HELLO NOVEMBER AND AEDM

 

HELLO NOVEMBER!!!

 

HELLO to my favorite month of all

HELLO to making thankful leaves all month

HELLO to another month of FALL

HELLO to Sam turning 12 in ten days

HELLO to maybe some snow this month

HELLO to THANKSGIVING...my FAVORITE holiday

HELLO to Renee getting her braces off,YAY!

HELLO to turkey and pumpkin pie

HELLO to Black Friday shopping with the girls

HELLO to getting ready for Christmas

HELLO to Kristin being home for Thanksgiving

HELLO to filling up my blessing/prayer book

HELLO to 30 days of posting with AEDM

HELLO to homemade Christmas decorations

HELLO to my new art class...LOVE

HELLO to leftover turkey sandwiches

HELLO to being so very THANKFUL

HELLO to November oh how I love you!

 

I am so exited to be joining in with Art Everyday Month for the first time. Follow along with me everyday this month while I share my thankful leaves ( see above) and some art work in my new tiny blessing/prayer journal, also a picture of what I'm thankful for each day and will go into my Project Life album each week. So really it's going to be a month full of fun and thankfulness, with other things along the way I'm sure. Would love for any of my readers to follow along with me either on their blogs or just leaving a comment on what they are thankful for that day.

Here is the first page in my blessing/prayer journal. I was inspired by the lesson in my art class this week and knew this was just what I wanted to start with. These GOODNES thoughts have been in my heart and thoughts for weeks. I had to make it fit since this journal is a 4x6 and my picture is a bit too big but I just loved this whole idea. I will have more of my plans for this book in the next day or two as I show them. This will be new for me so I'm trying out new things and seeing what feels right.

 

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU for the wonderful and sweet comments on my last post. You ladies seriously ROCK and I'm so VERY lucky to know each of you. Thank you !!

OBW....MANDALA....T TIME....ALL IN ONE

Hello, can you believe it's the last week of October already. It was a wonderful warm month for us and just his past week has started to get cold out. We are approaching one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, which is celebrated here in the states. Rich and I have had so much fun taking the kids trick or treating each year, no matter the weather we braved it together and love the memories we have. This Halloween has been weighing on my shoulders this week, it's about to change...

no more 3 kids to dress up and take out for candy...

 

the girls are too old now, so it's just Sam going solo this year and us girls staying behind or making new plans for them that night. How did it happen so fast, I keep thinking we have time and enjoying the moment and forget one day it won't be this way. For me it's opening my eyes to the near future when it's only Sam that will be at home and us doing things with just Sam.  Thankfully, I have told these stories and have many scrapbooks filled with our Halloweens and I will treasure them.

Here's one more to enjoy, sooo cute!

Thank you ladies at Our Beautiful World for another fun prompt this week!

 

I want to say a BIG BIG THANK YOU for the wonderful comments on my last posts, always makes me smile to read them. I knew you would enjoy those snow ones and guess what's in 2 weeks from today?? Sam's birthday so he is really hoping the SNOW comes big time for that day. Please keep my grandma and her family in your prayers, she hasn't had the best week and I know little by little it's going to get worse. I'm thankful for this picture of her below and the time I have with her. It's hard seeing your loved one going thru this and my heart is breaking so please keep her in your prayers.

 

I am squeezing more into this post, please keep reading!!

Here is my Mandala for Monday. I finally got to use one of our mini pumpkins and some acorns my mom gave me just for this reason. I also LOVE the green leaves I found in the ditch, so cool looking. Thank you Dawn for inspiring as you do each week with yours.

I'm also using this as my post for T time with Elizabeth on Tuesday. My week will be busy and I decided to squeeze all my blog link ups into one post. We made another trip back to the orchard, very cold this time and this warm cider and caramel oatmeal cookie was SO GOOD!!! The leaves had changed more but the cold weather made us hurry up this time. Here are a few pictures though..

I wanted to show you a picture with my other sister who came this time. She is the blonde one, she is also the twin to Annie the one sitting down. They are fraternal of course but funny how Annie and I look alike and are a lot more alike then her and Heather. Glad we could all be together on this day.

 

Thanks so much for reading thru my post if you did. I am getting my thankful leaves ready for November, few more to cut out and have ready. Hope some of you will be doing this too. I will be sharing everyday in November what I'm thankful for. I will also be sharing some art to go with those each day and hope you will visit me thru the month. It is a big commitment and I need all the motivation/support/love to keep me going strong till the end. Due to this project, I may be letting some of my regular theme posts like those above go for right now. This project will keep me busy along with some new class and holiday prep. Please don't let that stop you from visiting though.

