We had 6 different Christmas parties this year so I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up!

We celebrated Christmas with Robb’s extended family on his dad’s side on the 12th.

We went to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Christmas Day to celebrate with my Dad’s side

And the last of the extended family parties was on the 26th with Robb’s mom’s side of the family.

there are roughly 143 million orphans in the world today, if only 6% of all professing Christians would care for an orphan (which God commands us to do) THERE WOULD BE NO ORPHAN CRISIS.....ALL THE ORPHANS WOULD BE TAKEN CARE OF. On Tuesday in honor of the 1 year anniversary of Grayden's Forever Day we signed up to sponsor an orphaned child through Compassion International, Have you done your part?
We have been so blessed this Christmas season and always, and it breaks my heart to know what these little children don't have. This little boy has been on my mind and in my prayers since the moment I first saw him on compassion.com. He's a part of our family now.

1 year ago today Grayden's adoption was finalized!
Click here to read about it!



Happy Forever Day!!

I had a fun little fort all set up under our dining room table covered with lots of blankets and Grayden’s favorite toys underneath!

I thought it would be fun but the poor guy hated it!

Our little boy is so full of life.  When I look at him, when I really sit and watch him I can literally see him grow right before my eyes. I love the way his mind works, the way his little brain captures everything happing around him and he sits and ponders it for awhile.

He doesn't miss a beat, that little love. I want to be more like that, I want to sit and take him all in, and always remember this precious time in our lives.

~awhile back now I caught Grayden playing with ink pens so I ran over to him and firmly grabbed them from his hand, picked him up, gave him “the look” and told him “no, we do not play with ink pens” quite sternly.  He then gave me this sweet little smile, looked me square in the eye, put his sweet hands on my cheeks and said “pretty, pretty!” Cue the melting heart!

Who taught him that?!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~for the past couple of weeks now Grayden has been counting to 10.  Here is my favorite rendition of his counting skills:

me: ‘Grayden, do you want to count with mommy? one, two..”

Grayden: “three, four, five, six, seven eight, nine, ten, good job”

me: ha ha ha, yes that was a good job!! so cute!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(foreword: i can only recall a couple of times when Grayden needed a little spanking, we typically do time-outs)

~just a couple of days ago we were all home just playing in the living room and watching t.v. and Grayden must have been doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing ( I don’t remember what it was) so I told him no but he didn’t listen and kept doing it. so i got a little more firm and said, “you’re going to get a spanking if you don’t listen to mommy”

he looked up at me, raised his eyebrows and smiled. Then as he was sitting down, he rocked to one side and spanked himself on the buns a couple times.

we started cracking up! I never knew disciplining him would be so easy…do you think he’ll put himself in time out from now on?!  :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~when I'm talking on the phone I always pace back in forth around the house, i don’t know why I just can’t sit still when I'm on the phone.

well, our little love picked up on that in no time at all so now whenever he finds a phone he’ll pick it up and start walking around saying “hello, hi, good, ok, yeah, bye”

little stinker is mocking me!

(I have a good video of him pacing around with my phone too, but there was laundry all over the living room floor so you’ll just have to use your imaginations!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and one last thing I never want to forget is the sweet way i get to wake up every morning!

Grayden always starts yelling for me in his sweet little morning voice and when i walk in his room he’ll give me a smile and then immediately point out his paci which he throws out of the crib!
every.single.morning.

i just had to get it on camera!

our little boy just can’t get enough play time with daddy!

This year we opted out of a real tree. I do miss the hunt for the perfect tree and the fun memories we make as a family but we decided to save the $30 bucks  this year and use the artificail tree we have.

We sent it up last Sunday as a family and went to town decorating it!

We are already down one ornament or ‘ball’ according to Grayden, it wound up in a hundred little pieces on the kitchen floor!

Last week Saturday my wonderful husband planned a date night for the two of us.

He surprised me with tickets to see Legally Blonde the musical!

We started off enjoying a yummy seafood feast at Red Lobster and then headed to the show!

And then we headed to the show!

It was such a blast! I love the movie so the musical was so exciting to see!

My favorite parts was when Elle’s little doggie Bruiser made an appearance, so cute!!

Friday night Robb planned a fun family night out!

We headed to Holiday Road in Spring Lake to see all the houses lit up on the street!

All the lights on the houses down the entire street were choreographed with Christmas music!!!

We had a great time, Grayden loved it and I am still amazed by how they managed to do that! Very cool! We topped that off with ice cream from Culvers and a trip to Kohl’s. Thanks for a fun night babe!

Our thanksgiving festivities kicked off Wednesday night with Robb’s family at the family life center at church.

we enjoyed a delicious meal, some basketball, a couple rounds of musical chairs and lots of family togetherness time!

Thursday morning we headed to church where we worshiped and praised God for all our many blessings.

After church we watched a little bit the the Thanksgiving day parade and we were on our way to my family gathering at my grandma and grandpa’s house.

Once again the meal was wonderful, the conversations a delight, and that pie was like a little piece of heaven!

Upon returning home, we all took long naps, (‘til 6pm to be exact) and then headed to my parents house for homemade pizzas and a movie.

...and I was doing so good too. ugh..well here's a little catch up! better late than never!

Day 17~ I am thankful for my friends and the relationships I have with each of them! They are such a special part of my life! Love you girls!
Day18~ I am thankful for food and water, I take these things for granted on a daily basis but I know there are so many who go without food and water much to often.
Day 20~I am thankful for this blog and the ability to share and document the happenings of my life. Its been so valuable to be able to go back and read things I wrote a couple years ago and see the way God has worked in my life and in me.
Day 21~I am so thankful to have my faith, I don't know how I would have ever gotten through those tough times without my faith in the Lord to guide me.
Day22~ I am thankful for Eternal life and the promise of spending eternity with Jesus and my loved ones.
Day 23~I am thankful for all of you readers and the encouragement, support (and concern when I got a week without blogging!) and love you have shown me through this blog. I never would have guessed I would make lasting friendships with people I 'met' online!
Day 24~I am thankful for the Lord's forgiveness when I fall short of His glory.
Day 25~ I am thankful for the many doctors and surgeons who have taken care of me now and in the past. I know God placed each of them in my life for a reason.
Day 26~I am thankful for Christian music and the way it ministers to me, so often I hear songs on the radio that speak to me in such a special way.
Day27~ I am thankful for God's love and even though I don't deserve it He loves me anyway and died on the cross for ME!
Day 28~ I am thankful for a healthy family, when anyone in my family gets sick I realize how much I take that for granted and remember to thank God for our health. I ask you to pray for the many people struggling with cancer and other illnesses right now, it seems like I hear of someone else getting the devastating diagnosis of cancer everyday and it breaks my heart every time. I hate that 'C' word.

I am thankful for my dog Pacey. He turns 5 years old today!
I know some of you might think its a little odd to be thankful for a dog and note his birthdays and trust me, I'm really not a huge dog person, but Pacey and I have a close bond!
He really is a special dog!