Inspired by one of my favorite blogs I thought it would be a great idea to look back each week at those things that brought me the most joy. This is far too fitting for my blog to ignore the idea so I look forward to posting these each week!
How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful! We traveled the great distance to Micah’s parents’ house and got to see lots of family. There was plenty of food, lots of laughter, and a good amount of relaxing. We actually spent about 4.5 days on the farm so the kids got to run around in the nice weather, help haul sticks to the burn pile, goof around with cousins, and help Grammy in the kitchen. I wish we all lived closer together so we could have time like that more often.
1. LEGO trains
Because the big boys got a new bunk bed that uses the full mattress we had in our basement living room there is an abundance of space down there now. We are working on going through EVERYTHING down there to get rid of clutter, items we no longer need, and overall clean it up. With all the extra floor space we pulled out our old 9V LEGO train sets for the kids to play with. They are having so much fun creating different shaped designs and seeing how fast they can make the train go before it jumps off the tracks.
2. Time with Great-Grandparents
I don’t have a picture of this because Micah and I didn’t go with but Micah’s mom took the three big kids to her parents house for a couple hours when we went to visit. Parker has been learning about ancestors and heritage in school so he wanted to talk to people a little closer to the source. Micah’s grandpa LOVES telling stories so he was thrilled to be asked to talk about his life as well as the life of his relatives. They also had a milk and cookies party. Such amazing memories for our kids to have with their great-grandparents.
3. Thanksgiving
It was pretty special to get together with Micah’s parents, his brother and family, all three living grandparents, and both of his mom’s siblings and their spouses. There were thirteen adults and seven kids together! Micah’s sister and her family spent the holiday with other family so we missed seeing them and having all eight grandkids together but it was still awesome.
4. Cousins
The last few times the cousins have gotten together the little guys (our twins are 5 months older than the next cousin) they haven’t really cared about playing together. This time they were actually interacting! It wasn’t always friendly since they are still so little but they at least acknowledged each other this time. Cade even learned to say both names of the cousins we spent time with! I spent loads of time with my cousins growing up so it was fun to see them all in action. And the oldest cousin who just turned 5 ran around with the big kids like crazy. She and Mercedes love spending time together since they are the only girls in the sea of boy cousins. They were constantly playing “babies” and taking turns being mommy to each other. So different from the wrestling and wild games the boys all play.
5. Beautiful weather!
On Saturday it was about 50* out! Simply beautiful. After a somewhat wet and dreary week it was a very welcomed change. We all spent time running around outside and the adult boys spent time burning fallen trees, broken furniture, and all sorts of other things around the farm. The big kids earned some money by collecting sticks while the little guys hung out on the swing set. I even went live for a few minutes on Facebook so you could catch a glimpse of us on the farm!
6. Clean plate club
Micah’s brother and our niece both had birthdays this month so we celebrated with an ice cream cake. To say the little guys liked it might be an understatement. You wouldn’t want to leave a drop of ice cream or hot fudge on that plate to get thrown away! It’s times like this when I know we must be doing something right 😉 haha!
7. These two
Mercedes has developed quite the close relationship with one of Micah’s grandmas. Micah nicknamed her Grandma Joy when he was a little boy because she taught him the song, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” and the name stuck. Mercedes LOVES Grandma Joy and spent quite a bit of time with her while we were visiting. She lives in an attached apartment to Micah’s parents so all Mercedes needed to do was walk through the breezeway and knock on the door. Grandma loves having her over and they sit and chat. During church on Sunday I caught this moment and knew it needed to be captured. You caught me, guilty as charged, I snapped a picture in church. But I think God understands the need to have these moments as more than just memories. I want to be able to look back at pictures like this and remember more accurately just how special they are.
Now it’s back to real life. Micah’s gone back to work after 10 days off, the big kids are back in school, and I’m back to everything I (try to) do. It was a busy and fast month and I’ll be sharing what we accomplished and my goals for December tomorrow.
Where did you find joy this week? How was your Thanksgiving? Did you spend time with extended family, friends, or immediate family?
If you need a place to plan a stress free holiday season you can grab my printable holiday planner for free. You can also get free printable Countdown to Christmas activity cards if you go here.