Thanks so much for letting me share today and have a wonderful week. HUGS!

OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD....LOVE

Hello and Happy Friday!! It's been feeling like fall/winter here, look what we woke up to yesterday!! Sam was so excited, a WHITE slushy mess of snow and rain mix. He knows the snow will come now after seeing this peek of it. Look at those amazing clouds, WOW, do I LOOOOVE clouds! Sorry the picture is dark, was very early in the morning and I kinda like the darkness of it for this kind of picture too. Today the sky is blue and the clouds are white and fluffy with a peek of sunshine trying to come thru. Every day is a new day and it starts with the sky, love how it's never the same.

here's the peek at the whole backyard. Cold, dark and peeks of white!!

 

Today I'm joining in with OBW and their word prompt for this week...LOVE

 

This word means so many things to me, it is what I want everyone in the world to do more of and to show it, grow up with it and fill their hearts with it. I think we all know the LOVE I have for my family, sometimes maybe too much love if that's even possible ( no it's not). I was thinking of this word all week, I love so much and look for love in everything and everybody. I didn't want to share about just the love I have for my family and friends, that is a given and I couldn't find just one picture that said LOVE to me. The feeling/idea I kept coming back to was my OLW for this year, STORY!

Here it is in my first art journal page for this year. Along with that word is PEACE, what I want even more then LOVE is PEACE in this world. I find peace thru the little things I do each day. What brings me the most peace is telling our STORY, my story, their story, any story. This little word is my whole life, everyday, every moment, every week, no story is too big or too small. I tell them all and I do it with what I also LOOOOVE beyond words and still get excited about even all these years later. Can you guess what it is!!??? Some of you use this too, the easiest way to tell your family story.

Did you guess PROJECT LIFE??!!! If you did you are correct and know me so well!! This little white box is the best gift I could ever ask for, all I want for Christmas every year. What gets used more in my day then any other supply. I LOOOOVE telling our family story with this easy, fun, colorful way of putting it all together nice and neat into one album. That's it, just pictures and journaling, telling our story each week at a time. After years of struggling with getting layouts done and trying to stay caught up with all the kids/family albums I now have a peace knowing my family story is here in each album I've completed.

The other best best best part of this PL, is the online friends I've made thru the years. I would never have a friend from across the world or the ocean that inspire me and bring me joy daily. Thanks to Becky Higgins and team coming up with this amazing album. So this ladies is what I LOVE!!

Here is my pages from last week. See how many stories I can tell in just one little week. I love that my grandma is in here, that awesome Summer girl of mine takes pictures from her ipod and sends them to me. See that gorgeous sunrise in the bottom on the left, Summer took it from the bus because she knew I would love it. See that leaf on the bottom right side, that one is from my mom, she saw it thought of me and sent me this picture. I sit down each Sunday to make my pages and am blessed each time, this is what I love being their mom and telling their story. It never gets old!!

here is the rest of last week, lots of stories and cute pictures I had to include.

So without a doubt telling our STORY and having PL is what I LOOOVE aside from family and friends and such things. This PL helps me to show them how much I love them.

This picture is for mandy by the sea, her sisterly love picture reminded me of this one. My oldest Kristin came home from Florida without telling us and just walked in. Thankfully I have my camera beside me at all times and got this picture. The girls were sooo excited to see her and sooo SHOCKED!! She loves doing this to us and has done it several times. I love seeing how happy Kristin is to see them excited and surprising them. Now that she is home we don't get to miss her quite like this but the memory will always be there. Thanks Mandy for this reminder.

 

Thank you beautiful ladies for letting us link up from all over the world to share beautiful pictures together. To see more LOVE posts visit OBW .

T Stands for Tuesday and Thankfull

Hello and Happy Tuesday!! It's time for us to head over to Elizabeth's  for some tea and sharing. Today I'm sharing some fall fun things from this week. First up is this sweet picture of my grandma, the same one I've mentioned here before. My sister and I had to take care of her last Tuesday and it was such a great day with her. We were both worried how she'd react to us being with her, we've never taken care of her for a whole day before. I was so happy that it went well for the whole day, it was a true blessing how grandma did with us both. She even sat at my house for almost 3 hours and walked Lucky with me, then I had her draw some leaves for me using my stencil in the picture above.

