Thankful

Our first Thanksgiving alone as a family of 4.
I have to say it was more wonderful than I thought it would be.
Not that being with my guys isn't wonderful all the time. I was afraid I'd be sad and missing family and all.
But I wasn't. Not a bit really.
We had a great day. We watched the parade. I cooked. Chance peeled potatoes and apples.
Then we stuffed our faces ate a nice meal of mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, glazed ham, and apple pie :)
We watched football and set up our Christmas trees.
It was a great Thanksgiving!

Here is our main tree in the evening :)

Our dinky tree. I'm not sure it'll stay up. I don't want to buy any Christmas stuff now. I'm waiting until after the holiday for cheap decor. I know now (after scoring the tree above for 80% off 5 days after Christmas last year) that waiting is totally worth it. The ornaments on the tree are why it's up. They are from my best friend. She bought them at a vintage shop. I love them and they mean a lot to me and they need to be up. So we'll see. They may get put up another way somewhere else in the house.

Our stockings. They also won't be hung this year. First time having a mantle and I'm waiting for after holiday sales to get the PEACE mantle hanger from Target :)

The best friend mentioned above. She gave me this ornament when we were seniors I think. Isn't it terrible that it was long enough ago the I can't remember right? Sheesh!

This used to be on my parent's tree. It's one of the things my mom let me have when I first moved out to decorate my tree. Starting December 1st there will be a chocolate in there every morning for Isaac to discover. He loved it last year. Landon will start next year. Right now he's learning to leave the tree alone. Doing pretty good so far :)

The boys' hand prints from the past two years. Now that I have the tree I realize my skirt doesn't match too well. I'll most likely get a new one after the holidays and trace these to the new one. We'll see. For now I melt every time I look down at it :)

Daytime tree :)

And the sweet, handsome men who God has blessed me with. I look at them each day and I can see God's love for me. I am so thankful for my Savior who sent his Son to die for my sins. And then he gives me these three guys? I am so loved and I hope that you may also know of His love for you.

Fall Swap!

I had the pleasure of participating in the Just Add Color Swap hosted by Ashlee at On the Front Porch Looking In and Jessica at You Are My Color a few weeks ago and I can tell you with great certainty that I was paired up with the best partner! Victoria over at Mine to Live...with Faith, Hope, Love and Coffee sent me the BEST scarf and nail color. Seriously I am in love with this polish and it is all I have worn since I got it in the mail. And I know I've mentioned it here before, but I love getting mail. I just love walking to the mailbox, reaching in and seeing something personally addressed to me. Makes me feel special ha ha. It's true! Anyways, so here is a picture of the awesomeness which is the polish and scarf I received. And my new hairdo. It's growing on me :) literally...

(And my computer camera takes terribly dark photos. Obviously.)

Content

Recently I have been pulled to books, verses, and stories about contentment. I am currently reading Reshaping it All by Candace Cameron Bure. And just in case you're looking for a good read on physical and spiritual health, this is it! Sometimes I struggle with not being content with my clothes, house, family size, spiritual life, food choices, etc. You name it, I've struggled over it! Candace says something that encourages me and give me something to strive for in relation to what I eat.

"God calls us to be content, and contentment cannot abide with greed, nor can it abide with self-pity. A content person will be just as happy to eat an entree in a restaurant as she will a salad on the go. I've learned to appreciate abundance, and I've learned to also appreciate those times when I've had to skip a meal or grab a granola bar as I'm heading out the door."

This may not make tons of sense to everyone, but I like putting it here to encourage and for me to look back at. It took me 4 days to write this post. I started it feeling strong and believing that God wanted me to share what was on my heart. Then I started to get stressed. About a blog post I know. Kinda lame, but whatever! After mulling it over with myself for days I decided to just do it. Sometimes I let the devil trick me into believing things about myself and my relationship with God that aren't true. On this blog for example, I don't post things often about my faith because I'm afraid my past will make people laugh at my post. I know God has forgiven me, but will others? Is my walk with God not strong enough to share about what he's teaching me through my bible reading? Thoughts like these keep me from posting things that might actually touch someone or speak to them or lead them closer to Christ. Well here is just a glimpse of something I've been thinking about and sorry for rambling. Hope you all are having a great Tuesday. It's like a Monday here since Mr. had a 4 day weekend :) And before I go, here are the babies who melt my heart at least once a day.

Recent News in Photos

Buddy Bear turned 3! Wow! He got lots of great stuff including this bike from us. He wants to ride it all day every day :)

Painting pumpkins. No one else wanted to join in the fun so Buddy and I carved one, painted two and colored on the last one with crayons :)

Mr. was promoted last Friday. It was exciting to see him get to this point in his Army career. We're so proud of you babe :)

(In case you're wondering, I changed hubby's name on here for OPSEC reasons. Ooooh the Army)

Playing outside :)

This is what happens when you try to take pictures of active boys on a super sunny day :)


I melt :)

Passed out on the floor :)

I would like a new camera! One that I can produce awesome pictures from, but until then I stick with my nice little digital one :) You can't really tell but these trees are dark reds, yellows, and greens in my backyard. I like having the forest right in my view :)

He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
Psalm 104:19

Happy November everyone!