When It Comes Right Down To It...

WHO REALLY NEEDS PIE???!!!

For These I Give Thanks...

I'm truly one extremely blessed individual. Sometimes I wonder why. Why should the Lord Jesus give me so much???!!! I don't know the whole answer, but He is truly an amazing, kind, generous, merciful, wonderful God, Who deserves our thanks every moment of every day! How easy it is in my sinful nature to forget, to focus on what I don't have, to credit myself as the source of some blessing, etc., etc., etc. Dear Father in heaven, please remind me always that YOU are the source of EVERY good gift and may my heart overflow with thanksgiving always!

Thank You for:

A loving husband who makes his relationship with the Lord such a priority as well as that of his wife and daughter!!! And who is currently making the glaze for our pumpkin cheesecake!!!




Thanksgiving Morning: At the park with Daddy! Thanksgiving meal is potluck style and all we're bringing is cheesecakes, so we didn't have much we had to do this morning!


A precious little 18 month old daughter who You use to bless our lives with smiles, joy and challenges for us to grow by!

A dear little +/- 19 week old son or daughter who Momma is sooooo looking forward to feeling move and kick!

Kind and special friends who we are looking forward to celebrating with in just a couple hours!

Loving, precious family who are such a joy to be with and who we miss and would love to be spending this day with!

A warm cozy home.

Fun plans to look forward to for the holiday weekend! Not tellin'!

Such an abundance of delicious food to enjoy at the feast today! What INCREDIBLE variety He has blessed us with. If He had chosen, we could all be eating just manna, like the children of Israel did in the wilderness. But no, He chose to bless us in this way that is soooo above and beyond what is necessary for our survival.


An incredibly gorgeous and varied creation.



Thanksgiving Morning: Flowers in the park.


A wonderful new camera to capture beauty and precious memories.


A job for my dear husband... when so many are without!


The longer I'm a mommy, the more grateful I think I am for being given the opportunity to be a full time wife, homemaker and mommy to my little girl. It would be so hard to leave her every day for hours on end and miss so much of the learning, growing and precious "firsts" in Clara's life.

Thanksgiving Morning: On the seesaw (had a great time on there with Daddy!). Why the blanket... the park was very wet!

The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, offering us forgiveness, cleansing, freedom from the bondage of sin and eternal life in heaven! Thank You, Lord Jesus!


"O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms."

Psalm 95:1-2

We Love You, Little Girl!

This is the adorable little sight I was treated to today, part way through the morning. It appears to be diaper cream... again. I was looking around for the tube after seeing that she got into it, but wasn't finding it right away. Later on I discovered it exactly where it belongs with the lid even snapped shut!!!





Bath time sweetness, from a couple nights ago.



This was taken last night. I was doing a little laundry and Clara got one of my maternity shirts on around her middle, so I helped her put it on the rest of the way... that's what the red and white thing is. And the "gorgeous" hair style is self-inflicted! Gotta love it!



I've been needing to jot this story down for awhile now... both to share it and also so that we will have a reminder of it in years to come. About a month or so ago we were at chapel one day and I was standing holding Clara. As we stood there, a happy little "mob" of kids went by us. It was a kid sandwich. In the middle was a little four year old girl who is a friend of ours. Sandwiching her on either side were two little boys who were visiting her family. They were 2 years old and 5 years old. Well, this little sandwich of three kidos went stumbling by us laughing and yelling and having a great, happy time. As they went by Clara gave a little scream. I let her down and she went hurrying after them. As she caught up she gave another, perturbed sounding scream and shoved the 5 year old boy!!! Of course, being 16 or 17 months, you can't ask her what she was thinking, but Stephen and I think she may have been concerned that someone was being hurt and she was rushing to the rescue. Who cares that they were all bigger then her! Of course, there will definitely be some training needed in the area of how to best intervene in a given situation, and she likely had NO idea what repercussions COULD have come back on her for doing such a thing!!! However, if she truly was thinking that she was rushing to help someone, we were so pleased that she would take action! We love you, you brave little girl! Pity the person that might one day try to pick on one of your younger siblings! :-)

Does It Get Any Better?

Does it get any better in a little girl's life?

Going to Chick-Fil-A

Eating Chicken (one of our FAVORITE foods)

Eating French Fries (another FAVORITE)

Eating Ice-cream (who can pass that up?)

