Make A List

1. I love lists. Ask Nate. He makes fun of me for doing it. I write one every night before I go to bed. If I don't, I can't sleep. I usually write at least 4 or 5 others during the day. During church, while I am waiting for the kids or at the doctor's office. It passes the time. I can't seem to keep track of my lists so I make the same lists over and over again. So here is another list.

2. I love that even at age ten, when Toby loses a tooth (and he doesn't have many more to lose!) he still puts it under his pillow.

3. I love that Nate made Hazel an extra bottle and put it in the fridge for her middle of the night feeding for me.

4. I love that my brothers and sisters are growing up and now we are better friends and do more and talk more.

5. I love blogs, even more than email. I can keep up with all those people that I wouldn't get the chance to otherwise.

6. I love the time after the kids are in bed and before I go to bed. It is quiet and I can relax.

7. I love the way the house looks and feels at Christmas time in the dark with all the twinkle lights on the tree, the porch, the banisters, every where.

8. I love singing Christmas song with my children around the candle windmill.

9. I love holding Hazel in the middle of the night when it is quiet.

10. I love looking at catalogs and window shopping. (Cheaper and I can do it in bed!)

11. I love trying to get organized. It always looks good on paper, but harder to keep going in real life. It's too hard to schedule and plan real life. But I keep trying.

12. I love making stuff for other people. It seems more worthwhile than doing it for myself.

13. I love reading the terrill blogs - it is probably the most intelligent and thought provoking thing I read during the day for the most part. Mostly it is magazines and catalogs (see noumber 10 above) they are easier to put down and pick up again. I always plan on doing such things myself, but life with a baby is not so easily mulitasked. They are my heroes when it comes to literature. How can you all remember so many quotes and stories and poems and song lyrics?!

14. I love that my kids are independent.

15. I love that there are great blue herons in the pond behind my house. Since moving to Texas we have taken up bird watching. Most every kind of bird either lives here or migrates through, including the monarch butterflies and lots of bats.

16. I love shoes. My favorites list on Zappos.com is enormous. Unfortunately my closet and bank account are not.

17. I love that my kids watch everything that I do - it keeps me on my best behavior.

18. I love that my mom made us take piano lessons through high school. I am starting organ lessons next month.

19. I love to snuggle underneath my feather comforters at night when it is freezing cold outside.

20. I love chocolate. (must include that)

Isaac's Best Handwriting Ever!!

Today I was at school and saw Isaac's teacher in the hall. She was so excited because for Isaac's spelling test today, he had the best handwriting she has ever seen from him so far this year. Isaac usually has nearly illegible handwriting. This is great handwriting. He was so excited and we are all very proud of him.

My, what big teeth you have!

Well not that big really... but they are the better to eat you with!! Hazel's first tooth popped through this morning. You can barely see it there on the bottom...but it is there. Nate was bummed...he wanted to find it first.

O Taunembaum, Second Verse

At Vickie's request I am posting pics of our tree from outside and a better inside shot. Tomorrow we'll finish the rest of the decorating. Check back again for the finished product!

O Taunembaum, O Taunembaum

We made the annual pilgrimage to choose and cut a tree.
This is the small tree lot. We kept walking.

The kids managed to cut the tree down mostly by themselves. (Nate only did ten saw strokes.)

It was only 85 degrees. Not very winterish, or fallish for that matter. But it looked like fall.

Nate looks a bit small next to the tree. It was 11 feet tall. Unfortunately, it is about 6 feet in diameter.

The finished product. Nate was very indulgent - it is all new this year!

tHANK yOU

We had a great Thanksgiving with Mike and Mindy down in San Antonio. It was nearly 90 degrees, not very fallish. But fun to be with a small part of our family. But I wanted to post big Thank You for all my blessings.

I am grateful for:

Take out Turkey and fixin's from Rudy's, making thanksgiving dinner a cinch to prepare
Cars that work
Gas being under $2.00 again
Chocolate (can't forget that!)
4 wonderful, smart, beautiful, funny, adventurous children
A supportive, indulgent husband (Let me get that 12 foot Christmas tree and then helped me decorate it)
Friends that are still my friends even when life is so busy that I don't talk to them for a couple months
The gospel
Great parents who provided me with many opportunities to grow and learn
Email
Digital Cameras
Music
Books
Living in America
Having a living prophet
Being part of a big family
Sleep (when I can get it)
Good Food
Dentists (which I hate going to but would be toothless without)
Sunshine and rain
That my parents taught me to work hard
That my best friends, after Nate, are my brothers and sisters and parents
That I have a forever family