Happy Valentine's Day!

Second only to Christmas, this is our favorite holiday around here. We always start the morning off with heart shaped pancakes topped with strawberries. Unfortunately, Ashlynn, Gage and Addie have terrible colds this morning, but they managed to eat a few pancakes anyway!






We are going to attempt a craft later....if the coughing and runny noses permit.

Because you have to see Ryder.

Unfortunately, I grabbed my camera after the sun had set on Halloween, so these shots are not fantabulous. Actually, they are the perfect example of why I hate using the flash and avoid it whenever possible. But I thought you would enjoy how Ryder stayed in character for each shot and remained so for the rest of the night.....until he arrived home with the candy bag that is.

Look closely behind Ashlynn and the dude is still posing.

Ashlynn was a rock star/princess, Gage was, ofcourse, Darth Vader, and Addie was a princess, which really isn't dressing up since we call her "princess Addie" every single day. And here we are in December and several pieces remain in their candy bags.....kind of hoping they just forget about the rest....

Found the camera!

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve:

Do you think they like their guns? Gage is getting ready to shoot some hoops!

Gage was excited to get some new jammies.

Addie LOVED the bows, she turned seven months on Christmas Day.

Randy and I getting ready to watch the kids open their gifts.

Randy was on shift Christmas Day so we had a wonderful meal at the fire station.

We enjoyed our time with family and friends this year. It was great to see the kids happy and content with what they received, they even felt it was "too much". We feel so extremely blessed and are excited to start another year with the kiddos!

Happy New Year.....and Merry Christmas!!

So it just sort of slipped by me to post a "Merry Christmas". Well. ok, not really. I've had a bunch of sickies since last Tuesday and they are just starting to recover. If you could only hear the coughing, sneezing, running noses and general discomfort around this house you would have to plug your ears! Randy and the kiddos are ALL sick with bronchitis, so you can imagine the loveliness of the air quality right now, thank you Lord for cool air humidifiers.

On a brighter note, we had a fantastic Christmas and as soon as my camera is removed from its MIA status, pictures will be posted. Hope you all had lots of fun and are avoiding the various "bugs" that are ravaging my gang.

Happy New Year, I pray we appreciate the little things more, the moments that make us laugh, the beauty in each day and draw even closer to the One who gave His life so we could live.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day and a fabulous meal today! This year I decided to attempt roasting the turkey...
After a five hour brine in salt water and overnight to dry in the fridge, it was off to the oven with George Washington (Ashlynn picked the name,hey, it's tradition!). Carefully, I followed every step and babied him for three and half hours. When I pulled that beautiful bronzed dude out of the oven I had to grin. The moment of truth was still to come-was it done, raw, overdone?

We loaded up the car (apple bars, homemade rolls, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and cranberry sauce) and headed over to D & L. There it sat on the counter, just waiting to be carved. The first slice, I exhaled a bit. Then another, then another and I began breathing more normal. It wasn't dry and it wasn't raw!!! I will admit to praying the whole time that guy was in the oven; Lord, please let it not be undercooked, please let it not be chalky. Thankfully, He answers even the little stuff and it turned out pretty good.

After the meal and we were all stuffed like hogs, we crashed on the sofa to watch the games (Go Pack!!). It was a relaxing, laughter filled, thankful day. We came home put the kids in bed and that is where I am headed right now....goodnight and Happy Thanksgiving!