A Special Message

Our family made a special video for someone that we love very much.... Grandma! It's her birthday today and 3 special kiddos (and a surprise guest..haha!) wanted to tell her something....

We pray you had a special day and that you know how loved you are! Happy Birthday!

Curlers, Tux and Lost Keys.

I must admit that I am glad this day is nearly done. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought the time change made the day LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG. It's probably a great thing for people who get to sleep in or wanted an extra hour to finish some project.

But we got woken up bright and early by little roosters who pointed outside and said, "Look, it's light outside! It must be time to play!" And we said, "It's only 530am. Go back to bed!"

The roosters won.

 I discovered today that Eliana is not only afraid of umbrellas but also hair curlers! I rarely put them in but decided to today before church and when I came downstairs, she scrutinized me carefully and crawled over to Ben and buried her head in his legs! I tried to pick her up a bit later and she immediately pushed me away and practically threw herself to the ground.

Of course Ole' Softie (a.k.a. Daddy) took full advantage of the situation and gave lots of cuddles to his little princess:) Neither one of them minded!

 I hurried to take the curlers out so I could get hugs, too. Can we say that somebody has us wrapped around her little fingers???

Samuel has been begging to play this computer game that he gets to play at school if he finishes all his work. They have Mac computers in the classroom for the kids to use so he was pretty excited that daddy has one, too, and that he knows how to use it! He calls it a "Macs computer." :)

The game is called "Tux Paint" and you can paint pictures with this little penguin. Z was just begging to have a turn, too, so his turn was after we got home from church.

It had to be delayed a little while because when we got home today we realized that we were locked out! We lost one of our house keys last week and haven't been able to replace it yet. B took our one remaining key off the key chain to leave for me yesterday since he was working all day.

And neither one of us replaced it.

Our landlords are out of town for an extended vacation so we had to call the handy guy to come help. Once he called back, he promised he'd be over in a half an hour.

We spent ONE and a half hours in the car waiting.

It was really fun.

We're having 2 extra keys made just in case....

Today I am thankful that I don't live in my car. I am really thankful for a comfortable place that feels like home when we walk in. A place with a roof overhead, heat and comfortable beds!

Sunlight Baby

A ray of sunshine....

Full of silly smiles and joy....

Beautiful....

My Darling:)

Today I am thankful for my husband who works so hard to take care of his family, even working 12 hour days on Saturdays. He makes my heart full.

Pictures in Words

I got to the end of today and I went to upload my pictures on to the computer and realized....I didn't take any! With my camera that is....

But I did take a lot with my mind and I'll share with you what I saw.

Today I saw:

*The sweetest baby girl with her hair up in a pebbles ponytail, held by a purple rosette barrette. She was wearing black velvety overalls over a lavender onsie and I must say that purple is beautiful with her rosy cheeks, honey colored hair and guileless blue eyes.

This baby girl crawled around making messes every where she went. She pulled down scraps of paper off of the end tables (a.k.a. tv trays:) and ate them, she tugged out her basket of toys and decorated the floor with brightly colored baby toys, she pulled up on her mommy and daddy's legs begging for hugs and for food.

I see this little princess in my head so clearly and it makes my heart smile.

* I saw a little-turned-big boy dressed in his bright red knitted hat and dark gray buckeye sweatshirt heading off to school. He was running next to me to school because we were running behind (a usual occurrence lately) in his new speedy black and gray tennis shoes. He slipped into line with a minute to spare, bent down to give his baby sister kisses and leaned into me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I hear his sweet "I love you" whispering in my ear still, I see his blue-gray eyes turning back to look at me as he blew me kisses while following his class into school.

And I see those lovely eyes lighting on me with joy when he spotted me after school, coming to bring him home where he is loved.

I see this sweet, handsome boy in my head so clearly and it makes my heart smile.

* I see my trying-to-turn-big boy wearing his red striped shirt and jeans talking to me, always talking. He turns the force of his brilliant blue eyes on me with such directness and intention. He wants me to play with him and contentment washes across his face when I get the baby to sleep and announce that we are going to play a game together before lunch. Just the two of us, sitting on the floor playing 'Zingo' and enjoying each other's company in the quiet. I see a little boy eager to please yet easily overwhelmed with his emotions when I tell him he cannot do or have something....like a piece of candy at 9 in the morning!

I see his little face pressed up close to mine at bedtime, happy eyes smiling and little voice pleading with me to bring my weary, sore body upstairs to tuck him in with his well-loved and worn Rays.

I see this darling, impulsive little boy in my head so clearly and it makes my heart smile.

Tonight I am thankful for my 3 Pictures. They make me smile even when I don't want to:)

Tom Turkey and Thankfulness

It seems like an ideal month to think about thankfulness:) Last night as I was mulling over my melt-down, I was thinking that I need to be purposefully thankful. I've always heard and known that the more you practice finding things to be thankful about, the more things you find to be thankful about!

So in honor of my desire to be content where I am, with what I have, I am going to say something I am thankful for every single day of this month, whether a big thing or a small thing and in no particular order. I am hoping to have the boys join on board with me, too, as I think it is far to easy for kids (or any of us!) to take things for granted. And you can join, too, if you want!

Today I am really thankful for hot soup. We don't have much in the way of groceries and have been stretching our slim pickings to last as long as possible but amazingly, I had all the ingredients for a wonderful, hot pot of black bean soup. With cornbread:) There is nothing like soup to warm your bones on a very chilly, windy, rainy day.
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Little Miss is coming down with a cold:( She was sneezing a lot to day, exhausted yet fighting naps and the runny nose began this afternoon. I hope it will be minor!

I also discovered today that she is afraid of umbrellas. It was so nasty out and I had to use one while holding her when picking up the boys from school. She cried and cried and kept pushing my hand that was holding the umbrella away. I felt so bad for her! Silly baby.
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Every once in awhile, Samuel really likes for me to come up and lay with him in bed for a little while and talk before he goes to sleep. Last night we were talking about random things and I asked him if he had any ideas of what he might want for Christmas.

He said he wants a picture of our family standing next to the Christmas tree:)
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Zakkai had a special school project due today. We had to "disguise" Tom Turkey so that he won't be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner! Z tossed out any ideas that we threw at him (of course) and so we dressed up Tom Zakkai's way.

Presenting: Professor Tom Turkey!

Pretty good, eh? I thought he turned out pretty cute!!
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And last but not least, I committed with a friend to do the 30 Day Shred for 30 days straight this month. (what was I thinking???!!!) I have been needing some motivation to do something other than once-a-week Zumba and here it is. I will blog about my 30 days over on my other blog that is about my journey to getting in shape. If you'd like to join in the commitment this month or just follow along, feel free to pop over here:)