What I am Thankful For….

It's pretty tough to try to start at one point, not wanting to seem that I might be overly thankful for one person or thing than another!
Let's just start with Matt, my wonderful, giving, caring, unselfish, husband! He's truly my best friend. I'm so thankful for all he does for me and our little family, because without all his hard work and dedication to us we wouldn't be where we are today. I love you babe!
My beautiful, healthy and sometime patience testing children; Kylie, Tyler, Karissa and Kennedy. I couldn't be more thankful to have been blessed with such wonderful little babies! They can make me feel like pulling my hair out, locking myself in a padded room and screaming, but you know what…it's all worth it! I love them and all the new things they have brought to my life.
My siblings, Nicole, Ryan, Joshua, and David…although we don't live nearby they are always on my mind. I am thankful for having them all to grow up with. I of course am especially close with Nicole, being my sister and closest in age, but thankful for all the playtimes with all of them growing up, all the wonderful memories.
My parents, the ones who gave me life, who afforded me the opportunity to become who I am today. I am thankful to have them live nearby, that they can share in my life and my children's lives. I know the kids are also thankful for this as they love gramma and grampa dearly!
My in-laws, mother, father, sister and brothers! I feel thankful because I know so many people don't have good relationship with in-laws, probably particularly the mother-in law, but I do! I am fortunate that they live nearby as well and my kids can spend time with them and have a close relationship with them.
All my extended family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I love them all, am thankful for the relationships I have with them and wonderful childhood memories I have thanks to many of them!
My wonderful friends be it the old friends that can complete my sentences, although there are the new ones I don't doubt can do that as well. I am thankful for so many fond memories and look forward to many new memories with the new friendships I have formed!
I suppose I could list a lot of material possessions that I am thankful for, and trust me I am thankful. I am thankful for the roof over our heads, that keeps us dry and warm, the vehicles we have that carry all of us from place to place, the toys we have that let us have fun together and spend time with one another, etc…etc…
Lastly, but certainly not least I am thankful for the MAN who created all of this, our Heavenly Father. I may not seem like it at times, but I do not forget Him and the many blessings He has bestowed upon me and my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Trying to update...

I'm having some trouble getting the page updated. I spent a long long time creating a slideshow and it won't work on here! :-( So I'll try to slowly post some random pictures now and some more in the next few days, just bare with me. Everyone is yelling that I haven't updated in a long time...sorry!
As most all of you know we had our little girl, Kennedy Paige. She was born on October 8th, after a few long and uncomfortable days of contractions! She was healthy and all went well. Kennedy weighed 6lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long! She's doing great as she is already a month old. Time sure does seem to fly these days!
We had a fun Halloween. Kylie was a kitty, Tyler was batman, Karissa was a lion, and Kennedy a bumble bee. The weather was pretty decent that night, not too cold. We took them to the trunk or treat at Bison ranch and they made a pretty decent haul!
Tyler just had his 5th birthday last month and Karissa's 2nd is coming up in just a couple more weeks. Kylie will be 7 in January...now that's really sad for me to think my first is getting so old...you would think she is 16 if you talked to her! ha ha!
My school is almost over for the semester and I'll admit that I'll be glad, even though I only have 3 classes, it has started to feel a bit overwhelming having a new baby on top of the regular every day life demands of running a household and all that great stuff. I'm grateful for the support from everyone tho! Matt has been wonderful, helping to watch the kids when he is able to so I can go to class and or get my school work done! My mom and Laurie (mom in law) have also been a tremendous help in this department. Thanks!!
We have TURKEY day coming up...YUM YUM! I guess we will be going at it on our own this year, as plans just aren't working out to get together with everyone...that bums me out cause it's great to be with family, but things just don't always go as planned you know!
Did I ramble on enough and update everything? I think so...I hope so! Well here they are as promised..random pics for your enjoyment. Now leave some love..take care until next post which I promise to do better at doing much quicker!
This is Kennedy in her coming home outfit..

The kids shortly after getting the baby home

Kylie being a big help

Kennedy on her new blankey from my friend

The pumpkin patch

The Elk, etc!

