30 Days of Thanks~ #30~ Blessings!

Watch out... This blog just might be SAPPY!

All because two people fell in love, got married, had four children, married off 3 children, and TA~DA...

We are BLESSED.

5 times over!

Sarah Rose

Molly Carolyn

Townsend Cayden

Mya Brynn

and... Layla Lynn
We are lucky~ I am Thankful for my blessings, every last one of them!

30 days of Thanks~ #29 ~ Flip camera!

I am THANKFUL for the Flip video camera I receive from my children last Christmas. I took my Flip to Colorado when Layla was born and I left it there so Tegan and Kelley could video tape the baby for a while~ until I return to Colorado next week!

Check out the latest video... Layla went to her first day of home daycare while her Mommy and Daddy went to work! She is the sweetest little thing.... Click HERE! See for yourself how darling is really is!!

30 Days of Thanks~ #28 ~ the ELF on the SHELF!

Do you know of the book: the ELF on the SHELF? We do! I am THANKFUL for the innocent hearts and minds of children ~ especially during the holiday season!

The tradition is that a little pixie elf comes to your house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. She stays till Christmas Eve. Her mission or job is simple... she is there to be Santa's eyes and ears, to watch over the children and then go home to the North Pole and REPORT to Santa if they have been GOOD or BAD!

Cayden has just meet his little elf, her name is ALICE! Here he is posing on the shelf with his new little friend!

Sarah and Molly have had the same little elf visit for a couple of years now. They call her ABBY! ABBY moves from spot to spot every night... she surprises the girls each morning, as they look around for her! Sarah has made a "deal" with ABBY. If she is high on a shelf, the girls may not touch her, but, if she is low, where they can reach her, they may hold her and love on her a bit that day! Sarah and Molly are always a little sad on Christmas Eve, when they realize ABBY will be heading home to Santa! But for now, they are happy to report to me, that ABBY is at their house right NOW!

They show me how she sits so nicely on the shelf!
Here are some snazzy little elves...
just look at our ears!
Remember...
the little pixie elves will be WATCHING and LISTENING to every thing you say and do...

You better be good, for goodness sake!

30 Days of Thanks~ #27 Piano Sharing!

The story goes like this...
As a child, I wanted to play the piano so bad. One of the nuns at my school offered to give me free lesson since my desire was so strong! The lessons only lasted a couple of months because I had no piano at home to practice on and we all know Practice Makes Perfect. You have to practice something to really learn it! As an adult, one of David's Aunts gave me her old piano because I showed great interest in it when she first purchased it used, many years early. I took lessons for a year and enjoyed playing at my own pace! Years went by. My own kids had lessons, they grew up and left home. Soon the piano just sat here. I tried to give it to each one of my children. No one had room. It was a big, upright grand, and over 100 years old. A real beauty! I felt so bad that it just sat here in my home. So I contacted a site called FREE~CYLE. com and many, many people posted notes as to why they NEEDED my piano! I choose a lucky winner and 4 men and a truck showed up at my door to claim their new treasure!

Fast forward about 8 years. Beckie decides she would love to have a piano now. She would like the girls to have lessons. She looks online. She visits FREE~CYLE.com and finds one. She posts why she would love to own it! She tells them of her daughters, Sarah and Molly. She waits, and checks the site everyday for comments, hoping she gets a response!
Beckie wins! 3 guys ~ Dave, Danny and Cyle go and pick it up and deliver it to her house on a Saturday. On Monday, Sarah had her first piano lesson! What goes around ~ comes around!
I am THANKFUL for people who can see the value of "giving" something away.
This piano will be loved in this home.
As the men loaded the piano, I am told, a neighbor came out with cookies for the Sarah, Molly and Cayden! They sat in the driveway and colored pictures with Beckie as the guys worked to load the piano into Cyle's truck! Even the neighbor was pleased to see the piano go to a good home!

30 Days of Thanks~ #26 A Boy and his Papa!

Cayden...
He loves his trucks and cars. Imagine his delight when Papa took him out to his wood shop and gave him some scraps of wood and some sawdust!
Cayden filled all his trucks...
Papa helped too!
So fun...
Cayden made a ramp with the wood! Trucks "zoomed" up and down!

Papa kept checking on Cayden and suppling him with more "dirt"!
Then Papa would go back to work on the entertainment center doors he was making!
Cayden made "roads"!
He showed Meme what Papa was building!
Here's Dave finishing the doors for the bottom front of the cabinet!
Boys and Men with toys~ I love them both! What fun to have a use for all that sawdust!

I am THANKFUL for the Friday after Thanksgiving, where you can spend the whole day in your jammies (which I did) while your husband is kept busy!

30 Days of Thanks~ #25 THANKSGIVING!

It was Thanksgiving morning and Sarah wrote out the lists of guests... Girls and Boys!

Then she and Molly got busy cutting and preparing hats for everyone to decorate and wear! Even Donny got down on the floor to help with checking over the list to make sure no one was left out!

Molly was proud to show me a sample hat...BUT,

I was not so sure Mister enjoyed modeling it for us!
Games were played outside~
There was running and ROARING of course!
Turkey cooked in a slow cooker inside AND turkeys deep fried outside!
Tables set up in the garage, heated of course, to accommodate our extended family!
Just check out the KIDS TABLE! Sarah is happy~
Our hosts Donny and Beckie, looking pleased its all going so well!
The night before the kids set to work making the centerpieces. Apple Turkeys~ Sarah jumps right in while Molly and Cayden watch and learn!

Now they get it! Everyone gets to work!

Such concentration~ Cayden had trouble just trying not to eat all the marshmallows!
Molly thought he was CRAZY!
Soon even Donny had to jump in and help! I never knew my son in law was so darn CRAFTY!
Look at their finished project! Gobble Gobble! They made 8 of these darling turkeys!
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too! We decided we were really going to try and cut back next year. We had way to much food~ we had appetizers, and then dinner with all the trimmings! We must have thought we were feeding an army, since there was so much left over~ We will be eating turkey and green bean casserole for DAYS!!