22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Twenty-Two

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

What am I thankful for? I honestly have so much to be thankful for, so I thought I'd just ramble them all off! (and am including the rest of my family as well)

Jenna is thankful for:
(I will answer for her)

• Bottles, blankies and her nice warm crib (she's napping)

Juliana is thankful for:

• Her princess clock
• Her Barbie Swan Lake movie
• Dance class
• Grandma & Grandpa
• Thanksgiving
• Tinkerbell
• Disneyland
• Balloons

Jacob is thankful for:

• All of us to go at our home with Thanksgiving
• For my friends
• God
• We have a good time with this Thanksgiving day
  And that's it
• Camping
• All all ALL of this world and these planets and stars in my room and planets in my room too
  I think that's it
• Our cats and our babies and families
• We gotta bring Aunt Karen's giraffe to Aunt Karen's house
• My camera and the three telephones
• My teacher and my teacher friends and everybody in my world
  And that's enough.

Matt is thankful for:

• My wife and kids
• My church family
• My friends
• My work
• Our van (amen to that!)
• That my wife can stay home with our kids
• For the grand parents
• For God's grace
• How smart Jacob, Juliana and Jenna are

Denise is thankful for:

• Matt! He is an awesome husband and dad! We may not always see eye to eye or have the same methods to our madness, but we love each other and work past those things. He helps with house work, helps with the kids, is our financial provider (and loves his job!), is great with his neices and nephews, is a great son, son-in-law, brings more laughter into our home, is very caring, loves me and loves God!
• Jenna finally doing SO much better! She is almost like a normal baby :-) She's so much happier and fun and the kids love her to pieces! She sleeps through the night, and is finally getting on a schedule, YAY!
• Jacob is amazing, he brings so much joy to us! He is so bright, clever, sweet and kind-hearted.
• Juliana brings SO much life to our house, her entire face smiles, and always bops to any music she hears! (not always at dance class of course...)
• Showers! I may not get them real often, but I surely am VERY thankful for when I DO get them!
• Hair straighteners! Where have you been all my life?!?
• Bob, my van, he's the bomb diggity and has made traveling-life SO much easier and enjoyable!
• My parents, they are SO wonderful to me, Matt and our kids. They are the most amazing parents and grandparents ever!!! They make and take the time to build nuturing relationships, and for that I am SO eternally thankful!
• The Pumpkin Patch Crew! It's so nice to have a group of friends to talk with, laugh with, cry with, and simply have the most odd conversations with!!! And to know they're always there.
• The Office :-) When Friends went off the air, Matt & I were utterly lost for comedic relief. And HA HA - The Office has definitely provided that! So to Michael Scott, Jim, Pam, Oscar, Meredith, Angela, Kevin, Kelly, Ryan, Stanley, Andy, Creed and even Dwight - THANK YOU! ;-D
• For God being so compassionate and merciful! He knows every little thing about me, all my thoughts and fears, hopes and shortcomings, and yet always has open arms and ears for me.
• The Bible! It has all the answers to the questions of life...if we'd only read it and take heed to it. An area I need to be better at!!!
• And lastly, that this darn Thanksgiving series of blogs is finally OVER!!! 8-) Let's move on to Christmas, shall we?!?!? :-D

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Twenty-One

I am thankful for play dates! I'm not the first mom to admit that you start to go stir-crazy as a stay-at-home-mom, and getting to talk with another adult is pure bliss!!! Today I play dated with Karen, and I tell ya, it was SO nice getting to talk with another adult and having your kids play with other kids! Although we still find that we can't get through an entire sentence...however we realized we can't do that even when there are no kids are around ;-D I think they have trained us to simply NOT speak an entire sentence as we're never given the chance, so our brains don't know how to do otherwise anymore! Oh well, one day, it'll come back...right???
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Anywho, thanks for having us over, Karen! The kids had a great time playing, and it was so nice getting to catch up a bit!!!

