Thanksgiving

I have so much to be grateful for and feel so blessed everyday. I am so thankful for my little family and the joy they bring me on a daily basis. They make me smile, laugh, cry and teach me more than anything else. They teach me more about myself all the time, and am thankful for their patience with me. I am so lucky to have them.

We had a great Thanksgiving. It was full of food, family, friends and a little football of course.

The table all set for our Thanksgiving feast!


The turkey going in....


all done! And Kev decided to smoke a turkey at the last minute. Both were delish!


Time with Grandpa! They enjoyed playing with him and watching truck utube videos on his laptop.


I just think he is adorable! He loved eating mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.


We had a great day. My dad and his friend Lisa came up from Portland and my good friend Brittnay and her family joined us.

Then later that evening I hit the start of Black Friday with a couple friends and we had a fun time out there with all the "crazies"!

Thankful Number Nine

Today I am thankful for those two little teeth you should see in this picture if you look close enough.



Why am I thankful for this and the blessed event of teething. Well because it gives some explanation as to why this little guy likes to wake me up all night long!

It may not be the only reason he is waking up, but I'd like to think this is why Mr. Z is keeping me from getting my z's.

So thank goodness for teeth! They take forever to come in and so when these two started popping through, I was relieved to know this had to be the reason.

And isn't he just so cute!

Thankful Number Eight

I just have to write a little about my Ty. I just love him to pieces and am so thankful for him.

Most mornings Ty greets me at 7:30 and I am usually not ready to get up yet, so he gets pulled into bed with me. Half an hour goes by and by then he is usually begging me for juice and to go downstairs. And then all of sudden out of the blue he will say, "Good Morning Mommy". And it is this greeting that just melts my heart for some reason. I love it when he does this.

Ty is quite polite and will frequently say "bless you" when I sneeze and most the time will say "please" and "thank you" without being prompted. I love hearing these little phrases with his cute voice.

He is a great big brother and is always concerned about where Zac and Gracie are. He tries to protect them and doesn't like it when other kids try to play with Zac. Of course he is also a brother who can bug, pester and continually is taking toys out of Zac's hands. But Gracie is his best friend and even though he thinks he can tell her to go to timeout, I know he loves her so.



Ty is super sensitive, he gets real sad if I raise my voice and has a difficult time when I am yelling and screaming to cheer on the Ducks. He has a hard time with loud noises. He still hates the vacuum cleaner.

My boy is all about trucks! Loaders, diggers, dump trucks, big trucks! He loves his trucks. And he will tell you that when he decides to go poo poo in the potty then we get to go to target and get his big loader.

I just love spending my day with this kid. He cracks me up, melts my heart and pushes my buttons all day long. I am so grateful I am his mom and hope that I can teach him how to be a strong, confident, successful person. I see such potential in him and am excited to see him grow. But not too fast dang it! He is already almost three and has grown so fast!

I just love you Ty Ty! Thank you for filling my day with love!

Thankful Number Seven

It has been so fun having my mom and Jim here. The kids have loved the attention and interaction with Grandma and Grandpa.

Today I caught some fun moments of Grandpa time. I am thankful for his willingness to play with my babes.

Here they are getting all bundled up to take the dogs for a walk. This was one of Ty's major requests for the day.


It is always fun to ride a horsie!


And of course we struggle with taking turns!


Just love this picture. Such a sweet moment.


We love our grandparents! Just wish we lived closer. Thanks for coming to visit us!

Thankful Number Six

Today I am thankful for fun family moments like these:

Getting kisses from Bob is so fun!!


Time with Grammy and doing puzzles together.


And he is just too cute for words!


Wrestling time for Gracie and Ty! This doesn't always end well, but is so fun!


A great day had by all!

Thankful Number Five

At the end of a long hard day, there is nothing like falling asleep.



I am thankful for this daddy/daughter moment.

Thankful Number Four

It's a little hard trying to remember something I am thankful for after I just spent 20 minutes scrubbing poo out of the twins carpet. So I guess its a good thing my mom came to visit today!

I am so thankful for her!



She and my stepdad Jim drove all day to come see us for the weekend! They are so great to do that for us. The kids were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa come and were estatic when they saw that Maggie and Bob (their dogs) came too! We're so lucky to have them here! Thank you Mama!

P.S. She will be mad I posted this picture as she wasn't expecting me to take one since she had been traveling in a car all day!

