I don't have pictures, but on October 22nd, Phil's mother went home to be with the Lord. After suffering 4 major heartattacks that left her completely brain dead, Phil watched his mother pass away. God gave Phil strength that I had no idea someone could have. There are so many other details that I could share with you, but let's just sum it up to say, God was with us. Every step of the way, we had His protection and care. God is good.
On October 25th, Yes... three days later, my Grandpa passed away. He had been struggling with his health for a couple of months, on the 20th they decided to take him home. We got to spend alot of time with our family during these days... I was able to be by his side when he passed, he went out hearing - "We love you, dad", "Dad it's okay, we'll be alright" "Grandpa, we love you" "We are so proud of the name you gave us" "Thanks for the family you gave us" There were many tears shed this day... We'll miss Grandpa. But we know he's in Heaven with the Lord. Oh! What a reunion when we get there!!! I can see right now Phil running to his Mom to give her a huge hug, and I long to kiss Grandpa's rough cheek again!
My Uncle Ed, Aunt Deanne, Tasha (not pictured; Tiffany & Teddy) got to all come to Illinois to see Grandpa, so we got to spend some time with them. Great fun. Tasha is awesome! I swear she's so much like me... ;) This is a bad picture, but you can see where Tasha straightened my hair. It looked so long! Thanks Tasha!
I carved my first pumpkin!!!!!!!!!!! it was great fun. Phil and I did this together, and we just loved it. I also had my first trick-or-treaters! :) I gave candy away! It was a blast! It ended up raining, so I didn't get to give away all my candy... but Phil didn't really care about that part...
Above is my boss, Kevin Le Blanc... he is a Cajun man!!!! He stuffed the turkey, and fried it!!! This was my first experience with frying a turkey!!! 
My friend Meghan and her husband Bill had thier first baby... her name is Shelbie Paige... She's so cute! Congrats guys!
So this is probably the biggest news I have... My family came to my house for Thanksgiving!!! That's right, everyone except Mike's family was able to come to Knoxville, TN!!! It was a blast, we had a full house, and like the above picture, this is how we usually were... all sitting around relaxing... it was great. I believe we ended up with 14 people staying at our house! It was great. But probably the best thing was on Wednesday night, most of us stayed up till 3 am waiting on Opey, Renee and Nom to get in.... Well, unbeknownst to me.... My Gram surprised me and came down with them!!!!!!! I bawled. It was the best thing, it was the clostest thing that I have to Grandpa. The Lord is good. He knew exactly what I needed.
She's so cool... I love you Gram! Also, thank you to Dad, Mom, Opey, and Nae for making this happen.... It meant so much to me, that you knew it would mean the world to me.
This is our Christmas Tree this year! It's not finished here, as you can see on the right side, Phil is finishing putting the ornaments on... I love Christmas time!
For my last "first" I made my first Gingerbread House!!!! Isn't it adorable??? We had a blast doing it... I don't think I made the frosting thick enough because my ice cicles didn't work that well... Oh well... If you haven't done one, I definately recommend it for getting in the Christmas mood!
I hope you enjoyed all the pictures... Hopefully it won't take me so long next time!Red
