We Are Thankful

We are so thankful for so many reasons these past two years and most begin with the name Lincoln. He has brought so much joy and life into our lives and we are so thankful God blessed us with such an active toddler. He keeps us on our toes daily and our minds active with ways to entertain him.

We are also thankful for our jobs and for our thriving marriage in these not so great times. We are thankful for the new blessings in our lives and for the strength to find new joy in the holiday's while missing a loved one. But mostly we are thankful for our extended family. It is always tradition to spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family. This year we actually spent it at a different family members house, my aunt Kaye. Speaking of new blessings, she just welcomed her first grandchild in June and they were visiting from Alaska for Thanksgiving and she wanted to show him off. You know I love to tell my story in pictures, so here we go!

Here is our happy family all getting ready for the wonderful lunch!

Here is the new family and grandchild, Evin. This was the first time we met my cousin Jeremy's wife and baby. He is five months old and super cute. A very sweet child and a great sleeper, double blessing!


I am so thankful for my parents, they have taught me so much about family and I feel ours is strong because of it.

Here is my mom with Linc by the pool. They both have a love for outdoors, so this is where they spent most of their time.

I am thankful for my grandparents, they are always so sweet and caring. They especially love Lincoln and Linc loves them. Here they are testing out his piano skills, I think this is the first time he has seen one.

Baby Evin was such a trooper with all the people. Here is Ginger giving Evin his bottle, such a sweet little guy.

Here is my nephew, Ryan. I am so thankful for him, he actually taught me a lot about babies when I was really young because he once was a baby himself. He is always such a sweet guy!

Ginger and Linc playing airplane.

My brother and dad in the background while Linc plays with the dog toy, haha.

Here is my aunt Kaye helping Linc learn to water the flowers. This will be a key skill now that we have a bunch in the front yard.

He does not quite get the concept yet since pools most of the time don't need to be watered, haha!

I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for Lincoln. God has blessed our family with the child we asked for and more. I can't get enough of him and I thank the Lord for him each day. I know how much he loves us and to feel that love is something that will carry me through the rest of my life. He really lights up our life.

But in all seriousness, does anybody need a stomach pump after all that turkey?

My aunt collects antique coke memorabilia and it was a great set up for a mini photo shoot! But he didn't like sitting up there so I only got one!

My two favorite boys.

Thanks daddy! It has been a while now, but Lincoln has please, thank you, and welcome down. Most of the time he will say Thank You, Welcome at the same time, haha, but he gets the idea and just in time for Thanksgiving!

Oh man am I thankful for this guy. He has giving me the world and then some. He has stood by my side and loved me the way I need to be loved. Thank you baby for being you!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend time with the ones you love. I know my bestey Paula missed it by just a few days, but will be home soon to a loving family that misses her. Please pray that she gets home safely and is welcomed by all that missed her.

Thanksgiving Potluck

Since we moved in almost a year ago I have wanted to host a dinner party of some sort. While we have had a birthday party (for Linc) and a couples shower (for Lara and James), but we have not had anything for us at our house yet. Thanksgiving happens to be Craig's favorite holiday and since it is always over shadowed by Christmas, we thought this would be a good holiday for us to have a party. Not many people do a Holiday party around Thanksgiving, so we decided to have a Thanksgiving Potluck. My friend Jennifer had thrown one before it was super fun and since she moved she was not able to do it this year, so I carried on the tradition.

Craig and I made the turkey, ham, bread and dressing and left the rest up to the guest. That is kinda of the beauty of a potluck, you never know what you are going to get. It ended up being great, but before we get to that I want to show you a bit of the preparation for our event!
Here is the invite I sent out, I really loved it!

We don't have a formal living room in our house and our dinning room table only seats 6 so we went out and bought a few extra folding tables so we would have enough seating.

The dinning room table decor.

The food table set up.

On of the folding tables decor, I loved these little turkey place mats.

I had to slip in a picture of Linc. He did great helping us prep most of the day, he just kind of did his own thing which is abnormal for him.

Another few for the dinning room table.

A quick snap of Craig, he was just getting back from his 4th trip to Albertson's for the day, haha!

Fireplace decor, it looked so great when I lit up all the candles at the top.

Party favors, I did a double hot chocolate recipe, it is super good and tastes like warm chocolate milk.

My mom came early to help me make the dressing since it was my first time. She is such a wonderful cook, I am glad I have a great teacher.

