Give Thanks...

Hi, my name is Sydney, and I slept until NOON yesterday.

True story.

This baby must be going through a growth spurt because she's sleeping so late in the mornings.  I finally went in at noon and woke her up.  We had errands to run and needed to start Thanksgiving prep.

Pretzel sticks at the mall…Amelia's fave.

I've been in the kitchen for the last 5 hours.  I'm finished with all of my baking.  Nothing makes you feel more domestic that making your own pie crust.  And using a pastry cutter.

Yes, that's butter on top.  

Pioneer Woman made me do it.

I love her flat apple pie recipe.

Chocolate pie.  Love.

This was my first time to make a pumpkin pie.  Come to find out (17 years later - oops)…it's my husband's favorite.  I don't care for pumpkin pie, so he'll be the judge if it's good or not.  

Two batches of cranberry/orange sauce.  Seriously, I can never eat cranberry sauce out of the can again.  This stuff is SO MUCH BETTER.

These sweet things are ready for me to make them into a sweet potato casserole.  I've never made this before either.   My sister shared our Great-Grandmother's recipe.  This is one of the dishes I'm taking to my in-laws tomorrow.  Hope they like it!

Brussels sprouts/cranberries ready for the oven.  

We'll be spending this evening with my family and tomorrow with my in-laws. 

I'm thankful for my gift of a husband.  

I'm thankful for our two daughters.

I'm thankful for time with our families.  You never know what tomorrow holds.  I want to love well, the family God gave me.  

I'm thankful for my church family.

I'm thankful for the privilege to worship God freely.

I'm thankful for those who fight for my freedom.

I'm thankful for our friends.

I'm thankful for Community Bible Study.  It has been a blessing to me and my girls this year.  

I'm thankful for the good health of our families.   

I'm thankful for the roof over my head and a warm bed.

I'm thankful for a vehicle to take me wherever I need to go.

I'm thankful that God has provided for our needs and blessed us with many of our wants.

I'm thankful for the ministry that God has called us to.

I'm thankful for the good in this dark world.  I try not to dwell on the bad because it can consume me if I let it.  God wants me to fix my thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  He wants me to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. -Philippians 4:8

I want to live each day with a thankful heart.

I'm incredibly blessed and it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my Jesus.  I'm so thankful that He died for me so that I may have life, and have it abundantly!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love to all,

Baby, it's cold outside...

I'm loving this cooler weather!

Alex and I had a little "home date" Saturday night after the girls were in bed.  We try to do this at least once a week.  We usually watch the newest, cheesy, Hallmark movie I have on DVR.  He's a good man to sit through those movies with me.  I do love them.

I made a batch of hot cider.  I found the recipe on Pinterest.  It was yummy!  

This is Alex tasting it for the first time and scalding his tongue.  Good times.

I love Sunday mornings.  Because I get to go to church and worship Jesus with my church family.  The part that is difficult for me is the running around like a crazy person on Sunday mornings, trying to get me and my girls fed, dressed, and ready to go, all while trying not to lose my testimony.  I laid out everything we would need the night before and felt so prepared.  And for the first time in quite some time, we were late for church.  It was just one of those mornings.  But even though we were running late, I still took the time to snap a picture of my girls.  I love going back to see how much they've grown over the months!

It was SO COLD outside.  Which seemed to make them smile even more. :)

Sydney loved the cooler weather.  She didn't want to go back inside.  

Until I offered her a donut.

Works every time.

She is her Mama's daughter.

Amelia offered to take a picture of Mama and Sydney.  She's becoming quite the photographer!

We had a great service and ministry meeting after church.  One of the ministries we love is taking snack boxes to the ICU/CCU waiting rooms at a hospital near our church.  Yesterday was our day to deliver snacks.  Those waiting rooms are always full of families that are there for days/months, just waiting for the next visiting hours to see their loved ones.  And it can get expensive putting quarters in those vending machines all day/every day.  They're always so happy to see us walking in with this little box of snacks.  I'm thankful we can be a part of this ministry.

Amelia has been crying/begging for a dog over the past week.  We've explained that we can get a dog when we have a larger backyard.  We'll get a mastiff again and they're a huge breed.  Since Diesel passed away, we realized it's not fair to have a dog that large in a tiny backyard.  She has started praying that God would give us a larger yard so she can get a dog. HA!  She ate breakfast with her dog, Jasmine this morning.  She carried that thing around and babied it all day.  I'm thankful she has moved on to pretend dogs until it's time for the real deal.  

We had cinnamon rolls and berries for breakfast this morning.  That made for two, happy girls!  We were hoping to wake up to snow but no such luck. 

 I love this picture.  They sat there for a good 10 minutes, just coloring and talking. 

And then they went back to fighting and pulling hair.

