A week full of Thanks....

-God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today,

have you used one to say "thank you"?

- William Ward

We've had a lot to be thankful for this past week.

First off, it was Dan's Birthday! We are definitely thankful for him! We took him to Buca di Beppo, his favorite restaurant for a delicious dinner. And he chose Peanut Butter Cookies instead of a birthday cake. (Don't you love his plaid pj's?!) Happy Birthday Danny Boy, we LOVE you!

For Dan's Birthday gift he got a ticket to go to the Oregon/Cal game with my dad, pops Smidt, Jess, Jason and Shawn. It was definitely a 'guys' weekend and they all had a great time. Everyone knows what a BIG fan Dan is of Duck Football so it was a good thing they were victorious! (still undefeated) He kept saying it was the best week of his life having the Duck's ranked at #1 in the BCS polls and also that the McRib was back at McDonalds. (yuck) What a nut! The game was special for Pops Smidt too because he actually used to play for Cal Bears back in the day! So they were able to walk thru campus with pops and learn some history about his college days.

We made the long drive to Illinois for Turkey Day. We were so lucky to have dry roads the whole week, which made the trip nice and easy. The kids were fabulous and we found a couple of good hotels (one with an indoor water park), so they were in heaven. I'm just so thankful that we have a DVD player in the car, I think that makes all the difference! We had such a nice time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was so much fun to have everyone all together, it's been a long time since that has happened. Dan's brother and his family are back living in Illinois after living in Japan and France for the past 7 or so years. So it was really nice having all the cousins around to play and get to know each other better. They are all best buds now! I also had a great time hanging out with my cute nieces and nephew! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful week! And all the DELICIOUS food! By the end of the week we were back to wearing our elastic sweats!

I know we all try to be thankful all year round, but I really love that this time of year we all take the time to reflect on what we have all been blessed with in life. It's great to just pause and have a whole day of Thanks. I am so thankful that we had such a great Thanksgiving week.

(click on collages to enlarge)

Favorite Picture of the year...

I just finished making our Christmas cards on the computer and as I was scrolling thru the past year of pictures, I found my favorite picture of the year, it makes me laugh every time I see it.

I just love Jack!

This was taken in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Let it snow!

The weatherman said there was a chance of snow this afternoon and I checked the temp and it said 60* around lunch time, so I figured he was just about as accurate as every other weatherman and didn't believe him. We came home from school with no coats, and within 40 minutes, the weather dropped 20*. The clouds started rolling over the mountains and BOOM....snowflakes started to fall. The kids were extremely excited, and I was....well, I was so NOT excited. I am not ready for the cold, wet, winter weather. I like it in the mountains, but hate the hassle of driving in it. But it was cute to see the kids excitement. So, in the kids' minds, this is the highlight of our week.

The kids played outside for a few minutes while I finished making dinner.

I sent the kids upstairs to get their snow stuff on while Dan and I cleaned up after dinner. We had this much snow fall so quickly! But please notice their choice of 'snow attire'. Jack's just cracked us up! That kid sure has an imagination!

They came inside and were so cold, so we warmed up with some hot chocolate. Automatically they started asking how many days until Christmas. The snow always lets them know that Christmas is always right around the corner. So, we made the traditional paper chain.

Excited for Christmas?? We are!

Only 45 days or 1,082 hours or 64,967 minutes 'til Christmas!!

Sugar Sugar....

I am so exhausted. We had an extremely busy week chock-full of all things Halloween! I am seriously in a 'fun-sized-candy-bar' induced coma. Let's just say that the 7:00am alarm this morning came WAY too early. I had a love/hate relationship with my snooze button this morning. I'll spare you all the details of the week, but just know that there were a few too many parties, and WAY too much candy involved. I think my kids will be on a sugar high til next Thursday.

The cast of Super Mario Brothers!

Jack as Luigi - Olivia as Princess Peach - KJ as Mario

no re-takes this year...

When I try to take pictures of my kids....I usually get something like this:

Where they are not paying attention.

And sometimes something like this:

Where they are trying to be silly.

When what I usually really want is something in between the two!

