~* The Month of NoVeMbEr! *~

November is one of my most favorite months!  There are a lot of good things that happen in November!  This year was no different!  To begin with, my dad got a nice buck....the boys enjoyed going over to see it and play with the dead animal! Poor thing......

 Garrett's birthday is the next thing that happened!  Who can believe that he is 7 already!  We had a little celebration with Grandma and Elaine because they left on the Saturday before his big day!  We not only celebrated Garrett's birthday but my dad's as well!  He turned the big 60 this year!

 Putting puzzles together with Grandma .....

 Garrett was emotional about my Grandma leaving this year.  He is getting old enough to understand that it will be awhile before she comes back!  I am so thankful that my boys got to experience my 2 grandmas!  Garrett vividly remembers Rocky and for that I am forever grateful!

 I love you Grandma! .......

 Next up was our niece Shelby's birthday....she shares a birthday with Garrett.  She turned 18 this year and they had a Mexican themed dinner for her.  It was fun!  She has turned into a beautiful young woman!

Next up was Garrett's birthday party!  We let him invite friends from school to come to the bowling alley!  It was so much fun!  and no mess at the house, which was the best part! wooo-hooo!  His friends that came were Brett, Noah, Allyson and Kaitlyn.  Missy brought Josie and Abby out, which I don't know why I did not get one picture of Josie?!  Hunter and Tailor brought 2 of their friends and of course Madison and Allysa came too!  I think everyone had a great time!

To end his birthday celebration, we found a "7" sparkler at the party store.  Before he went to bed, we went outside and did the firework~!  He thought that was great!  Garrett loves playing with fire these days!

 Do you honestly think we need one more Monster Truck at this house???????

It was a great day!

The rest of November was great as well!  I had to take a few days off with Garrett because they thought he might have Whooping Cough, but as expected the test came back negative ~ thank goodness!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with lots of things to be thankful for! 

To round out a wonderful month, I spent the day in Erie on Saturday with friends from Oakland celebrating Mary's 50th birthday!  I had so much fun catching up with them!  I miss them dearly, but sure don't miss anything else there (besides the kids, of course!).  We spent the whole time laughing and I didn't even take ONE picture! aaaahhhhhhh 

I think that is our November in a nutshell!  Get ready for lots of posts this month!  We are getting ready for Christmas at our house!  So EXCITING!

The LORD is gracious and righteous;

Our GOD is full of compassion.

What can I give back to GOD

for the blessings HE'S poured out on me?

Psalm 116:5, 12

~* ChRiStMaS CaRdS! *~

Many of you probably remember grandma Rocky's favorite Christmas present from us?!  Each year I compiled a years worth of pictures of her and the kids and put them together in a calendar from Shutterfly.  She loved it and so does everyone else that I do them for!  I have been using Shutterfly for years, not only to print the calendars, but for photo printing, cards and photo books too!  I love their quality ~ the colors are always bright and PERFECT!
This year I have decided to have Shutterfly make my Christmas cards.  I usually do them myself, but things here have been CRAZY!  I was surprised to see just how many cute designs they have added to their site!  These are the ones I am considering:

Every year I feel like we need to have a family picture taken at Christmas.....this year, I am taking the easy way out!  I am going to use the pictures that we had taken at the end of summer!  There is always so much going on around the holidays and I am all about simplifying our life these days!! and uploading photos that have already been taken will definitely simply the whole Christmas card thing!!  (If you are a blogger, you can have Shutterfly make your cards too - Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly!)

~* HaPpY BiRtHdAy GaRrEtT! *~

Happy Birthday Garrett!
It has been 7 years today since you came into my life! There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for giving me you!  The past 7 years, have been the best years of my life!  I love being your mom!

The day you were born, I learned how to love like I never had before! All my life I dreamed of becoming a mom. I never thought I would struggle as I did to make that dream became a reality, but God knew just what he was doing! Every day with you has been sweeter than the day before.

I love the sweet, fun-loving boy that you are becoming! Your smile is the best thing and your laugh is the best music to my ears.  You excel in school and are growing in your Faith.....just as I had hoped!

You will never understand as long as you live just how much your daddy and I love you.

Today we are going to celebrate your life with friends and family at the bowling alley. You have brought us so much joy I can't even begin to share half of it. I thank Jesus every single day for allowing me to be your mom and for blessing me with you. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life loving you!

Love,

Momma