The girls were given coupons for a free Frosty a few weeks ago.  We finally used them this evening after dinner.  This girl ate every last drop.  I'm pretty sure this was Sydney's first Frosty experience. Incase you've ever wondered, you can indeed eat a Frosty with your bare hands.  She had it everywhere but sure did enjoy it.   

And this is random but if you want to entertain your kiddos and see them roll on the floor with laughter, just ELF Yourself.  I downloaded them to the computer and my girls want to watch these over and over again.  So fun!  They asked me to put family members in the videos today.  I'm not going to lie, I laugh every time I watch them.

Love to all,

Life Lately...

Today is my sister, Joy's birthday!  My girls love their Aunt Joy so much.  The last time she left our home, Sydney attached herself to Joy's leg and cried.  Sydney calls her Mama much of the time. HAHA!  She does so much to help us and loves my girls like her own.  We hope you have a wonderful day, sis!!

I made a chocolate pie on Wednesday evening.  It was for our Thanksgiving meal with our church.  It's a cold chocolate pie, so I needed to make it a day early.

It's my sister, Joy's recipe.  So I knew it would be good if I made it correctly.  Everything she makes is good.  It was worth  that 30-40 minutes of stirring over the stove.  Alex said it's the best chocolate pie he has ever eaten!  I love cold chocolate pie with whipped cream.  YUM!  

I woke up incredibly sick on Thursday morning.  I thought it was vertigo but my doc said I had a bad sinus infection and was dehydrated.  Good thing I had this little gal taking care of me. I started feeling better, once I got some medicine in me and started drinking a ton of water!

I love the Thanksgiving meal with our church family.  The meal was amazing.  We have two more Thanksgiving meals next week.  One on Wednesday with my family and one with Alex's family on Thursday.  We've been talking to Amelia about giving thanks and I love hearing the things she's thankful for.  I'm going to video my girls every year, sharing what they're thankful for.  I think age four is a great time to start because she can understand what we're talking about and express herself so well.  I think it will be a sweet treasure to look back on when my babies are all grown-up, with their own families.  

I took Alex out for his birthday last night.  My brother, Chris and his girlfriend, Krystal offered to watch the girls for us!   Sydney wanted to go home with Uncle Chris.  She wasn't happy when they said goodbye.  Needless to say, she loved having them babysit.

She cried, "NO GO!!" HAHA!  I love this baby.

We went to Bonefish and Bass Pro.  A dream date for this man. :)

Alex and Sydney slept until almost 11 a.m. this morning.  Amelia and I got up around 9.  I turned on the Christmas music, read my Bible study and she did a little coloring.  She can now color within the lines…such a big girl!

I made my people a pancake/scrambled egg breakfast to start this day off right!  Daddy and Amelia were working on a puzzle so Sydney joined Mama in the kitchen.  Such a good helper!

Full bellies = happy people.  Happy people = happy Mama.

And I have to share this.  Alex and I were looking through pictures this morning and he said, "remember that time we both were stung by a bee and stayed swollen for eight years." HAHAHA!  This is the weight loss that has happened for us both within a year.  I didn't even realize the difference until seeing these pictures.  Crazy!  Thankful though…we both feel so much better!

The only plans we have for the weekend is to go to Sam's Club and buy Christmas lights.  And I can't tell you how much that excites us.  We love a weekend with ZERO plans!!  We're officially old.  Old and happy.

Love to all,

#37

Today is Alex's 37th birthday!

I started going through pictures and found myself "re-living" the last 17 years that I've spent with this man.  I think about his heart, who he truly is, and it brought me to tears.  I'm blessed to have Alex as my partner in life.  

He's my biggest cheerleader.  Reminding me constantly that "I am God's child, He's got this, ask Him, trust Him, wait on Him, praise Him."

He's my Pastor.  Teaching me what the Bible says and how to apply it to my life.

He's a father to our beautiful girls.  He loves and protects them like a Daddy should.

He's my boyfriend, my love.  The longer I'm with this man - the sweeter our love grows.

He's fun.  He loves to make his girls happy!

He spoils them like only a Daddy can.

He's a teacher.  He's teaching our daughters to put others before themselves.  To have a heart for God's heart.

He's faithful.  In marriage, in church, in the workplace, in friendships.

He's a peacemaker.  Always quick to say "forgive me?"  Always encouraging others to forgive/love like Jesus loves us.

He's funny.  He always knows just what to say to make me laugh!

He's a provider.  He has always been the hardest worker I know.  When we married, he was 19, going to school full-time and working 80 hours a week at a lumber mill.  He's not afraid to work hard and I've seen God bless him in the workplace over and over and over again.  I believe with all my heart, it's because he does his work as unto the Lord.

He's handsome.  Lucky me. :)  I love this man so much.

Happy 37th Birthday, Babe!

37 is going to be a fantastic year!!