Thursday, November 26, 2009

What I love...

Food. 
Family.
Happy children playing so I can enjoy my food and family.
Good Thanksgiving.
I am super excited for Christmas season which can now officially start now that Thanksgiving is in the history books.  
Tomorrow is off to the North Pole via the Polar Express!
Yeah!!!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Season of Thanks

I am so thankful. I have been meaning to write down and start counting my blessings during this wonderful season of Thanksgiving.  Because of time, I will start with just three things tonight.

I am so thankful for my family.  For my husband and children.  They are my whole life.  I love being with them, I love that I am able to work to provide for them, I am so thankful they are healthy and happy and that we are together every day.  They are so worth all the things I do for them and I am so thankful for all they do for me. I find joy every day in the little accomplishments my children have each day, and for the sweet things my sweet husband does for me.  He cooks, he takes wonderful care of the kids, he gets straight A's in school, and he keeps me level headed when silly life stresses make me boil over.  Thank you Tim.  I am so thankful my family can be together forever because of the blessings of the Temple.  I am so thankful for that knowledge especially this year with the passing of Tim's younger brother Ben.  That was such a spiritual awakening for our family and I pray we can always remember what a spiritual experience that was.  I am so thankful for the growth and closeness that resulted from that experience.  It was such a sacred time for us and I am so so thankful for eternal families.

I am thankful for the challenges in my life that cause me to struggle and grow spiritually and emotionally and mentally.  For the last few years I have had an unsettled feeling in my gut that things are just too easy, that I'm getting too complacent with my life and growth and goals and family.  This year I wanted to really go for the goals I've set personally, and with my family.  Then, my work place started to get difficult and I was so scared to take a leap of faith to quit because of the economy, and I kept making excuses and just put up with it.  I love what I do for work, but my security and my stress to provide for my family was really weighing on me.  Then I was let go from that office I had worked in for 5 years and friends I worked with and  patients that felt like family were all taken away from me.  I now look at that experience and I'm glad I went through that challenging time where I had to question what was really important.  It was like the worst breakup I've ever been through.  I am so grateful, now, for that growing experience.  Now I work in a great office and I remember why I love what I do for work.  I truly enjoy serving people, helping them get healthier, smile more, and motivate them.  I still am looking for more permanent work, but that leads me to my next point of gratitude...

I am so thankful for the blessings of faith and I truly have a testimony of paying tithing.  I'm working only 3 days a week now, looking to work 2 more to more easily support my family and reduce how much we have to borrow for school for Tim.  I am having to go outside of my comfort zone a lot to call and network without feeling like I'm begging for work.  I know I'm not, but I am silly that way, and this has made me push past that and I'm thankful.  Week to week I've been able to get an additional day here and there to make ends meet a little closer and that has been a great blessing I believe due to our faithful tithe paying.  I don't question whether to pay it, even when the mortgage is coming due, I am so thankful for that testimony.  We truly are blessed for being faithful to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so excited for Thanksgiving and will continue to count my blessings. Thanks for reading.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

We have this great camera, and it takes wonderful pictures given the light being cooperative.  We were out in the bright mid-day sun today and the window for cooperation was small.  Tim has a pretty good eye for shots, and if we could just get the kids to look at the camera, then they would be awesome pictures.  I applaud Tim for his efforts in getting these pictures, and hope we can get some good photo editing software to make them, you know POP. Any suggestions on software or any other portrait tips are welcome. Here are some of the successes.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Halloween pictures

For halloween we had my family over to our house for our annual sugar cookie decorating event and my birthday.  We also had our annual costume parade.  There were definitely some good creative costumes.  I aspire to be as creative as my sister and sis-in-law.  Maybe later...

Deep breath, 31 candles to blow (actually only 10 pumpkin candles spread across the centerpiece... but you get the gist of it.)

Yeah! I did it! with lots of help, of course.

Kennedy as a pumpkin.  We have had this costume for 5 years and this is the first Halloween one of the girls has worn it. Yeah! Kennedy loved it too.

Audrey was a "flying princess super-girl" and really, she wears dress-ups all the time, this is the one she chose to sport around the neighborhood for tricks-or-treats.

Emma wore this dress which I got on clearance last year after Halloween and saved out from dress-ups.  She got a lot of compliments, especially at the fall festival we went to at the Hastings.

This is all the dressed up cousins ready for a spooky good time.

Cookies!

Me taking a picture of the cookie table, Allie taking a picture of me, and everyone singing "Happy birthday."
The rest are some pictures of the evening, more are in a photo book here (CLICK).




New trick



Kennedy has a new trick.  She likes to poop in the potty.  I'm not taking it seriously, she's only 18 months, but it is so funny! She goes in the bathroom and I take her diaper off and put her on the toilet.  She is so amused at the sounds she makes.  One time, I didn't catch her to put her diaper back on before she pulled up her pants, almost.  I was laughing so hard I could barely get the pictures, but here they are.

She also loves to show off her belly.  She'll randomly pull up her shirt and "belly bump" the other girls.  They aren't sure what to think of it, but it gets a good laugh anyway.


More fascination with potty/panties. She was too tired to take anything off or fight her to do it, so we let her sleep with pj's, and panties. Bless her heart.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Privacy

We are private, and lots of halloween and birthday pictures are soon to come!