we are thankful

This Thanksgiving we are thankful for. . .

geckos, elephants, our boys, my husband, my wife, school holidays, playing choo-choo, Mommy and Daddy, my brothers, sweet attitudes, beautiful sunsets from work, God's love, Fernando, Mommy taking naps with me, God, our country, sports, our President, family, everyone in our extended family, our friends, fall leaves, the ocean and its beauty, our newest addition, lovies to sleep with, the sunrise on the way to work, the boys school, our church and church family, that Jesus died on the cross for us, friends who loves us, when friends play with me at school, praise music, snakes (seriously?), time to play Mario with Mommy and Daddy (i know, i know), laughter from my boys, date nights, sleep, doctors, warm blankets, special treats, grace and forgiveness, baby snuggles, the boys teachers and so much more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a JK Thanksgiving feast

Today was the highly touted JK Thanksgiving feast in Charlie's class! Because we had been before in Luke's JK class, we knew what to expect and we were excited! I remember being excited with Luke because we didn't know what to expect at the "feast" and also because he was our first child to have any sort of program. This time around, I think I was excited to celebrate with Charlie, see his pack of friends and observe him in his surroundings without his big brother. See, little Chuckles LOVES his big brother and we often find him following along and doing whatever Lukey tells him to do or doing whatever Lukey is doing. So it's fun to see who Charlie is when his big brother isn't influencing him for good or bad! :)

AND. . .the Thanksgiving feast was cute! All the little kiddos were proud to present what they have learned about the very first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Native Americans. Each boy and girl had a Native American name and were adorned with Indian headdresses and outfits. Charlie and his friends sang songs for the parents, after telling us what they had learned, and then served us the Thanksgiving stew their class had made! It was tasty too!

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Luke and Charlie's school, Charlie's teacher, who was clearly chosen by the Lord to wrangle all that boy energy, and Charlie's little friends--who make it fun for Charlie to go to school!

Here's little Red Feather (being shy at first, of course)

We love you, Red Feather! Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving feast with us!

FYI Friday--Operation Christmas Child

This week, November 12th-19th is the National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child! It's not too late to fill your boxes and take them to a shipping location in town. Every year, as a family, we look forward to making our trip to the Dollar Tree and stocking up on items to fill shoe boxes for little children across the world. If you've never participated in OCC, check out the link above. If you are looking for a way to give to others in need, Samaritan's Purse, and Operation Christmas Child is a wonderful way to do so! Operation Christmas Child's mission is to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

If you visit the link above, you can find out how to fill a shoe box (what to put inside), download and print the labels to go on your shoebox, find out where you can drop off your boxes, sign up to follow your shoe box across the world, and if you are feeling super busy and unable to go and purchase the supplies, you can even build a shoe box online this year---and choose what you want to go inside.

In previous years, since our boys have been participating with us, we've filled lots of boxes for boys. But this year, they wanted to fill a box for a girl too! It was hilarious seeing some of the things Charlie thought his girl would want! She might be very thankful for whatever she receives, but Charlie was definitely thinking about what a boy would like, though he did want to choose a princess toy at the end!

We've got our bags of supplies! We're ready to fill our boxes and drop them off this weekend! Will you join us?"

right now. . .

Right now I am . . .

listening. . . to soft little lamb bleats as Baby Way settles in for a nap

of course this was taken before naptime!

smelling. . . a yummy fresh lemony clean house

drinking. . . a salted caramel mocha

thinking. . . about our little friend, Fernando, in Ecuador on his birthday

planning. . . to start teaching our littles some Christmas songs (yes before Thanksgiving) so they can sing along when the Christmas season actually arrives

AND

 wondering . . . how I am going to drive anywhere since my car door won't shut! Yikes!

FYI Friday--fantastically delicious treats!

I am in heaven! Recently I discovered the Salted Caramel Mochas at Starbucks. My newest fave warm drink ever! I love them! Then one day last week I discovered the most fantastically delicious treat that you can eat! It's pretty much my fave drink, but it crunches! Soooooo yummy!

I've made something very similar before, except they have graham crackers instead of pretzels. They are yummy too. But this Salted caramel chocolate pretzel crunch is even better. I wanted to call them Salted caramel mocha crunches, because they remind me of my drink, but I guess technically, a mocha has coffee in it and these don't. Anyway, enough about how mouth watering amazing they are. Try them for yourself!


Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Crunch
You need. . .

12 oz. of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of mini pretzels
1 cup of light brown sugar
1 cup or 2 sticks of unsalted butter
sea salt

How to make. . .

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then line a cookie sheet with foil. It's good to make sure your foil covers all of the cookie sheet, so you may just want a smidge extra foil to fold over the sides. Next spread out pretzels over the foil. Do your best to have them in a flat layer--though since they won't all fit perfectly some can overlap!

Next melt your butter in a saucepan. (This is where my graham cracker bars differ--if you've ever had those). Once butter is melted, then add the sugar. This makes the caramel. Stir occasionally, actually I stirred frequently. It will bubble and simmer, but don't let it boil. Once the color turns a little brown and more bubbly (about 3-5 minutes), then pour the caramel over the pretzels. You may want to start at one end of the cookie sheet and pour from end to end, back and forth. The caramel may not cover or spread over every pretzel when you pour it on, so take a spatula or spoon and spread it out. It hardens fairly quickly, so just be on top of it! Ideally, every pretzel gets some caramel on it! Then pop it in the oven for 6 or 7 minutes. You can keep an eye on it and you will see it bubbling in the oven.

Once that's in the oven, pour the chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl. Wait until the pretzels are almost ready to come out of the oven and then pop the chocolate chips in the microwave for about a minute. You don't want them to be completely melted, but enough so they can be spread out over the pretzels.

Take the pretzels out of the oven and spoon the somewhat melted chocolate chips over the pretzels. Smooth them across the pretzels with a spatula. If the chips are still in full form, they will quickly melt over the pretzels, so no worries! Sprinkle the sea salt over the top and then put them in the fridge and chill for an hour or so (if you can wait that long). When you take them out, the foil should peel right off and you can crumble the mixture into the most delicious bites you will ever pop into your mouth! You're welcome!

our vote is for baby Way! 3 months. . .

Whew! Election 2012 is over! I personally think we all should have just voted on who's the cutest little baby around these days. I'm quite confident our little man would've won! Baby Way is now 3 months old!

He's super into blowing raspberries and finally starting to smile more--even social smiles!! And check out these blue eyes! Can you see them? They are still newborn blue---just wondering if/when they will change over. All 3 of our other boys have brown eyes, as do Chad and I.

 Here's Baby Way in his latest bath pic--he's just so much bigger than his first bath pics I posted! Still lovin' bathtime too! Thank goodness! Some friends gave us the most comfy, softest, cuddliest bath towel in the whole. entire. world. I want one for me!!! Way absolutely loves it! I caressed his cheek with it this afternoon and he smiled! Oh precious baby!!

 

Love you, love you, Baby-Wayby!

full circle

Today started out so well! The boys were off from school today because of a teacher inservice day, so there was no morning rush to get out of the door. For that, I was thankful! I truly think that is one major reason I love holidays and summer days---just a laid back morning! And the boys, oh they love it too! We lounged in our jammies on this dreary, cold morning and read together, made muffins, had sweet conversations. So thankful. The boys played well together and were encouraging and thankful and thoughtful. It's days like these that make me want to homeschool! There's just something about all of our attitudes when we're together. We're just better! I even made our first trip to Target with just my 4 littles and me. And they were awesome! We came back, played more, ate, had rest time and we watched a movie this afternoon (a super special treat since tomorrow is a school day) with yummy popcorn and then sent the older 2 off to shower up before dinner.

