COUNT YOUR MANY BLESSINGS!!!!

As Thanksgiving Day is upon us, I thought I'd take a few minutes to reflect a bit about the many blessings in my life...

1) I'm thankful for such a wonderful God above who has provided me with the many blessings in my life. There are times I feel I'm not deserving of all the wonderful things he's given me but I am eternally grateful!!!

2) I'm thankful for a wonderful husband who has proven to be very loyal and devoted to our marriage/family, a wonderful father to our children, very hard working, genuine, sincere, considerate, and affectionate. He is my very best friend and my perfect someone to share the rest of my life with!

3) I am FOREVER THANKFUL for my precious children! Doug and I prayed, hoped and dreamed for a very long time to be given the chance to have a family. We weren't sure we would ever have the opportunity to have even one child and then to be blessed with these three little miracles I am forever grateful!!! They have enriched our lives so much and absolutely filled the void we once knew. Our home is so warm and filled with love and I absolutely could not imagine my life without them!

4) I am thankful that my precious children arrived safely and they are all very HEALTHY! I am thankful that I was able to keep my little ones safe for 32+0 weeks while allowing them the chance to grow and mature prior to their delivery even after going on bedrest at 22+0 weeks and being admitted to the hospital at 24+0 weeks for the duration of my pregnancy due to preterm labor. There were MANY uncertain days that I thought "this is it, they're not going to be able to stop these contractions" but thankfully we were able to hold on until 32 weeks which for so long seemed SO FAR AWAY and absolutely unobtainable! Thank God for wathcing over us all!

5) I am thankful for such a loving, caring and supportive family! I not only have my family that I was blessed with but I married in to a wonderful family as well! Special THANK YOU to my Mom and Dad for allowing us to stay here until our home is finished and also a HUGE THANK YOU to my Mom whom I could not do without! She has been so involved with our little ones from the beginning of our pregnancy and still continues to be so supportive and helpful! I'd also like to take a moment to give a special THANK YOU to my mother in law, Joann, who despite living 2 1/2 hours away continues to be very supportive and helpful as well! She, in addition to working full time, cleaning houses on the side, tending to her church duties, and keeping the farm running somehow manages to find some time to come up and stay with the little ones occasionally so I am able to work more...what a loving Grandma!

6) I am thankful for all of our many, wonderful friends! We have been very blessed with great friendships over the years and fortunately despite the many miles between some of us now, we still find a way to stay in contact! I know that should I need them they are ALWAYS here for us, they are loyal and very caring and I just want to Thank them all!

7) I am thankful for our nieces, Baylie and Jessica, both of which arrived safe and healthy this past summer. We are very blessed to have them in our lives:)

8) I am thankful for the opportunity to build our dream home and provide a safe, loving environment for our children to grow up in! Many THANKS to my dear husband for making it a reality for us!!!!!

9) I am thankful for good health among my family and myself. We have dealt with our fair share of being "sick" here recently with the change of season but we are fortunate that there are no long term illnesses or chronic conditions within the family. Thank God for taking such good care of us!

10) I am thankful that Joy and Aaron Larkin were able to safely welcome their precious triplet daughters into this world yesterday at 33+6 weeks. Thankfully all three little ones are doing great and Joy is off to a great start in her recovery following her c-sect.

I could go on and on but I will stop here...for now. So...have you stopped to think today about the many blessing in your life? Please sign in and leave a comment to share what you are most thankful for. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all!!!!!

Hoosiers Win Back The Old Oaken Bucket In 27-24 Thriller

On Saturday, November 17, Doug and I traveled to Bloomington, In. along with our great friends Jeff and Molly to watch the Indiana Hoosiers BEAT :) the Purdue Boilmakers!!! GO HOOSIERS...sorry all you Purdue fans out there!!! The drive down was exhausting as we all sat in miles and miles of bumper to bumper traffic traveling to Memorial Stadium for the game. I believe this was the first sold out game they have had in quite some time so I'm not sure the police were really prepared for the amount of people they would be filing in. Aside from that we had a blast! It was very relaxing to hang out with good friends, tailgate for a while, eat some tasty food:), have a few drinks and not have to be "responsible parents" for just a short while (though I must admit I always miss my little munchkins when I'm away from them!).