Playing in the indoor play area for our first EVER time!

And all of this with friends!

That's what our little girl's night was like. She was one HAPPY camper!

Don't know if we'll EVER again be able go to a fast food restaurant with a play area without HAVING to go play!!!!!

Today's Stunt

Walking around, tube of diaper rash cream in hand. Said cream smeared on cute little face... and a little on the couch too.

I've been letting her put baby lotion on her face... maybe that's where the grand idea came from.

:-)

Teaching Daddy The "Bad" Habit!!!

Learnin' and Growin'

Clara loves to mimic and try to "help", whether it's throwing trash away, or trying to sweep the floor, or unwrapping the bullion cubes (which she sometimes tries to then eat!), or putting clean silverware away. Another thing I've tried a couple times lately was putting a mixing bowl on the floor and letting her "help" stir. The first time it was pumpkin pie filling. She enjoyed the experience and even tried to go fishing in it with her hand... I think it may have been the interesting looking egg yolks that she was after! The second mixing experience was bread dough, and she thought that was fun too. She also loves to eat bread dough. Here she is with spoon after her mixing job.


Clara likes to sit on the bed and do her hair and make-up while Mommy is doing hers. Gotta love the do!!! :-)

Another cute stunt she's been trying lately is deodorant! Generally, I think the lid doesn't even have to be off. She lifts up the front of her shirt and tries to apply it to her chunky tummy!!! :-)

I had been steering clear of play dough thinking Clara would probably just try to eat it. However, a few months ago, a friend let Clara play with some and she did great! So earlier in the week I finally made a batch! Clara had a grand old time with it! The recipe I used was ok, but not like the stuff I remember from growing up... so, I need to get Mom's recipe! But, fun times were had anyway!

Update and a Question

This is an official video update. Patience fans. We have been trying, thus far unsuccessfully to upload a video. I finally sat down the other day and figured out how to change the setting on the camera, so that it would record video compatible with the computer. However, when it comes to uploading it to the blog, I have a problem. Sarah, I was wondering if you could tell me how long it normally takes your computer to upload a video to your blog? When I try it says it's uploading but it sits there going on and on and on and I'm not sure it's really making progress. Anyone have any input?

Friends!

Several days ago we got to go have some fun at a Kailey's house! We also made a new friend, Mia! The mommies got to enjoy a yummy lunch that Kailey's Mommy made and chat. The kiddos got to play and later on we walked to the park. Enjoy!

Out In The Yard

These were definitely NOT taken today or yesterday, as both days have been VERY wet and blustery. We've actually had flood warnings for this area!!!

These were taken a few days ago.... Enjoy!






Yup. I never would have dreamed, but we still have tomatoes on the vine. Clara REALLY enjoys those cherry tomatoes!!! This was taken a few days ago.

Sooooo Yummy!!!

Ok, honestly, I've never made real, traditional Chicken Cordon Bleu... and what's more, if you asked me a week or so ago, I couldn't have even told you what it was!!! Well, remember that Eating Well Magazine I mentioned a few posts back? It scored another home run in this household, earlier in the week. This current issue had a recipe for Quick Chicken Cordon Bleu and I gave it a shot! Oh, wow! It was so yummy! Stephen and I both loved it, and it was sooooo easy! Seriously think of giving this one a try! And remember, a little extra cream cheese, probably won't hurt anyone!!! :-)

Too Precious!

What a good Mommy...

...With a slightly "laid back" parenting style!

Like Father... Like Daughter

A picture I posted of Clara the other day reminded Mom M. of this picture of Stephen!!! Isn't it great???!!! Thanks Mom!

Beautiful Autumn

What a glorious autumn day it is here!!! Chilly, but sunny and beautiful. Miss Clara and I went out to a lovely park near us and enjoyed a stroll around part of the lake there. Then the little lady got to play for quite a while at the park! And I even made a new friend... a very nice mother of two little boys... one was only a month older then Clara.

While on our outing I enjoyed trying to capture some of the beauty of God's creation as well as some fun shots of our little adventurous lady. Enjoy!

An Apple A Day...

And it's just all so "hysterical"!!! :-)


I was really surprised by how much munching the girl did on this apple!