Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!! Today was the best day ever, loved every minute of it and want to do it all over again. The food was good, the kids were good, everything was good. The only weird thing about it was the SNOW..... hasn't snowed like this in years on Thanksgiving. Sam was happy though and got to play outside and so did the other kids. I am so thankful for this sweet family of mine and that Kristin got to be home for it this time. Here is the only picture of all of them today, meant to get a nice one but never did find the time or energy I guess. This was right before we ate, cleaned off the table right before we sat down to eat, this happens every year and it won't be clean for long.

 

Here is a look at how the last two days have gone... we are celebrating Renee having no braces but has a clear retainer that is driving her crazy right now, the little ones over yesterday and my nieces slept over last night too, then we have today's pictures. I forgot to get a picture of us watching Elf after we ate and the girls napped, thinking this might be our new tradition. There were lots of hugs, laughs (especially at Sam, that kid is so funny ) and love and a THANKFUL heart in all of us.

Tomorrow about 4:00 am I will wake up and get ready first and then wake girls up and head to the mall for a little tiny bit of Black Friday girl only tradition for the 3rd year in a row. We get in and get back home to yummy leftovers within 2 or 3 hours tops,  it's something they look forward to with me.

 

Now for the pictures....

with braces and after braces off smiles... YAY!!

look at that cute face, LOVE HIM

she is just excited about snow as Sam

thankful for all them tonight, they were so good and so cute

Thanksgiving morning, put the turkey in at 5:30am. thank you honey!

This was about 10:00am, so hungry and ready for it already.

here are the eggs that my nieces helped me make, they were so helpful and cute with me. Soon they will be moving and I will miss this time with them. They did a good job on them!

the pies were just waiting for us to dig in

Finally the turkey is done at 12:30, time to EAT!!

table is set and ready for everyone

here is my plate full of yummy been waiting all morning to eat you food!

then the girls napped, sooo CUTE!!

the boys and Lucky played outside in the COLD SNOW

after the nap and the movie we did thankful leaves

then we added a little twinkle

 

So that was our day, it was better then I could have imagined it.

 

Nancy, have a good weekend and will miss you!

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend, thanks so much for your comments and visits!

HAPPY MANDALA TWICE AND T DAY

Happy Mandala Monday! For this week's mandala I asked the hubby to help me get some new goodies. We had to drive down the road where I found tons of trees with berries on them. Wish I had done this sooner, they were looking pretty smashed and squished but still worth using. Thankful Rich helped me as I wasn't going to do this alone and worry about any snakes out there. The weather was a bit warmer then it's been but we still had wind so I had to make these in the garage. I had fun making not just one but about 8 different mandalas by switching out things and because I was enjoying it. I'm going to share two of them today and use the rest to show you in upcoming weeks. Here we go...

this is the first one I made, look at those autumn berries! I even used a mum in the middle and brought my acorns back out to play with also. The background is a large white sheet of paper.

here is another fall one, more mums this time. I love that I can use the mums now, they are about done so I clipped a few before it was too late. Love making these fall mandalas and having new stuff in them this week. Really hoping I can have something to work with this winter.

 

Thank you to Dawn for inspiring me with her amazing beautiful mandalas!!

 

Next I'm sharing my T Time post early again this week, due to being busy and I actually like sharing them together. On Tuesday I will be with Renee while she FINALLY gets her braces off, YAY!! I'm so excited about it and can't wait to see her without them. It's been a long 2 1/2 years and it's finally here, so that is where I'll be on Tuesday and then kids are off for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Here is where I've been on/off this week and for 4 hours yesterday. It's a little space but was a huge mess that I can't find the before picture of. Was sure I took one but can't find it. Just imagine the tables piled high with stuff and everything under the table piled high and pulled way out with more stuff all around them. In case you miss it my green cup is there on the first table, drank some ice tea while working on this big clean up. It feels so good to have it done and to purge thru a lot of it too. After the holiday's I will be getting some storage containers and reorganizing this space to work better for me. I can't wait till Sienna sees it, she will be happily surprised and love it too.

Today I will start cleaning up my side of the kitchen table so we can all sit and eat there for Thanksgiving. This will take me a couple hours too but well worth it. Now if only I could keep these spaces neat and clean all the time. Truth be told I work and feel inspired more when it's a mess though, when it's this clean I feel like I shouldn't play or get anything out.

 

This past week I also watched Becky Higgins who is the creator of Project Life, she was on live for free 3 days in a row last week. I loved watching her and being inspired all over again about telling our stories and how Project Life can work for you. So happy to see this and she did GREAT!

 

For my American readers, Happy early Thanksgiving, have a wonderful time with your loved ones and safe travels if going out. Rich and I can't wait to cook our turkey, this is our favorite day of the year. Will try to be back on Friday to share pictures of our yummy food and day together.

