Thanksgiving and On To Christmas and Baby

The weather here has become quite brisk, but still nice.  A little different from past years and that is totally fine with me.  Thanksgiving was absolutely beautiful.  We had a small group in comparison to previous years and it was a relaxing day.  I normally get my Christmas Cards ready to mail on Thanksgiving day, but I was ahead of the game and they were mostly ready before Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving was actually pretty relaxing.  Brent, Latisha, and August were here along with my sister and her family.  Her hubby is a police officer and was working the night shift, so, he got here a little late and had to leave early.  David and I have really been thinking a lot lately about people like our police, firefighters and those who work at hospitals.  These are people who rarely get a holiday because they are serving and protecting us.  It was so odd because the local Christian station was discussing that this morning.  I feel there must be some way to show our appreciation for them more. This is something I need to ponder and do something.  I am so grateful to all these people out there.  Thank you!!!  I also feel the same for our Service men and women, Thank you.  The sacrifice you all make is greatly appreciated and I wish, as a nation, we would honor you all more.

Now we are on the alert for "the phone call."  The phone call that says, we are in labor (Latisha that is).  When Latisha had August we got a phone call around 3:00 in the morning from Brent.  He said, "There is only one reason I would be calling you at this time in the morning."  Off we went to the hospital.  Now whenever the phone rings and I see it is Latisha my heart jumps.  We need to keep our phones, camera and camcorders charged and ready for the much awaited arrival of Brinley.  I looked over at Latisha at church this morning and got so choked up.  I am so proud of this girl and the mother she is.  This has been a long year but to finish it up with a healthy new grandbaby, well, what more could we ask for.  We are continuing on with Christmas activities and shopping but ready to drop everything at a moments notice for this little gift from God.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and your Christmas season is full of the joy of the birth of our Savior.  How wonderful it is to go shopping and hear the gospel over the speakers through Christmas carols.  This is the most wonderful time of the year.

God bless and have a wonderful day
Alicia

Thanksgiving meal, probably the best turkey I have ever cooked

our yearly ornament

we put the tree up high this year so it isn't so hard to get
presents under it

Enjoying a quite evening after decorations were up

Danika won a door prize at...

the Christmas brunch with my mom, Sierra and Danika

I got to decorate a table

Decorating gingerbread houses

Aidric and I got to go Christmas shopping

I love spending time with this little cutie!!!

Weston's at Ten Months

Time has a way of getting away from you.  I wish there was more time to spend with this little guy, but we treasure each moment we get.  When you don't get to see them very often, little grandbabies seem to grow even faster.  Weston is doing amazing and is simply adorable.  I just thought I would show off the little guy as only a grandma can.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day, God bless.

Alicia

Sierra Senior Pictures

Ready, set, here we go... Senior year for our third child.  Sierra is getting ready for graduation.  We got her registered for the homeschool graduation and now we got her senior photos done.  It has been such a privilege to homeschool Sierra, she has been a hard worker and an eager leader.  Whenever Sierra does something she gives it her all, and I really am thankful for that.

When Alex, Ivy, and Weston came to town they took the day to have a photo shoot for Sierra's Senior photos.  Alex and Ivy have started their own part time photography business and are doing a great job and taking some amazing photos.  I got to spend the day with them and they basically gave us three photo shoots.  It was a great day, even with the afternoon rain at our second shoot.  Alex did a wonderful job taking the picture and editing.  Sierra did great taking pictures in the drizzling rain.  We got our preview of some of the pictures, you can't even tell in the pictures that it was raining.

Here are some of the pictures.  Have a wonderful day.

Alicia

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Count Down to Brinley

It is so exciting to see Latisha's belly growing and and rounding out quite nicely. She has an adorable round belly.  The other day we were canning apples. Latisha was busily cutting apples, from behind you could not tell she was pregnant.  Most of her weight is in her belly, an adorable round ball.  Brinley is growing well and active, and Latisha looks great.

They are getting the baby room ready and it is adorable.  The baby will stay with Brent and Latisha for the first months but then it will get to share a room with August.  They have gone with a woods theme and it turned out quite nicely.

A couple weeks ago we had a fun little shower for Brinley.  Alex and Ivy made the trip and it all turned out lovely.

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August was very helpful and is so excited to meet his sister

This was the blanket I made, it turned out nicely

The hit of the night was all the fathers played the candy bar/diaper game.

Now she is nesting and everything is about ready.  She is ready for Christmas too, so I hope she can relax and enjoy the rest of her pregnancy.  We are excited to see our best Christmas gift of the season.  Hope you are all having a blessed day.  Have a great day.

Alicia

PS. Since I had us all together for the shower we got a lovely family photo.

