Natalie's 5th Birthday!

Can't believe our little girl is now FIVE! Her birthday was on Sunday and we did special things all day. We always let the kids pick the meals for the day and use a special "Celebrate" plate. She chose cinnamon rolls and eggs for breakfast. After church, we went to McDonald's for lunch. We decided to do cake and presents after that so she didn't have to wait all day.

She really wanted a Pillow Pet for her birthday this year. Here's my attempt at a Pillow Pet unicorn cake. She loved it even though it wasn't perfect. :) She was SOOO excited that we actually got her one.
Blake was an eager helper.

Love this look! Beauty and the Beast movie.

Natalie: "Everyone make a silly face!"

She got some Hello Kitty stationery and when we were all done she sat at the table to use it. The first thing she wrote was:

and brought it over to me. I am so proud that God is growing her heart to be so thankful. It's such a blessing to watch her grow.

She received cards from both sets of Grandparents with 5 dollar bills each and also 10 dimes from her great-grandmother. (Thank you!) We usually go to the dollar store and let them pick what they want with their dollars. For her birthday, she also got a kids devotional and when I was reading it with her that night, we talked about how it makes God happy when we share what we have with other people. Lately, Blake and Natalie have been putting coins in the Salvation Army buckets whenever we see them and so she said, "Mom, I have a lot of dollars, what if I put some of my dollars in the red bucket next time for the people who don't have very much?"

Makes this Mom's heart so happy.

She chose pizza for dinner and Mr. Adam came over for dinner (and Sunday Night Football) and even brought Natalie a present. I think he's part of the family now--he's happened to be with us for Blake's, Brian's and now Nat's birthdays! I had lots of kitchen helpers--look at all that pepperoni... and yes, we did take a lot of it off before baking! :)

Happy Birthday Natalie, we're so glad you're in our family!

Happy Birthday

Our New House!!

Not sure why this first picture is so small but this is our new house!! I don't want to post our new address on here but if you need/want it, just email me! :) We "camped" for several days before our household goods arrived.
Many meals "on the floor"--it's much better now!

We have a fenced backyard, which the kids love and I love because they can go out and I don't have to watch them every second. It's great.

Our friend Adam is here now--he went to Penn State with Brian and was in Armor School right behind him. (He was over a few times in KY.) The kids totally love him and he's great about wrestling and playing with them.

They are definitely fans of "Mr. Adam"!

OUR STUFF IS HERE:

Brian had the master checklist to make sure everything arrived. So far we aren't missing anything except for some parts to put a few pieces of furniture back together.

Woah, what a mess!

Ahh, much better--straightened up enough to have a yummy pancake breakfast. (Although that was several days ago and things are looking even better now. :) Our Christmas Tree:

Unfortunately, decorating for Christmas is the last thing on our minds but decided we did need a tree. We got a real one this year (believe it or not, the first real one since before we were married!)

Brian put the lights on over the weekend and the kids and I put on the ornaments together the next day. Quite the experience, they were so excited. As I'm sure everyone with little kids knows, breakable on the top half, unbreakable on the bottom. :)

We pulled out our kid nativities... kids are loving them.

.... and of course the Veggie Tales one. :)

It's been so warm here-- 62 degrees today and so it doesn't feel like Christmas yet. I'm wishing we could have some of the midwest/east coast snow... but for now we get beautiful sunsets! :)

We are so blessed to be in our new house... Come visit if you can!!

Thanksgiving and Snow!

We started our relaxing day with watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The kids loved it! I'm actually embarrassed to put this picture on but just wanted to show you our "out of the box" meal. You all know I love to cook and this is not how we would do Thanksgiving if I had an actual kitchen. But you do what you have to. :) Can't wait to make some meals in our new house!

It actually was surprisingly good, except for the turkey... none of us could even eat it (well, I think Evan did). Brian's comment was that it tasted like "MRE meat." We'll have real Turkey for Christmas. :)

The kids especially loved the sparkling cider-- my family's tradition.

Pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

It was a wonderful day together (lots of football) and we have so much to be thankful for this year.

One thing we did to help teach the kids about being grateful was to look through the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog together. Natalie and Blake each picked out things they would like to send to kids around the world that don't have very much. Natalie chose baby chicks, mosquito nets and and a toy lamb that sings Jesus Loves Me. Blake chose soccer balls and shoes. We had some neat conversations and I think maybe we'll do this every year. Here's the link if you might want to do it with your family. They have all different price ranges for the various gifts and it's fun, tangible way for kids to help others. (We usually do the Christmas Child Shoe boxes but missed out on that this year.)

We woke up today and... it had SNOWED!!

We don't really have snow gear with us but we still went out for little while. I think it's Evan's first time to actually play in the snow.

There really wasn't too much but still enough to have fun!

Writing names...

We close/move in to our house TOMORROW... can't tell you how excited we are!!!!!! :)

I'm thankful for...

...among other things, my wonderful husband and my three great kids!!

Looking through toy catalogs... this is the first year the kids have realized they can make "requests" for Christmas. :)

Evan trying to be in on the action...

Natalie and Blake made this fort.

It was a little small so Brian made them a huge one.

Plenty of room inside...

I love my cute family!

I am thankful for all of you too. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!