Things to be Thankful For

I know this post should have come before Thanksgiving, but things got a little hectic with illnesses and everything going on around the house. So, here is my list of what I'm thankful for this year... it's not everything, of course, but a pretty good start!

1) My family!
*I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I am to have such a wonderful, loving husband and two beautiful, healthy children!



*My parents, who if I can be half the parents they have been to me, I am set!

*My beautiful sisters who are my best friends and their husbands who make them happy!

*My mother in law, such a strong and wonderful woman who made me feel part of the family from the start!

*The rest of mine and Chad's extended family-- so many great people I have the priviledge to be related too!

2) The fact that I'm going to be an aunt!!!
*I've been hoping for a little neice or nephew for a long time and Ashley and Elijah broke the news that they are expecting over Thanksgiving. Awesome!!!

3) A new bed and a roof over my head!

*We've been wanting a new bed for so long and it was delivered last week. It is big, comfy and great! It's so nice to have a nice and comfortable bed. We are also so lucky to be financially stable to afford the things we need (& want) and that we are able to raise our children comfortably!

The new bed!

4) Time I get to spend with those I love.

*Whenever family is over or we get to visit family, it makes me cherish every moment I have with them. Because we live all over, it's so nice to have those times where we are all able to spend time together.

Last, but definitley not least...

5) My Salvation!

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." 1 Corinthians 15: 3,4

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eterlasting life. John 3:16

*God has blessed me in so many ways, most imporantly he sent his son to die for my sins so that I may have eternal life!

What's For Dinner Blog

I've created a new blog at:

http://foodfoodyumyum.blogspot.com

It is a blog that I hope will be filled with yummy recipes and meal ideas. I've invited many friends to share their recipes and they are able to post in it as well. If you are interested in posting and becoming involved in it, let me know and I can send you the info you need to sign in and start posting!

Play Dough

The other day we made some homemade playdough and KJ had a lot of fun with it! We put on our Sunday School CD which KJ really enjoys listening to and went rolling/patting/cutting away on our (supposed to be red, a little too pink) dough!

Trick Or Treat

Halloween was a fun day, as usual! We made delicious sugar cookies, carved some cool pumpkins and KJ got a good amount of candy!

Nicole and I planned out a day of Halloween festivities, but they all somehow ended up jam packed into a 2-3 hour period. We did not plan on having to freeze our sugar cookie dough after getting it together and therefore we were baking/decorating at the same time we needed to get the pumpkins carved. I ended up skipping out on the carving and cleaning up while everyone else made cool pumpkins to decorate the porch with. It all worked out; however, we were unable to dress up like we had planned because of the lack of time. Nicole pulled through and was a 50's girl for the night, but I missed out on being the black cat and we never got to dress Keesha up as the Geisha girl (it would have been really cool!). I threw a beanie on though for trick or treating and called myself a pro snowboarder. HA! We know that is far from the truth and therefore made a great costume in my opinion. :)

Trick Or Treating was fun. We had a Buzz Lightyear and a Pink Ladybug. We made a quick stop at mom & dad's seeing as how they were trying to keep themselves away due to swine flu exposure. We explained to KJ that we could see them but he wouldn't be able to give them any loves for a few more days. He actually did pretty well considering he hadn't seem them in a few weeks due to their trip to China/Japan. We then visited some more relatives and made a quick stop downtown. Lainee was ready to be home by the time we finished, so it was a pretty quick trip, but fun nonetheless.

Nicole and I had also planned a Halloween dinner, so when we got home Nicole was boiling some fettucini noodles that were dyed black for some black noodles and sauce. We were going to go all out and decorate the garlic bread too but we were once again in kind of a hurry so we just did everything else normally.

Here are some pictures of our Halloween Fun:

Fall Fun!

Well, our tree decided it was time to shed resulting in a lawn full of yellow, fun to jump in, crispy, crunchy, yard covering leaves! KJ really enjoyed jumping around in them and I really enjoyed taking pictures of the kiddos out in those beautiful fall colors. Here are some pictures!

Ok, so this first one is Lainee on the porch, but it is outside and she looks so cute!

A leaf found her hand and then it about found her mouth...

KJ having fun in the huge leaf pile!


Cute (I wish I had a nicer camera)!

Family Fall Fun!

KJ turns 2 and updates!

Well KJ had two very fun birthday parties (really, he had 3 if you count the one he had with just Chad, Lainee, Nana and I). It's still so crazy that he is now 2! He got a lot of cool toys and we had fun spending time with family in Shelton since we arn't able to see them very often. It was also nice because everyone was able to meet Lainee! Here are some pictures from both birthday parties, he had one over in Shelton and one here at home.

Here is the birthday boy with his cool cake that Grandma Martha made:

Mmmm.... Cake!

Here is the birthday boy at his party here at home!

And another cool cake made by Grandma Martha!

Here I am with the kiddos at KJ's party, I'm so lucky!

In other news, both kids seem to be growing so fast. Lainee is now over three months and just rolled over for the first time yesterday! She then did it a few more times! She's also starting to (baby) talk more and her and KJ just love each other, it's really adorable. KJ is just about a full blown conversationalist now. It's pretty fun when you can just talk to your 2 year old and he, for the most part, knows what you are talking about. He is responding with "huh?" alot, well to almost every question which can kind of drive you crazy, but it is still cute. As for Chad and I, we are both doing very well. I'm sure I drive him crazy with my current worry: the swine flu. I'm trying my best to keep my kids healthy I don't want the swine flu or any other flu or illness in our house, ugh! I just need to remember to pray and rely on God, he is in control not me and I know worrying about it definitely won't do me any good.

Here is a video of Lainee rolling over!

KJ went fishing!

This past weekend KJ got to fo fishing with Daddy, Nana, Uncle Dan and our friend Mark. Sadly, I wasn't there to see it...but KJ caught a fish! Him and Uncle Dan were the only ones that caught one and I think he had a lot of fun. Chad said that he was watching KJ fish when Mark said that he thought KJ had a fish and then both figured it was probably nothing until his bobber kept, umm... bobbing (?) and sure enough as KJ reeled it in (with a little help from daddy) there was a fish! Here are some pictures from it.

Here he is fishing:

Here he is with daddy and his fish!

He's growing up so fast, hopefully next time I'm there to see him catch his fish.

Here are some newer pictures of Lainee, she is growing up so fast too!

This weekend we are heading to Shelton to have KJ's birthday party with family over there, followed be another one here next weekend. He is going to be TWO! Crazy!! Blog birthday coverage to come!