Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  The weather was perfect, the food was fabulous, and having everyone together was priceless! 

It was so nice to finally spend a holiday with my family being complete...really makes you appreciate time together.  :)

For Thanksgiving we had the blessing of 2 meals...we started out at lunch at my in-laws house.  We had a huge spread and got to spend time with Jason's family.  It was a great time and we ate way too much.  For dinner we journeyed over to my brother's house where my mom was along with my brother's roommate and his family.  We ate way too much there too...by the end of the day I was thankful for elastic ;) 

Below are some pictures of our Thanksgiving:

Madeline and Jason:

Jason and Jackson:

Me and Madeline:

Madeline modeling her thanksgiving outfit:

the kids playing a game of football with Uncle Zach:

my mother in laws cute tablescape complete with a thankful tree:

Jack writing on his leaf what he is thankful for.  He wrote that he is thankful for God.  :)

Madeline writing what she is thankful for - she "wrote" everything

Jason wrote he was thankful for being home with his family.

I wrote that I was thankful for no empty plates at the table this year...so thankful for that this year!
Family photo - Jason, his mom, his granddad and the kids:

Jason and his mom:

My in-laws:

*I regret that I forgot to take pictures at my brothers house :(  I could kick myself for it.
This Thanksgiving season has been such a time of reflection for me.  I am thankful for so much.

1.   I am thankful for salvation
2.   I am thankful that the blood of Jesus has covered all my sins and washed me clean
3.   Grace
4.   Mercy
5.   For my husband returning home safely
6.   For my brother returning home safely
7.   For the love my husband has for me
8.   For my family-for the love they have always shown, for their encouragement, for their support
9.   Health
10. Provision
11. I am thankful for friends - it is not an easy task to be a friend to someone who is going through a tough journey...I am so thankful for those friends who held me up- for their calls, notes, messages, texts, lunch dates, prayers and just time hanging out ...they made some really hard days easier and some good days great!
12. I am thankful for lessons learned...
13. I am thankful for Wives of Faith - it was such an encouragement to me during my journeys through deployments.  I have loved being a part of this organization and watching God grow it.
14. I am thankful for the girls in my bible study.  I have witnessed such growth in these special ladies.  I am looking forward to our next study starting up very soon.
15. I am thankful for all those who helped me out while Jason was gone.  Many days I found myself going in 200 different directions and without the help of running kids to activities, the meals delivered to us, and my family for keeping the kids overnight occasionally so I could rest..I know I could not have made it with out them.
16. I am thankful for blogging - it has allowed me to meet some great people and has given me opportunities I would not have otherwise had.

I am just thankful...thankful for so very much! 

I hope that each one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Happy 5th Birthday Madeline!

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is now 5 years old...it seems impossible to me that she can already be 5!
In 5 years this child has taught me so much...patience, humility, determination...just to name a few.  She is always full of surprises..has been since the day she was born - she arrived 3 1/2 weeks early just in time to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital and has seriously been full of surprises since.  She has earned many nicknames including Chunky Monkey and Madzilla...ahhh the toddler years, she wore the name Madzilla well (remember I said she taught me a lot about patience).  She has taught me determination in 2 ways:  there is NOTHING and I do mean nothing that she lets stand in her way...which can be a good thing-I think, but makes it challenging for mommy to train.  She has also taught me about her determination in another way.  When she was just 3 weeks old, she had RSV and was in the hospital in the NICU for nearly a week...as a mommy there is nothing like seeing your baby placed in an ambulance with a critical care team and rushed off to the hospital and there is nothing like seeing your infant hooked up to all these monitors that are constantly beeping...scary times but she was determined to get better and she did =)

So today in honor of her 5th birthday, I wanted to share some pictures of our sweet little girl over the past 5 years:


The day she was born:

About 3 months old...she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger instantly:

About 6 months old sitting with her big brother Jack:

About 8 months old, first trip to the beach:

She turned 1 on Thanksgiving day:

Her 1st birthday party:

For the longest, I did not think she would ever have hair....then she finally got some.  Here she is at about 1 1/2 years:

Ahhh...determination....we hit the terrible 2's early...always an overachiever, lol:

About 20 months:

2nd birthday party:

2 years old:

2 1/2...getting her own little pedi:

3rd birthday party:

3 years old:

4th birthday party:

4 years old:

4 1/2 years old on a school field trip:

Our 5 year old:

and last night before she went to bed, she asked her daddy to paint her fingernails and toenails...of course he did as she requested...it was a precious site to see!