I did the cutting out while she drew them. This is for my thankful project I do in November, I call them Thankful Leaves. I'm sharing this with you today in hopes any of you would like to join me in doing this too. I fill a jar up with these leaves and each night after dinner or anytime good for you we take out a leaf and write what were thankful for that day. You can even do more then one if you want, the kids usually start off really strong in the beginning and slowly taper off my mid November.

We have a door in the kitchen we tape them up on, here is the first day from last year's. It's so funny to go back and read them the next year. I save them in a Ziploc bag and tape it to the back of our Project Life album for that year. I like this quick easy way for the kids to remember and think about even the small things that they should be grateful for. I let them write whatever they want and try to keep this fun and a family project. Rich thankfully does this each year and enjoys it too. By the end of the month our door is half filled with leaves and just makes me happy seeing this everyday. Would anyone like to join me this year, it doesn't matter if you are married, have kids, I will be doing this long after the kids are gone. I'm thankful everyday for so much but it doesn't get written down, this one month of writing it down is one of my favorite things to do. Let me know in the comments what you think or if you have any questions about it. I will be posting our leaves during the month too.

Last Friday the kids had no school and it was a babysitting day. This isn't the best picture, not sure why Sienna looks like that, haha and Colt is covering his ears because of the train going by. It was a good day to head out and see if there was some leaves in the village to play in. There wasn't much.

We had one tree that had a lot of color and not much leaves yet on the ground

Sam loves riding his bike here while we do the walking

I love getting shoe shots, here the girls feet are freezing, uumm wonder why?? Want to remember Colt pulling up his shirt during this and showing his belly,uuumm not sure why but we were laughing. I think this is my first shoe photo with my kids and the little ones, love this!

Of course a cold treat after that long walk was needed. Look at Colt's face, he is so cute!! We love watching him his cone, does soooo good and again he was the first one done. I'm counting the ice cream as my beverage today, it's the best I could do with these type of pictures.

Are you ready for a couple more, Renee had homecoming this weekend and I just have to share these.

We had to take these early before it got to dark. She was freezing and trying not to show it.

I loved her dress this year, fitted her so well. Lucky for us it was the first dress she tried on and we both knew it was the one. Thanks big sister for doing her hair and make up. The dance was lots of fun and her feet were hurting her 4 hours later when I picked her up. She is growing up way to fast. Sigh.

 

Thanks for joining me today and sorry if the post was too long but had to get all these stories told. Remember to let me know about joining me with thankful leaves or any thankful ideas you are doing, would love to hear about them too. Have a wonderful Tuesday and thanks Elizabeth for letting us join you each week. Also, BIG THANKS for the sweet comments on my Mandala post below.

HAPPY FALL MANDALA MONDAY

Hello!! Look what's in my yard, a little bit of fall color is popping up!!! YAY!!! My leaves aren't the big bright color gorgeous ones but just seeing this makes me HAPPY!! I decided to walk around and see what was in the ditch, not much color left but still some pretty colors and fun stuff. Let's go....

here is a favorite spot, love the reds and bright green with little pops of white

lots of green and browns

I love this too!! 

here is what little of flowers was left but gone now from the rain we just got. Next up is my mandala that I finally got to make. Wasn't sure the weather would be nice enough but bundled up and went out to gather some goodies. The wind was still blowing so I had to bring it all inside.

My first FALL Mandala, YAY!!! So excited about this one. I haven't made a mandala in sometime so it was very nice to relax and play and find joy in the new nature goodies I found. These colors are pretty together and make me HAPPY!!! All of it from my ditch, who would think those bits of weeds and leaves could make something pretty and bring joy to ones day!!!

Thank you Dawn for always inspiring me with your Mandalas and letting us share with you. Please head over to her blog and check out her mandala. Dawn also has a request due to a recent sad incident that happened. Her husband lost his wallet and when returned all his money was gone. This makes me upset, it was a sizeable amount and I'm sure they needed that to take care of their family. It can't be replaced or found again and my heart goes out to them. Dawn is asking us to please go out and do something nice for someone else, a stranger or someone you know. Go spread joy, go make someone's day brighter, it doesn't have to be big. I love this idea of showing others there is still some good and positive and honest people in this world. Even stop by and say hello to and wish her a good day today. Thanks so much for helping and thanks again Dawn for being so sweet!!

Please join me tomorrow for some T at Elizabeth's. I will be sharing some cute pictures and a cold treat. Might even have some leaves again, remember I LOVE FALL!!!  HUGS!!

Our Beautiful World.... CHILL

Hello and HAPPY TGIF!!