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Twenty

Today I am thankful for moms who understand! Today my face has looked like this A LOT - >:-[ I don't know what the deal is, but my kids have been in rare form today, just getting on each other WAY more than normal, whining like crazy, whacking each other with things, you know the drill. I had thought about cancelling a play date this morning but hoped that maybe the change of pace would be enough to make them FORGET to act like that. Yeah, not really! They were definitely overall better than before Melissa arrived with her two youngest boys, but still did their thang. Juliana wouldn't let Evan help her with something, so while pulling it away she knocked over my full glass of Diet Coke all over the carpet...nice. Jacob almost stepped on Baby Matthew's head on the couch. Jacob whacked Evan with his alligator rain boot! Juliana threw a remote at Jacob. Jacob hit Juliana with a car. Jacob and Juliana just kept ticking each other off, definitely on purpose, which in turn caused more whining, etc.

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They are all in bed now...yes, I even put Jacob to bed! I told him that he has been acting FAR too unacceptably and off to bed he goes!!! (of course, followed by more whining)

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Melissa was sweet as ever, just took it in stride, she of course knows about days like this (days...weeks...months...years!). As I know you all will understand as well :-) Still drives me nuts though! And I'm looking forward to when they start getting along again...soon, right?!? :o)

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My more humorous way of viewing how today has gone...

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Nineteen

Man alive, you know what I'm thankful for?!? That this blogging series is almost done! 8-) I tell ya, I keep almost forgetting! And ya know, I keep not blogging about the stuff I'd normally blog about! I have about a kazillion pictures I would have normally posted by now, but they don't really go with the theme so I normally don't. (well that AND my screen is still messed up so doing anything with pictures is NO FUN these days)

Today I am thankful to have a day of rest :-) I did practically nothing all day, and it was great!!! I watched Wall-E with the kids, which we all loved (and I was pleasantly surprised by that, I didn't think I was going to like it very much). We built a nifty train track with Jacob's GeoTrax. Had lunch, played on the computer, harrassed Karen on Facebook (the kids helped me with that!), I laid down for a little bit (I have a cold, Matt just got one today too, bummer). Had homemade hamburgers and fries for dinner (yum). Then Jacob & I headed off to my parents house to drop off the chairs we borrowed for the baby shower, visited for a bit, then went grocery shopping for this week's festivities. It was so nice just hanging out with Jacob for a couple hours, we don't get much one-on-one time these days, so that was really nice! It will be an early-to-bed night, and for that I am thankful!

Oh yeah, AND I took the time to feed our squirrels today during lunch! I laid on the floor and took a picture of him grabbing a couple peanuts :-) Just a great laid-back day!!!

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Mr. Squirrel eating a couple peanuts on our back slider.

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Eighteen

I AM THANKFUL FOR LAUGHTER!!! OK, so it started yesterday when I was cleaning the house for the baby shower I was hosting today. I was getting all the kids stuff out of the first floor of our house, and as I pulled away a toy bin, I LAUGHED as I noticed a Littlest Pet Shop frog hanging on our wall! It had obviously fallen back behind the toy bin and gotten so smashed against the wall that it stuck there. It was so funny! It was just one of those unexpected things that makes you laugh, ya know?

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Then at Austin & Gabe's double-birthday pool party, it was more fun than anything to see what the ADULTS were doing! Funny flips off the diving board, and Matt pretending to be Spongebob Squarepants. :o)

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And then Stephanie deciding to try to screw up a picture I was taking, but hey, that just means I'll post THAT instead! SO IN YOUR FACE, MISSY!!! ;-D

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Then today was the baby shower for my sister, and we had SO much fun! All of us who have been working on the shower have been desparately trying to keep it a secret that we've been working on a video for Karen, a video that shows why she's going to be a great mother of five. It has been SO fun taping it and putting it together, I swear it's going to have the best gag reel once I put it together! :-D But the actual video was a hit, it went off really well, and totally showed off Karen's crazine...I mean WONDERFULNESS!!! ;-D We laughed so much today, and I am so thankful for that!!! I don't have hardly any pictures from the shower, I was leaving that up to a couple other cameras. But trust me, lots of laughter!!! :-D

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(added later) OK, well Stephanie just sent out pictures, so now I can add one of the Pumpkin Patch Crew at the baby shower! (yes, we all have John Deere shirts on! ...well except the guest of honor!)

