all shade in our backyard (Lauren was not happy about that). We also recently finished painting the rest of our house. Well, not finished, as we have to do touch up and paint the eaves, but the beige is all new. Our yard is starting to come together. The pergola is not finised yet but it is a good start.

Lauren is far from cameras shy as you can see and she is excited about finally having some shade for the rest of the summer. She was so excited and could not contain herself so she went and got her stuffed animal and ran all over the place.