 

Over at Our Beautiful World  my dear friend Shahrul picked the prompt this week..CHILL

 

This picture shows the first time we went to the beach this past summer. I always have my camera ready for that first reaction to the CHILL of the water. Usually we go earlier in the summer when it really is chilly. This day was in August though and the water still wasn't that warm. See how the kids are keeping their shoulders hunched up, trying not to get too wet and cold, so funny. This year you can see Renee was the first brave one to get all the way in and Sam is always last. I have taken these pictures over the years and love looking back at them and comparing them. Once they all get used to the water, a good 15mts later it's hard to get them to come out and at the end they beg to stay longer.

 

Thanks Shahrul for the fun prompt this week. We have a CHILL in the air today as the fall weather is finally coming around. Lately it's been feeling warm and almost summer like. I am seeing more fall colors popping up this week around my yard and town, YAY!!! We are headed to the apple orchard again next week. Will share pictures if the leaves have changed enough to look different from the last time we went. It's looking like rain for the next week so hoping to dodge the rain for some pictures.

 

Thanks so much for the visits and comments on my fall post below, makes my day!!

 

Today is homecoming and Renee has her special dress all ready to go. She is going alone this year and plans to dance away with her girlfriends. Will show pictures next week.

 

Have a great weekend and please stop by OBW to see others who are sharing this week.

FEELING BLESSED AND PUMPKINS AND FALL

Hello and Happy Sunday!!

 

My heart is bursting with happiness and blessings today, always seems to happen on Sunday's. I have so much to say and lots of photos to share and it's hard to choose which to share. This will also be a busy week for me so feeling overwhelmed about that too. Wish me luck!!

 

We have been enjoying the most perfect and amazing fall temps this week!! I can't get enough of it and want it to last for months. The sky has been just as amazing too, look at that above, LOVE!

 

My oldest Kristin is full speed ahead on getting her mission plans ready and is assistant in Jr. Sunday school class now too. SOOOO proud and happy for her. Will share more on this later.

 

Please keep my grandma in your prayers, some days are harder then others. Can't bear watching her go thru this and her getting older. Pray for her family too please, they do so much for her.

 

We will not be having pumpkins in the garden, we made two mistakes and are sad now. Went out and bought our pumpkins and realized how big the kids are and it's not quite as cute and it was packed so not good enough photos for this trigger happy mama. Sigh

 

I have the best hubby in the world, have enjoyed him so much this week. He is making cookies right now too, so happy he can bake. Took good care of all of us and the chores and more this weekend.

 

Feeling blessed for the wonderful and supportive friends here online too, thank you!

 

For my mom, thanks mom have enjoyed you this week! Annie thanks for the book you got me!

Now for some photos of our week!!

Around here we've seen lots of pumpkins

Shahrul, these two top pictures are for you, YAY!

our sad end to the summer garden

but HELLO SPRING BULBS!!!

LOVE having pumpkins and our first ever mums!!

I could sit out there all day and be happy. Thankful for Rich buying everything and working hard to plant and get new dirt and plants/flowers. Happy the kids helped to get it ready also. Usually we have LOTS more pumpkins but when you have to pay for them it makes it harder to buy LOTS! I'm a simple girl though and this has been making me smile all day!! THANKS FAMILY!!

He is obsessed with making bracelets, this new kind?? LOVE IT

It was a HOT day our for getting pumpkins too, Summer is sweating here

I LOOOVE this!! One day they won't be here and will just be the two of us so for now I walk slow and hang back so I can get these type of pictures. Yep, I know crazy!

SO MANY PUMPKINS!!!

Outside looking in....Colt's cars lined up in the window, SIGH

Inspired by a sweet fall book, YELLOW!!!

All thanks to this amazing guy! Ignore the bad picture, he was being funny and wouldn't quit. We hit Walmart this morning to finish up the flower bed before the rain came. He gets so much done in a day and it's so fun having him home on weekend. It was so nice to have this quick little date just the two of us and him making me laugh the whole time. I love this little life of mine.

 

Thanks so much if you read thru all this. I had so much to share and wanted to get it all out at once. I had so much I could have still shared, lol.... love taking pictures of all the fall fun. Now to fit them all into my Project Life pages, will have to do some collages maybe.

 

This will be my post for now instead of link-ups for the week. It is a busy week but wanted something fun to share and hope to make you smile like it did me!!

 

Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for reading!

 

Nancy, I will see you tomorrow at Bible Study!!!