Thankful Number Three

Today I am thankful for packages. Big or small the anticiapation of a package coming in the mail is always fun. One of my bad habits is online shopping, well mostly it is just online browsing, but sometimes I do buy, only when it is a good deal and even better when I can get free shipping. So a week or so ago I was browsing through the gymboree holiday outfits and came across a dress I absolutely love for Gracie. After a couple days of debating yes or no, should I or shouldn't I, I decided yes I wanted that dress for her. And so the anticiapation of its arrival was in full force. I had been tracking the package and thought it would come tomorrow. Kev went out to get the mail later this evening and much to my surprise he came in with a package! Is it sad to say seeing that package made me smile?



Thought I was going to show you the dress, huh! Nope, gotta wait until Gracie is actually in it. I will just tell you though it is darling.

I am thankful for big and small packages that come in all different ways, that make life a little brighter.

Thankful Number Two

Today was one of those days. But amongst the chaos I am thankful for:

Mac n' cheese!




For without it I am not sure what my kids would eat!

I love when I ask Ty what he wants for lunch and he replies in his cutest voice, "mac n' cheese mommmy, ty wants mac 'n cheese!" And we are mac n' cheese snobs, it has to be kraft.

Thank you kraft macaroni and cheese for giving me something my toddlers will eat!

Thankful Number One

So, in an effort to focus on gratitude this month I decided I need to post moments from my day that I am grateful for. It is easy to fall into a routine and forget that even though my day may seem slightly insignificant at the time, it is all these moments that I have while being at home with my kids that are so important. That even in between the loads of laundry, the continual pick up of toys and lately the wiping of snotty noses that being at home with my kids is the greatest blessing of all.

Today I was thankful for this moment:

My Gracie Girl!



Lately, she really has pushed my patience level and I have struggled with parenting her. But then I have moments like today where she actually let me put her in this adorable hat from her auntie and got her to smile a little. She really is a mommy's girl and I just need to realize that all she really wants is my love and attention all the time. The hard part for her is sharing me among her brothers. She is a sweetheart and I love her cute little laugh and how she loves playing with her brothers. She likes to be mommy's helper and is very independant when it comes to many things. She has struggled with going to sleep lately and I hope I can find a remedy for this problem. I love when she is all smiles and her happy, energetic self.




I love you Gracie Ann! Thank you for teaching me so much today. I hope to be a better mommy for you tomorrow.

Meet the Flintstones!

Halloween came and went so fast, I neglected to blog about our stone age family. Ty and Gracie had a blast this Halloween. They got to dress up twice, once for our church trunk or treat and then again on Halloween. We decided that this was the year for the whole family to dress up, so we went as Fred and Wilma Flintstone along with Pebbles, and Bam Bam Rubble with Zac as our dino. So fun! So sad though that lots of kids don't recognize these characters. Kev and I also went to an adult Halloween party and enjoyed dressing up then too. Sadly though I did not get a picture of the whole family together.

Our family home evening pumpkin carving, minus mine. I wasn't quite finished.


Ty and Gracie loved trying to carve their pumpkins. Gracie enjoyed putting stickers on hers. Ty enjoyed the carving tools.


"Yabba Dabba Doo!" Fred and Dino.


I just love this picture of Daddy and son, or I guess Daddy and dinosaur.


The cutest Bam Bam ever! He wasn't too fond of his club though. It was too wimpy for him because it was made of cloth. I think he would have preferred a bat.


Pebbles Flintstone! Too cute! She loved having the bone in her hair, but didn't enjoy when I sprayed it orange. I thought her costume turned out great, and she recieved many compliments when she went trick or treating.


All the kids minus Tad trick or treating. It was so fun for Ty and Gracie to go with our friends trick or treating.


Ty was such a pro, he kept right up with the big boys and wasn't scared to say trick or treat.


Our little Dino! I realize it is the wrong color, but he makes a pretty cute dinosaur.


I thought that we would have to keep stopping because they would want to eat their treats. But no once they realized the more houses you go to the more treats you get, they were ready to run.


Pebbles did so good trick or treating until she took a little fall and then got super cold. Here she is with good friend Tad. She was then carried by daddy.


LOVE this picture. My kids are super hard for me to take a good picture of because the twins don't like getting their picture taken. However, they are all looking at me...which equals success!


My baby girl. I love this picture because she is actually smiling in it! Yay! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she has all her treats in her hands.


Oh yes, can't forget Wilma! The Mama of the family.


A very fun Halloween and the twins have loved eating their "pumpkin treats".