Give Thanks!

In Everything

Give THANKS!

I Thessalonians 5:18

I wish I could say this is where I'm at. It's NOT. My goal, yes! But not my reality. I am part of a book study on Strong Women, Soft Hearts by Paula Rinehart right now. (A great book, btw, if you're looking for a good read!) One of our recent chapter discussions was about Trust. 

"Trust [is] willingness to take your sticky fingers off the steering wheel of you life [and] rest on the risk that, in fact, the goodness of God will catch you when you let go."

If I really believe that "All things work together for good to those that love God." Then trust should not be an issue. right? And if I trust God and believe He truly has my best interest at heart, then the whole 

THANKFULNESS

attitude should be a breeze too. 

Let's just say I have plenty of things to work on.

It's a process, one that must be faced and fought for daily! 

  That said, there are plenty of things on my list of things I'm Thankful for this year.

*Grace 

 (that is greater than all my sin.) 

*Peace 

(that  passes all understanding.)

* a faithful husband

* 5 healthy children

* a warm house

* never wondering where our next meal will come from

the list goes on and on! 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Our day was spent my favorite way--at home with the fam!

I made our free turkey yesterday, so today was all about relaxing and spending time with the kids! 

(and yes, that technically means we had leftovers for Thanksgiving dinner! oh, well, no one seemed to mind)

Our Thanksgiving Tree

  

I've seen rather elaborate versions of these and I'm not typically a fan of decorations of the construction paper sort, but we were using what we had around the house and the kids were loving it just the same. Construction paper or fancy smancy, it's all the same to them.

 

 a few of the things that made our tree....

football

 beds

coffee

Jesus

lots of toys 

flowers

family

a good job

tissues

Heaven

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 107:1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Top 5 of turning 5!

We Celebrated another Birthday here this week. 

My little buddy turned 5. 

He is my quiet, cuddle bug. He has a great imagination. He keeps me laughing. He can pest with the best (just ask his brothers!) He's totally got the "Prince Charming" thing covered. He's kind and sensitive. He's sure he can keep up with his 11 year old brother. He's super excited about learning his letters. (I'm secretly thrilled that he missed K this year and he's sticking around with me another year!) He'd rather go hungry than taste an unfamiliar veggie. He's Daddy's little sidekick. He's growing up WAY to fast!

 AND NOW....

5. Getting a REAL letter in the mail!

4. Having cousins over to help celebrate.

3. A new truck. (almost like Daddy's)

 2. A toolbox cake.

1. Blowin' out the candles.

 

and there you have it.

5 Reason Why turning 5 is so much Fun!

(and a couple extra shots, just for fun!  this little guy is so much fun to photograph. he eats up the attention, turns on the charm and "click" we're both happy.)

 Happy 5th Birthday Reagan!

Eleven-Eleven-Eleven

The perfect day for an ELEVENTH birthday!!!

I really thought there must be a way to plan a party for 11:11 a.m. but since he invited the other 11 boys from his class at school, it seemed as though there might be an obvious hole in the class if we tried that.

So we settled for an after school party.

Only about half of the 11 invited were able to come but that doesn't mean they only had half as much fun.

Football.

Treasure Hunt
(with 11 clues, of course!)

No pictures--I couldn't keep up!

Oh.My.Word. did we have energy or what?? 

Hot Dog Roast

(interpreted by boys as "playing with fire" -- interpreted by mothers as
"make your own dinner," everybody's happy =)

And then several hours of  "Kick the Can" in the dark.

They LOVED it. We tried several times to put the game on hold long enough to 

roast marshmallows and make smores but they were not to be convinced.

Did I mention LOTS of energy??

Since there seemed to be enough chaos in the barn already without the addition of lit candles, we opted to save his cake for Saturday, when we had his birthday dinner as a family. Tradition in our house is to choose a favorite meal for your birthday. 

Hamburgers, French Fries and Salad. Mmm!

