My Thankful List

Here's a partial list of what I'm thankful for:

A God who loves me enough to give me free will and still love me when I make wrong choices.

A Savior who paid the price for the sin in my life.

My husband, my best friend and soul-mate who 7 1/2 years ago decided to give up his career because he knew that he could serve our family better by staying home with our kids. I'm also very thankful that he's become an awesome cook.

My children, each a unique individual, they all add something special to our family. Kaylee is caring and helpful. Nate is pure energy with a lot of love thrown in. He's the most likely to share or remember to get a second of something for his sibilings. Max is a snuggler and easy-going (mostly).

My extended family and friends, they are supportive and loving. I rely on them for so much and I'm grateful for the roles they play in my life.

My job, 13 years ago God placed me in a work place with people that I have come to truly care for. My job both provides for my family's needs and provides me with a great deal of professional satisfaction.

This list could and should go on and on. But I'll end it here.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Max's home school art project

Max is showing more interest in art. Tonight he created this masterpiece in the kitchen using his bare hands and a tube of anti-itch ointment. He's a prodigy. It only took him 2 minutes to do it!










Boys! You gotta love 'em. Right? You gotta love 'em.

Disney Recap

Since we are back home life is back up to full speed again. Can I just say what a nice break we had? Make no mistake about it, a Disney Vacation is exhausting. But in a good way. We did have some lazy sleep-in mornings. We had some down time at the beach and we had lots of excitement for our high energy boys. But the best part about it was that we did it as a family. Even when Derek & I split up to do different things with the kids (one of the down sides of the huge age gaps between them) it was still amazing. We both got some one-on-one time with each of the kids and we all needed it. It was great to have the busy-ness be fun time instead of feeling pulled in different directions by outside forces.

Here are some photo highlights. If you enjoy them and want to see more you can check out my facebook album. It has about 80 pictures. If you really, really love Disney, photography or my family and want a link to our shutterfly album, send me an email and I'll give you the link- it has 975 pictures in it. (Yes, I took almost 1000 pictures on this vacation!)

Max driving at Tomorrowland Speedway. He techincally wasn't tall enough to drive but the cast members let him do it every time. Each time he also spend the whole time in line reminding us that he wanted a blue car.


Max dressed up like Buzz Lightyear while riding the ride. The cast members loved him. They saluted him and congratulated him on a mission well done. Max ate up the extra attention.


Nate riding Kali River Rapids on his own.


Kaylee & Nate riding Expedition Everest. (Kaylee is the purple blur near the front).


Max's birthday- All week he said I'm going to get Cars for my birtday.



Time with Grandparents:



Beach Time:


A sunset Dumbo Ride