Matt got his elk today! It was a tough hunt! He only had until next Thursday to find one and he did it today! I knew he would get one and a nice one at that. He's such a good outdoorsman! Anyway go figure, the elk dies at the bottom of a steep canyon. Thankfully there were a few itty bitty trees that stopped him from going any further; which would have made it nearly impossible to get him out. Thanks to the winch on the in laws four wheeler and some man power they managed to hoist the big beast to the top! Blake was able to leave school to come help and then of course Brandon and Roger helped as well. Laurie and I got to watch and wrangle Karissa. Karissa did not like it at all! She actually called it a bug at first! LOL Now the excitement is over and hopefully Roger can get a nice one soon too! Here are some pics from the days adventure and a video or two of them pulling that monster up the canyon!
Lugging it up the hill!

Tired out

The Crew

Matts Prize

Ok time to update...

I haven't been too good at keeping up on this blog! I guess things just got a little crazy. I'll just try to give you a little run down on what's been going on around here without making it too long!
We moved last month, back to our very first home! Our little trailer, it's a bit cramped right now, but it's not a big deal. We just broke ground on a house and we are going to try to move fast on it so we can have a little bit more space! This is the 3rd house we have built in the past 4 years, but the goal is to build and sell them so we can build our "final" house without having to get a mortgage on it! We are getting close to that goal, thanks to my hard working hubby!
Kylie started 1st grade last month! :-( Wow how time flies with the kids! She seems to be doing well so far and really enjoys her teacher. Tyler didn't get to go to pre-school this year because the school had to cut the program due to lack of funds. He has been getting to hang out with daddy and papa a lot which he really enjoys. Our little Karissa is close to turning 2 already which is crazy. I don't know where the time is going. She is talking a lot now, will copy almost any word you say. I just finally decided its time to break her of the bottle. She only gets one at night, but thats stopped! It's been a rough few nights, but I see the end in sight!
Matt has been busy as usual with all sorts of differnt projects from our port a potties, hauling scrap metal and digging the septic system for the new house. He's been going out a lot to scout for his big elk too. He has a hunt starting next Friday that he's really excited for. Poor guy sprained his ankle the other morning, but thankfully it's getting better fast!
As for me, Im 33 weeks pregnant and I can see the end closing in fast! I am anxious for this little girl to come meet us all! We are still deciding on names, so for those asking...nope we don't have anything picked quite yet. I also started school! I decided to pursue a nursing career, so I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm excited about. Matt has been really supportive as has all the family!
Well I guess that's kind of it in a nutshell for now. I will post some recent pics for you all to see a little later on! Nite Nite

A haircut for Roo

Karissa got her first haircut today. Just a teeny tiny trim too keep it from her eyes. She didn't want to sit in the chair by herself so she sat on my lap for the haircut, but afterwards I got to snap a couple pictures of her in the chair. It's kinda sad tho because now she looks so much older to me! So here are the before, during and after pics!



Today was the mark of my 24th week...yay 6 months! Here's a pic for you that keep asking!

Ultrasound

We had the ultrasound today. Everything appeared to be fine and the baby measured right on according to my due date of Oct 20th. At first the little one wasn't wanting to cooperate, keeping feet in between the legs, but then we got a spread eagle shot!

Yup another little girl for us! Tyler and Matt were a little bummed out at first because they obviously wanted another little hunting buddy to tag along, but they are over it! We are all excited to welcome another little girl into our home! We figure it will be nice for Karissa to have a little sister close in age and since Brandon and Amber just had the twin girls they will have a little girl cousin to play with! I plan to have a 3D ultrasound done around 30 weeks or so and get some more fun pictures. This little girl was very active today, moving all over! Waving, flexing, kicking, thumb sucking, rolling, etc! I wish I owned one of those machines to watch my baby whenever I wanted! LOL The tech told us the machine he had was the top of the line and cost over 300K! WOWIE! I guess we need to get into that profession! LOL

The Butter Dish

Earlier today I thought to myself, where is Karissa?! She had been quiet for a little too long. I got up off the couch and went to the kitchen and found her sitting in her little chair with the butter dish in her lap. She managed to get it off the counter and was taking gobs of butter and slathering it in her hair. It looked like she was using it as lotion or gel or something. My mom-in-law says she thinks that Karissa was using it as conditioner because she saw Kylie putting conditioner in her hair this morning and that sure would make sense. Anyway, we found it pretty darn funny and I think Karissa did too! Here are some pics!