Thanksgiving Prayer

 We give you thanks, Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day

 We bow our hearts to You and pray.

 We give You thanks for all You've done

 Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.

 For beauty in nature, Your glory we see

 For joy and health, friends and family,

 For daily provision, Your mercy and care

 These are the blessings You graciously share.

 So today we offer this response of praise

 With a promise to follow You all of our days.

 Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have a.....

THUMB SUCKER!!!!!

I can not believe it!

It happened so fast. I tried giving her the bink and she just absolutely will not take it.

Dang.

Cute though. ;)

And....I guess it is worth it. She's started sleeping through the night. I mean 10-11 hours. Every. Night.

Jack O Lanterns

This year was the year to relinquish control.

The kids designed their very own pumpkins!

It was a lot of fun.

Dad did a FANTASTIC job cleaning and prepping the pumpkins by cutting open the top and cleaning them all out. Can I get a "Yay Dad!"

 Alex not only designed his Jack O Lantern, but also needed no help from us drawing it on the pumpkin.
I'm so proud.

 Pretty cute, huh?

 Happy Halloween!

Brinley's Favorite Time of Day...

...is Bathtime!!!

Soccer Kids!

Soccer 2012

Team Name: Soccer Kids

Coach: Koeppen

#5: Alex Rasmussen

Position: Defender! :) (or as he would say, "deeeeeefender!")

 We had a great season. Alex learned a lot about flora and fauna whilst picking various growing things from the ground during practice and games...and a little bit about soccer too, thanks to the coach.

Maybe next year we will score.

Christmas Cards

This year Nancy and I were on a mission to have our Christmas Card picture ready to go EARLY in the season. This way, we could pick and choose the best Christmas Card deals.

One day in early October, we dressed everyone up, filled their tummies, and plopped them in the car.

 I had found this gorgeous overlook a couple of weeks earlier on the way to a friends house.

 And, as you can see, the pictures turned out great!

 Or so we thought....

 As it turned out,

 the camera was on the wrong setting :(

 Nancy went ahead and developed a few just in case....

 But no.

 They look horrible.

 So alas, this is as far as these pictures will ever make it...

 and we will see when the actual Christmas Card pictures happen...

 It might be awhile...

 Huge. Bummer.

Stealing Time

A week or two ago the weather was perfect, the leaves were changing, and the kids and I decided to steal some time.

After we picked up Alex, we went to a secret playground where nobody goes.

No one was constricted by deadlines, or dinner times, or winter coats.

There were no rules.

 We listened to the rustling of leaves and the crunching of them by animals paws.
We did not hurry.

 Everyone ran with nowhere to go.  There weren't any parking lots, moving cars, or roads. There was no danger. The freedom to run is fun to watch!

 Mom took deep breathes in and out, in and out, over and over and thought of nothing else but how much fun it was to be with her playing running children and how much fun it was to steal time.

 All of us felt peace. It was a great day!