So when Jack and KJ had school pictures last month, I was a little bit worried that they would sport their infamous 'cheesy' smiles. Well, we got the pictures back last week and I was pleasantly surprised! They actually turned out just fine! Pheww...no re-takes this year! Yay for OTHER people taking my kids' pics!

Jack - Kindergarten

Keaton - 2nd Grade

So Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles....look for these to be arriving in your mailboxes soon!

Fall has found us....

The Fall weather has officially hit Colorado Springs, and I'm not sure what to think about it. My favorite season of all is Summer, by a long shot! I am so sad to say good-bye to it. We are back to wearing shoes and socks, bundling up with warmer blankets on our beds, undershirts and jackets in the morning, shorter days, leaves in the yard, and no more outside swimming. But....along with the Fall and Winter comes the Holidays and I LOVE Holidays! Our house has been decorated with all things scary for about a month now, the kids have all their costumes ready to go, we've made a new playlist of Spooky music, and we're sipping on lots of hot Apple Cider! I'm a little bit nervous to experience winter in Colorado, it's all new to me! But I'm told it's not much different than Bend and we get lots and lots of sunshine here(over 300 days a year), so that's good!

Now...on to a HAPPY note:

My parents and my 'little' brother Jess came to visit this past weekend! They were all actually in Chicago for the week and had a long, extended layover in Denver and so we were lucky enough to snatch them up for the weekend. It's always a great time when they come. And of course, it always slips by much too fast. We were able to make it to the pumpkin patch and we also went on a little hike. The mountains here are right at our fingertips and there are so many beautiful places to explore! Here are some shots of our weekend with them-

And of course, we had to share our love of this 'real' BBQ joint with our family. Mmm...Mmm...finger lickin' good!

Then....

Now....

So much has changed. Jack was barely one and just learned how to walk in the first picture and now he's running around like a monkey all day! One thing that has stayed the same is that I love those 3 boys like crazy!

Since we have swimming lessons Monday nights, we have been doing FHE on Tuesdays...so tonight was the perfect night to carve our pumpkins! It's always a stinky, gooey, messy, fun time! The end result is unique jack-o-lanterns and delicious pumpkin seeds!

Have a Spooky good week everyone!

A little bit of this...a little bit of that

I've been waiting and waiting for something big and exciting to happen in our lives so that I could make a great post....but alas, our lives have been completely 'normal' lately now that we are in school. Today someone asked me what my hobbies were, and I had to think about it....I don't know! (except for the little bit of time I squeeze in for playing my piano) Isn't that sad? I guess I don't really have time for hobbies, my family is my hobby. Does that count?? I will have all the time in the world for hobbies once the kids leave, right?!? I think my mom would have to disagree as she assures me that life really never slows down!

I'll do a quick run-down of our week (besides school and church stuff):

KJ has swimming 2x a week, running, & cub scouts, Jack has swimming lessons 2x a week, therapy & play group Friday's after school, and Olivia has Tap and Ballet lessons, and play group on Wednesday mornings. Between swimming, my morning exercise classes, and ballet and tap....I think we should ask the athletic club if we can just add bunk-beds in the locker rooms for the Howard clan. It would save a lot of time in the car that's for sure!

Do I really have time for hobbies?? I barely have time to keep my toenails painted!

My little prima-ballerina!

2nd place in this race! He didn't get his running skills from me!

But I guess something BIG did happen this past weekend....it was the 10 year Anniversary of Dan and I meeting! Holy Cow...time flies! (nancy...do you remember that weekend?) And to think of all that has happened since then.

This is the car ride and dinner that started it all.

(left to right- my uncle Jim & Aunt Sherene, ME, David, Tawni, DAN, dan's best friend, my pops and nana Ball)

He's just so cute!

I also got a fabulous package in the mail this past week.....my BLOG in Book form!! All 193 pages of it! It will be a great piece of our family history. It was so much fun reading thru all the posts over the past 2 years. And to tell you the truth, my favorite posts were the regular, every day type of posts. Those are the times I would have most likely forgotten about, and I'm so glad that I have a book that documents some of those little moments that so easily slip out of my mind.

So here's to the next two years of blogging! Let's see what time will gift us with!