 He wanted a sports theme for his birthday and I knew when I found this cake online that it was just what we needed. It was by far one of the simplest birthday cakes I've made! A simple 9x13 sheet cake cut in the shape of home plate. Add some crushed graham crackers for the "dirt." The directions  were to use a special Wilton dish/pan to bake 2 halves of the ball and then put icing between, blah, blah, blah......Way to much trouble and expense for this girl. I used my previous cake pop experience and made one GIANT cake bite (using the extra cake I trimmed off the base) for the ball. It took three coats of white chocolate to cover the cake and get a nice even look but it was still soooo much easier than trying to get icing smooth and neat! Add a little store bought writing gel from the bottom of the drawer since who knows when and WAH- LA!

 If it has a red
"P" on it, it makes the boy happy!

Then of course there was a gift or 2.

I think he likes it!!
You can read the story of the jersey here, but please don't tell the boy.
It'll be our little secret. k?
Not that he would really care....it has a red "P" on it!

No birthday (and certainly not a Golden Birthday) would be complete without a photo shoot.

 And so we
CELEBRATED

 a special boy.

on a special day.

with special food.

and special friends.

and MEMORIES were made!

Outside Projects

When I realized on Thursday what a beautiful weekend the forecast predicted I (with very little faith) suggested to my husband that maybe we could reschedule our work day. Reality check. The chances of it suiting 4 teenagers on the same Saturday with less than 48 hours notice, not good. But after the hubs and I had made an already daunting "to do" list the call came to confirm, "we'll be there at 9."

 Remember This?

 Now it looks like THIS! 

(yeah! happy dance! =)

We had "bought" these guys at our youth fundraising "slave auction." They came with power tools and energy to spare!

 The hubs and I were impressed and quite pleased with how much they got done!

I tried to make sure I fed them well. They deserved it!

 We threw the brush on an pile and burned it. Since it was still fresh they were having a little trouble getting it started so they decided to throw on the trash from our can, including (unknown to them) the empty spray paint can I threw out early in the week. BOOM! yeah, that kept things exciting for a bunch of young guys!

Food. Fire. Explosions.

(yes, there were 2. the hairspray can wasn't near as impressive though.)

Everything you need to keep boys happy!

 BEFORE.

 AFTER.

 BEFORE.

AFTER.

Feels WONDERFUL to have that project done before winter! It would have taken us weeks/months to do it on our own. Thanks Guys!

A few weeks ago Garry also rented a skid loader to make a bigger parking area so he can park his truck and trailer here at the house.

While the skid loader was here I asked if he could quickly pull out the U.G.L.Y. half dead bushes that were blocking the sidewalk along the side of the house.

"Sure! that won't take long," he said. He was right. Took about 5 minutes to get them out and haul them down to the burn pile.

Getting the skid loader back up to the top of the hill, that was a little more time consuming!
(to the tune of 2 hours)
More than once, I had the Durango floored, in 4 wheel drive and he was still pulling ME backwards.
Sometimes things just don't go as planned.

This is what I found when I came in from that little adventure.
I think someone might have been watching out the window.
They make me smile! =)

This project is still waiting for someone who knows which things stay and which get pulled.
And there are about half a dozen trees that we'd like to cut down.
But we're making progress and progress is GOOD!

My Day in Numbers

 (i've seen this creative format here and there around 'bloggy-land' and always enjoyed it. somehow it seemed to fit my day. so here we go.)

22.  number of fresh baked cappuccino muffins I delivered to school this morning for Grandparents day.

8. number of stores I was in and out of with my never ending list.

2. number of small children I got in and out.....buckled and unbuckled...... at every single one of those stores.

89. number of snacks I pulled magically from the bottom of my purse, scattered generously on the carts and floor, and distributed to sticky little hands..... in order to make it peacefully through a few more aisles . (I may have lost count on this one!)

 1. number of temper tantrums my daughter had when I tried a shoe on her in the store and then took it back off again. seriously girlie you're only 14 months old must we start  such drama already?? and over a pair of shoes.....

4. number of  "fall"  six inch pillar candles I bought on clearance  for .79 each. they'll match my  freshly painted "cherry cobbler" bedroom quite nicely, thank you very much.

 3. number of minutes I was home before the school bus arrived with my son. whew! yeah, I little too close for comfort there.

2. number of motrin I needed for my aching head after all that.

4. number of loads of laundry that shall wait till tomorrow to be folded because blogging is more fun.

69. number of extremely beautiful degrees it was outside this afternoon.

3. number of days I have left to plan and prepare for a monumental occasion coming up in our house this week. more on that later.