Our Thanksgiving & Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving was good, we ate too much of course! We started out at Nana & Papa's house for lunch and visited with them for the afternoon. Jim and his Dad then went hunting and the boys and I went to my parents for dinner. After Jim finished hunting we then ate dinner. It was a good day filled with great food and wonderful family. We are truly blessed. But the weirdest thing, Jim said when he was coming in from hunting it was lightening outside! In November??? but yep it was and then it began to rain...hard!

Saturday we attended the Christmas Parade in Locust. It was so good and the boys had a great time, they loved the police cars, fire trucks, and of course Jax liked the tractors. Ross picked up lots of candy and we even had cookies from the Fresh House! I was surprised the loud sirens did not scare Jax, he did not mind one bit!

Sunday we hung Christmas lights outside on our small bushes and we decorated out mailbox too. Ross enjoyed helping and he suggested that we have at least one twinkle light, so the small maple has twinkle lights on it.

I cannot believe it will be December tomorrow. Am excited about the month ahead and all the fun things to do with the kids. I have also almost completed my December Daily album, so I can put together all the things we do and a picture from each day into the album so the kids will have an idea of what we did during the month later down the road. Nice keepsake.

Thankful-Day 3

Today I am cleaning the house and that I am thankful for, because that means that I have home to clean and care for. I am even thankful for my sink that is full of dirty dishes, because it means that we have good food to eat and warm clean water to wash our dishes in.

During this time of year it is good to reflect on what you have and what you are thankful for, even the small things.

Today, I am even thankful that Ross called me "Bad" for making him sit in time out. That means I am getting my point across that his bad behavior will not be tolerated. :)

Thankful-Day 2

Here are a few more things that I am thankful for today:

1. Jim-he does many things that go unnoticed around here, little things, like this morning when I got in my car to take Ross to preschool, I noticed that Jim cleaned my car out last night when he put the carseats back in my car, all the trash was gone and all was neat. He also took all the Christmas decor back upstairs and straightened up the garage. He works hard for us and sometimes I fail to tell him "Thank you" but I have to remember that even the small things are worth acknowledging.
2. Naptime-Ross is getting out of this stage I believe, but for now he stays in his room and plays or "rests" quietly. Jax takes short naps which gives me a little time to get a few things done.
3. Cookies-these are my saving grace somedays, when the kids get rowdy or playing rough, I just say "lets have a cookie and some juice" and they are ready to sit for a short time. They stay put and enjoy their cookies while I can finish what I started. Jax has a "cookie dance" it is so cute!!
4. Scrapbooking-I am hoping to complete a December Daily album this year. I love to scrapbook and it give me the chance to tell the story of our kids lives and our own for the boys to enjoy later own. I am a little behind ok, alot behind, on their albums but I will catch up soon (I hope). But the daily album will be nice to document our lives during the holiday season and be able to include things that I normally would not include in their own personal albums. Like what our tree looked like and decor around the house and what we did together, cookie baking, crafts, etc. I am excited about this!!

Thankful-Day 1

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought this would be a good time to look at what I am thankful for at this time in my life. We currently have a "Praise Board" in our kitchen sitting on the counter and I am going to ask Jim and the boys what they are thankful for and write them on that board to look at during the week ahead. But first, I wanted to put a few things down that I normally don't think twice about on a daily basis:

• Lotion-My hands are hurting so bad right now, I bet I wash them 100 times a day!
• My car-I love my car and that it gets me where I am going.
• My ability-this is my ability to do for our family, like laundry, cleaning, cooking.
• My eyesight-to see our boys and my hubby and all the beautiful things on this earth.
• Option to change my mind-I mean, like mood, when things seem to stink or nothing is going my way I am totally in a sour mood, I have the option to change how I feel, it is up to me, and that things are not always going to go the way I think they should go, and I need to concentrate on the positive around me and what I do have, not the negative and what I don't have.

These are just a few and hopefully I will add more tomorrow or so, it is my plan up to Thanksgiving.

Values & Goals for the Holiday Season

As I think about this holiday season ahead, I am forced to think about what I really want out of this season. What do I want for myself and my family? Here are a few things that have come to mind.