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Seventeen

I'm kinda in a daze right now...hmmm...let's see... I'd say that today I'm thankful that when you host shindigs at your house that it forces you to clean! Our house has taken quite the hit ever since Jenna was born, it's been hard to stay up on anything. But when you're planning to have a group of people over (especially a baby shower for your beloved sister whom you absolutely adore, so you clear most everything out of the bottom level of your house!), it prompts a deep clean that is so desparately needed! I am SO thankful to have a MUCH cleaner house today! So thank you, Karen, for having yet another baby!!! ;-D
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On a completely different note, I have SO many pictures of various events lately that I need to go through and post...so be forewarned...soon enough I will be posting a plethora of pix!!! :o)

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Sixteen

I am thankful for weekends! Even though this is going to be an extremely busy weekend, it's just nice knowing that I'll have Matt home for a majority of the weekend to help out with kids, to have an ADULT to talk to, and just in general, it's nice having him home. Lots of fun stuff happens on the weekends! This weekend we had Awana Grand Prix tonight, again Saturday morning, double-birthday pool party Saturday afternoon, church/nursery duty Sunday morning, Karen's baby shower directly afterwards, and I had to say no to two other party invites for this weekend as well (which is hard to do!). And then just in general, we have a lot of cleaning and prep in between for the baby shower :-) So yeah, although beit a non-stop weekend, I am so thankful for weekends! Breaks you out of the norm, gives you a chance to be with other people, build lots of memories...so that said...LET'S PARTY!!!

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Fifteen

I am thankful for the Pumpkin Patch Crew! We have been having so much fun putting Karen's Baby Shower together!!! The only bummer is that we can't include Karen in the planning :-( That's been really hard for me! She's normally the first person I call when I'm super excited about something, she's so great :-) OK, enough said, I don't want to say too much on this one!

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Fourteen

The definite highlight of today was Jenna in the bath tub!!! Matt and the kids were at Awana, so it was pure undevoted time between Jenna and I, and oh my goodness was it ever cute! She can sit up just fine in the bath tub now, so she's completely free from anything getting in her way from having a good time. She'd smack her hands down against the water, and I'd excitedly respond "SPLISH SPLASH!!!" and she'd look up at me with the biggest smile and laugh and laugh!!! Again, and again, and again... It was by far the happiest I have EVER seen her!!! EVER! I wanted SO badly to go downstairs and grab my camera or camcorder to get it recorded in some way, but there's no way I could leave her in there of course. But that was a blessing as well because then I could just sit there and enjoy the time WITH her. (I sure wish I could have gotten it captured in some way though, SO CUTE!!!)

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So that's what I'm most thankful for today, those precious moments that you hope to engrain in your mind and cherish for the rest of your life! Like fun in the tub :-)

On another note, Jacob's school pictures came today, and if I do say so myself, he is quite handsome! (wish he was smiling bigger, but that's OK!) The first thing he said when he pulled the picture packet out of his backpack was "I don't have any glasses on!" He is so proud to have his first "NO GLASSES" school picture!

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Thirteen

I was just about to head to bed and realized "I haven't done my Thanksgiving blog yet!!!" And it's funny, first thing this morning I updated my Facebook to say "I'm still on a high from last night!" and was thinking I should have that be my thing I'm thankful for today, BUT figured I'd go ahead and let more of the day play out to see if something else trumped it (since it was only 7:00am!). And sure, there have been many good things that have happened today. I had fun baby shower shopping, the kids did relatively well, I very much enjoyed worship practice tonight, but I am still so very thankful for what a great time we had last night at FBC's Girlfriends Connection night! I was surrounded by great friends, great food, a great speaker on video, great entertainment...are you sensing a theme here??? I came home feeling so refreshed and on a total HIGH! And I was all the more happy to wake up this morning feeling the same way!

