Thankful Thursday

I have much to be thankful for on this Thursday. Lately the 'winter blues' have seemed to have gotten the better of me. Growing up we, as kids LOVED winter. We would go outside and play for hours it seemed. And so I vowed to myself to one day do the same thing with my kids so that they too would have the love of winter and the love of snow. Needless to say my plan isn't working out so well. However, today was a good day. I attend BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) each Thursday and the kids go with me. It's quite a feat to get all three of us up, eat breakfast, get dressed and out the door by 8:30 in the morning. Usually we cut it close but today we made it out in great time! So I'm thankful for a reliable car to get us where we needed to go. I'm thankful for a reason to get ourselves up and out the door this morning. I'm thankful for a good discussion group today with encouraging women.

After BSF the kids and I went out to lunch and proceeded onto the store to pick up some things. Keira had been given a one dollar bill by a friend from church, we'll call him Uncle Andrew. And she was super excited to be able to get some stickers. Our challenge was going to be to find some stickers for just $1. But we were successful and Keira had such pride going up to the cashier, putting her stickers down and paying for them.

I'm thankful for the little things like paying for stickers :)

And I'm so thankful for our little princess! God is good....all the time!

First snowstorm of 2011!

Yesterday was our first big snowfall of the New Year! The skies dropped an unofficial 4-5 inches! The roads and grounds are still covered and I think we've only seen like 1 snowplow come down our street. We also ventured outside today to test out and see if it was good packing snow for our first snowman. We got ALL bundled up...luckily Keira's gotten pretty good at getting herself dressed so it didn't take too long. But we were out there maaaaaaybe 5 min.?? Enough to get these photos, make half an angel, fill a sand bucket with snow, dump it back out and then head inside and take everything back off. :) ....yes, I love snow, but with two little ones - not so much. Is it springtime yet??? If we're lucky we'll have three more months of this stuff. I guess that just means a lot of trips to the library!

Here's how he really feels!

Ohwell, at least we tried :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

This past weekend we celebrated our last family Christmas and brought in the New Year! We are so thankful for all of you and can't wait to make 2011 our best year yet!! Here are some pix...

Opening up some Christmas PJ's

Yay for PJ's!!

Gotta leave some milk and cookies for the big man...er little santa man :)

Christmas morning at the top of the stairs! Kanaan doesn't look quite awake yet

Believe it or not, but a flashlight was one of her favorite gifts this year :)

Kanaan got socks!

Santa's big gift was a pull out couch/bed for each of the kids. Keira's was princesses...

...and Kanaan's was Toy Story. Again, a little less than thrilled. But he'll get the hang of things next year.

Then it was off to C-Bus. Tiffer was there too!

A LeapFrog light-up and talk to me puppy. We even programmed it to say Kanaan's name!

Keira even got some princess dress-up clothes! Here she is as Cinderella.

Here she is as Belle.

And some Ariel PJ's!! And sadly, our last Christmas picture. That's all we took this year! May you all have a Happy New Year! If you haven't received your Christmas card yet, it's probably still on it's way :)

8 Months

Kanaan is 8 months old. Almost 9! He is a busy little guy and has such a great temperament. At 8 months he is...
- saying "ma ma ma ma," "ba, ba, ba," "na, na, na, na"
- grunts to get your attention and laugh
- has the best belly laugh when Daddy snuggles his neck
- can click his tongue
- can crawl, although still pretty slow going
- can pull himself up and 'walk' around as long he's holding onto something & holding onto your fingers
- is 20 lbs. and about 26" tall (big sis is only 26 lbs!!)

Time goes so quick - Oct. & Nov. catch up

Is it really December!? Is it really almost Christmas?? Well then I have some catching up to do. I may be making another post soon after this so that I can continue to catch everyone up on our busy, ever changing lives!!

We finished off Keira's birthday celebrations up in MI with Gramma & Granpa and the rest of the gang. Jason made an Ariel cake for the party and it was a big hit!

He did such a good job that no one wanted to touch it right away :)

Here we are at the pumpkin patch at Nana's house. We even got to go on a hayride!! The kids both loved it!

Trunk-or-treating at a friends church. It was a HUGE turnout and super cold.

Our beautiful pink butterfly <3

And Buzz Lightyear!

This was our second night out. The outfits similar to how they started.

Kanaan at 8 mo. :D

This year we were at Uncle Tiffer & Cole's house for Thanksgiving. Paw Paw & Mimi handed out presents early!! The sock monkey's were a big hit!! Thank you!

Paw Paw & his crew :)

We also had a visit from a college roommate of mine and her TWO little ones. Here Alex is with Kanaan.

And here's Keira with Chloe. Too cute. Wish they could have stayed longer and visited. The girls got along great and didn't want to stop playing.