There was a family sitting in front of us with their two daughters who were decked out in their IU gear. They were absolutely adorable and it made me think on more than one occasion just how much fun it will be to take our trio with us to the games when they get a little older. We met a lot of very nice people sitting around us in the bleachers and also while tailgating. We were reminded of what a small world we live in as we started talking with this couple who ended up living in the same town Doug works in?!? They were very nice despite the fact they were there supporting Purdue:)

Once the game was over Jeff and Molly headed home to pick up their 3 mo. old little man from the sitter's house. This was the first time they had ever left him with anyone so I was surprised Molly did so well... Doug and I on the other hand took full advantage of the fact that we had some time alone and we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for some dinner, drinks and listened to the "one man band" entertaining everyone who was actually pretty good. I was really hoping to take Doug to Macri's Deli as they used to serve his FAVORITE cheesecake when he lived down there but we were disappointed to find out they have gone out of business:( There were more than a few things that have changed in the eleven years since Doug was in college there.

FROM THEN TO NOW...

Here's a little reminder what our property started out looking like just a short month and a half ago...

Well, a few things have changed since then...to say the least! Our tentative move in date was first thought to be mid February...let's just say if progress continues as it has we should be in our new home early to mid January. That is unbelievable to me!?! I guess after thinking and dreaming about this for so long it just seems surreal to me that it is actually happening and so quickly! Here are some recent pics to catch everyone up to speed!

This weekend our plumber was out here hard at work running all the pipes and installing bath/shower units. Both of my brothers will be hard at work for us soon as my brother Josh is our electrician and my brother Jay is doing all of our heating and air. It's nice having so many different professions within the family but I really do want to take a moment and THANK THEM BOTH for offering their services and always being available to help! Love you guys!!! Once the plumbing, heating/air and electrical stuff is finished here in the next couple of days they will be putting on the roof and bricking the outside of our home! WOW!!! I cannot wait...I am so excited if you can't tell?!? Sorry that some of these posts are so much of me rambling on about the house but I just want all of our family and friends to see how it's coming along. Check back soon as I have several posts I need to do!

P.S. There are approx. 17 pics in the slideshow but it stops playing midway so you have to push the play button that will pop up in the bottom left corner and it will continue.

UPDATE ON HOUSE PROGRESS!

There have been so many changes and I am so far behind in posting updates and for that I am sorry but rest assured you will see pics. The basement is completely finished as of last week...Monday to be exact when they completed the "back fill" and poured the floors. On Tuesday, the lumber company delivered it's first load of lumber so the framers could start on Wednesday. Bright and Early Wednesday morning the framers started arriving and it was absolutely amazing how much they were able to get done that first day. By the end of one full work day they had the main support beams in place and the garage and basement walls framed. That was with a crew of approximately six guys. It was very exciting for me to be able to see a "construction site" from the main HWY that runs in front of our home. By the end of the second day (Thursday) they had all of the floor joist's down, the floor decking was down and 70% of the first floor walls were framed. The framers are usually on site and you can hear them hard at work by 7:00-7:30 A.M. and this second day there were probably twelve guys working. These guys are on it and are not messing around! They initailly told us that it would take them two weeks to complete this but at the rate they are going it may not even take a week!!! Friday, the end of the third day, they had almost all of the first floor walls framed and about 1/2 of the ceiling joist's framed. You can now walk through and tell what the internal of our house looks like and where all of the rooms are located. As I walk through, I can already envision what our house will look like. I can picture the kids room decorated cute for them...likely with the Backyardigans as my children are ADDICTED! I can picture their cribs in their room. I can imagine our bedroom, the living rooms, our fireplace, the toy room, "MY" kitchen, our dining room where we will be able to share our family meals...I could go on and on but needless to say I/we are getting SO excited! We've waited a very long time to turn this dream into a reality! I'm just so happy Doug and I are able to make it happen now not only for ourselves but also for our precious little ones! OK, this has gone on long enough...now for some pictures! You'll get some now and more very soon as there are so many and as I mentioned before...I'm behind:)

MY CUTE LIL' FOREST CREATURES!!!

Sorry for the delay....here are the much awaited ADORABLE Halloween pics I promised! Enjoy!