Things to be thankful for...

I got this in an email and it is so true.

FOR THE HUSBAND WHO IS ON THE SOFA
BEING A COUCH POTATO,
BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME
AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES
BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME,
NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED .

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,
WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,
AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND
I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.


I am also thankful for:
1. My kids and their health
2. Mark and his health
3. My whole family and there health
4. My friends
5. My home
6. My daycare kids
7. For my health
8. And of course for my dog Ally

I am sure there are many more things too, I feel so lucky and so many people aren't. I pray that the whole world can find peace one day.

Holiday season

I love this time of year. Last year was harder and I didn't look forward to christmas like I am this year. It is stressful to host any sort of holiday dinner!

I have been listening to christmas music for about 3 weeks now, I love christmas music. I have started my chrismas shopping. The only downfall is that Josh is starting to not believe in Santa anymore. He WILL NOT tell us what he is asking Santa for christmas, he doesn't want us to know, he is saying that it is a test, if Santa doesn't bring it, he isn't real. I am sad, because this Santa thing is ending for him. But my hope is that Mark and I are getting a Wii for the kids and it will be from Santa. We haven't ever mentioned of getting one, so I hope Josh will be super excited about it. And who knows? Maybe that is what he is asking Santa! I can only hope!

We are headed to my parents house for Thanksgiving. It will be good to see my parents and Grandparents. The kids are super excited to go, they love seeing Grandma and Grandpa! I am happy to see my grandparents, I haven't seen them since Easter earlier this year.

Notes

Josh has been writing notes to me lately. I love the notes each and every time, even if they say the same things. Last night he wrote a note and it said,

"I love you soooooo much!"

I am so proud of him!!

Very Frustrated

I am so frustrated right now.

Alyssah's addiction

My crazy little girl. She loves chapstick. I think she is addicted. I bought her a pack of Lip Smackers chapstick. I usually give it to her in church so she is quiet for the hour or so. She now knows that it is fun to have it when she isn't in church too. The only thing is, she doesn't keep it only on her lips. It ends up all over!!! This picture is a mild one, usually it is all over, on her eyebrows and nose. I plan on buying her more, she loves them!

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!

Well I am loving my new face lift on my blog! I am glad I had it done.

We had our carpets cleaned today. It was fun being downstairs all day with the kids. They really liked it. I plan on doing that more often.

Josh has cub scouts tonight. He was excited to go. He had to give a little report about some american folklore, I am hoping it went ok.

Jake had fun today with his daycare buddy. He likes being downstairs too.

Alyssah is just the princess as usual. She has been really good today, considering she woke up at 6 in the moring.

That is all for now, I will put new pictures on soon.

What do you think??

I love it!!!

She loves dress up!

My little princess!! She loves to dress up lately, as a princess mostly. She and I had fun getting her all dressed up while Mark and the boys were hunting. I love how excited she gets to show me. She will come to me and say "Surprise! I am a princess!" It is so cute, and I hope she doesn't grow out of it.

Change is coming...

A change will be coming soon. I can't wait for you all to see.

Stupid eye twitch!

I feel I am going crazy! My eye won't stop twitching! I think I am over tired, and need a lot more rest. It is probably my body's way of saying that 12:30am isn't a good time to go to bed. I hope it goes away, I plan on being in bed in the next few minutes! UGH!

Weird weather

Our weather here has been weird the last few weeks. We went from having super warm weather, to thunderstorms and hail, to major winds and a blizzard to super foggy. And all this is within one week! I guess that is North Dakota for you!

No luck

It seems all the deer that people see while driving all year around, have completely disappeared. I have heard from several people that hunting was scarce this weekend. Needless to say, Mark nor his brother had any chance with deer. They didn't see anything. My boys had a ton of fun with them though, and were even lucky enough to get a sled. So on the off times of hunting this weekend, Josh and Jake went sledding, in the inch of snow there. I am glad they had fun!

