Thanksgiving in Cleveland.

This Thanksgiving we were thankful.

1. Thankful that we arrived to Cleveland safely and that our kids didn't have one potty accident the whole time! We had a couple of potty stops and they did wonderfully!

2. Thankful to have met precious little Anderson. Brielle and Braden gave him lots of love!

3. Thankful to have children in our lives who fill our days with tenderness and love.

4. Thankful for Stacey's good homemaking skills. She makes everything she touches look beautiful!

5. Thankful for everyone's cooperation in putting our yummy Thanksgiving dinner together. The highlights were Stacey's moist, delicious turkey. Kara's AMAZING, out of this world homemade stuffing, yes even the bread was homemade and my husband's delicious gravy!:)

6. Thankful for Brio's (our new favorite restaurant), for good company (Justin and Stace) and a great time.

7. Thankful for the amazingly talented people of Wicked!!! What an INCREDIBLE play! and a million times thankful to Ryan and Kara for being willing to watch the kiddos for us to be able to go have a good time! Our kids had the time of their lives at their house! Every child needs an aunt like Kara!:) You can go to her BLOG and check out the fun time they had there.

8. Thankful for a good hamburger joint like Red Robin, where you can split a burger and still feel like you ate a whole one! We were so full and spent half the price because we shared! (half the calories too!):)

9. Thankful for kiddos who find joy in balloons.

10. Thankful for open spaces to run around.

11. Thankful for family. Scott's brother Ryan and his family moved to Cleveland last August. Ryan started dental school at Case Western. We are so happy to have them only 6 hours away! We can't wait until New Year's when we get to hang out with them again.

12. Thankful for the Nativity Parade at the Kirtland Visitor's Center; to remind us the true meaning of Christmas.

13. Thankful for silly children who entertain one another. Here Jack is telling Brielle to close her eyes. Then he started to count one, two, three....then he yelled SURPRISE! It was priceless!

14. Thankful for this man who I love with all of my heart.

15. Thankful for a sassy girl who told our home teacher yesterday: "I'm a modest girl with sass!" (Where does she learn these things?)

16. Thankful for children who are full of energy!

17. Thankful that I was able to see my two former students, now good friends Emily and Seth. They are such a cute couple, they both took Spanish from me at BYU-Idaho. Seth works at a bank in Cleveland and Emily is getting her master's in ESL. They showed me around their cute little house! Emily has spent many hours making it cozy and beautiful! It was nice to see you two!

18. Thankful that our little nephew Christopher let Scott and I love him and hold him. He was born right after we headed to D.C. last year and we hadn't met him until last week. He is as cute as they come and has the sweetest personality!:)

19. Thankful for good friends.

20. Thankful for children who keep our lives real!!!:)

We had another happy thanksgiving shared with friends and family!

Can't wait until next year...

Our "new" place.

This is way, way, way old news. We moved in August. I've been telling our families how much we LOVE our new place and I figure it's better late than never. I guess we've only lived here for three and a half months. It took us two weeks to get settled so that's not my excuse...I've been meaning to take pictures for a while now. But a house with children is NEVER EVER immaculate enough for pictures. So, I guess I'm blaming it on Brielle and Braden for not posting earlier.:)

The layout of the condo is similar as our old place. We moved just about 3 block from where we used to live, so all of these condos are pretty similar. But there are a LOT of BIG little things that makes this place so much better than our other one. For one we have carpet. It IS white and I have to constantly use Resolve but it is so much quieter than hardwood floors. Then and this is the BIG one, we have so much MORE light!!! You should see my plants! They have come back from the "almost" dead. I used to think that I didn't have a green thumb, but now I know that the problem was lack of light!

I even, feel happier with more energy and ready to start my day with all of this light! It's wonderful! I took these pictures last month so that's why you see the pumpkins there. We now also have a fireplace. No mantel, but I still really like it...we used to have a built in armoire at our other place. I thought I was going to miss it, but I don't that much.

This is also part of the family room right under the stairs. I love this little area. This is where we gather to read scriptures and pray before bed. I got that little rocking chair at a thrift shop for 10 bucks. I was going to spray painted but I think I like it the way that it is.

The dining area and the kitchen are the exact same layout as the other place. Except, the dining room has carpet. It's very hard to keep it clean with the kids, but we are managing!:) I moved my little console table to this area though because I couldn't fit it in the same spot as the old place. I really like it there now.