Then, it went downhill. I have no idea what changed from the entire rest of our day, but the simple instructions of "Go get undressed, put your clothes in your dirty clothes basket and get in the shower" proved to be much too difficult this day. There was all out silliness (which I expect some of), and then arguing, and then screaming (while baby is taking a late afternoon nap) and it was taking forever for them to accomplish anything in the shower! I was monitoring it all, in between monitoring little Miles trying to take all of the toys out of the big boys room or removing everything from the bathroom counter. And basically, my attitude went downhill fast. I was snappy and yelling, "Boys stop!" "Don't do that!" "Do you hear me?" "Stop screaming (as I'm yelling it)" and they were pretty much oblivious. My whole plan was to have them bathed before dinner so we could spend more time reading together tonight. Chad's been out of town for a funeral the past couple of nights and I know, in order to get the boys tucked in at a reasonable time, I have to start early. Bathing before dinner just seemed like it would help. But then, the boys were wound up at dinner, and me trying to get everything on the table to feed them and answer every question being shot my way, and everyone talking over everyone, sent me spinning. At one point during dinner, after one of our littles blatantly disobeyed, I put my fork down and went into the kitchen. I heard Luke and Charlie discussing what was happening. One of them said, "She's going to get the wooden spoon!" The other said, "Or maybe she's just going to pray in private!" And in fact, the latter was right. I had to remove myself from the table in order not to scream, but more importantly to pray! The Lord is my strength and I'm so thankful for that!

Later tonight, Chad and I talked on the phone and I relayed a lot of the day. I spent the majority of the day feeling incredibly thankful for lots of little things, and then an hour and a half of craziness just about ruined the rest of the day. But, my sweet husband in all his wisdom reminded me of how he and I want so badly for our littles to have perfect hearts at their young ages, when we, at 36, don't! And never will. However, we have a Savior who is our refuge and strength and joy and song and Shepherd. He is made perfect in our weakness. If we were perfect, why would we need Him? If our children are perfect, why would they need Him? Tonight I am thankful for struggles. It's the eucharisteo thankful. Have you read her book? Ooohh, it's my favorite and full of truth and full of pondering and encouraging on how to be thankful for the hard things.

Sure, it's easy to be thankful for sweet moments with my children, and cold, snuggly days, and I should be thankful for those. It's harder though, to be thankful for struggles. But tonight, I am. I am thankful that I had opportunities to apologize to my boys for snapping. I'm thankful that I had a chance today to tell them about how far from perfect I am (it's not the first time they've heard it, nor will it be the last), but that the Lord is perfect and He loves and forgives perfectly. I'm thankful this day has come around full circle!

FYI--fun for the weekend Friday!

Here's a little of what we will be up to this weekend. . .

It's a new month! I always love November and it's creeping up in rankings right up there with October and December on  my faves list the past couple of years. Not that everyday of every year isn't a time to give thanks, but naturally, with Thanksgiving being in November, this month just creates the perfect atmosphere for being thankful! Last year, we made our thankful tree and loved sharing our reasons for being thankful and hanging our leaves everyday. We started our list of thanks last night and plan to start adding it to our leaves on our tree this weekend (just gotta get those leaves made)!

Last year when there was talk of pumpkin shortage in the grocery store, I was thankful I already bought my cans of pumpkin. This year, I remembered and bought even more cans of pumpkin and have yet to use them! So, I have some littles who are in for a treat! They love these chocolate chip pumpkin muffins! Check out the recipe if you didn't catch it last year. Delish! I love having helpers in the kitchen and my helpers will do just about anything for chocolate chips--ahem, me too!

Hope you have fun this weekend! Don't forget about Daylight Savings. . .is it just us, or do you have a harder time (if you have kiddos) with fall back than spring forward?

trick or treat!

We were all so excited this year to be trick or treating on our new street in our new neighborhood and boy, we were not disappointed! So many trick or treaters and our streets were bustling! We started out all 6 of us. Toad (from Mario Double Dash), Batman, and a pumpkin led the way, while our littlest, wearing a pumpkin wagon onesie, hung out on Mommy--my first attempt at baby-wearing out in public!

 Off they go. . .

I brought both my real camera and my phone, to try and capture a bit of our night. Chad took over on this one--pretty cool--catching me taking a pic of the boys above. . .

Our Toad was beyond thrilled with his costume, and turns out almost everyone we passed commented on how cool his costume was and were also excited he was a Mario character. Who knew? Toad's highlight of the night was when he ran into Mario on our street!

And finally, Batman was tuckered out, and though our pumpkins could have kept going, it was time they turned in to greet trick or treaters with Daddy, while Luke and I continued on for a bit longer, enjoying some just the two of us time! This shot is a bit dark, but I love it. The boys really stuck together and enjoyed their night with each other. Can you feel the love tonight. . ? We did and it was precious!

 

Hope you had a Happy October and. . .

 

a Happy Halloween!