So Blessed!

Yes, we need to be thankful every day of the year, during the holiday season my mind thinks even more on the blessings God bestows on me.  His hand is evident in many ways daily!  Each breathe, each sunrise, each smile, each laugh and each tear are all blessings from Him!

First, I am so thankful for my Savior, whose birth we celebrated last month.  I do not deserve His love yet He loves me anyway.  What an example to me as a mommy...when my children irritate me I need to love them unconditionally just as my Savior does for me.  I will always fall short this side of glory!

Secondly, I am so thankful for my family.  I am blessed with an amazing husband who I get to share each crazy day with and our six children.  I have a great mom and dad and sister.  Family...what a special blessing...they see your good and bad and love you anyway!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and my kids surprised me by baking me a cake while I took Abby to therapy.  They even cleaned up the kitchen!!  When I walked in the house I couldn't even tell they had been baking by looking around, if you are a mom you know that is great!!  They made me cards, Carrie Anne helped Caleb and Seth.  I felt so loved.  That night after eating out pizza they looked for some candles, we had quite a few number candles in the drawer.  They could of made me 1 or a number up in the millions but they chose 86!  Sweet, loving critters! :)  I think I look pretty good and feel great for being 86!!  Oh, I love my sweet children, they make each day exciting, exhausting and special!

Love these six, sweet, keep my hopping, blessings!

Blessed?  ABSOLUTELY!!  Yes I am.  The day after my birthday while reading my bible this verse jumped out at me.

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:  if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. ~ Psalm 40:5

Oh my goodness how exciting!  God's blessings are so many that I can not count them all!  I am so undeserving... unworthy!  Yet, He blesses me anyway!

Thank you Jesus for each blessing!

OOPS!!

In my December catch up post I forgot something very major that happened in our life during December.

Shame, shame on me!!

It was very BIG in the life of one young man in our family!!

I arrived home from Cincinnati at 11:30 at night, we got in bed at 

1 a.m.  and we were up at 8 a.m. the next morning to take 

Andrew to

GET HIS LICENSE!!!

He had been counting down the days!

I am now the mommy to two driving teenage boys, oh boy, more gray for this momma!

Congratulations Andrew!

Yes, they let this goof-ball get a license!  I must say so far he is a great driver!

H.O.'s brother got a new truck this past summer and he GAVE Andrew his Jeep, Liberty.  Wow, what a blessing for us!  
Andrew is loving driving it!!  Thank you Uncle J.C.!

DECEMBER

ZOOM...

That's the way December has flown by, really time seemed to start flying the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Here is a highlight of the past six weeks in our family.

It started with putting our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving.  I love decorating the house for Christmas!

Love my silly girls!

One Christmas tradition in our family is once the tree is up the kids get a new ornament, it usually represents something from their life for the past year or favorite activity.  We always enjoy putting up the tree and seeing the ornaments from past years .

Opening their new ornaments.

H.O. doesn't always get an ornament but when I saw this at the store it was so him!

The kids enjoyed decorating gingerbread houses.
Such concentration by all...

 

We also spent much time at therapy during the end of November and December with six sessions a week for Miss Abby.  Then Caleb and I had to go to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for two weeks of doctor's visits.  That is probably why I feel like December zipped by.  We had appointments daily but in between we tried to enjoy some of the area.

We enjoyed a nearby aquarium,

 and the Children's Museum,

 and the snow!!

We were blessed to stay at the Ronald McDonald House across from the hospital.  This place was a real answer to prayer!

Almost every night they had entertainment for the children, including a visit from Ronald McDonald, a Christmas party, a visit from some animals from the zoo and much more.

But, while we were gone life went on at home and I missed seeing the kids dressed up for the teen progressive dinner and seeing the kids sing and play bells at church for Christmas.  That made this mommy heart sad, H.O. sent me pictures which was good but also made me cry, it is so hard being away from home for two weeks, especially at Christmas time!!

Love my children!!  So handsome and beautiful!

They put Seth in front of the microphone, oh no, he sang from his heart to God, just not always in English or any understandable language! :)

Caleb and I got home four days before Christmas and those days were filled with preparation of our hearts and home for Christmas.
Our home was filled with lots of baking.  The girls and I spent two days making lots of yummy treats.

The kids decorating Christmas cookies.

On Christmas Eve we spent the day with my parents, sister and her family.  What a sweet day.

My sweet parents!

The boys got bikes and had a great time learning to ride them.

My sister, her daughter and granddaughter ready in their matching Christmas jommies!  Love them!!

We ended Christmas Eve with a candle light service at church, what a wonderful way to quiet our hearts and remember why we celebrate Christmas!

We then headed home and tucked everyone in and caught a little sleep before the excitement began.  This was Abby's third Christmas and she was SO excited.  Caleb and Seth quickly caught on to Christmas is FUN!!

Andrew was just a little excited by what he saw in his box!!

We had a relaxed, lazy day as the children played with their new toys.  We ended our day singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

We love you Jesus and thank you for your unspeakable gift!! 

We were able to celebrate Christmas with H.O.'s family the weekend after Christmas, we had another great day.

On New Year's Eve we had fun at church with our church family eating and playing games and then headed home before the new year.  My prayer is I honor God in whatever I do this new year.  May you have a wonderful 2014 also in Christ!