Thanks so much for your visit and comments that make my day! Have a great week!

Linking up with Dawn

and sharing T Time over at Elizabeth's

 

 

 

Project Life....Thankful

Hello and Happy TGIF!! It's time to share what we are thankful for this week over at Cathy's  blog and visit others that are sharing too. I love doing this each week and have been totally inspired and loving the group that's there. Hard to believe November is almost over already.

 

Today I'm sharing a couple of my favorite thankful with you then how they look in my Project Life for this week. I did add a twist to it this week though, thanks to some freebie downloads.

 

First up is the picture above of my husband, Rich, this was him last Saturday walking thru the weeds to pick fall color berries for me to use in my mandala coming up on Monday. I'm so very thankful he does this for me and supports whatever new interest I have. He goes out of his way constantly to make me happy and show how much he loves me. Thankful he lets me take his picture too!!

Thankful for babysitting days that mean doing art with this sweetie. Look how sets up all her art stuff around her, she loves doing that. Thankful she loves art and that I know more about art now then I did when my kids were younger. She inspires me with her art and the freedom of just playing.

Thankful for when the kids say YES to playing a board game with me. They don't like them so it's rare that one of them will say YES to me. This time it was Renee, YAY!!

Thankful for fun pictures of us, this is hard to see but in that blue ornament is Summer, me and Sam having fun taking pictures. Click on it to see better. I gave them my phone and while I looked around they took about 15 pictures of themselves and all the decorations they liked. Thankful for them.

Thankful for books that can change your life and inspire you!! This week it was the top right one. It's called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. WOW, it's amazing and so beautifully written. This book has been around for a couple years but took me this long to finally read it. If you haven't read it yet, go the library or bookstore and get it soon. I'm going to start counting my gifts/blessings/thank you and listing them here on my blog and bringing it into my New Year, would LOOOOVE for others to join me on this idea of mine. Carrying our attitude for gratitude in the new year will be so much fun and inspiring, I will have more details later, hope you will join me.

Upon reading her book then finding out she has her second book out RIGHT NOW and it's all about the true meaning of Christmas, "The Greatest Gift" is the title and it's a advent for December. Please visit her blog to learn more and again would LOOOVE for anyone to join me on this too.

 

Ok, now onto my pictures and pages for the week,

I love how easy it is just slipping in a picture and already having the journal cards ready and lined up. White is one of my favorite colors so this is still making me happy. I added the little orange journal card from Cathy and the blue one is from Simple As That, love when others share freebies like this. I decided to pick 3 pictures for each day and to match the 3 good things journal cards I've been using. Wanting to keep with the white theme, made all my collages white too. I love this clean simple look, will be weird when I go Merry and Bright for December's pages. Click on the image to see it better and read the cards. We have no sun today so the picture is kinda dark, sorry about that.

 

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU for all the support and nice comments when I share these pages. It's been so nice to share with the new readers from Cathy's blog and for my regular readers, they all make my day and keep me motivated to keep on task with it each week. THANK YOU!!

 

Have a great weekend, snow is coming our way, weatherman says it will be TONS, so Sam will be thrilled with it. Remember to take the time and be thankful for even just one small thing each day.

If you have any questions about these books or anything please let me know in the comments.

 

Cathy, thanks again for sharing your Friday's and link up with us, so thankful for you !

p.s. Nancy, thanks so much for making this a good week for me, you are awesome!!

Mandala Monday and T on Tuesday rolled into one

Hello and Happy Mandala Monday, I'm posting early due to being busy tomorrow. Remember the snow from last week,  it was the perfect background for my RED goodies. I had to work fast because the snow was melting and the wind was blowing and Lucky was with me. I'm sorry this isn't the best, but still wanted to show it. I love how pretty the red is against the white, kinda excited now to do some snow mandalas. I also used some acorns leftover from a month ago, just to add a little something to the red. Yesterday my hubby and I went driving just so he could help me get some fall goodies to use on my upcoming mandalas. The wind is really strong here, had to make them in the garage, not as much fun doing them that way. Will be sharing one of those next week for you.

Thanks so much Dawn for inspiring me with yours, love doing these each week.

 

I'm linking up early for my T on Tuesday post now too. Below is my beverage for the week..

yep, it's not in a mug or cup or bottle but in the birthday cake Sam picked out. Does this count Elizabeth, thought this was funny when he came home to tell me he saw it and wanted it. I wasn't going to try it but tried a bite and really liked it. We all agreed it didn't taste like 7UP but was light and refreshing, reminded me of upside down pineapple cake. Next year he wants to try the orange CRUSH version, we just might have to I told him. Leave it to Sam to find a weird birthday cake.

We dug out the outside Christmas lights yesterday before the big rain and wind got worse. Sadly, hardly any of them worked. They didn't seem to make these lights to last long. I swear every 2/3 years we have to go out and buy more. We are hoping it will be nice during Thanksgiving and give it another try with new lights. Does anyone else put up lights? If so how long do yours last?

