thankful

The thanksgiving holiday has come and gone all too quickly but I'm very thankful today...thankful for my family, friendships that grow me in Christ and for the Lord's provisions in drawing me to him. 

I'm thankful for healthy, beautiful to me children.  Children which bring so much of God's refining process to me.  Children who love me unconditionally and are quick to forgive. 

Thankful for Brandon who works so hard to provide for us and encourages me and stands by me in God's call for us to nurture the hearts of these little ones at home.  I have the finest husband a girl could ask for and I'm thankful for how he handles situations with such grace and wisdom.

All thanks goes to a Creator who knew me before the foundation of the world.  My God, who so blessed me to be born into the free country I live in, to be protected from evil as a child and to be introduced to his son, Jesus, at an early age.  The blessings I recongize from my Lord are everything.....I am blessed because I have the gift of salvation handed to me, only requiring me to accept....I'm thankful I'm not homeless, thankful I'm healthy, thankful I can see, touch, smell, taste, walk, eat, feel. love and be loved, thankful for peace, thankful for every minute detail we take for granted.  If all was taken from us and we had nothing except our security of salvation...would we still feel blessed and be thankful? 

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Miss Kate Marie is having her first Papa & Nana sleep over toinght and I will be excited to hear how it went.  They kept her while we took the boys to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which I was very disappointed in....didn't do the book justice in my opinion). 

Kate loves her Nana & Papa (they are my grandparents) and I'm sure she was treated like royalty. I loved spending the night with them when I was a little girl.  Nana still has the little bunny rabbit that I threw up all over!  I'm thankful that my grandparents are able to invest in and speak truth into the lives of my kiddos....we are very blessed for the foundation of faith!

This picture is a month or so old but I'm thankful we can do fun stuff like camp out on the trampoline.

I'm thankful I have a house full of little warriors.  They love punching on the punching bag.....they think they have big muscles!

Crew loves riding Red and he's pretty sure that Red likes him best!  Little cowpoke loves The Ranch.  The other day in the car Kate said, "my daddy is working cows" and Crew was politely corrective and said, "no he's not....he's putting hay out in the pasture"  Not so politely the sweet little girl voice answered, "unt uh...my daddy's working cows!"  They are funny.  Reminds me of when Brett was asked what his favorite food was and in his best East Texas voice he said, "deer meat!"  Oh my...we're from the country.

Couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture but it is too funny....we had play doh night last week and this is one of Brandon's artistic doings........the boys LOVED it.