abundance of thankful...

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Psalm 107:1 (NIV)


if there is one thing i can say i have learned in a new way this year, it's that god is truly good.
i have seen his blessing flow both in my life and in the lives of people around me.

i have seen friends lean on him in time of weakness,
i have seen people rejoice in his faithfulness,
and i have worshiped in his unexpected blessings.

god is good, and i am so thankful to be covered in his love.


thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday (ok probably not as a child, but most definitely my whole adult life).
there is something amazing about the month of november to me. it's a full month to reflect and show thankfulness to each and ever blessing god has bestowed on my life. before we get to the month of material gifts, we get a whole month of simply being thankful.

it's the month of november where it always hits me hard, how sincerely thankful i am that god's plan worked out for my life and not the ideas i had in my head.
the month when i look at each one of my children, and know whole heartedly how blessed they have made me whether planned or unexpected.
the month i know i am blessed to call my friends "my friends".

november is a whole month of thankful, and i love it.

this year was a tad bit different then thanksgivings past...
brian and i had talked about how we have never enjoyed a thanksgiving at our own home, where we cooked.
always running from house to house... which is good, but we wanted to try one on our own.

and now that's it's done and over i can say...
although i always complain about going house to house to house, i really missed it, myself.
so, it's not a new tradition. but it was a thanksgiving full of memories.
and someday...
when the tables of time turn, and it's our house the kids come home to with their families...
we can handle it, and will do fine.

so much to be thankful for.

pies...

i bet you've gotten used to this by now.
a life so crammed, i've almost pretty much given up blogging.
but, then i remembered...
i do this for my kids. so that they can one day look back and see the many ways they have blessed our lives.


my heart is so thankful for each and every one of them, i couldn't possible imagine this life without them in it.....
so, i continue on with my blogging.


pie day didn't go nearly as planned out as i had hoped.
i had taken the girls into the doctor to have their lingering coughs looked at on tuesday morning,
with the holiday weekend coming up i was leaving nothing to chance.
and as it ended up, i'm thankful i did too.

all three have "walking pneumonia", which means they are all being nebulized every 3 hours!
alivia goes first, and does great,
levi goes second, and complains after 5 minutes,
and nataley fights it the entire time each and every time.

they are all still coughing,
which makes me anxious to see how their rechecks will be on tuesday...


wednesday aka "pie day" was a rainy, crazy mess!
seriously, the line was backed up all day long. i kept waiting for a break to change my soggy shoes, but never could find time to do so. finally at about 4 brian brought me a pair of slippers from gift shop and i finished the day out with them.

i got out by 9:15...
went and picked my kids up,
nebulized them one last time before bed,
and crashed myself...

for i needed to be up early to prepare my first thanksgiving feast!!!

we ♥ pie...

there really is no better way to end three full days of working a craft booth, running to meetings and grand openings
then to be able to sit down together as a family and enjoy a dinner out, right?

almost sounds relaxing...
but not when your part of this family and you are filming their first ever tv commercial.
Ok, the local cable network isn't exactly the same as being national, but still pretty stinking cool!


not to mention it was the first time brian and i have ever sat down together and eaten in yoder's at a table, while it was open....
seriously, in ten years we have never done that before... EVER!

i guess it's only natural that brian (and his little clan) are the first thing to come to mind when you think of
"yoder's amish village"... and yes, they are a "village" now!


doing GREAT things, all in gods timing!

some day the princes kiss will wake her....

i often go in my children's rooms just to get to see them in their sweet slumber.
it honestly is one of my most favorite things....

last night when i snuck quietly into their room this is what i found.
(she has been sleeping on her little princess couch at night lately (sneaking in there after i tuck her in her bed)).

fall festive....

here i am again with not alot of time, and plenty to blog about.
sigh, crunch time wont be ending anytime soon i fear.


fall festival...
i think i have mentioned this before. levi's school always does some sort of special event every month. the day is always filled with clever activities, and all the kids have so much fun. levi always tells me after those days how much he likes school.

well, fall festival was no different. from hay stacks and games, to cotton candy and snow cones...
with a class hay ride through the schools pumpkin patch to top it all off.
it interested me to watch and see just how much levi has grown in the past few months.
his skills in alot of the activities amazed me....
and i can tell you first hand, that boy playes me at home! he can do perfectly most everything that he still asks for help with at home.

here are the stations they had:
~musical chairs
~ the cracker whistle
~ the apple sauce slurp
~ hay stack class photo spot
~ clothes pin drop (dropping clothes pins into a mason jar from a standing up position.
~ hula hoop hustle
~ find a coin in a hay stack (which was levi's favorite)
~ tug of war (which was my favorite to watch)
~ face painting
~ potato sack race (which was another fun one to watch)
~ and an obstacle race (which ended with levi running with a potato on a spoon.

so, as you can tell the day was full of excitement.
most activities that where "competition" were boys against girls.... and the girls always won!

i helped out with snow cones towards the end of the day, which left me a sticky mess.
but i don't mind cause i am getting to know so many new faces, and making new friends of my own.





halloween...
alivia decided she wanted to be a cupcake of all things (i think she saw the pottery barn catalog) so my brain rotated and decided that nataley would be a ice cream cone. i had hoped that i could convince levi to be a cookie so that brian and i could put aprons on and be bakers....
but, i would imagine every mother in the world would have a hard time talking their 4 year old son into be something so lame as a cookie, so in the end bumblebee transformer beat my idea out the window.
halloween was a rather hot night and we all pretty much sweated to death, poor nataley was a watery mess half way through, so i improvised and her ice cream cone costume was transformed into a doughnut by the nights end.

not two houses into it faye bay fully understood to go up to the door pick out her piece of candy and return it to her bucket that daddy was holding. she would even get mad when we made her sit out a house or two along the way.

alivia freaked out at all the "scary" houses...
which is one of the many reasons why i really don't personally care for halloween.
and levi would shoot his arm gun and all the "mean" costumes he saw along the road.

so, here i am a full week later with loads of candy, which i only let the kids pick two pieces a day...
and will more then likely throw the rest out sometime this week (or hand it off to alyson) seeing as how no one in this family is big candy eaters.


they had fun, which is what's important, and the talk of what to be next year has already started.






levi's repot card...
yes, my son received his first little report card this week in the mail. he had pretty much all "O" or "G" except for that he won't sit for more then 8 minutes to listen to a story...
daddy's son 100% :)

the parent/teacher conference was good. levi is a pleasure in mrs. koch's class. he is learning so much, and is pretty much right along with all the other kids in his class....
which was my concern because of the past hearing issues, and the young summer birthday of his. they have started ladder blends and i must admit...
it is the coolest thing in the world to see my biggest little person actually starting to "read" all on his own.
smarter and smarter everyday!