PJ Time

Let the sewing begin

And I am off... time to get going on Christmas PJ's.  It is only a couple months away and all I have done is cut out the material, but I feel that I have a good start.  I go through spurts of working on the pajamas.  The other night I cut all seven pj's out (with no material left, cutting it very close, scary) in one night.  Off course that was a very late night.  Next, I place all the separate pj's pieces for each person in a different bag and write their name on the bag.  Now I just need to sew them together.  For some reason every year I cut the pajamas out to the size of the pattern per person, but they generally come out big.  So, I started with my jammies and am trying to make it the way I want it.  Then, hopefully, everything will go smooth with the others.  I had an idea in my head of the design for the year, I just have to figure out how to make it work, and of course I need to find the open space of time to sew them.  I enjoy making pajamas every year, even though I get stressed.  I find something very rewarding about making outfits for my family.  On Christmas eve everyone opens their one gift, they know what it is but they still get excited.  Then quickly run to get their new pajamas on and see if they actually fit or look good (some years have been better then others :)). Christmas morning we all sit around in our matching pajama's, read of Christ's birth, and bless each other with presents.  Guess that means I better get to work, Christmas will be here before we know and it would be good to cross the jammie making off my list.  Happy autumn and look here, Latisha is now 30 weeks pregnant, three-fourth the way there.  We are so excited.  Have a great day and God bless.

They are looking good!

Unfortunately, Isabella had another seizure that went off
and on through out the night, until 2:45 am.  

We were all pretty sleepy the next day, but Sierra stayed close to her
as she worked on her school. Isabella was so tired she didn't
move much either.

Carnival

Last week we got to go to my nieces school carnival after the games.  The kids had fun and Aidric found a new love of rock climbing, probably not something I want to encourage too much.  :) It is a little more dangerous then soccer.  Aidric is also very interested in golf and I feel that is pretty safe.  They say the older you get the more laid back your parenting gets, maybe in some areas, but the older you get the more you see, the more you want to protect.

They were just allowed to move sideways down the wall and not go
above the red line.  Aidric did it perfect even though a couple times he
couldn't reach far enough, so he hung on with one had and swung to
the next hand spot.  Not falling once.

Unfortunately this time of year is not the best for Isabella.  She seems to struggle with seizures more at this time of year.  I really think her medicine helps a ton.  There are days when she really concerns me as I see signs of a possible seizure but she seems to get right through.  A couple Sundays ago she had a seizure as we were getting ready for church.  It was very small but put her to sleep for quite a while.  I stayed home from church with her.  I worked on laundry and she decided to get up, but then was too tired to continue on and would just lay down where she was, then she got up again and laid back down.  When the family got home I had lunch prepared and my poor little girls was laying on the floor by the sliding door staring out side.  One of my children was shocked to see that I was letting her lay on the ground like that, but she was happy and wouldn't stay on the couch anymore.  I pray that this will be an uneventful next couple weeks for her.  We are almost through her hard time.

poor baby, she was out cold.

Tomorrow we are attending a memorial service.  An old dear friend's 18 year old son passed away last week.  He had spent over a year fighting cancer.  Up until last year he had been a normal, "healthy" teenage boy.  It is surreal to me because I was there when she announced her pregnancy with him, and we have been friends his whole life.  As children he and his brother would play with our kids and we have very good memories with him.  Hug your family tight and let go of grudges, life can be incredibly short, live it well.

Well, on a lighter note, I shall attempt to finish planting those bulbs I started yesterday.  Have a great day and God Bless.

Alicia

Fall Planting and New Life

One of the best things about spring is all the beautiful flowers.  When we first moved to our home I planted about 90 tulips and several daffodils.  Later I planted some Mascara.  While my daffodils have been faithful to return year after year, my tulips slowly disappeared and eventually stopped coming up, and my Mascara only lasted a year.  What did I do wrong?  Well, I am determined to be more successful this year and here I go again.  I had done my Google research so hopefully next year I will post the most beautiful pictures of these lovely flowers. I think they either rotted from overwatering, or I didn't plant them deep enough.

pray for me, he, he, he

 A couple years ago I found this lovely lime plant, that I bought for my birthday.  I am so happy to announce it is actually growing a cute little lime.  (Please feel free to ooooh and awwww)  I have no idea when to harvest, but I shall have to research on Google once again and see what it has to say.

Isn't she precious

Speaking of new life, Latisha and baby Brinley are doing wonderful.  Latisha is now in her 29th week   and is starting to feel the signs of the third trimester (a little more tired and achy), but she is excited it and knows is all worth it.

Isn't she adorable!

I hope you are all having a great day, God Bless!
Alicia