Happy Birthday to our precious, determined, full of energy, funny, fearless, little princess!  I have loved watching you grow and learn over the last 5 years and can not wait to see more!!! 

Madeline's 5th Birthday

This past weekend, we celebrated Madeline's 5th birthday.  She wanted to invite a few friends for a pottery painting party, so that is what we did ;)

I still can not believe that my baby girl is going to turn 5 this week!  wow...time is going way too fast!

As I was getting everything prepared and packed in  the car to go to the party, I was reflecting on her birthday party's in previous years.  It was hard for me not to tear up a little bit...I got to thinking about how thankful I am that her daddy is here this year for her birthday.  How grateful I am that deployment ended when it did.  So many people do not realize how much our soldiers miss out on.  They miss so much: birth's and birthday's, anniversaries, holidays, first day of school, graduations, and so many milestones.  I was thinking about Madeline's parties in the past and realized her daddy has only been able to be at every other birthday...He was here for 1st birthday, deployed for 2nd, home for 3rd, deployed for 4th, and fortunately home for 5th...so every other year...here's to hoping we can break this cycle before 6...

So, on a lighter note....
here are some pictures from Madeline's party:
the food table:

The polka dot cake made by my precious friend Wendy:

Madeline and Meme:

big brother Jack waiting to paint his airplane:

Madeline and Sadie:

Chase and Madeline (these 2 are so funny together!):

helping my birthday girl carry her paint:

Madeline chose to paint Cinderella:

working hard to paint her just right:

birthday girl giving mommy bunny ears...silly kid!:

blowing out her candle:

love this look of pure excitement!:

daddy got to be the photographer of the party so we got a picture when we got home ;)  This little girl loves her daddy!:

Madeline really enjoyed her party, she loved getting to paint with her friends, and I loved how easy the party was...we will definitely be doing this again!

Look At Her Go!

I am so proud of our sweet Madeline...she learned how to ride her bike this week without training wheels!  I can not believe it...

I can not believe she will be 5 next week!  Where has the time gone???  Seems like she should still be bouncy like crazy in her jumpy thing...not riding a bike without training wheels...sigh
Below are some pictures of her big ride:

Daddy helping her get started:

And she is off:

Look at her go:

She was so happy to be riding like a big girl!

Big brother Jack ran along side of Madeline to make sure she was ok:

Madeline and mommy:

Madeline and Daddy (this picture makes me smile):

Jack and Madeline:

ok, confession time

The pictures above are not from her first time riding without training wheels..she did that on Monday...these pictures were taken on Tuesday.  See I took pictures on Monday with my camera phone, went to upload them, and my phone went ka-poot.  Seriously, black screen with nothing but the apple sign....I tried everything.  Charging-would not charge. Turning off-would not turn off.  Restore-declined. Took it to the "professionals" they could not do it either.  I seriously tried everything.  Sooo....I got a much needed new phone!  YAY!  I had the original iphone.  The original that came out over 2 yrs ago.  Yes, that was my phone.  Has been for over 2 yrs.  So it was seriously time to upgrade.  I now have the 4!  yay!  I am loving it...BUT...I lost everything!  everything :(  contacts, data, and pictures :( 
So...we had to re-create the events of Monday.  (I know nobody would ever know that if I had not shared, but ...I think it is kinda funny now so I wanted to share) 

Well, I am off to play on my phone and try to contact my friends so I can get their info back in my phone...so friends, if your reading this, email me your info, please =)