Thanksgiving

We made the trip safely to Utah to be with the Woodruff's for Thanksgiving this year! It was so nice to see them all again!! My sister was nice enough to host the dinner this year. My kids loved playing with their cousins and all their sweet toys. Tracie cooked an amazing turkey! Jason tried to help me with the rolls by tossing the dough in the air, haha. And all the pies were delicious!

I'm so grateful that we live close enough this year to make the trip to be with family for Thanksgiving!

Sleepovers

The Murdocks slept at our house tonight and we loved it!

Barfy McDonalds

Today we all met Brad and Kent at McDonalds for their lunch break. Brad has taught the kids to call it 'barfy' McDonalds to try and get them to realize that the food isn't that good for you, but they still love going there! The employees are so nice and the playplace is amazing so it's worth it!

Cousin Parties

With cousins in town my kida havs been having a blast! Making tents, playing games, and all sorts of other fun things!

Workout Buddies

My other sister-in-law is in town for a few days so us girls go to go workout at the gym together. It was so much fun!

Christmas lights

Tonight we went downtown to see the city Christmas lights get turned on for the season. It was magical watching them all light up at once!

Craft Fairs

Tenley and I snuck away for a little bit today for some mommy daughter time. We went to the craft fair and saw lots of fun things!

Ryder

Our little Ryder brings us so much happiness! We are so lucky to have him!

Prayer

Yesterday Kade spent the day at his friend Tanner's house. He even got to eat lunch there! Tanner's mom texted me and told me that Kade said the sweetest prayer before they ate their lunch. I was happy to hear that she was willing to let Kade pray and that Kade wanted to pray. I'm glad it's becoming a habit for him!

Anniversary Weekend

Brad and I had a great weekend celebrating our anniversary in Spokane. We stayed at the Davenport had dinner at the Clinkerdagger, went to a Symphony, and toured the Davenport Hotel. It was a fun little getaway and our kids had a blast with the Simmons. Kade told Heidi he wanted to spend 1000 nights at her house. I don't think he was too happy when we came home!

Gratitude, Life

Every year we've had a tradition to do a grateful tree for the month of November. I think I threw that old tree away before we moved though because I could not find it anywhere! The kids and I decided to make our own out of construction paper instead. They loved cutting branches and taping it all together. Kade wanted to add a bird and some of his artwork from school and Tenley added a ladybug and flower. It turned out great! I love the chance we have to focus a little more deeply on all of our wonderful blessings during November. The other day Kade said he was grateful for 'life'. Tenley wasn't sure what he meant by that. He said, "Life is all around us! It's everything!"

Kade is such a deep thinker. I love that he's grateful for life. Life is a gift and being able to live is something we should be very grateful for. I'm grateful for everyday that I get to watch my kids grow up, hug and kiss my husband, and try to improve my weaknesses.

I love this quote by Abraham Lincoln:

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

I hope we always try and live our lives to the fullest and show gratitude for what we have, what we're able to do, and who we're able to share our wonderful life with.

Anniversaries

Today was mine and Brad's 10 year anniversary! I always had big plans for our 10 year anniversary, like going to Hawaii or somewhere exotic. But with being newly graduated from dental school and having a sweet little 9 month old those plans fell through. Brad worked today, but we saw him for lunch and a quick dinner and then he had to go to scouts. Kade was sweet and did the dishes for me though! We plan to celebrate a little more this weekend!

I decided to do a countdown with Brad of my Top 10 favorite memories with him throughout our lives together. Every hour I texted him one. Some are personal and I'm not the biggest fan of sharing personal things on a public blog, but since this has become my way of journaling and I'd love my kids and grand-kids to know them, I'm sharing a few anyway. :)

Childrens' Christmas Music

I got a new calling in our ward as the primary pianist and I am so excited! I love being in there with my kids and I really love accompanying such sweet voices. We are learning some new Christmas songs and I found a song I just love to play! There are some talented people in the world!

Umbrellas, Geocaching

Life can get a little boring in a small town so we've been thinking out of the box lately and decided to try out geocaching today! It was a total blast! The kids loved going on a 'treasure hunt' and finding prizes and replacing them with new prizes. I'm sure we'll be doing this a lot now. 

Happy Lindsey

Before we moved away from Lewiston to go to Dental School I got to know Lindsey really well. I love this girl! She is always happy and energetic and fun to be around. My kids love her to and call her 'happy Lindsey'. She moved away while we were gone, but she came up to visit this weekend and it was so much fun to see her!! 

Parks

We went to a new castle park today and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather! Kade even found some friends from school to play with! And Ryder LOVED the swing!

School Pictres

We got Kade's school picture back today and he looks so handsome in it! I can't believe how big he's getting!

Siblings

The two can fight sometimes, but more times than not they are so nice and kind to each other. Kade will read books to Tenley and Ryder, help Tenley spell, and play games with her (and even let her win if he's feeling extra nice!). It was cute to watch them as Kade was teaching her how to spell his name. He even made dotted lines for her for some of the letters. It was so sweet!

Kade

Today Kade did one of the sweetest things ever for me. He knew cleaning up the toy room downstairs was on my list of things to do today, but after lunch he and Tenley went to play the wii and I was cleaning upstairs. A few minutes later I hear him go downstairs and he tells me not to come. I didn't think much of it and went back to cleaning. Then a half hour later he comes upstairs and says, "OK mom, we're done playing, lets go clean up the toy room now!" I said OK and I start to follow him and then he says, "Close your eyes! I'll hold your hand."

So I let him lead me downstairs and when I get to open my eyes I see that the toy room is all clean! Kade had cleaned it all up by himself and wanted to surprise me. I may have cried a little bit, but it made me so happy. What a sweet, sweet boy Kade is. I'm such a lucky mom!