Thankful Thursday

I was completely blessed this season.

Not only did my handsome hubby and amazing children get me some beautiful gifts but I also was blessed to spend it with all my children and handsome hubby.

We spend Christmas morning together enjoying being around each other, taking our time opening presents and just being our family. Then we all headed in town to see my side of the family. My Mom and Dad, two sisters and their hubbies and my brother and his wife ( whom came all the way from Thailand for the season) were all their. Some various nieces and nephews as well.
This time was precious. My parents are both in their 80's, my brother and his wife I haven't seen in 3 years. How wonderful of a day could it possibly have been you ask? Pretty darn wonderful I say.
( I will be posting pics soon as I get a chance to sit down and upload them)

Then the next day we headed to Rob's parents for another Christmas celebration. This time it was all of Rob's family except a niece and our middle son was there. ( I probably should mention that with only missing two members the entire family that was there was 10. Two parents, two sons, two spouses and two kids to each brother and two missing. Sounds like a trend. :) )
This was also a blast. Lots of laughs and time spent being with each other.

I have spent a lot of time this season being surrounded by family and honestly I loved all  most of it. Memories were made and memories were remembered. Times that I know I will look back on with love and treasure forever.

Thanks be to God for making this happen, for giving my hubby the time off, for making sure my brother and his wife could be down, for having not only my parents but also my hubbies parents still alive and well, for giving my the chance to spend Christmas morning with the five of us and for most of all sending His Son to die for us.

I am so so so so Thankful!!!

I am linking up today with Brandy over at The Marathon Mom.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

What a wonderful time!! It is the night before Christmas and I finally have a few moments to enjoy. I have just a couple more things to do and then it is bedtime for me.

I am blessed to have my whole family home for Christmas morning. It also looks like we will be spending the day together at my sisters. My parents, my brother and his wife ( who currently live in Thailand and whom are home for the holidays!!! ), my two sisters and their husbands plus my hubby and kids!! Going to be a fantastic time with a tremendous amount of laughter and love in one room.

Wherever you are spending the day and with whomever you are able to spend the day with make sure you take time to celebrate the fact that it is Jesus's birthday!!

May each and everyone of you have a blessed day!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Thankful Thursday

Ok this is a little funny. I started this post as a Wordless Wednesday and as I was waiting for my photo to upload I realised it was actually Thursday. Oops!!
However being thankful is pretty easy this time of year.
Right now I have two of my three children home and the third is due home tomorrow!! Can I hear a big Yahooooooo!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy that I will have the whole family for a couple days together! I love spending every second I can with them.

I am so thankful that in just a few days we will celebrate Jesus's birth! What a glorious time of year to celebrate such a blessed event!

How lucky am I to have the ability to celebrate this with my loved ones. I am able to shout it out from the rooftops with no fear of punishment or death. Sure there might be individuals that scorn me and all that I believe in but I have no fear! I believe!!!

How thankful am I!!!!
Merry Christmas!!!!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year.
I love being with loved ones and celebrating Christ's birth with them.
I love the anticipation as I am confident that the gift that I managed to find is going to delight each of them. ( ok maybe not the boys this year and their gifts are much more adult gifts and not so much fun gifts)
I love getting together with both my husband's family and my family as we celebrate together.
I love the traditions that Rob and I have made with our children. Traditions that they look forward to every year and start to talk about in November.
I am so happy that Rob and I have managed to make such a wonderful family together.
I am so fortunate that he will be home for Christmas this year. Something that I know will not always happen.
As I look forward to this last week before Christmas and enjoy every moment I have, the last bit of business, I pray that I continue to make many memories and cement our family even closer together.

As you celebrate this last week before Christ's birthday make sure you also take time to show the ones you love just how much you care each and everyday.

Thankful Thursday

As I contemplated what I would write for my Thankful Thursday many different ideas popped into my head.
Such as my amazing hubby who works so hard to provide for this family.
For my wonderful kids whom the Lord has blessed me with.
For my continual growth in my spiritual walk.
For the fact that the weather has been very good so far this year even if it means we might not have a 'white Christmas'.
These are just a handful of the ideas.
However when I went to sit down tonight to write this post, two main ones popped into my head.
First.
My sister. I actually have 4 sisters. There is 6 siblings all together. One boy smack in the middle of us girls. However the one sister that I am referring to tonight is the one closest to me in age. She is the one that had the honor of tormenting me as I grew up. She is 6 years older than me ( I am the baby). She told me to eat mud pies cause they taste just like chocolate. She taught my how to drive a standard. She gave me the "talk". She was always around for me whenever I have ever needed support in any shape or form. Now here is when I do let you know that I love all my sisters very much. We all have our different and unique relationships however Barb and I are a little bit closer than the others.
Tonight while I was waiting at dance my phone rings and here is Barb on the other end. Now I must also add now that lately I have been bummed and also just not feeling the greatest. Today I even had a nap which is very much unlike me. So now here is Barb calling me. She also had a terrible day. But by the end of the conversation we were both laughing so hard. She totally lightened up my mood and made me feel loved and cared for. I only hope I was able to do the same for her.

