Best buddies!

little GirlfriendThis was "lala" birthday party.....oh so much fun! Mikaela was Brookie's first friend on Maui and still one of her favorite friends to play with. They are good together because they can be ALL girl, enjoy getting dirty and hold their own with the boys!

If you don't know Brooklyn well, she loves owls, birds and most of all horses! I mean LOVES HORSES! She asked to ride them all the time....she looks for them everywhere on Maui. If she see one it makes her day! This made her year!!!
Maybe she'll be our cowgirl!!

OuR 1ST ThaNksGIvinG

This was our 2nd year away from our family...this year we did our own thanksgiving at our house. We had Chris who is the tween's pastor, Whitney who is the Jr. director and had some interns over from our church Hope Chapel .It was so much fun. It was so neat cooking with Brandon...i love making traditions with Brandon for our family. I love opening our home to other at thanksgiving so they can be apart of a family-and i am blessed to be married to someone who came up with the idea. I AM so THANKFUL for my amazing husband.

Baby Braiden's 1st thanksgiving too! HE is so STINKING cute!!!

Table SET!!!

Our own LITTLE INDIAN!!!

Chris & Whitney.....the kids Love to be silly with them & here their stories!

Alyssa's AMAZING APPLE pie-
i hope we get another thanksgiving with her! (Brandon Assistant)

Kids Table

Braiden Being dedicated to the Lord:
These are the hard moments, but oh so sweet. What is hard is not having our family here...you want it to be extraordinary special with them. You want to have someone else (parents) there to help you remember that sweet moment. Well, to God's great scene of humor i think this was my stepping stone to get over that! LOL! The morning was hectic-insane! I wanted the kids to be dressed up in cute matching outfits and Brandon did not like the outfits....then it moved onto the a 4 year old attitude who said he did not want to be there on stage...pill would be a understatement. Trying to reason to a 4 year old that it does not matter what he want, this was Braiden moment does not make any scene. In the car i was sad...sad on so many levels. Ok many still a bit postpartum...but sad.

Praise God He blessed me with a sound husband who can bring me back gently and still try to make me laugh. Reminding me that this morning is about loving our God and desiring to raise our last baby boy to know Jesus Christ as His friend, savior, and Lord. The church body to help do the save and hold us accountable...to pray for us as we raise our children not only to be health, well mannered, good abiding citizen, but children who love Jesus. Cute outfits are nice too...ha ha!

Long of the short...Brody was a PILL on stage, brookie pulled her dress up to show the large congregation her underpants...yep as a mom...i wanted to die. But for braiden it was so sweet. Brandon picked the coolest verse for braiden and Our friend Ben (pastor young adult) did and awesome job introducing braiden and our senior pastor Craig pray over us. It was by far the best dedication out of all our kids. I learned that each dedication, baby shower, birthday party...what ever can not all be the same manufactured sweet moment. They may not always have the grandparents there. With three kids all so close together you NEVER know what you will get! You can ask God to give you grace, to help you let go of the expectation and let Him make it great. And He does...that how Big our God is. He gets me.

High School Ministry Progressive Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner for high school student....very fun, very full!