1. I want to be more appreciative of what I have and instill that into our children. It is so hard to get caught up in the world around you and you find yourself looking at what you don't have, instead of all that really do have. I have come across a quote I found that I tore out of a magazine that I am going to find a permanent place for in my home.."Be thankful for what you have: You'll end up having more." --Oprah Winfrey
2. To play more with our kids and experience this joyful and merry time of year together. For me it is so slow down, not worry about the laundry or the messy house, just spend some time with the boys each day doing something together, like baking cookies, writing a letter to Santa, doing a craft or even coloring with them instead of letting them color while I am doing other household things.
3. To spend time together just Jim, I and the boys and give them the memories that they will remember for many years to come. Like putting up the Christmas tree together or reading Christmas stories. Those things we have done with them already this year but hope that we continue to do it year after year and that it becomes something they always remember us doing together. And we hope to come up with a few other traditions as well.
4. To concentrate more on being joyful and appreciate the warmth of family and friends during the holidays. And pass on to our boys that family & friends are to be valued and to nurture those relationships.
5. To instill in our boys the reason for the Christmas season, Christ. And that it just isn't about Santa. And to pass on to them the importance of giving to others less fortunate not only during this time of year but all the time.
6. For our boys to enjoy the laughter, wonder, magic, spirit and sharing of the holidays. Ok so we are still working on the sharing part but hopefully they will come around soon! :)
7. I hope to enjoy some quiet time with Jim this season and also enjoy those sweet treats that only come around this time of year!

TodaysMama - Giveaways

TodaysMama - Giveaways: "Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
1. for my family & friends to be happy and healthy
2. sewing machine
3. a small table for living area under our new painting
4. new scrapbooking supplies
5. new clothes

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
A baby blanket that was given to me as a gift from my great aunt

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
knitting a baby blanket

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
Barbie Doll Dream House

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
A Green Tractor with a trailer that runs by itself, their own personal pool table and balls

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Pecan Pie & Ham (not at the same time of course)

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
This year I hope to make a December Daily Album for my family

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

9. Favorite holiday song?
Oh Holy Night

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Snuggling on the couch with my hubby watching Christmas movies & watching our boys play & baking goodies for the holidays :)

Growing Boys

I cannot believe how fast time flies. Jax has used the "toilet" as he calls it twice last week. And tried once yesterday but just sat and enjoyed himself being like big brother. Jax says "Hold you" instead of "hold me" and "wub yu" instead of "love you". I have really notices how all of a sudden Jax is looking older to me like he grew over night. What is the deal....just like that and Ross is the same way, he is so tall all of a sudden. And Ross is very outspoken and more here lately, but he is very headstrong so it is to be expected, right?

I am so ready to put up Christmas decorations, maybe I can talk Jim into putting them up next weekend. That will give me some time to get the windows cleaned (which I have been putting off, well more like just have not found the time to get it done). So if I tell myself, "After I get the windows cleaned then we can put the decorations" then maybe I will force myself to do it instead of doing other daily chores or checking my email. Oh well, we shall see....

Halloween Memories

This Halloween was so amazing! We had the best time ever! And so did our little boys!! This was our first Halloween in our neighborhood and we loved it! Saturday we woke up early and attended Ross' first soccer game and he scored 2 times for his team!! He had such a good time! We then went to the market downtown to see the small local craft fair and then for breakfast and a trip to Lowes where we looked alot at Christmas decor. I am so ready to put up our decorations :) After a nap and some preparation Papa & Nana and Papa & Mama came over for Halloween dinner and a good time. Since it was so nice outside we all ate on the back covered deck. We enjoyed baked spagetti, bread and chocolate & pumpkin pie. Then it was time for costumes and hunting for treats. Off we went and Nana & Papa & Papa stayed behind to hand out candy at our house & watch some tv. Mama decided to head off with us to find some goodies. The rain shower did not stop us, we met some folks on the neighborhood and saw lots of little kids in cute costumes! The boys had a blast and got lots of candy!!! We had a wonderful time and it is the start of many memories to come!