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!