My Cup Runneth Over

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving day cooking, hanging out with family and eating fabulous food. We spent the day at my sister’s house with most of my family. With 10 kids running around, ages 2-18, it was very loud and crazy but a lot of fun. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day and the kids were able to play outside. I love watching my boys play with their cousins. Levi and Ben had such a great time. Graham, however, has a bit of a cold and was attached to my hip for most of the day. Gotta love him.

I have much to be thankful for today. Here are a few things on the top of my list...

1. A God who loves me, has redeemed me, and is continually drawing me to Himself.

2. My hubby who works hard and loves his family well.

3. The smiles and giggles of my 3 boys. There is nothing better.

4. Levi’s new found confidence. I just love watching him play sports, excel at school, and be a leader among his peers.

5. Ben’s ornery spirit and sense of humor. He keeps me laughing and shaking my head. I just love that kid.

6. Graham's hugs and cuddles. He gives me about 15 hugs whenever I return home from somewhere, even if I just went to the grocery store. He loves his mama, and even though his stubborness drives me CRAZY, I'll cuddle with that sweet boy anytime!

7. My Tuesday night prayer girls. We laugh together, cry together, and most importantly, we pray together. I love living life with these girls. I have prayed for friends like these ever since we moved to Kansas City. It was definitely worth the wait!

8. A church that really is our family. Every time I walk in the doors I feel like I'm right at home, but I never leave unchanged.

9. My pilates pain specialist, David, who has allowed me to feel like a "normal" person for the first time in 10 years.

10. My life. It's hard to believe that our car accident was almost 10 years ago. I will never stop thanking God for sparing my life on that Christmas day and for everything He has taught me on this journey.

11. The chalkboard on my kitchen pantry door. I don't know why, but I just love it.

12. Ghirardelli peppermint bark with dark chocolate. There are a lot of desserts I can't have these days, but it doesn't matter when I can eat these. I’m just being honest.

13. My mom, who I talk to every day and knows something about everything. Well, not everything. She doesn't know a thing about what's on television or the most recent celebrity gossip, but she has great wisdom about everything that actually matters.

14. Three older siblings who have walked before me and help me to keep perspective.

15. A wonderful kindergarten year for Levi. We prayed hard for this decision, and for now, I know we are in a great place.

16. A neighborhood filled with boys!

17. Gluten-free pie crusts. That pumpkin pie was awesome today! It would not have been Thanksgiving without a homemade pumpkin pie.

18. The friendship of each couple in our community group. We are truly blessed by each one of them and love spending our Thursday nights with them.

19. The ministry of Young Life and all that God is teaching us as the committee chairs. Whew, it's been a tough year, but it's been amazing to watch God work.

20. Coffee. Enough said.

21. My hubby who can fall asleep with my lamp on when I'm staying up late reading or writing a post.

I think it's time for bed!

I hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving!

Superheroes

We had such a great Halloween weekend...it could not have been more perfect. We had lots of excitement, perfect weather, and the boys were healthy (even when everyone around us is sick!).

We did 3 pumpkins on Thursday evening, and the boys had a lot of fun. They were very proud of their finished products...
The weekend festivities began with Levi's school Halloween parade and party on Friday. Wow, was it crazy! There are 19 kids in Levi's class, and every single kid had a parent there, plus lots of siblings. Needless to say, the room was very crowded and full of activity. Here's a pic of his sweet class...
Friday night we carved a pumpkin and had my mom over for dinner. We picked up chinese food, and I had my first gluten-free restaurant experience. Our favorite chinese place has a great gluten free menu, and I was more than impressed!

Back to the pumpkin...Levi was very particular about the face - he wanted it to be very scary! I think he's demonstrating here...
Saturday began with Levi's last soccer game. He's so sad for the season to be over. Up next...basketball!
We went straight from soccer to our good friends' house where they had a fun Halloween lunch. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids had such a great time rolling in the leaves in their backyard. Our kiddos are deprived by the lack of leaves in our yard, so it was really fun for them.
The host had all kinds of fun Halloween goodies. I'm so thankful that I have creative friends who do things like this!
We headed home for the little ones to take a short nap and then put costumes back on to join up with all the neighbors for a big neighborhood party. Here's Batman and Spiderman...
Superman wasn't very happy about getting woken up from his nap, and he did NOT want to wear his costume. But just like any good mother, I forced him to wear it and then tried to ignore him during the next 30 minutes of grouchiness. He screamed, "NO!", whenever I tried to take a picture of him, but I was able to catch a few, although the shots aren't the best.
There were about 200 people at our neighborhood get-together. It was so much fun to hang out and just let the kids play for a couple of hours before trick-or-treating. They attempted to get all of the kids together for a picture. Wow, that's a lot of kids! Notice Ben on the far right holding some poor kid's pitchfork to go with his or her Devil costume. Ben ran around the neighborhood with that thing for hours! We never did figure out who it belonged to. The boys had so much fun with all of their buddies.
The boys were ready to go trick-or-treating by the end of the party so Michael and another dad took all of the boys while I headed back to hand out candy. I tried to take a picture of the 3 of them before they left, but this was the best I got... Here's Levi with his "scary" pumpkin...I thought Michael would bring back Graham pretty quickly, but he lasted a long time! This was the first year that Levi and Ben were into getting a lot of candy. Last year they were done after about 8 houses, but this year they could have gone for hours. They came back to the house and quickly began inspecting all of their candy. They were more than wired!
Hope you all had a spooky Halloween!