Pray for Tuesday

I came across this precious little one on my sis Lesli's blog at half12.blogspot.com/ She is a little girl with I believe neuroblastoma with a new aggressive cancer that has recently reared it's head. Her story breaks my heart as she reminds me of how blessed we our that our children are healthy---Pray for her and her family!

Post Christmas Thoughts and Pics

Merry Christmas all! Now that the holiday is over, I have some time to post some thoughts and pics! First of all Christmas was perfect this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my Mom and Dad in laws. My MIL always has her house decorated so festive and this year was no exception. The above pics are of Marin at there house that night. She made one of our favorites-Chicken Cordon Bleu and had a wonderful pumpkin and cream desert. There was definitly no more room in our stomachs by the end. Kaela received a newly remodeled entertainment center and a TV for her room--pics to follow. She was very excited. We also go to spend time with Uncle Chuck which was nice! We spent Christmas morning together as a family and enjoyed watching everyone open there gifts. After that my sister and her family and my mom and dad came over for brunch--which today I have noticed that I have no pics of! We made omelets in a bag and had the famous monkey bread! My best present this year was being able to spend time with my family that I love. The other presents are great but family is the best present of all! The only thing missing was Lesli and her family and Grandma Helen! Wish they were here! Anyway Merry Christmas to all!

A hunting we will go...

This afternoon we went on a hunt to cut down our Christmas tree. It's a tradition that we started doing last year. Love the smell of a real tree in the house. We found a great place that brought the tree back and shook, trimmed the stump, wrapped it, and tied it to your car for $35--Great Deal! It was very cold, but the crew had fun. We also braved the cold yesterday at the Christmas Farmers Market downtown Dewitt. Santa was there, although Marin wished he wasn't-she cried when I sat her on his lap. I told her not to worry, I was sure she was on the NICE list! They had cookies, caroling and horse drawn wagon rides. We appear to have enjoyed what the cold weather had to offer this weekend! We got a lot more winter to GO!!!

Winter is here...Really here

Well I think that we can safely now say that winter is here. We have many inches of snow outside with supposedly more coming! It was so beautiful at first, but now it is just COLD! Marin really enjoyed going out in it, and I am dedicated to getting her outside daily weather permitting!                                                                                                                                                                                  

I came across a great recipe for white bean chicken chili tonight at fullbellies.blogspot.com I plan to try it out this weekend! The recipe is on 9/15 blog entry. Sounds perfect for the cold! There were lots of other great recipes from this cool cooking mom-check it out! Winter is here! Where is Kaela you ask? She is somewhere inside under a warm blanket--apparently teenagers do not go outside:)

Merry Tuesday

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

"Dayton"

I don't mean to sound like  show off, but my nephew is the cutest little guy around! He is so handsome and has the best little smile. You can't help but want to snug him! Take a look for yourself---

Home for the EARLY holidays

Every weekend after Thanksgiving, we have an EARLY Christmas with my Grandma Helen and Grandpa Richard, who are smarter than the rest of us and head south to Florida for the winter. Come on--look outside at all the snow and say you wouldn't like to do the same! Although the first winter snow is the most beautiful! Anyway, I have been hosting it for the last few times. I enjoyed getting the decorations out, and in the way of being frugal have reused many things from the past few years that I didn't like anymore. My colors are silver and red this year, so I spray painted everything silver and am now reusing it as new pieces! I will take some pics to follow in another post. What a simple can of paint can do! We had a lovely spaghetti dinner-who says it has to be ham. Everyone had a nice time of being together and celebrating and early Christmas. Marin especially had fun being the center of Rachel and Korie's attention, and has been asking for them tonight! I miss my Grandma when she leaves and am glad that we went up last weekend to spend time with her! Love you Gram! I also finally took pics of my 3 loves together, of which the youngest still never smiles!!! Merry Early Christmas!

With Thanks

I am so thankful for...