So here's a big Shout Out to Angie Swanson and the entire Women's Ministry Team at Faith Baptist! It was yet another event that exceeded my expectations! Thank you for all that you do (which is A LOT) to put those events together!!!

Here's a link to one form of entertainment the MOPS team provided last night, I thoroughly enjoyed it!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPLazPlyRz4

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Twelve

OK, so I have to admit, it's a bit tiring trying to stay up on this on a daily basis! But I am grateful because it's making me take into account the good things that happen each day. I have to make myself sit back and think of all the things that have happened over the course of the day, and then narrow it down to one thing! Sometimes I go outside just the one thing a bit, like today, but there's still normally one thing that stands above the rest.

I am extremely grateful for Teachers! Today was my Parent/Teacher Conference with Jacob's teacher, Mrs. Dean. She is so nice and sweet, and very patient with the kids. Yet at the same time she is firm with what she asks of the kids and follows through. I am VERY grateful for that! That's exactly the way we treat our kids, and it is very helpful when their outside "parents" treat them in the same manner, especially during these first years of development. The areas that he has challenges in are all speech related, and she has taken notice of that (which I'm very grateful for!) and is trying to assist him in that area, help him grow in the areas he needs most. He excels acedemically, we are VERY proud of him for that! But what we as parents were most looking forward to this year were the further growth in his speech and social skills, and that is definitely happening! THANKS TO HIS TEACHER! So, Mrs. Dean, thank you so very much for being such an amazing, patient, and nuturing teacher to our son, Jacob!

On another note, Jenna turned 7 months today :-) So as always, I took her monthly growth picture next to her monkey. YAY JENNA!!!

Jenna's 7-month growth picture next to her monkey

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Jenna getting her giggle on!

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My mom got this "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving" outfit for Jenna, so it seemed fitting to have her wear it for her monthly growth pictures! Thank you, Mom!

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And on yet ANOTHER note, Matt, Jacob & Juliana have all been working on their Awana Grand Prix cars for the tournaments this Friday and Saturday. They have cut them down into the shapes they each wanted, sanded them, and yesterday they painted them. They will be putting images on them and then a clear coat. Getting closer!

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Matt and Jacob spray painting Jacob's car.
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From the other side.

. Juliana's turn, purple of course!

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Time for Daddy to take over...
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And last but CERTAINLY not least, I am just SUPER EXCITED to see even the smallest snowflake in the 10-Day Forecast! Yes, I know, it's far to warm of a temperature and it's mixed with rain, BUT it's still there! That means it's getting closer to that time of year, WAHOO!!! Bring it on! :-D

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Eleven

Well, I am exhausted, so very sore, stairs are my enemy today, and my house is a wreck. BUT I am soooo very thankful for Worship Service at church!!! It is SO revitalizing! I just soar when I'm enveloped in good strong true worship, when you can feel His presence, the music is loud and you can feel the beat, feel the words, feel the emotion and meaning behind what you're singing and proclaiming!!! We have a wonderful worship pastor at our church, great fellow worship leaders and band members, and this weekend in addition to all that we also got to have Mitch Bohanan lead worship with us from Texas. It was wonderful :-) It completely picked me up off my feet, made all my soreness and exhaustion go away, and I could just be in the moment. Now I'm back home, and I'm tired :-) BUT the songs will not leave my head ("Praises, to the God who saves us, through his blood he gave us life and now we come, Everyone!"). We introduced a couple new songs this morning, and also sang a couple of my favorites, so I was just on cloud nine!

