Thanksgiving

Today was our first Thanksgiving to be away from family. I was sad a few days ago, knowing that we wouldn't be with extended family, but today I am thankful. I'm so thankful that God has placed us in Florida with friends that are like family. When we began this journey (about 2 years ago) of moving to Florida, I was scared out of my mind. I didn't know if I could make it without family and our close friends that we had made. But I love it here and couldn't imagine a better place for our family right now. God cares about us and wants the best for us.
I'm thankful for the Morales family opening up their home to us for a wonderful meal, and for the McDonald family that made the day even more special.
I'm thankful that my kids are all well, happy and adjusted. I'm thankful for a husband that loves me and loves my kids so much. I'm thankful for a nice house to live in and good food to eat. I'm thankful for being able to wear shorts on Thanksgiving. :) These are all random thankful thoughts...but even if all of these things were not in my life, I would still be grateful, because God cares for me!

Little Turkeys

Our sweet friends (Paul and Kristti Morales, Heather and Mike McDonald...and us!) These are all people that are on staff with us and we have all lived here less than one year. So...we were all automatic family. :) Paul is our youth pastor and Mike is our assistant priest.

Why is it always so hard to get pictures with a group of kids? Why can't they just cooperate! Ha ha! These are all of our kids minus Olivia and the Morales' oldest.

Olivia with the McDonald's

Isaac and Chase

Goodbye 1903

It is official!
Our house is sold! Everything closed today and our utilities are out of our name. Thank you, those of you who have prayed for this to happen and encouraged us during the process. We are thankful and very relieved!

We plan to stay in our townhome until this summer. The prices of homes seem to keep dropping here, so that is in our favor...just sad for those that are losing their homes.

Anyway, we are happy that it is out of our hands, and thankful for the sweet memories that we had in 1903 Harbour Drive!

Hot Mom!

Isaac loves to give me notes. This is his note from yesterday morning. I got a big kick out of it and laid it on the bathroom sink (as I was getting ready for church). When Jay got home and saw it, we had a good laugh together.

Can you read it? Here is a closer look:

Hot Mom!
Ha ha! He has no idea that what he wrote is hilarious. He just wrote words that he knew how to spell. Hot and Mom. :) Oh, and don't forget the exclamation point!

Speaking of Hot Mom! We went to the park today with some of our friends. It has been pretty cold the past few days and I left the house in a very warm sweater. Boy was I surprised when we got there and people were wearing shorts! I was one Hot Mom!!!

Advent Wreath Making

We spent this afternoon at our church making wreaths for Advent. This will be the second time that we have actually celebrated Advent as a family and we are very excited. It makes Christmas so much more special and helps us keep our mind on the real meaning of Christmas.

Olivia enjoyed crawling around and eating cookie crumbs off of the floor.

This is Olivia's buddy, Erin. It's not a very good picture but they were so cute together. Olivia saw Erin sitting against this wall and reached out to her. I put O next to her friend and they acted shy. Then Olivia warmed up and it was too late for a picture. :)

The kids made Christmas cookies while the parents learned about the spirituality of Advent, led by none other than Jay Wright.

This is a picture of all the kids while they were still for about 5 minutes. The rest of the time you could find kids running up and down halls, filling up cups of hot chocolate, playing football outside, playing dress-up, and eating cookie crumbs off of the floor (well, the eating off of the floor part was just my child).

Here the kids are hard at work. Our wreath looks great and the kids are anxious to use it. Advent begins November 30th!!

Another Video to Watch!! Yay!!

This is a very typical (loud) moment in our home. Jay and I should have some great abs from all of the laughing. Instead, we are getting gray hairs from our nerves being shot!!

It Worked!!

Another Tag

Thanks, Jaque. :)

Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
*Share 7 random/weird facts about yourself.
*Tag 7 other people and link to them at the end of your blog.
*Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment.

1. I wear pajama pants most of the day (when I am home)...along with the shirt that I wear out. I LOVE my pajama pants. :)

2. I DON'T play the guitar, even though my mother seems to think I do, ha!

3. My left hip always hurts.

4. I watch The Office, on DVD, almost every night before I go to sleep.

5. I enjoy driving a mini-van and never even thought twice about it looking "soccer-momish".

6. My toes are long.

7. Spiders absolutely freak me out. I can't believe I just typed the word. Ugh!!! And they have HUGE ones here!!!

Okay, those were very random. This is harder than it looked.

I tag Marcy, Lindsey (because they whined to Mom, ha), Tamra, Mindy, Sarah K., Rachel, and Kara.

Sweet Girl, Simple Evening

Olivia loves to climb up our stairs. She stayed on the bottom step for a long time this evening and was very proud of herself.

She was gaining confidence and thought she would try stepping down. She's not ready for that just yet. :)

Josiah has lots of fun playing with Olivia. He likes that he is a big brother to somebody.

We were blowing on her face and she was laughing so hard.

Always a tongue out...

These are Josiah's socks. I can't believe how long they are on her...they don't even come up to Josiah's calves. Liv likes to wear socks and shoes. She will stick her feet out for me to put them on her. My boys hated things on their feet.

Ah...wrestling...boys!

Olivia working hard to get off the socks...

Josiah working hard to get off the same socks, ha!

Jaybo

Emily tagged me with a challenge to list Jay's favorite things. There are quite a few, so let's get started!!

Me! And I think that Olivia is in a pretty close second!!

Our kids

Music...and I had to make sure to put MY favorite instrument in the picture. :)




Waffle Day...Jay makes waffles every Friday morning after he gets home from the YMCA. We like Waffle Day, too!



Early mornings...poor Jay, he married a night owl. Oh, and this picture looks like it could have been taken a couple of miles away from us (not literally...I mean, yes, it does look like this a couple of miles away, I just don't think that this actual photo was taken here). It's crazy to think that we live near water!!

Good friends. I'm amazed at how well he keeps up with the guys that he grew up with. It's lots of fun to listen to them interacting.




His computer.

School/Learning...and another great friend.

Church

And two of his favorites that you can find him taking part of often...books and coffee.


I love learning about Jay. He's great at everything he does and has the best heart of anyone I know. I love you, Jay! Thanks for making me your #1 favorite thing. :)

Another Tooth Fairy Night (Post #2)

Isaac was having a hard time pulling this tooth. It has been hanging in his mouth for days. Tonight, Jay told him that if he pulled it out, we would all jump up and down and clap for him (he LOVES to be praised). I also told him that he had 2 more minutes to get it out before I pulled it. That did the trick, ha ha!




Jay doing the tooth dance.

Josiah doing the tooth dance. He was just as excited as Isaac. After Isaac pulled the tooth, he was ready to jump right in bed so that the Tooth Fairy could get here, pronto!!

What a happy guy after all of that hard work.

Two excited boys about a lost tooth!!

Another Tooth Fairy Night

Isaac's such a brave guy! He pulled his second tooth and is trying so hard to fall asleep upstairs so that the Tooth Fairy can come. I sure hope he's not tired tomorrow. :)
Again, I will have to post 2 blogs to get all of the great pictures in.