Top 10 Things I am Thankful For

1. First and foremost, I am thankful for having a God that loves me. Without God, my other things I am thankful for would be non-existent. He provides all blessings and without Him, I would have and be nothing.

2. My wonderful husband, Gary. We have our issues, but there is noone else in the world that I would rather hang out with. He is a man that would do anything for anybody without complaining. He works so hard that I am afraid I will lose him someday, but he does it for our family and I love that about him.

3. My kids, Braquel, Mikayla, Chelsey, Treven, and Ellie. They are my most cherished blessings. I don't know how your love grows everyday, but it does. They are my everything, my pride and joy.

4. Our health. I have been sick with a cold these last few days and I am miserable, but overall we have been blessed with health. We have never had health insurance and so far, we have always had the money when we needed it to take the kids to the doctor and such. Even when Ellie was born and she was so small, I was afraid she would have to stay at the hospital, but thank heavens she was healthy enough to go home.

5. I absolutely love my home and the town we live in. Every night when we go to bed, we talk about how much we love our house. It is so perfect for us (except we could use another bathroom, but I'm not complaining!) Our house has everything we have ever wanted. I can remember that I was so excited it had such weird things like a clothesline and bleeding hearts already started. Simple joys, but I count them as blessings.

6. I'm thankful to live in America. I think there are certainly troubled time ahead, but to be able to believe as I choose is amazing. I believe this land will be blessed as long as we continue to be a Christian nation and I am concerned about how quickly we have taken God out of our country, but it still is one of the best countries in the world.

7. My friends. We have had so many good friends for many years. We haven't had the time to spend with them since we opened the bar, but they have continued to stick with us. We have also made so many new friends in Albion. We have so many wonderful people in our lives that bless us daily.

8. Technology. Sound weird, but how bad would life suck if there were no computers to blog on, no washer to clean our clothes, no cars to get the kids to basketball practice...get my point? Also, the advancement of medicines allow us to live longer, more productive lives.

9. My parents. They taught me so much and made me the person I am today. They have both remarried amazing people and we are so lucky that the kids have so many grandparents to love them. Also, my in laws. What a family I married into...couldn't have asked for better people than Bert and Gary.

10. My love of reading. I love to read (even though I don't have time to read much now) and it has really expanded my mind. I think it's crazy that 200 hundred years ago, only about half of Americans could read.

Well, off to work I go. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

We're Going to State!

Declo High School is headed to state tonight! Our football team is undefeated and we are playing at the Holt Arena in Pocatello tonight. I got a bartender lined up and Grandma and Grandpa Jones are lined up to keep Ellie and we are headed out soon....I can't wait. It's pretty exciting since this is Braquel's senior year. Braquel and Keven are riding up together and Gary and I are driving up with Mikayla, Chelsey, and Treven. We went to state last year (after a pretty rough start) and lost to Parma in overtime by 1 stinkin' point. Guess who we play this year...PARMA! Hopefully the end result will be different this time around. I'm taking my camera, but I think we will be too far away to get good pics. Wish us luck- these kids really deserve a win; they've worked so hard to get here!

Ellie's 8 months old

Our little stinker is one month older....I hate this part! She has learned so much this last month that I keep thinking she won't be a baby much longer. She now says dada....A LOT! A bit too much for my taste. She knows her daddy and just lights up when she sees him or hears his voice.

She sure smiles a lot, but it is really hard to get a laugh out of her. She will do a little giggle, but not the deep down belly laugh that is so funny. She must have more of my sense of humor. I don't laugh that easily either.

Remember the little lamb that she got when she was one week old. We take her picture with it each month as she gets one month older. You can see in this picture how big she really has grown since she was born!

Our little cutie!How can you not just absolutely fall in love that beautiful face?

Halloween 2009

This is Treven trying to get Ellie to look at me instead of eating the leaves! She was determined to eat anything and everything on the lawn!

Treven dressed up as a guy off G.I. Joe. I thought he looked like a ninja, but if you look closely at the cover of the new G.I. Joe movie, there is a guy that looks just like this. He had a sword type thing that he carried around and was a huge hit with all the kids at his school.

Chelsey decorated our trunk for the Albion Trunk-or-Treat. She did such a great job! We had these Styrofoam headstones and the bones. I bought this great fabric that looked like dirt and she topped it all off with some spiderwebs and some real leaves for authenticity. She was so proud of her design and felt bad when we disqualified all of the planners from being able to win the $50.00 top prize. We also had a spooky cd playing. We passed out full-size Nerds, Chewy Sweettarts, Mini Chewy Sweethearts, and something else that I can't remember. I bought 80 and we had quite a few when we got home. We also passed out Spongebob Halloween Fruit Snacks for some of the smaller kids. I had several kinds of candy bars at home for the trick or treaters here, too. A little overboard, I know, but Halloween is only once a year.

More of Miss Ellie-Funt! She is a little get-in-sky already! Everything goes in that little mouth of hers.

Gary went to Annie's dressed as a mobster (although he kept saying he was a pimp and I was the ho) Not funny, I know! I was dressed as a flapper girl so we kind of went together. Everyone really liked his costume and he played it up! His mom and dad came up to see the kids' costumes and they stopped in the bar to see us before they headed home. His mom told me to make sure I got a picture of him! He did look awfully handsome that night..glad he came home with me!!! LOL

Also new this week:

*Ellie cut her first tooth on the 14th.

*Mikayla's first basketball game against Gooding today at 4:30 in Declo

* I'm going Christmas shopping in Boise exactly one week from today!

*Treven's school is selling RADA knives of anyone is interested. They are awesome knives- I've had a set for close to ten years and I love them. They aren't really that expensive either!

