Isaac Daniel

Happy 4th birthday to my curly hair sweet boy! I sure love this kiddo! His mop of crazy hair, and always wanting to snuggle. And even his new thing of calling Evan a 'butthead'... LOL He is sensitive and smart and begs us to read him stories all day long. Of course he also loves to fight with his brothers and sisters, especially to use the ipad, or pick his shows ;)

Its hard to believe that 4 years ago he was born. Just 36 weeks, and barely over 6lbs. He looked so tiny and vulnerable in the nicu with all his wires and stuff keeping track of everything. What a blessing he has been to our family... #5. So wanted, and so loved. Isaac Daniel

2 gifts today

I'm sidetracking from the joy dare today to share 2 gifts that are big for me this week...

Life
Death

Of course we are thankful for life. But death... well without death (and the fear of losing someone) we can't really appreciate life. We need those hard times, those valleys, to really appreciate the beauty of the top of the mountain. It reminds me of a mountain I climbed as a kid. We started by going up the valley. It was dark and damp, and often eerie. We knew that's where the bears would be. It was beautiful too though... there was a comfort of being tucked in this area, and the incline was gentle. But there were a lot of logs to climb over, and dead brush on the floor to step on and trip us up. And as we went further up, the climb got more difficult because it was often steep, and sometimes even a bit dangerous. But once we reached the top, it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. And looking down towards the valley we started in, well you could only see trees. Lots of lush green trees. You couldn't see the dead stuff on the ground, you could only see what was growing because of that. Now of course, I could have focused on how tired I was, and how difficult it was to get to the top, but why, after all that work, would I not appreciate the view I had set before me.

This week has been a big reminder about these 2 gifts. Last weekend, a neighbor of mine lost her 5 year old son to an aggressive cancer. And then just 2 nights ago, I almost lost my dad to a heart attack. Sometimes we just need that perspective of how fragile life is, to really truly enjoy it.

from my window...

3 gifts from my window...

1. sunshine!!
2. little birdies looking for food
3. a fantastic neighborhood full of *good* people

3 gifts acorn small...

mini chocolate bars for those 'crisis' moments ;)
pudgy baby hands
chapstick!

Nov. 4 joy dare

A gift gathered, given and good...

Gathered... family gathered together.
Given... offering to those with less
Good... knowing the preciousness of each and every single life, in good and hurt.

And ironically, while I exercised this morning, I watched a documentary called "Happy", and one of the key scientific factors in happiness is counting your blessings. And I have many :)

Joy Dare

So Ann Voskamp does a monthly 'joy dare', and I'm going to try my best to join in.
 http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/11/happy-november-november-joy-dare/.

Today is 3 gifts that start with N...
1. Well... November. Its a break from the busy to just have normal routine before the chaos.
2. nice...sweet Isaac is always hugging me and saying 'you are nice'
3. Noelle, our girls music teacher. She loves on my family in many ways and is a huge blessing to us.

Halloween

Well despite the fact it was rather cold, the kids had a great time trick or treating! The girls had their costumes planned for months. They had so much fun dressing up like 80's rockers! lol Reminded me of being their age once ;)

We knew Evan had to be something that 'lit up', so he decided on being Tron. His costume was so him and so fun! One guy gave him 5 candies instead of 1 because he loved his costume so much. LOL

Isaac just picked out of our current selection of costumes and decided he wanted to be a pumpkin. He went to like 10 houses and then was dying to come in to eat his candy. haha. He was just thrilled with his little stash. And after pigging out, he informed me his tummy hurt and he was done with his candy. So cute! I didn't get any pics of just him, but here is the whole gang!

I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but I tolerate it because the kids love it. But I sure love watching how excited they get about dressing up, and all that candy. Oh and also, our neighbors (they are an older couple who are so awesome) do not give out candy, but they always stop by with a treat for our kids. This year they brought us cupcakes. I'm *so* blessed to have neighbors who go out of their way to love on our big crazy family.