My Favorite thing about Christmas!

I love Christmas Cards!  I love giving them.  I love receiving them!  I love going to the mail box and finding Christmas cards. I love finding Christmas cards years later and seeing how my friends have changed and how their kids have grown up.  I love getting on Shutterfly every year and designing our card.  I love picking out the pictures I have stored up all year.  I love seeing the end product.  But I always get really nervous after I confirm my order "Will I love the card?"  I love when I pull them out of the box and I love them!!!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Good day for football

#12 front and center, lining up for a play

I wonder if people who are reading this blog would rather see pictures or read about my thoughts.  Hopefully you guys are ok with pictures because I have been posting alot them!

Great kick #12

So a few weeks ago, we headed back to Indiana for Grampa's birthday.  No only did we celebrate him...but we also got to watch our Cousin play football.  He plays for the Eagles and wears the #12.  To make the game more interesting for me, I took my camera.  Always a favorite past time for me!

It was a little chilly that morning...glad we had Gramma and Grampa to cuddle with!

Boys entertaining themselves.  Notice this was pre-cast

I love this picture...it is dying for a good caption!

#12 is getting blocked  to keep him from taking our the the guy with the ball.  

This was the last play of the game and the only pass!

Fall Festivities

This boy love his animals

This one......

Well... he has his moments!

So I quickly took this pics before the moment was lost and he gave the bunny back.

But this one..  well could have sat there all afternoon lovin' on the bunny.

But pumpkin decorating was a different story.

He was in the zone

They both did a great job decorating their pumpkins.  

 It was great Fall afternoon spending time with my boys!

Family Pictures bring out the best of us!

I love taking family pictures

Capturing a family in that one moment of time

Getting to their places

Telling each other where to stand and how to stand

Some are listening and some are just having fun

There are those who do not want to be in that moment of time

And those who are treasuring that moment in time.

I love families!

Apple Picking

 One thing I love about the Fall is the start of Family Traditions.  Sometimes I feel that we spend so much time running around with trips during the summer that we do not have much time for just doing fun things as a family, just us!  In the Fall, we slow down a little and get into a schedule.  The boys and I love going apple picking.  I had thought about going a week ago with just my youngest while my oldest was at school.  But that made him so sad, so I waited a week.  I am always amazed at how life does get a little easier as my boys get older.  Every year apple picking gets easier with them.  They pick more and I can let them explore a little further before saying "Don't leave the row, Please!" and "Stay out of the corn field!" I love to watch my boys run around outside exploring new places.   I do have to get better at encouraging them help me make the applesauce that comes after the picking.  The next day I canned 21 quarts of applesauce!  They were not as eager to help me do that.  I am not sure why not?  But they have enjoyed eating it!

Alex likes to take pictures
He insisted that it was my turn!

Horses, Marching Bands, cute kids, and more horses!

I have really learned to enjoy small town living.  Growing up in a bigger city, (I would not call it a Big City, but it is bigger then were I live now!) I always thought it would be boring to live in small city, USA.  But I love the idea of raising my kids here!  Watching parades from our front porch is awesome!  I posted about about the Christmas Parade before, and this year I finally captured the All Horse Parade.  This is how our city kicks off the County Fair every year.  You have to either be in a Marching Band, riding a horse, or being pulled by a horse to be in the parade.  Big A was a little disappointed that there is no candy but he got over it!  Plus we have plenty of candy left over from the other parades that pass by our house!

I will let the pictures tell the story!

Streets are lined with my neighbors

This year the parade was started with a  tribute to those fallen from 9/11

This lady cracks me up.  Every year she is assigned the station in front
of our house to let those in the parade know that they need to "hug the
yellow line, pictures will be taken at the top of the hill, everyone
smile."  She needed a little lift to her spot!

Here come to Horses!

Yes, she is balancing the sword on her head
while clicking cymbals with her hands and
riding a horse!

And this is how our guy entertains himself during the parade!

Learning never ends for me!

I have recently been introduced to a book call Connected Child.  And so today, I not only ordered a copy of the book but I also signed up for one of their conferences coming to Nashville.  In case you are not aware, and the reason I am interested in going to this, I am a Licensed Counselor and at times I work with kids and parents are just struggling with life.  I am hoping to find some more ways to help my clients (as the title alludes to) connect with their kids.  So hopefully my book comes in the mail soon so I can read it before I head to the conference!  Check out the video about it yourself.  You might find it interesting too! Their website has some good info also.

Love me a great deal!

So one new new thing in my life is coupons.  I am slowly learning the game of getting the most out of using coupons.  I do not want to do the extreme couponing thing.  That is just insane.  And to be honest, I am not detailed enough and to highly distracted to be that dedicated.  You have got to admit...people who save 80%-90% on the grocery trip are detailed and focused.  Two things that no one can say about me!  And I am fine with that.

So today I ran into a great deal for those who love to shop at Whole Foods and yet find that it can be a little expensive (like myself, they sell pudding that Alex can eat!)!  Living Social has great deal, buy a coupon for $20 worth of groceries and only pay $10!  Here is that link https://livingsocial.com/deals/123805?ref=conf-jp&rpi=27000249 check it out!  It is only good today so act quick!

Yes, here is our house! I have a love/hate relationship with this house.

We bought this house four and half years ago. We loved this house, it represented something that we both wanted for our family. You see...both my husband and I grew up in the same house throughout our childhood.  There was safety, security, comfort and family to never moving.  You to always coming home to the same house and family.  Buying this house was our step toward doing the same for our growing family.  We moved in with one kid and quickly started talking about our second.  This was were we were going to raise our family.

And yet here we are four years later, living in another state, in a borrowed and smaller place.  I love how God give us the room to learn and grow.  My picture of how to provide a safe and secure childhood for my kids is definitely evolving.  I have two boys who love where they live and why?  Because it is were their mom and dad are!  They find this "thorn in my side" apartment a place of security and love.  Ohhh how I have gotten caught up in the American dream of I' have not arrived since I do not own a house" (or in my situation, live in house).  Providing a secure and safe childhood for my kids to more then raising them in the same house their whole life.  

So if I could do the past three years over again.  They only thing I would do is not see my currently living place as temporary.  I have missed our on making this place a home for our family.  After three years of trying to convince myself that it would be useless to make this place work for us because we are going to move, I am going to make our place a functional place for our family.  I hope to post some pics of different projects I am going to do to help this family of four live and function in 800-900 square feet!  I am open to suggestions!

I had dreams of my family playing in the backyard.
 It has been a long journey giving those dreams to God.

Swimming with the Manatees!

Fred stopped washing the glass for a pic.

One of my boys favorite places to go in the sumer time is the zoo.  It is wonderful to live so close to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  I can not tell you how many times we have headed there in the morning, seen a few animals, ate a picnic lunch and were back home in time for naps in the afternoon.  The boys were happy because they saw animals and Mommy was happy because she got a nap!

I think he watch the video on this about 20 time!

This past week we saw a surprise animal in the Manatee tank. We watch our friend, Fred Durant, clean the Manatee tank. It is funny how there are things you never really think happen even though they have to happen! Like cleaning the Manatee tank. But there our friend was with a buffer/sander thing taking all the slung off the bottom of the tank. I think my boys thought other things were much more interesting. Eli spent his time playing on the boat and Alex chased fish up and down the tank. 

Alex's running partner.

What I find funny is that I do not have a single picture of a manatee!  They are huge..how do I not get a picture of at least one!