We also got Jenna dedicated at church this morning, alongside my sister's newest addition, Baby Jonathan! We've had the privelege of having two sets of kids be dedicated together now (first was Jacob and Josiah) (sheesh, all these J names!). Jenna's life verse is:

Psalm 1:1-2 Lord, grant that Jenna would walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but that her delight will be in the law of the Lord, and on his law she’ll meditate day and night.

That's our hope and prayer for Jenna, and all our children, that they'd be EXCITED to learn about God, and on a daily basis, that they'd drink it in every chance they get and it would just fill their hearts and minds! (a good hope and prayer for myself as well!)

Anywho, so that's my Thanksgiving today, I'm thankful for wonderful worship music, that God allows us and wants us to do so, and that we serve such an Awesome God that is truly worthy of those praises!!!

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Ten

I am soooo sore... What a long day of painting! (again) For the third weekend in a row, we've tackled more painting in Matt's Dad's house. It is quite the project! And I must admit, I was less than thrilled to spend yet another nice Saturday stuck in a house painting and being frustrated with my kids for not staying in the area we designated for them (which I feel bad about anyways!). ...well this is a downer, where's the thankfulness I'm supposed to be writing about?!?

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Today I am thankful for my best friend, Lisa! She has helped us out both this Saturday AND last Saturday with this huge painting project!!! With her help, we were able to finish painting all the main areas of the house. We still have all the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry room...BUT because she has graciously offered to help us, we have gotten the really hard parts out of the way! And we are truly thankful for her kindness and efforts! And it was nice in general just getting to hang out with her and chit chat, working with a friend makes the time go faster and makes it much more fun! (and the kids were thrilled to get to play with Gabe of course) :-) So THANK YOU, Lisa, we are so grateful for you and your friendship!!!

.Lisa & I at a bridal shower I think? Yeah, we rock the party :-)

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Lisa & I all gussied up for a Chorus Line performance that we choreographed a song for.

Don't get me started on my bangs...do you realize how many times I fixed them that night???

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This is one of many! We should have gone to tolo together,

we were practically a couple!

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Lindbergh graduation night! C/O '95 ROCKS! WAHOO!!!

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Lisa & I at the Space Needle...
the guys were there too, but who needs them in pictures, right???

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Nine

I am thankful to have two kids who love making their baby sister smile. :-) Although at times they can be a bit TOO in-her-face, which sends her backwards until you hear a thud and a scream inevitably following...

Oh hold on, Christmas commercials!!! ...fa la la la la... OK, I may need to change my thing I'm thankful for! ;-D I can't help it, I love Christmas!!!

OK, back to my blog... I have been saved many times by Jacob especially who loves to tickle Jenna, give her toys, show her how to use them, give her snacks (one at a time!), actually cares about keeping choking hazards away from her, and so much more. Juliana is pretty darn good at it too, she likes to give her toys and get in her face...RIGHT in her face...see above for how that turns out! ;-) Anywho, they help me be able to get dinner on the table, get a load of laundry folded, dry my hair, you know the drill. So thank you to my kids who love their little sister.

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Eight

Today I am especially excited to announce what I'm thankful for! I am thankful for milestones - such as Jenna cutting her first tooth today!!! HORRAY!!! :-D I've been checking her gums every day, figuring it's gotta pop through any day now, but little did I know that yesterday would FOR SURE be the last day that any of our kids would have a gummy smile ever again!!! (another last first)
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She wasn't the most cooperative when I was trying to get a picture of it ;-) Her darn tongue kept getting in the way...so by the time I finally got a picture, she wasn't the happiest baby in the world! Anywho, YAY!