Just Alyssah and I

Mark took the boys out hunting this weekend. He went to his original home, Bottineau. So it has been just Alyssah and I. She would have made a perfect only child. She has been a little angel all weekend long. This will end tomorrow evening, when Mark comes home. But I am so enjoying our alone time together. She has been singing songs to me, she made one up, "I love you, you are my best friend" It was just adorable! I melted when I heard it. She has been playing with her little doll house stuff, she loves the little baby. She found my old Raggedy Ann doll, she calls it Annie. That doll was my favorite doll ever when I was little. I hope it is hers too. She also loves coloring her pretty princess pages. She comes over to me when she is done scribbling, I mean coloring, and says Happy Birthday to me. She believes she is giving me a present. I believe she is too. I love her little personality. She is so beautiful, even more so on the inside. It is nice to see her getting all the attention. She absolutely loves it too! I wished we could have more one on one time together. I will have to make sure she gets it. I love her so much! I am so glad that I got this weekend with her. I am going to take some pictures of her day tomorrow, and I will post them.

And Mark isn't having much luck with deer hunting. He and his brother hardly saw anything today. Hopefully tomorrow he will.

Halloween Fun!

Halloween this year was really fun! The kids really had a blast and Alyssah just loved it!

Alyssah, Jake and Josh

Josh, the Phantom! I did his make up, it was supposed to be glow in the dark, but it wasn't dark enough for it to glow. But at the end of the night it did. He also had vampire teeth. He loved being a phantom.
Jake, Spiderman. When we picked out his costume, he saw some other ones that he wanted, but he know that if he got this one, he would have have a spiderman costume to play with after Halloween.

Alyssah, Cinderella. She loved being a princess for real. This costume didn't come with a crown, so I bought a pack of six on ebay. She broke all of them except 2 by the time Halloween came around, so thank goodness I saved this one for this day.

In our town, we have a big party for prizes from 3:30-5:30. Alyssah wasn't happy to get prizes. She really wanted candy. Here, she is waiting in line to throw a bean bag on pumpkin faces. She did good until the last one, but she is only two. At one of the games, she threw all the rings in the bucket. You were supposed to only throw one at a time. She did this 2 times in a row. We gave up, and she got her little prize that she wasn't happy about.

Here Jake is playing golf for prizes. He wasn't much more thrilled about the prizes either. But he understood that we were going to get candy soon. He and Dad walked around and hit all the prize spots. He was way more excited to eat a hotdog than anything.

Josh now, loved the games and prizes! He went to all of them with his friend. He got a ton of tatoos and plastic fingers. He also loved the glow in the dark vampire teeth that he got. Poor Josh was very hot in his costume. He said next year he didn't want something on his head.

Now on to the fun stuff! Alyssah picked up quick what she was supposed to do, and even thought she was behind her brothers, she kept up really well!

At a house Alyssah did great, she didn't say trick or treat, but she would say thank you. Jake and Josh had a hard time with that part. Alyssah wanted to eat candy the whole night. Not really sure how we made it home without eating any.

I love this picture! She is squealing with delight here. She did this for the majority of the night. Towards the end she got really tired.

Another house. Alyssah didn't want her crown on anymore. Her hair was falling out, but she was still the most beautiful princess of all!

This was our last picture of the night. We went to a few more blocks of houses, we were home by around 8 or so. The kids got a ton of candy! The next day I took all the candy but some, to the dentist in Minot. He was giving a dollar a pound, and the boys thought that was great, to get money instead of the candy. We had 4 pounds of candy, so the boys each got 2 dollars. They thought it was a fair trade. Alyssah was lucky enough to get the toothbrush and stickers that they handed out.

Alien kids

Aren't these funny??

Josh

Jake

Alyssah

Where's Alyssah?

She will sleep like this every night. She won't sleep unless she has all her dolls and babies in bed with her. Not to mention the 3 different blankies too. Silly girl!