 

Thanks for the visits on my last post and sorry for the confusion last Tuesday when I posted twice in the same day and you visited me twice. THANK YOU, was nice of you and sorry for any trouble.

 

Hope everyone had a good weekend, ours has been nice except for the wind and rain.

To see more beautiful mandala's please visit Dawn

and linking up with Elizabeth for T Stands for Tuesday

Thanks ladies for letting us share the fun with you!

Project Life....Thankful week 2

Hello and Happy Friday!! The sun is out and the temps are at 50 today and in the 60's this weekend. YAY!! I will finally get to the track and work out in the yard and hopefully make a mandala or two if the wind isn't blowing around. How was your week, did you find time to be thankful each day? I have had a good week and am ready with my PL on time this week for Cathy's  thankful link up.

 

As you can see I used the same journal cards as last week, I really like the easy format and not looking for cards out of my PL kits. Hoping to have some new ones in next pages though, thanks to Cathy. Now that I'm looking at the cards I could have made a pattern with them?

 

One of the things that I was thankful for was the meals I cooked. Didn't get any pictures though but almost daily the kids enjoyed it and especially Sam told me it was good and thanked me. Just those 2 little words can carry me thru a day. He actually tried some new things, YAY and my meals just came out good and cooked perfectly. I'm thankful we have enough food to feed our family and to have it come out right several times is just the icing on the cake. Hope I can do it again this week.

How about some close ups now...

Here is the left side. Celebrated Sam's 12 bday, thinking of going back and making a college from his day instead of just this one picture. He had a great day and I'm so thankful for these 12 years of being his mom. He keeps me on my toes and is always cracking me up, this kid needs a tape recorder strapped to him at all times so we won't miss what he says. Click on the image to see better.

The right side, which has my favorite day from this week, which I turned into a collage. We got our first snow and the whole day was just perfect. I wrote a post about it below if you'd like to read and see the pretty pictures of it. Each day I'm taking one picture to show here then writing down 2 more things I'm thankful for. I love doing this and so happy to have it in my album. It doesn't have to be anything to big either, just the little things you forget about or don't think is important all adds up to being thankful each day. We have added to our leaves too, still loving this. My hubby wrote out 4 late last night and Sam and I did this morning but I had already taken the picture below. HAPPY!!

Little by little it's getting filled up. We ran out of colored leaves so I had to make brown and white ones for now. You can click on the image to see better. It's not to late to jump into any of these thankful projects, would love to have you join me. Thanks Cathy for another week of sharing.

 

Let me know in the comments one thing your thankful for today!

I am thankful for YOU!!

A perfect first day of SNOW!!

This is my peace, this little bit of nature's and gods beauty calling me and making me all fuzzy inside. My heart jumps for JOY literally and I could stand all day and look at views like this. My own little heaven right here out my back window, sigh, it  doesn't get much better then this, oh but it did today.

 

Today it was amazing from the moment my feet hit the floor and was thanking God already and once I peeked out the window and saw the beautiful white snow I thanked him again. I smiled big and said wait till Sam sees this. It's the perfect amount of snow which for me means YAY no shoveling.

 

When I got Sam up and he ran to the window to see he was smiling BIG too and said I hope it snows all day while I'm at school. I love how much he loves nature and especially snow, because of him I love it too. I also don't like it but his happy attitude about it rubs off on me instantly. My poor hubby is finally getting to where he doesn't like the cold and snow though, he likes it but doesn't LOVE IT.

 

I'm thankful for living in a place that has all seasons and even though this one lasts too long for me, I will be thankful anyhow and know it inspires me and the glistening of the snow will keep me warm.

 

Today I already planned on baking and baking I did, something for all of us. Did I mention yet that it was the perfect day?? Oh it was so perfect and so magical, everything I did that day even the chores and errands reminded me of ways to find JOY in them. All because of a little snow and pretty sunrise.

 

Here's my Wednesday in pictures...oh and Lucky loved the snow too

Get your boots and winter coat on and walk with me. Wish you were really here with me, I can't say enough how much I love these walks in my backyard and seeing how new it looks today. SIGH!

you know I LOVE THIS ONE!

Look at that sky and the fall leaves with snow all around. This is what makes me happy and keeps my heart warm. I can't get enough of it, went out many times just to soak it all up and because Lucky couldn't get enough of it either. I love seeing these two seasons mixed together so beautifully.

then it was back inside with more baking and kids coming home and the rush of the night. I didn't get a good picture of Sam outside but he went out and started a fort which is already melted away today. I also made such a good dinner last night, all that love I had in me was poured out into making dinner for my family. Having some baked goods and Sam's birthday cake helped too. Sam even ate all his dinner and thanked me and said IT WAS GOOD!! YES!! See I told you my day was going to be a good one. Then something else came that made it even better..... HAPPY MAIL

Look at my first postcard from the swap. Isn't it the CUTEST!! I love it so much! Can't wait to get more and can't wait to join another one. I will share them as they come in.