Oh the kitchen, same ridiculous layout as the old place BUT, and this is a HUGE BUT...the appliances!!!!!!! NO MORE 1970's appliances and a dishwasher that you could hear a mile away! Our new dishwasher is so quiet, our oven doesn't burn stuff, our microwave actually defrosts stuff in a descent amount of time and our stove has one of those glass tops that you can just wipe when it gets dirty. It makes life bearable and even enjoyable in such a small kitchen.

And this is the BIGGEST difference between our other place and this one. The loft. We love it. My brother has been living with us and this is his "area" as he calls it. But we have the computer up here. It's such a nice space. Scott comes and studies here the few times that he studies at home, he just puts in his ear plugs and he can't hear the kids downstairs. There's a gate at the bottom of the stairs that the kids can't open, they don't come up here all that much. That door by the stairs is a HUGE storage closet! It's been VERY nice not to have anything stored under our bed for once!

I got a few little projects done at the end of the summer:

We couldn't fit our coffee table in the family room but we wanted something to set glasses on when we were in the living room and we also needed a drawer to store our remote controls. I got this little end table from Craigslist for $5! It was seriously such a bargain. It is pure wood and I didn't even have to change the handle. I sprayed painted it black. It was such an easy little project and it turned out just like what I was imagining.

I'm not quite done with this project...I told Scott that I would sew the new covers for the cushions but he had to spray painted it...that was back in August!!! ha ha! Once school starts, forget it! There's not time for anything...and I've been too lazy to do it! ha ha! I think that once we spray painted black, it going to look terrific!!! But still without the paint, what a change huh??? It took me FOREVER to find a fabric that I loved that was affordable but I finally found it at JoAnn's. It's amazing what a change in fabric will do!!!

P.S. Oh! and if you are interested in making the pictures on your blog bigger without using a third party (like Photobucket), check THIS out. I've been trying to find out how to do it forever now and I finally found a website that explains it in easy language...anyway, I thought I'd share!:)

We love you daddy.

This guy right here is my husband and future Dr. Scott. He's a pretty awesome man. He sacrifices a lot for us three, even his time with us sometimes. We understand. But we miss him terribly. In the last 4 weeks he has had 4 BIG tests, this semester feels like finals week, every week!!!...that makes for long nights studying, early mornings, stress and hardly any time with us.

But this last week he was able to hang out with us at least for a little bit each day. We enjoy our time with him. The kids LOVE this man! And really, what's not to love about him. He plays with them, he tickles them, he reads to them, he throws himself on the ground full of leaves and makes a leaf angel!

...and this is the joy Braden feels when he gets to play with his daddy!

They even got to ride their bikes this week because daddy was able to come with us!

This morning we went on a walk...

"Daddy! Wake up! Daddy! Let's go outside!", that is what Brielle told her daddy this morning...and so we did...it was such a pretty day!

"You have gum? daddy?"

Braden was grouchy during our walk...this little boy wears his crocks day and night, he does NOT want to wear anything else!!!...(I think it's time to throw them away!!!) but the ground was wet, so his feet were all wet...he was NOT a happy camper but he found comfort in his daddy.

Scott showed him how to climb the fence...

He got a LOT happier...

And then there's Brielle...she's such a sassy girl!:)

We are all so happy when we get to spend quality time with Scott. He makes us happy.

Walking back home...

We love walks.

We don't have a yard so we LOVE going on walks. I have two very energetic children and walks keeps the 3 of us sane!:) Braden loves to help out by taking one of the bathroom trash bags out to the garbage. He is a good little helper.

We live right by a golf course and I recently discovered the most beautiful area along the course. It's just a path that goes along the golf course and there is grass and open spaces for Brielle and Braden to run around.

These two have soooo much energy!

Playing with the leaves.

This little girl is a busy body...she has always been that way, even in the womb.

Mr. Braden is a happy go lucky kind of guy.

Walking with their tío Kem.

Braden: "Mommy, I tired. Hold me"

Me: "Braden, you have to walk buddy."

Braden: "Mommy, you too little to hold me?"

Me: "Yes, honey. I'm too little"

So instead, his big and strong tío Kem took him the rest of the way home!!!:)

Another day, we went out to play in the puddles.

Braden wanted to wear his bright orange gloves.

Sometimes, you just HAVE to let them get dirty...I think Braden needs some rainboots too though...his snowboots just ain't doing the job...

We love walks.