Thankful Thursday and Year Wrap Up

It is hard to believe that today is the last Thursday of 2011. I have so much to be thankful for this year. We have had very little illness in our family. My depression has done pretty well at laying low. I have subbed some this year, made many quilts and enjoyed so many relationships with friends online through facebook and my Blog. I even got a sweet Christmas card from a customer this year. I made a quilt for her daughter out of marathon shirts. It meant so much to be on her Christmas List. Paul has had many side jobs that have helped us out. We have given of our time to Society of Samaritans this year, they in turn have helped us a couple of times when the kids went back to school and with Christmas. I am thankful for organizations like this that can help us in difficult times. They also helped connect us with someone at the end of the summer to install a 220 outlet so we will now have a better window unit to help in the summers for the main part of the house. I am thankful to a particular friend for helping out this year by purchasing me two quilting tables, it will really help with all the queen orders I am praying the Lord will be sending our way. Outside of just having wonderful friends and family I am so so thankful that my dad made it out for Thanksgiving. I miss family so much during the holidays. I have been in Texas 17 years in January and they have never spent a holiday here. It was a nice change for us. I am thankful for the growth of my blog, I am thankful to live in a country that allows freedom of speech and worship too.

This week I have much to be thankful as we just celebrated Christmas with family and friends. We have had much enjoyment playing games during this Christmas Break with the kids too. I think we have managed to do so nightly. It has created many memories I hope they treasure. I am thankful for the washer and dryer we were just able to purchase. I am thankful that our remodel to make them work is going smoothly and almost complete. I am thankful that my husband has several days off and we can spend some time together. I am thankful for all the food we have eaten, some of which was provided to us, that makes me all the more thankful, I love watching the Lord work in our lives.

Here are some pictures from this week to show the Thankfulness from the week and Lord's provision.

Sequence Night 3, it was rather fun because it was just Three of us playing.

 Kenzei won, she loved that. We played for second place because we "roll" like that.

Day 2 of Remodel. I am so thankful Paul had the day off. It really helped us get so much done. He started by adding a sub floor to level everything out between the existing wall and the floor under the washer/dryer. Then he added a flat surface to the wall. Its kind of neat because this is a cut of wood left from Kenzei's desk.

We have an electrical cord to hide and he came up with this clever idea to run it in the middle of the end framing. Great thinking!

I am so excited it was coming together quickly. He even reused that baseboard we worked so hard on, its now the top piece to this wall.

I love how this is looking. It makes me excited to think how the rest of her room will look once we get the wall framing up and the ceiling redone.. In time right now we don't have the extra money for the nails we will need. I think we might have enough wood.

This week I am really thankful I turned a picture Paul took of the kids into a Free Canvas, we had a no gift policy for adults, rather hard this year but necessary. Since this was free it didn't count. I love the photo too!

Zekaryah and I went on a date last week, Mekenzei and I went on one this week, that left Jakob. It became a little more complicated when we discovered there weren't any movies he was interested in. (We have a local theater that is still $2.50, it isn't the best but for $5 we can have a nice date.) I had a gift card for a local restaurant. I had been saving it for our anniversary but we used it tonight to pull off Jakob's night out. Paul also tagged along, since he had the day off. We rented Rio, which the boys had not seen yet, so after a game of Monopoly we will watch our movie.

Family time at its finest

A game of Monopoly that has taken hours. I got so cold I folded out of the game early but it is now almost one and they are still playing!

