I'm Thankful

I just wanted to acknowledge some of the things that I am thankful for on this day of Thanksgiving:

- My God, who has proven to me that when I have faith and give Him complete control of my life great things are possible.

- My wonderful children who are a blessing to me everyday.

- My incredible husband who gives me more than I deserve, and loves me more than I ever thought anyone could.

- My family and friends who have been so uplifting and supportive during our time of sorrow (but why should I be surprised??).

- Having my husband home for the holidays.

- Living in the wonderful USA - God bless America!

- All of our military (past and present) serving at home and abroad - thank you for your service.

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all are having a wonderful day.

Turkey fingerpainted by Grace 11/26/08

(She did this all by herself, with no input from me. She said she was going to paint a turkey, and she did)

Handy Helpers

We have been doing all sorts of projects lately, from Christmas decorations for the yard to little projects for the kids. Here are some pics of our "handy helpers".

David and the kids built a wooden airplane and jeep. It required painting prior to putting them together, so I had them in old t-shirts to avoid too big of a mess. I was successful in not getting the shirts too dirty, but Tristan ended up with blue hair...

David has also been cutting out some "yard art" for our Christmas decorations. Grace was out assisting him one day:

Then it was Tristan's turn to help, but he decided that he needed to work on his tricycle instead:

Oh, Christmas Tree

Yes, it is 6 days before Thanksgiving and we have some Christmas decorations up (right along with my Thanksgiving ones). David loves to decorate for Christmas, so this year we decided to get the kids their own trees for their rooms. We have searched and searched for ones that don't look so fake, and I finally found a pair of pre-lit 4 footers that fit the bill - and for under $40! Well, I knew the sale wouldn't last forever and I bought them yesterday. My husband, being the Christmas freak that he is decided that they needed to go up TODAY. So, the kids now have Christmas trees for night lights...

Right now there's only tinsel (purple - of course) and garland (wooden, with fish and bobbers) on them, as I refused to get the ornaments out tonight... that will have to wait until Thursday or Friday.

Caution - Small parts

Having kids, we've all read "Caution - small parts, not for children under 3". Well, I've never been too concerned with that statement because I've never had a child who made me think I needed to worry... until last night. I was sitting in my rocker making a grocery list while Grace and Tristan were sitting on the floor playing. I wasn't paying much attention to them because they were getting along just fine. Then Grace speaks up and says "Mommy, Tristan put Aurora's shoe in his nose." Mind you, Aurora's shoe belongs to a doll that is about 3 inches tall, and who's foot is about 1/4 inch long - and it fits perfectly in a 2 year old's nostril. This shoe is also pink, which makes it rather difficult to see in said nostril. So, I take Tristan back to his room, lay him on his bed and proceed to try to remove this shoe with a pair of tweezers. He thinks that this is funny, and he's flailing his arms and giggling because it "tickles" when the tweezers are in his nose. I did finally remove Aurora's shoe after several attempts (dang slippery shoe!) and life is now back to normal. I'm just glad Grace saw him do this or who knows what would have happened - little boys spend a lot of time with their fingers up their nose...

Grace with one of her Halloween suckers

Not much else has been going on - just hanging out around the house when we're not running about to one of Grace's activities. I find life is a little easier on me these days if I stay busy...

Texas Family Reunion

The four of us (yes, I said four... David was actually able to get some time off!) headed to the Dallas area for a long weekend with family. My mom's side of the family was all getting together in McKinney, and my aunt and uncle on my dad's side were gracious hosts and invited us to stay with them in Frisco (only about 20 min away). So, we had a wonderful time visiting with both sides of my family. I do not yet have a picture of all of us to post, but in all there were 22 of us. Here's the kids (and our kids).

We arrived just in time for Halloween, so the 5 youngest dressed up and went trick-or-treating in my aunt and uncle's neighborhood in McKinney. They give out the best candy!!! Chocolate and laffy taffy... None of that other cheap junk...

David and I and the kids all headed off to the Dallas World Aquarium while the older kids went off to Six Flags. I really wanted to go to Six Flags too - I love roller coasters, but I couldn't bear the thought of being at an amusement park and not being able to go on every roller coaster in sight, so I avoided temptation and just didn't go. We did have a great time at the aquarium though. They had some HUGE fish the likes of which I'd never seen! I don't remember what they're called, but they looked like koi on steroids - they could've eaten David! They also had an alligator that could have fit all four of us in his belly and still had room for more. It's a really neat set up though - it's 3 stories high, you start up top in the canopy of the rain forest and work your way down to the ocean.

(The huge fish - 3 stories up)

All in all, we just had a fabulous time visiting with all of our family. I hadn't seen either side of my family in just over a year, and it was the first time David had met several of our family members, and hadn't seen the rest of them since our wedding.

The Keyser side - a wonderful perk to be able

to see them too

The Robitaille Siblings -

the reason we're all in Dallas

While we were staying at Dick and Joan's, here's a little mischief that the kiddos enjoyed getting into...

Believe it or not, I did bring bathing suits for them...