*I'm off to work on some decluttering- hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Treven's Room

When we moved into our house almost three years ago, it was with the intention that we would be converting our garage into a bedroom for Treven. Never happened.....until we discovered we were having another baby and we really had to do the room. I waited and waited for Gary to get everything out of the garage, and finally at 7 months pregnant, I took action. Mikayla and I spent a whole Saturday sorting through things for the DI, the dump, and the keep pile. My friend, Diana brought her truck up and we loaded it three times for the dump. It was crazy how much crap you can accumulate! Anyway, construction finally got started and we were told it would be over before the baby was born. Ellie was two weeks early, but let me tell you, we were NOWHERE near done. In fact, I dropped the check for the carpet off on our drive home from the hospital!!!!

The room got somewhat finished about two weeks after Ellie was born and Treven immediately moved his things in. Well, there was still the closet to do, the trim, the windows, and the new door that led to the outside of the house to finish, all things that were livable. Last Thursday and Friday, my father in law and the contractor ( my f-i-l's friend) came and got the rest of the windows, the door, the trim, and the closet doors on. It looks so much better. All I have left to do is retouch some paint and a little more trim that we didn't have enough of for the inside of the closet. Gary will have to hang a closet shelf and a rod. We had a plastic type closet organizer, but it looks kind of cheap so he wants to take it back and get a better one. Still, the room is done for the most part and we're loving it.

Finally updating

Wow, I guess it's been nearly a month since I last updated! Shame on me- I really get annoyed when people don't update their blogs and now I find myself in that same category.

Braquel is busy doing all the senior things. She had some senior portraits done by my fabulous sister-in-law, Robin! They turned out great! I've tried uploading them three or four times to post, but they never seem to upload...(I am about ready to trade in my new computer...I am so frustrated with it!) We ordered her cap and gown and all that good stuff. It's really starting to hit me that we are losing her. All she wants for Christmas is things that she will need for her own place. I keep telling her that she is a bad daughter for wanting to leave us, but she keeps telling me that it's part of life and I'll survive. I guess it means we've done a good job raising her, she's independent and ready to be on her own, but it's killing me! I don't even remember life without her. I don't even want to think about our family without her here with us every day.

Mikayla made the freshman basketball team so we've been getting her to Declo every morning by 5:50 am! Not an easy task for anyone that knows me! I've had a screaming headache for three straight days and I'm sure it's from the lack of sleep. I can't go back to bed when I get home because I'm afraid I won't get up to get Treven to school on time! Anyway- she has her first game on the 17th in Gooding. I'm going to try to go watch and maybe Lindsay will be cheering so we can see her, too!

Chelsey has been babysitting up a storm! Seems like she's always got someone here or she is going somewhere. She is determined to be Ellie's favorite sister so she stays busy playing with her and loving on her. Even when it's someone else's job to stay up with her until I get home, it's usually Chelsey that stays with her. Ellie will reach for Chelsey over most everyone else. She loves her so much!

Treven already hates to go to school. The boy just wants to play all stinkin' day and night! He barely gets through the door and wants to know if he can go play with his friends! He's such a sweet boy, though. He is so quick with that cute smile and deep dimple that it just melts his mommy's heart.

Ellie has learned so many new things. She says da-da all the time. She has learned to clap and she rolls everywhere now. She ends up in the weirdest of places! We took her to Kiddie Kandids at the mall and had some pictures done, but I have to say they really didn't capture her personality very well. I kind of feel like I wasted my money because I have better pics on my camera. We are having her dedicated this Sunday at church. I bought her a beautiful long white dress with lots of emboidery on it. She's going to look like a little angel.

Gary took the girls hunting most of last month. They all three ended up getting their deers. He's been cutting meat and smoking jerky for two weeks straight, I swear! It's nice to be done with it and knowing there is meat in the freezer. Braquel and Mikayla aren't too sure they want to go next year, Mikayla just cried and cried when she saw Gary gutting the deer. They both have pretty tender hearts and it really bothered them to watch an animal die. Braquel shot hers and it didn't die right away. She didn't have the heart to shoot it again, so she made Gary finish it off so it didn't suffer anymore. Keven told her it was a good thing she was hunting with her dad because if she goes with him, she has to gut her own deer. Dad just knows he has to do the really gross stuff (getting the fish off the hook, gutting deer, etc.) It comes with the dadddy territory!

I was really busy doing Halloween stuff. A couple of gals and I planned Albion's first Trunk-or-Treat. We took 5 days to throw the whole thing together, but it turned out great. We figure we served about 100 people dinner. People were really involved and came dressed up and had their trunks decorated. We even had several businesses donate for the cause so we can make next years bigger and better. I also was asked to do Treven's school party. There are roughly 25 kids in his school. I brought in sliced apples with caramel dip, juice, and dirt pudding cups with gummy worms. We played a Monster Mash game (everyone ties a balloon to their ankle and you try to pop everyone else's balloon without them popping yours first) and I had six paper bags with various foods that represented body parts. The kids had to feel the food and guess what the food was and what body part it was supposed to be. I laughed and laughed at their reactions!
We had cooked spaghetti for intestines, pretzels for bones, popcorn kernals for teeth, a dried apricot for skin, peeled grapes for eyeballs, and the best of all- smooshed bananas for brains! They all were just sickened when they reached in that bag!!!

I'm glad October is over and I am anxious for Thanksgiving. I have been so blessed in my life and I really like taking some time to focus on my blessing before the craziness of Christmas starts in. I am looking forward to the annual sister shopping trip. I'm about halfway done with my shopping and I plan to really trim the rest of the list up that day. It sure takes the stress out to be close to done!