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Seven

Today I am thankful to have a back-up computer that works :-) Let's venture back, shall we? A few months back I noticed a thin line that ran along the right side of my laptop screen from the top of my screen to the bottom (like one pixel wide). I figured that meant my screen might be starting to go, but that I'd just live with it as long as I can still use it. Well today all of a sudden anything on my screen that has color now has pink lines streaking across my screen from it. Any white areas of my screen work dandy, colored sections...not so dandy. We called to find out how much a new screen for a 17" wide screen laptop would be, $300. Not so thankful for that! In the meantime though, I am VERY thankful for our big bertha tower computer that appears to be working just fine (knock on wood!).

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Boohoo... :-(

22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Six

It's been a really good day! Jacob slept in until I woke him up at 8:50, Jenna slept in till about 8:00, and Juliana till about 7:15, so it was a slow-to-get-goin' kinda day, NICE! Got some laundry done, picked up a few things around the house, made some peanut butter cookies, and then Lisa & Gabe came over for a playdate! The kids had fun playing together and Lisa & I got to just sit back and chit chat, gotta love that! Now I'm buying some birthday and Christmas gifts on the Disney site, then we're having enchiladas for dinner (which I megacooked about a week ago, so no work involved in getting dinner ready today!), then off to worship practice tonight! What a great day!!! So I guess that's what I'm thankful for today, for days like this, days where things just go well and you can "enjoy" the day, "enjoy" your kids, "enjoy" your friends, "enjoy" your meals, "enjoy" some quiet time while the little ones are napping and the bigger one is having computer time, "enjoy" the stage of life you're in, and best of all "forget" about all the things you need to do. I am VERY thankful to enjoy today!

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Five

Today I'm thankful for upbeat dance music! Matt came home to quite the sight tonight :o) I had turned on a Dance Music channel on Comcast, turned it up, and the kids were having a blast dancing like crazy while flicking the lights on and off! (in an otherwise completely dark house) It was definitely the highlight of our day, all three kids had smiles on their faces, all were movin' & groovin' (even Jenna!). And as always, Juliana enjoyed dance class this morning, which of course involves MORE dance music! So yes, today I am thankful for dance music :-)

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Four

Let's see, I'd say that today what I'm most thankful for is our jogging stroller. Matt is currently training for yet another half-marathon, which makes him have to leave for a couple hours every weekend so he can go on a run. But with everything that's going on right now, there is MUCH getting pushed to the way-side in the Earnhardt home. So he was extremely gracious and put JACOB in the jogging stroller during his run today! The girls were napping, so this provided me the opportunity to actually get some stuff done around here. Jacob had a BLAST having one-on-one time with Matt, not a ton of running was actually done, but he still got some good ol' exercise. And his wife was very happy! Yes, I am very thankful for our jogging stroller (and Matt!).

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A picture of Jacob in the jogger (left) when he was almost two

at Disneyland! (with best bud, Gabe) We've had it for about 4 years and

have continually been grateful for it through all three children!

(and will continue to be grateful for it for at least a few more years!!!)

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22 Days Of Thanksgiving: Day Three

Hmmm...let's see, today I'm feeling thankful for Dayquil, paint rollers, baby wipes, Matt (for giving me a little break when I wasn't feeling well), McDonalds, DVD players, the Dollar Tree, a beautiful HUMUNGOUS yellow tree that was near my parents house today (it was GORGEOUS!)...but I'm thinking most of all right now I'm thankful for digital cameras! Jacob takes so many unique pictures, so many of them show nifty things at a fun angle I never would have even thought of. I'm thankful to be able to whip out a camera at a moment's notice and snap a shot to help preserve a memory. We have had so much fun with our digital camera and camcorder this week, I can't even begin to tell you! Here are just a few pictures from just this week...

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Kyra, Abby and Maya partying hard at Azteca

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Jacob and the girls runnin' with a walker
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Juliana showin' her moves for a less than thrilled Emma
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Jacob showing his true colors UpWords style.
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Jacob already working on passing on his letter fascination to Jenna.

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Our three kiddos
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Happy Jenna in the high chair
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Juliana getting to hold teeny "Baby Jonovan"
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Mommy and Baby Jenna