A Thankful Spirit

I am so full of love and thankfulness this year. I have much to be writing about but I will keep it short. There is mashed potatoes to be made after all.

I am thankful for abundance. That we are overflowing with love, blessings and gifts from our Lord. We are so abundantly blessed that at times I have to stop and realize just how much we have it going on around here.

(Hey 3-year-old, hold your ring pop still so that my focus doesn't fall on your hand!)

Scheesh who said working with kids was a piece of cake?

Hey sassy-pants, don't talk to your mother that way,

unless it is to tell me all the ways you love me...then talk away!

Dude, we have got to have boundaries at other people's houses. I am sure Lily isn't impressed that you were playing with her potty. (Oh wait was it clean, empty, wiped out??)

Dear sweet son, your eyes are going to stick that way. (No they won't, it's just something I am suppose to say. I think I remember signing off on that page at the hospital. But I do need to complain. There was soooo much they didn't tell me!)

I am thankful for all of these beauties. They make my life sweet. I was sitting in the floor with Cannon and Grace and thought, goodness this sure is quiet and fun just sitting here with an 8 and 5 year old. We can play a game, we can talk, we can actually get through show without pausing it a bazillion times.

Then along came Mason, there is NO OTHER PLACE HE WANTS TO BE BESIDES YOUR LAP, and we happily obliged in letting him join our circle of quietness. We were squirmy but doing better than expected.

Out of the blue (how long did I really thing #4 would stay away?) Reece came a crawling up. He has no clue about personal space. When he is around he commands the floor or the space or the couch or the chair or the...you get the idea.

All I can say was that it was BLISS.

We could have stopped at 2. Our boy and our girl. What society deems the perfect family. But gracious I am so thankful today that we didn't. Because being a mommy to these darlings is just about the most perfect thing in this world I could write about.

And I wouldn't want to be a mommy to these kids without their daddy. He is by far the best. I find such joy being his wife.

So yes, we are blessed, graciously blessed, abundantly blessed, over the top blessed with such wonderful blessings on this Thanksgiving Day.

May you be abundantly blessed as well my dear friends.

Keri

Check out this giveaway

Check out this site for a giveway and EXTRA cute Christmas shirts. Also there are lots of cute gift ideas. She made Reece's birthday shirt and I loved it!

Just talking

No pictures this time, just talking.

I got a new camera last week. I really thought I was in over my head (and still do) but it has been fun. There are a few things I have picked up just by being around great photographer friends but mostly it is trial and error.

Along with a new camera we all were sick. Except for Cameron. Whew...avoided that one! But each day another bit the dust so to speak. But from start to finish we passed it around in record time-4days. It was just the tummy bug and it was very short lived! Praise God because those 4 days seems like eternity.

Reece has six teeth. While I was in the mountains a few weeks ago he sprouted 2 more. His grin is much different with so much white showing. He still hasn't learned to walk and actually refuses to put his feet down to walk with us but it's still early. Gracelyn was 13 1/2 months but the older boys were both lots older. 17 and 15 months. So I am not surprised. He just had all the potential though. He crawled at 5 months so he has been mobile for a LONG time.

Mason is loving school and learning so much. He just goes 4 days a week so Mondays are special mommy time. It is so strange to see how his attitude is different when it is just me and him (and Reece of course) as compared to all the kids being home. Either way I love it. He is my grocery buddy.

Cannon is thriving like I knew he would in Pre-K. He has learned a GREAT amount just by being at school. Of course he *gets* what his teacher is teaching but just the school environment in general is teaching him so much. I always knew he was bright and observant and his teacher confirmed that for me.

Gracelyn is just wonderful. I am so blessed by her and her sweet spirit. She is so much like me as a young child that it is scary. She is extremely sensitive and although it can be annoying at times I know how to deal with her. How to calm her down, how to comfort her. Much like what my mom would do. The biggest thing I learned from my mom and dad growing up was it wasn't that important if the other people got punished for hurting my feelings or whatever but it was that I was valued, loved, cherished despite what other people did to me. I don't even know if they know that is what they taught me. I know that is what all children crave but some kids just need extra doses of this type of parenting.

Cameron is rounding out his season and he has GREAT things in store for his business and our family. The best thing about Cameron is that he is a dreamer. It can get frustrating to people who aren't, but for me I see that his dreams are born of a place to want more for me and our children. I am perfectly content in my life but that is not good enough for him. He doesn't strive to be content. He strives to be abundantly blessed. God is showing him how to get there. Praise Him for his guidance in Cameron.

This is very random but I am contemplating giving Blaze a bath and allowing him to be an inside dog. Every time I see him have to work at getting up from a nap, my heart gets a little tug. Winter is coming and can he really stand to be outside much on those cold days? He spends the majority of the time in the sun room during the winter so it isn't like he is outside 24/7 but it would be a huge change for him. I know he is a dog and there is a reason God made him so hairy but he is getting old. 9 actually. Don't you think if you have survived our 4 kids for so long you deserve some perks?

Many blessings!
Keri

October recap...

It was full of FAMILY time. We are getting to the time of year where Cameron is home earlier and not working 6-7 days a week. (It has been a long season!) So we are slowly working ourselves into a more regular routine of being a family of 6! I love FALL!

All of these pictures are from my phone so they are really random! :)

At Jack's birthday party! He's 5 now-time is passing too quickly!Amy and I took a little vacation to Cuchara, CO. It was so much fun and you might remember we posting about our summer trip here. Our purpose (or rather her purpose) was to photograph the fall foliage. Well we missed it just a tad. It snowed up there while we were driving. It was just beautiful the next morning but then the sun came out. That day we actually drove LOTS and got beautiful pictures.

I use the term we loosely.

I sat in the car A LOT and played Words With Friends. Look me up-I'm 5299keri.

Amy photographed A LOT! I can't show all the pictures here but soon I will share a special picture taking escapade we went on. Like I said I was her 2nd shooter, without the camera, experience, or knowledge of what I was doing, or any idea of terms. Basically I just held her lenses. I was good at it.

Brrr...looks cold Amy! Thanks for leaving the car on for me. I was nice and toasty.

We got a new(to us) dishwasher and Cameron had a great helper with the install.

On to Halloween. The only thing we do for holiday is dress up. I don't decorate the house, I don't fret over costumes, I don't make a big deal of all the spiritual implications upon my children. I let them dress up and we get candy for it. Simple as that. It could be as random as a Tuesday evening to our family. Like I said it is simple for our family and not something that gets much face time in the whole scheme of things. In fact, the day before is usually when I am asking what kids want to be for Halloween. We search for the dress-up accessories and go from there. :)

Reece was a Lion (which actually was Mason's first costume but really came from here) and his little buddy Jett was a Tree Frog. They stared at each other and I am sure thought, "Humph! Your mom got you too?"

Gracelyn was a Sassy Sailor (don't forget the Sassy part!) Mason was a Rescue Hero Police Officer and Cannon was Batman again

And here's my giggly lion again. He laughed and laughed when we put the hood on. Isn't he cute?

I had great visions of us sitting around the pumpkin digging and carving and marveling at our work. After 10 minutes I knew better and ended up carving a pumpkin to my liking because the little turkeys had lost interest. So I sat by myself digging, carving and marveling at my handy work.

Some friends gave us some clothes for the boys and we were going through them this morning. Cannon wanted to try some on. When I got him all tucked in and belted up. He struck this pose. He thought he was hot stuff for sure! He looks so much like Tyler to me!