I am truly blessed to have met a great man 17 years ago. I am excited to think that 17 years ago we had made the decision to get married. I was anxiously awaiting him arriving in Utah, so that we could find a local courthouse and get married on New Year's Eve. Of course my plans got changed when we couldn't pull that off, but we did get married the sixth of January in Vegas. Well worth the wait. I hope everyone has a very Blessed New Year and that you too are enjoying your family this Holiday season. That is what life is all about..the little things.
(thankful tonight to Jakob for taking this photo for us too)

Washer and Dryer Blessings

Our old washer and dryer stopped working. I was very distressed over the idea that it cost $25 to do 9 loads of wash. That had me searching for great deals and then finally Craigslist. Where I found this set, which is now ours. It took an hour to go get it and an hour to get home, which required some gas money and then $300. The only mistake made was we didn't measure them. How much difference could they really  be then our old set? 4 INCHES. That's it, but that is enough

So for the first few days my husband rigged a cord to another cord for the washing machine drain to have an extended amount. We tossed around two ideas, relocating them to a shed outside- thus dealing with weather, having to run hot water etc, quite a bit of work and cost to us money wise for supplies, or putting a hole in this wall- maybe better cost wise but could be a huge disaster this would be an act of faith!

Well from this picture you can tell we chose ACT OF FAITH. He first started with a fairly small hole. I was nervous the whole time!

That led to a cut down the wall, wow was the dust flying..

There goes our homemade baseboard. UGH..

Well we pulled the side of the wall out. Not too bad really. Took a puddy knife to the bottom so that we didn't accidentally cut into the wood floor. That was my idea :-)

I can't believe the size of the wood in this stud

There is wood siding in the closet. I am thankful for that because once we got the wall pulled away we realized that is all we needed. Looks like we can frame right on top of it.

So then there is this stud with the electrical line, that led to another difficult move. My idea a crowbar to pull the stud away so we could cut the nails that held it to the wood siding of the closet wall and then Paul cut a hole in the stud to allow the wire to slip out. Then we were able to remove the whole bottom half. Praise God.. This part went fairly well considering.

Him cutting his hole. I had a moment of faith since I had to hold this wire and trust him that he would not mess up here or at the top of the stud to get it out.

Jakob's contribution to our evening a pan of brownies. Much needed after so much stress. Now tomorrow we try to frame it and move them side by side. Please pray it will continue to go well. I would love to have time to make a dog house so the outside dog would be warmer. He refuses to not pee inside so I refuse to let him sleep in, even though its cold. It doesn't mean I don't feel bad though, I sure do. For now he has an igloo and hay, hopefully in a couple days he will have a new outside home.

Game Nights

I really dislike when I eat food that bothers me, I get super sick. This is after opening Christmas Presents, and then most of the day. I almost did not think we would make it to Paul's sister's house for Christmas Dinner. I felt lousy. The dog enjoyed some sleeping time too.

Monday Paul had off so we enjoyed some games that evening after a great meal of sides. We had gone and picked up a washer and dryer that day, so I didnt' get a chance to put in a ham or a turkey so we could have some meat. Mekenzei got this cool game for Christmas. After playing for a while we discovered several cards were all misprinted. I hesitate to buy her one to replace it, I am not sure if it is the game in general or just the copy we got. We were sad to throw it out. She is our major animal lover, so this fit her perfectly!

We traded it up for Sequence. It was a lot of fun. Yes we wear lots of clothes in our house, it rarely gets above 60 probably more like 53 all winter long. Usually I am fully dressed with my robe and slippers too.

Zekaryah decided part way through that I needed to be in a picture too. It was our first night to play it, we did so again Tuesday night after dinner. I think it will be a new family favorite. 

 

We followed Tue night with a game Jakob got called Topple. Its funny because Jakob decided he did not want to play. For once that worked out well because we couldn't all five play. We had that problem with Sequence only four of us could play or we need one more person. Kenzei and I won the Sequence round. Zekaryah wasn't too happy about that, but his turn came because at Topple he won with the most scored points. Paul lost in the negative because he caused it to Topple. It reminds me a little bit of Jenga, which I might just have to buy again now that the kids are older. I think they would really enjoy it. I love that game nights have been very frequent this holiday season in our home.