 

In other news, my thumbnail is kinda gross now, that's all I'm saying. Not sure how much painting and things I can do right now, trying to keep a Band-Aid on it to cover it up. Well when I paint I have to keep washing my hands and the paint gets in there and the Band-Aid falls off and so on.

 

I hope you enjoyed a peek into my day and for those of you who don't like the snow and cold I hope my pictures and thoughts will help keep you warm and I'm sending you warm and toasty hugs daily.

Have a great day, hoping to be back Friday with my Project Life post.

Time for T on Tuesday's or is it Monday?!!

Hello and Happy T time on Tuesday, a little early. Elizabeth is posting early today and since I'm busy tonight and tomorrow now is a good time for tea or in my case something new. I saw this pack on one of the readers at Elizabeth's last week, hope this was the right flavor and sorry can't remember who it was. I decided to buy it and have it just for my post today. This is one of my cute little snowman mugs I got years ago. Usually the kids use them but I pulled it out today to share with you. The hot cocoa was pretty good, not to minty which is a good thing for me. Thanks to whoever it was that had this last week. I also bought one more flavor, will share that one another week.

 

Today I have a little bit of everything to share with you, YAY!!

First up is my PL page from the other day, it wasn't working out the way I had planned but after playing around and walking away a couple times and buying ink for the computer it is done.

here is the finished page. My issues were first with the photos, somehow I didn't order the right ones then I still did them wrong and had to many to choose from. I also wasn't sure about the journal cards, these are available for download at Cathy Z. blog and so I bought ink and printed them out. I do like that this way, I can write down three things for each day. The whole left side is about me for this week and the right side is just my thankful pictures and thoughts. It's kinda jumbled but I'm just saying it's done and turn the page. You can click on the image to see it better.

Next up is the postcards for the swap I joined, YAY!

here are 9 out of the 12, LOVE them! I added some stickers, stamping, rub-ons and tried to just leave them be. The more I did or want to do the more I was trying to hard. So here the are, full of color and love and ready to be mailed out tomorrow. I addressed them and today will add a few words, still not sure what to say on them. I have a favorite one here and when I showed the girls they picked the same one as my favorite without knowing what mine was. Can you guess? Do you have one?

I did like doing the postcards this was and will do this again for sure. What a surprise each one was when I turned them over after cutting them out, so fun!

Sam and I went to a friends house to rake leaves. We did this years ago and were happy to do it again. See when you live without trees in your yard you appreciate them more and look forward to raking when given a chance. Of course, there will be lots more raking for this family before the last leaf has finally fallen. Thankful for my friend and for Sam coming with me.

When we got home the clouds/sky looked like this at our house. I can't tell you how amazing this was, truly amazing and breathtaking. Rich was already out there admiring it and I joined him to get some pictures. I've never seen the sky this way, pretty sure anyhow. No fluffy clouds or gray clouds. Nope there was strips of them and seemed to last forever and peeks of blue and sunshine thru them. Oh man, this is one reason I'm glad not to have trees in my yard like my friends. You can's get this view from her yard, yet she has beautiful trees that give shade and blocks the wind and gorgeous leaves. Either way nature's beauty is all around us in different ways, YAY!!

I am also thankful I took a picture on my phone of the yellow trees on my street, now they are bare and the wind has taken most of our leaves with it. Sad to it's almost over.

Sam celebrated his 12th birthday yesterday! It was a great day all day for this boy! You can read more about it on the post below. He had saved up all summer for an X-box and thanks to getting some birthday money, he is thrilled to finally have it. Thought he'd have to wait till Christmas.

Here is wearing the new pj's pants I got him and his new well earned and waited forever and saved every dollar and cent and kept hoping and telling everyone how badly I want an x-box. Yes, he is happy and now will never be seen again due to being zoned out in front of it.

here is something else I worked on since yesterday. My intro page for December in my Project Life. Some years I do a mini album just for this month. It's a huge and much talked about project by Ali Edward's and many scrappers. This year I'm keeping it simple and just using my PL to document the magic and fun that December brings. The colors here are what my theme is for our home so I used them here too. They will be green, red, brown with pops of white and gold. Hoping to do everything homemade and nature related, might even get our first REAL tree in over 10 years. I'm most excited that Kristin is home with us this time. Usually she can only squeeze in a quick trip here and it's rushed so fast we can't enjoy it. This time we can slow down and enjoy the whole month.

 

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it all. The cold weather is here and hints of snowing coming overnight are in the air. Sam might just get his other wish, just a bit late.