Second.
Now this is kind of a funny story sort of. As I have said my daughter dances and she had dance exams this past weekend. On Friday morning she had jazz and away we rush to her dance. Now jazz is her strong one, she loves to move that girl. Anyway on Sunday morning her and I head off to her tap test. I realise that we had not prayed for her jazz test so I asked her if she would like to pray for her tap test. She says yes she would like to very much. So on the way to town we pray. Now tap is something she struggles with a bit. So before her exam she is nervous, misses up on a question and gets even more nervous. Then into the test she goes. After the exam she comes out all smiles. Tells me she felt great and that she felt she did way better in her tap test than her jazz test. Now Tuesday rolls around and she gets her exam results back (which she did really well on both by the way) and her tap results were higher than her jazz results.
So me being my took awhile to process this so this morning before school as I am waiting for her to come to join me on the couch to have our morning prayer all the sudden I realise that we had talked to God before her prior exam. We had invited Him into our lives and we had asked Him to be with Sarah during her exam and of course He was. It sometimes takes me a bit to realise just how much I need Him and how He is ALWAYS there for us not matter what. He was there to comfort her and keep her calm and focused when she needed to be.
I love aha moments!

I am linking up with a wonderful lady who has a fabulous Thankful Thursday post herself this week. Come over and join her at The Marathon Mom.

Working on loving life

Well I am finally climbing out of my funk.

I am working on enjoying this beautiful season which I love so much.

I did some baking today which always helps me out.

I also wrapped some presents and put them under the tree.

I did a craft today and will post pictures when they are all dry and ready to show off.

I love this season I truly do. I love celebrating Christ's birthday!

I am extremely blessed. I look forward to all the special things that this season brings.

I'm back!

I am so sorry I have been a very bad blogger.

Part of the reason is of course the season and the other part is me. When I get depressed I pull into myself and tend not to want to interact with anyone.

So here is the latest.
We did not get the house. However we will be trying again after winter and honestly I was not overly looking forward to moving that close to Christmas and in the middle of winter to boot.

We are almost done our Christmas shopping and I only have a couple more things to buy then wrap and I will actually be ready. Whoohooo!!

Sarah had her dance exams and did really well so almost done that for this year only a few more dance days left.

I will leave you with this wonderful conversation I had with my daughter last week.
We were driving into dance and we were discussing a friend of hers and what she had wrote on facebook. We were talking about the swearing in the status's. She said she just could not understand it. To quote Sarah she said " come on people like grow up I mean how old are you like what 13???"
I love that my 'baby' is mature enough to understand that she doesn't need to swear just to be grown up.

I am truly blessed.

2 hurdles down 2 to go

So we found a house that will work amazing. It is in town but on the very outskirts. It has 4 bedrooms so plenty of room.
We made an offer and it was accepted. Then off to the bank and so far so good. We do not have 20 percent down only 5 so we have to be approved by the CMHC. That is where it sits now.

I am so nervous about this. I am constantly praying that everything goes smoothly and most importantly for patience and calmness during this trial.

I am also excited. I am constantly planning how to decorate each and every room. The problem there of course is money. Always money. LOL Maybe I can find that money tree somewhere.

Anyway if you could think of myself and my family in the next while I would love prayers. Thank you so much.

Have a great weekend.

3 in 30 wrap-up

Wow it is that time again. The first of the new month. I am especially excited for this month as I absolutely, completely, head over heels, in love with December.

But enough about that for now. Today it is my 3 in 30 post.

So I wrapped up November with a lot of excitement and plan to do the same for December.

My goals for last month went decent.

1. Start some of my Christmas presents.
Well this one I sort of did. I have pretty much figured out what I am getting everyone. I have managed to pick up a few gifts for my daughter and have got about half the stocking stuffers. I hope to get more on Saturday. However with everything that is going on this month I have decided to scrap the quilt gifts and hopefully make them next year.

2. Keep working on my Christian growth.
This is always a work in progress. I am starting a study today called Lord teach me to pray. This will of course always be an on going goal. I do not know of anyone that could not use to grow in their own growth.

3. Be a better spouse.
I hope I have done this. I love my husband so much and he deserves all that I can be for him. This is something that I plan to do again in the new year. I love writing him little notes or letters. I love letting him know how much I care for him and how much I appreciate him.

Now on for Decembers goals.

1. De-clutter my house.
This of course is a given as if all goes well with the house we could possibly be moving 4 days before Christmas. So I need to pack, throw away and clean all in 3 weeks. I actually am really excited about the possibility and even if it falls through my house could definitely use a de-clutter.

2. Have all the Christmas stuff done by the 21rst.
This also is a no brainer. If we move can you imagine trying to unpack, find the stuff, wrap, and have it all ready and me not insane by Jesus birthday?

3. Learn to relax.
I am going to have to really work on this one. I have to learn to not stress so much and focus on what is great and amazing in my life. I need to learn to always give thanks to God in everything even if I am not feeling very thankful.

I am linking up with Ashley at the 3 in 30 weekly linkup.