The big reveal

Well after many hours and days of work, Marin's new room is officially finished! It turned out just how I pictured it in my head and just how I wanted. The colors are brown and different shades of pink. It matches her perfectly! The wall appliques are from Ellephannie on the Etsy website. The great find in the room is the $5 pink and brown dot rug on the floor. Long story but Babyiam.com had it listed at the wrong price and were so great to honor the order for me! I couldn't have done this without all the hard work from my mom in law. If it is made of fabric in the room- she is behind it. All the beautiful blankets, sheets, pillows and the awesome curtains were all sewn by her! Thanks mom!!! The cute bear lamp on the dresser was something that was Rob's when he was little from his grandparents--it is a lovely keepsake! There is also a toy chest in the closet that was Liz's-Rob's mom-chest from when she was a child. Marin loves it in her new room and we love it too!!!

Never alone

I am just sitting here on my couch-- 2 precious babes are taking naps--and I am thinking about how blessed my life is. There have been so many times that I have felt alone in this journey, but I now know looking back on it, that I have never been alone. Yes, I have a wonderful family who have always supported and helped me, but it has been God that has been walking beside me every step of the way. It is he that should receive all the glory for everything that has happened in my life. The three beautiful children that have been given to me to care for, and the one that I long to meet one day in heaven. They are given to me by the grace of God! There have been so many days in my life that I may have felt so alone, but my God is and always has been with me and I am so grateful for that! At church last week, we had a moving time of singing--which is my favorite part. I keep Marin with me during the singing as I hope that someday she will enjoy praising God with her voice as much as I do. She had fallen asleep and I had sat down with her. We were singing a song about how God never lets go of you and I had such a sense of peace. I was holding one of the loves of my life and had my hand reaching to heaven with tears on my face. My God will never let go of me and he has held me this entire journey!

The next Mona Lisa

Tonight I thought I would let Marin try her hand in painting. Crayons have not been going so well--unless you consider eating then as a snack as OK :) So we tried painting--she loved it! Marin and Kaela sat for over 30 minutes and painted. She was a mess at the end so she ended up in the tub!  We may have an artist on our hands! Thanks Kaela for always being such a great helper with your sister!

"THE END"

It is with sadness that I announce that Rob's football team is done for the year. They were beaten last night 28-0. Rob has never been shut out, nor beaten by the same team twice. A little hard for the pride, but he is handling it well. Now for the hard part--what do we do with him??? :)

The zoo with good friends

This week I found out the that zoo is free as of Nov. 1! I have a little girl who LOVES to be outside--inherited from her grandpa who also loves the outdoors and has instilled that in her--so the zoo was the perfect place for her! We have had the great fortune of an unusually warm first week of October in Michigan--70's !!! On Monday we all went, along with Nanna and Dayton. Even the older kids enjoyed it! I of course had NO camera--loser! So because of that I had to go back to get some pics of Marin outside in the fall--also because I see so many blogs with these beautiful pics of their kids and I am determined to have pics like these--at least someday! SO on Wednesday we went back with my friend Denise and the 2 Brya girls, who are Marin's little friends--Gabby and Molly. They had a great time running around and feeding the ducks. It was so cute when they all held hands! I tried many times to get one of those great pics, but I ended up with lots of Marin looking at the ground! I'll get there!

AND...

GO PANTHERS---BEAT EAST LANSING TROJANS TONIGHT!!!

Last day of October

Alright, I am not very computer saavy and have never blogged before, but I so enjoy my sister Lesli's blog that I thought I'd give it a go. My kids love to follow her blog online and I hope that this will help keep everyone closer together, although far apart! Now for the good stuff. I had a little ladybug with me yesterday, along with a little monster. My sister Jess and I took my mom out lunch---gluten free from PF Changs of course--and visited with Nana at work yesterday on Halloween. The kids were so cute--see pics--and Marin as usual ate nothing for lunch! After that we visited Daddy at work at the high school and went to Jake's Halloween parade. What a scary skeleton! He was very tired of people asking him what was on his face by the end of the day! Last but not least the Panthers played in the first playoff game of the season and came back from being down 20 points at half to an amazing victory of 27-26 over the Sexton Big Reds. Rob was excited to say the least and very proud of his players--GO BLUE! Jake of course did a great job as the waterboy! The ladybug lasted most of the game and as usual was the fan favorite. The sad thing was that for the first year I didn't get a pic of all 3 kids together! Anyway that was our last day of October--it was beautiful and full of excitement!