After all the prep, Craig and I had about 30 minutes to sit on the couch and chill before the party started. I am glad we did a lot of prep, b/c by the end of the night we were glad we got that little break.

Here I am with Niki and Maria at the party.

Here are some of the sides brought. Yummy broccoli cheese rice (Linc's favorite) and sweet potato balls are among the sides here!

Since we were in charge of turkey and ham, we wanted to make sure it came out great. My mom bought this infrared deep fryer and we used it for the turkey. It didn't use oil so it was way better for you and it tasted awesome. The ham was a Paula Dean recipe and super good. I didn't get a picture of the dessert table, but let me tell you it was over flowing with yummy goodies. My favorite would have to be the eclair cake (Josh) and the fresh apple pie (Niki).

Here are Ginger and Bob (my sister-in-law and brother), and they brought my favorite, bacon wrapped chicken, mmmm!

Here are just a few party pics of the attendees (Maria, Lara, Niki, Avery, Ryan and Stephanie).

Craig's mom, Yong!

Craig and his mom, so cute!

Craig's work buddies. (Josh, Matt, Tony and Emily)

People enjoying the food and company.

Philip and Doug relaxing after eating all the great food.

The best turkey fryer I know, well next to my dad!

Brian, Maria and Baby Larsen, such a cute little guy.

The Jamie's, my mom and Jamie from my work.

The kids had a party to themselves. I have not seen them have more fun, they all got a long so well. I think there were 8 kids total and 3 where around 4 and 3 were between 19mts -23mts, so they all had someone their age to play with. Here is Levi with Ollie and Sam.

Hayden playing pirates with Levi and Sam (all around the same age).

Linc's room was trashed this morning, but they all had fun so it was worth it. I mean anything to get Linc to not be clinging to me the whole night is golden.

Linc and Avery, they all had some kind of dessert on their face, haha.

When they went to bed, we all enjoyed a little Adult time. Here I am with Stephanie and Niki.

It was such a great night and I think everyone had a good time. I hope that I can make this an annual event at our house. I really like people coming over here and sharing good times with us. Thanks for all of you that came, you made it a great success.

Levi's 4th Birthday

As I said in my earlier post, we have been busy this weekend. In the middle of landscaping we got to take a break and celebrate Levi's 4th Birthday with The Brawley's. I have to warn you that I took a lot of pictures and they all came out so good so this post is a bit long in pictures. Linc was just having such a blast and it was such a nice day that I had ample opportunities to take pics of him.

But first more about the party! Levi had a Handy Manny party. Niki and Philip did it up perfect with a nailing station, hard had decorating, apron signing, playdough, coloring and so much more. Linc really loved the nailing station, but I was afraid he was going to nail someones finger in, haha. It is so great to see how much fun kids have at birthdays. I think first birthday's are more for the parents, but I think at Linc's second he may interact more, I hope! Niki made a dirt pudding instead of cake and it turned out so cool, all the kids loved it (and I did too, hehe)! They did a great job with the party and we are glad we got to go. Check out some pictures from the party.

Little miss Avery!

The children's favors, tool cookies and dirt pudding - YUM!

Here is the hard hat Linc decorated, he wanted us to wear it.

We were not even at Niki's 5 minutes and he was already out the door to the backyard. He is just an outdoors man.

Ever since I got a bike he has been so fascinated with them. He was on this tricycle a whole lot during the party. He has not figured out that you can peddle the wheels and actually go somewhere.

Craig made his hat say Lord Linc, so funny. He really does want to be treated like royalty and always get his way.

He was wondering why I kept taking his picture. I kept saying cheese, but not a smile yet.

Yeah, he is too cool for his mom.

Then I said, get the bug, and he laughed, who knows why that is so funny, haha!

That was a good laugh.

Well if he can't peddle it, he sure can push it somewhere.

Or maybe do stunts on it?

After I had some camera fun, it was time for him to join the party. Here is daddy dragging him away from the trike and into the group photo.

Here is the Birthday Boy, Levi, and all his pals! It was a great group of little handy men and women.

Then it was time to test out his climbing skills. He got all the way up with no help, I think it is time to get him one for our yard.

Look at that monkey swing!

Slide!

Getin in some one on one time with his main squeeze, Avery. I just hope he doesn't nail her hand in.

Maybe the daddy's should help.

Here is Levi blowing out his candles, can't believe he is four!

Ok, it is time to stick a nail in it, we are done with this post! Happy Birthday Levi!