A week full of Thanks....

-God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today,

have you used one to say "thank you"?

- William Ward

We've had a lot to be thankful for this past week.

First off, it was Dan's Birthday! We are definitely thankful for him! We took him to Buca di Beppo, his favorite restaurant for a delicious dinner. And he chose Peanut Butter Cookies instead of a birthday cake. (Don't you love his plaid pj's?!) Happy Birthday Danny Boy, we LOVE you!

For Dan's Birthday gift he got a ticket to go to the Oregon/Cal game with my dad, pops Smidt, Jess, Jason and Shawn. It was definitely a 'guys' weekend and they all had a great time. Everyone knows what a BIG fan Dan is of Duck Football so it was a good thing they were victorious! (still undefeated) He kept saying it was the best week of his life having the Duck's ranked at #1 in the BCS polls and also that the McRib was back at McDonalds. (yuck) What a nut! The game was special for Pops Smidt too because he actually used to play for Cal Bears back in the day! So they were able to walk thru campus with pops and learn some history about his college days.

We made the long drive to Illinois for Turkey Day. We were so lucky to have dry roads the whole week, which made the trip nice and easy. The kids were fabulous and we found a couple of good hotels (one with an indoor water park), so they were in heaven. I'm just so thankful that we have a DVD player in the car, I think that makes all the difference! We had such a nice time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was so much fun to have everyone all together, it's been a long time since that has happened. Dan's brother and his family are back living in Illinois after living in Japan and France for the past 7 or so years. So it was really nice having all the cousins around to play and get to know each other better. They are all best buds now! I also had a great time hanging out with my cute nieces and nephew! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful week! And all the DELICIOUS food! By the end of the week we were back to wearing our elastic sweats!

I know we all try to be thankful all year round, but I really love that this time of year we all take the time to reflect on what we have all been blessed with in life. It's great to just pause and have a whole day of Thanks. I am so thankful that we had such a great Thanksgiving week.

(click on collages to enlarge)

Favorite Picture of the year...

I just finished making our Christmas cards on the computer and as I was scrolling thru the past year of pictures, I found my favorite picture of the year, it makes me laugh every time I see it.

I just love Jack!

This was taken in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Let it snow!

The weatherman said there was a chance of snow this afternoon and I checked the temp and it said 60* around lunch time, so I figured he was just about as accurate as every other weatherman and didn't believe him. We came home from school with no coats, and within 40 minutes, the weather dropped 20*. The clouds started rolling over the mountains and BOOM....snowflakes started to fall. The kids were extremely excited, and I was....well, I was so NOT excited. I am not ready for the cold, wet, winter weather. I like it in the mountains, but hate the hassle of driving in it. But it was cute to see the kids excitement. So, in the kids' minds, this is the highlight of our week.

The kids played outside for a few minutes while I finished making dinner.

I sent the kids upstairs to get their snow stuff on while Dan and I cleaned up after dinner. We had this much snow fall so quickly! But please notice their choice of 'snow attire'. Jack's just cracked us up! That kid sure has an imagination!

They came inside and were so cold, so we warmed up with some hot chocolate. Automatically they started asking how many days until Christmas. The snow always lets them know that Christmas is always right around the corner. So, we made the traditional paper chain.

Excited for Christmas?? We are!

Only 45 days or 1,082 hours or 64,967 minutes 'til Christmas!!

Sugar Sugar....

I am so exhausted. We had an extremely busy week chock-full of all things Halloween! I am seriously in a 'fun-sized-candy-bar' induced coma. Let's just say that the 7:00am alarm this morning came WAY too early. I had a love/hate relationship with my snooze button this morning. I'll spare you all the details of the week, but just know that there were a few too many parties, and WAY too much candy involved. I think my kids will be on a sugar high til next Thursday.

The cast of Super Mario Brothers!

Jack as Luigi - Olivia as Princess Peach - KJ as Mario