Thankful for...

friends!!!!

i am so thankful for friends! tonight i was sitting with my friend misty and it just made me just love my friendship with her, and just what an awesome gift friendship is! i love spending time with my friends whether it is over coffee (which is with most of my friends because we are all mommies), over a good chick flick, shopping, working out (right erica?), and best of all at MOPS!

speaking of MOPS...what a great ministry!

i was brought to MOPS shortly after i had aspen and it was the BEST thing! it was hard being a stay at home mom, not really knowing what to do, so many questions, and just longing for someone to talk to. my sister told me about MOPS (she had friends that were mommies) and so i did and found a group close to my home. it was great! i got to know other mommies and realized that i was not alone and it was just great to chat with other moms and also to be prayed for, comforted, and best of all just have fun with other women that were going through the same thing i was. God definitely does provide at just the right time! now i am blessed to be a part of MOPS at our very own church and it has been an answer to prayer because i have been desiring to have that happen and it did! i truly have met some of the most AMAZING friends from this group and i love how each one of us are so different, but yet the same in Christ! i could not ask have asked for a better group of ladies and look forward to what He is going to do within this ministy...He has already done so much!

soooooo...thankful for friends and thankful for how God has used my friends to impact my life in so many ways. thankful for friends that come and support me, pray for me, and uplift me no matter what may come my way. thankful for friends that love to laugh, have a great time, and just love to be crazy!

now, don't get me wrong, i love to be with my husband...he is my best friend! but there is just something about having a girl friend that is just awesome!

thank you very much to all my friends! i am truly blessed by each one of you, you truly are the best! each one of you have touched my life and have left many imprints in my heart. i have so many memories with so many of you and i will forever cherish those and look forward to creating many more memories.

and thank you to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with such amazing friends!

Free!

Today I was informed by a friend of mine that at Underwater World, if you are a teacher, you can get a FREE single membershp!

FREE???? Yep, that's right!

So, I took my YMCA badge and Zac took his badge and we both got single memberships for free! We then added the kiddos onto my membership card and the grand total for our trip was $11 (Titus is free until 3 and Aspen was just $11 to be added)

$11 to have fun at Underwater World for a year!

Yeah!

Thank you Jen! Great idea! The kids (and parents) had so much fun today!

Pictures to come!

Thankful Thursday!

I am going to start "Thankful Thursday"!

Lately, I have been constantly complaining about all that we do not have or always wanting more...do you ever get that way? I think that we all do from time to time.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go and volunteer at "Feed My Starving Children" with my MOPS group and let me just tell you, that really hit home to me. Just yesterday, witnessing families that need to go pick up food from a food shelf because they cannot afford groceries, that hit home to me.

There are many other times where I have been reminded just how blessed I truly am, how blessed my family is!

We have a wonderful home, great friends and family, neighbors, jobs. Very thankful for that. Thankful for a warm home in the winter, cool home in the summer. Thankful for cars to drive to and from places, for clothes on our backs, and for always having food to eat. Thankful for running water to shower and bathe with and clean drinking water. Just THANKFUL!

While I am thankful for all that and more, I am reminded of how thankful I am to have Jesus in my life as my Lord and Savior. He has blessed me with so much, the BEST husband, the BEST kids, the BEST family, and the BEST friends. I am so thankful that I know Him and that He knows me and that each day all that He has blessed me with are constant reminders of His goodness.

So today, on this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful that 12 years ago I came to know Him and accepted Him into my heart and again thankful for all that He has done and will continue to do in my life!

Great Weekend!

We had such a great weekend...here is what we did!

My sister came to visit...the kids loved having there Aunt T here!

Saw Aspen in her first parade at preschool, she was a High School Musical Cheerleader

Aspen and I decorated cookies for Halloween

Trick or Treat at the MN Zoo and Mall of America

Dressed up - Aspen was Cinderella, Titus was a Crocodile, I was a Queen, Zac a King, and Aunt T as the Fairy Godmother

Enjoyed an extra hour of sleep

Stayed up late watching old episodes of the Golden Girls

Watched the Vikings beat the Packers

Played our usual games of Fill or Bust and Baseball

Captured lots of moments with photos

It was truly a fun weekend! Always fun when Aunt T visits and today when the kids and I brought her to the airport Aspen said (as we were driving away) "I am going to miss my Aunt T!" And she truly will...she already is looking forward to Christmas when she can see her again!

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God answers prayers in many ways!

A few weeks ago Aspen was supposed to go to the Apple Orchard with her preschool class, but it ended up being cancelled due to rain. Aspen was so bummed out!

However, it did end up getting rescheduled!

Aspen said, "We should pray so that it does not rain!"

So we did!

This morning when I woke up and saw that it was not supposed to rain until later today, I was so excited to tell Aspen the good news!

As Aspen came down the stairs...
I said, "Aspen, it looks like you get to go to the Apple Orchard today!"

She said, "Why?"

I said, "Because it is not supposed to rain!"

She said, "Well it is a good thing that we prayed!"

That was just too cute of a story that I had to share it! Enjoy your day everyone!

What a weekend!

This weekend we had so much fun because Papa and Grandma came to visit! We decided to spend a good portion of our morning outdoors soaking up as much Vitamin D as we could, so we went to Pahl's market to pick out some pumpkins! While we were there we spent time on the swings! Aspen loved the tire swing and also enjoyed singing as loud as she could!
While Titus enjoyed getting pushed on the swing by Papa, laughing and giggling as he usually does!

Lots of different spots around there to get a cute photo, so we took the opportunity! Even though the sun was in our eyes, this is (I think) a great shot of us!

Spending time with Papa and Grandma is always so much fun! We were so glad they were able to come and visit and look forward to another visit in just a couple of weeks!

Aspen as we were leaving Pahl's (I think that she is annoyed of mommy now that she has a new camera to take pictures with)

Hope you all are enjoying your fall!