Christmas

Stockings set out the night before. I am thankful I had thought to put these together Thur afternoon, we stayed a little late at our friends on Christmas Eve. I am also thankful I had a couple things for Kenzei that would not fit in hers, otherwise my stocking would have been empty.

Jakob, Paul and Pilsner were the first up. I think this is a great picture too!

We are all finally warm and ready to open stockings and gifts. I had eaten something at SOS Saturday afternoon that made me pretty sick, so all I wanted was to be warm, the dog agreed.

One of Kenzei's favorites from her stocking.

One of Zekaryah's favorites from his stocking- an Astro's watch

Pilsner feeling left out, but he's smart that is an electric blanket he is fully laying on!

Things they all really liked

The game Jakob went to Black Friday for. He is very thankful that my dad bought this for him! It was all that was on his wish list this year. Nice to have such a small wish list too.

Paul enjoying a game Jakob got for Christmas- called Bop It XL

The one thing Zekaryah wanted- and he got two of them this large one and a smaller one that had two guns. Perfect because all three kiddos can play.

We are very thankful for the extra that the Lord provided this season, esp the food box that included a turkey. We just enjoyed it tonight. We were thankful to his work for providing a small ham. It was big enough to provide us two meals.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has had many traditions for our family. We always get PJS, normally us adults do this year. I even saw a pair I wanted, they were fleece and Kermit the Frog- but we couldn't find the size I needed. I am thankful that we found them for the kids, they are who mattered most. I missed our all day snacking, and our game night that normally occurs. I had served all day at SOS. I am thankful for that because I saw so many families get a warm meal on a very cold rainy day and many kids who got presents and were able to meet Santa Claus, it was a great day to give of my time. Paul smoked a brisket all morning, that was what we were taking to his family for Christmas Day.

After we had a meal at our friends house we watched a movie with them called Abduction. I think their dog felt a little left out because he made his way to their lap. I think he was maybe more jealous that Zekaryah had a spot on the couch with them. It was fun family time with great friends.

Date Night out for Hubby's Work

We rarely go out- esp just the two of us, normally if we do I try to work in a movie. Wednesday I had a date night with Zekaryah- we went and saw the third Alvin and the Chimpmunks movie. Thursday night was a date night with Paul, it was watching the Texans football game with the guys/spouses he works with.

Not really much of a date night but I did eat some yummy fried pickles, curly fries and chicken wings. I drank 8 glasses of iced tea while there and that made it where I could NOT Sleep. Lucky for me I had a book - the new Stephanie Plum book, so it came in handy.

The guys watching the game. We thought the Texans would win then the last four fouls just changed our winning streak and the other team won. It was interesting to see how mad/happy people became.

The girls having a good time. We only seem to see each other when there is a work function. I had made that girly Baby Genius quilt for Lorrie, to the right, she loved it. I was glad.

Lorrie and Joe as we were leaving. Looking back we should have had them get a picture of Paul and I too. It was a late night but overall a lot of fun. I was glad he had Friday off.

Catching up Another Week

Seems like another busy week went by and I had good intentions to blog but Time escaped me. I just love spending time with the kids so much and being at the computer does not achieve that.

Dec 16th we went to a friends' house for a PJ game night Birthday party. It was a ton of fun!

We ate yummy faijitas, her cousin made the cake and we played some very fun games like Name Five, Apples to Apples JR, and Pictionary.

Mekenzei was very excited about the Jr Apple to Apple game, they were supposed to get it on Christmas Eve but I felt this was a great way to surprise them a little early.

Even the Dog wanted a turn

The PJ idea was so nice. It was great to be comfy and warm and comfortable, also great since we stayed late and could all just climb into bed once we got home.

Here is Zekaryah being silly- this is ALWAYS a possibility with him.

Paul had been up since 5:30 because he had worked so he crashed when we played the last game. The cat decided to join him.

Jakob was interested in playing so he crashed out too.

It was time to leave and kenzei questioned if we should just leave him there, he was so tired. We had a great night!