Much To Celebrate

It seemed like we just celebrated this weekend. Celebrated the brave men and women who have fought and are fighting for our freedom. Celebrated having the best group of friends around. And finished it up by celebrating the one of a kind, Grandma Angie.

While each celebration was very different they all were good for the soul!

The kids and I celebrated Veteran's Day by running errands, going to the doctor, taking naps and playing outside until after dark. And throughout the day I was reminded of the sacrifice others have given so that my children and I can live in this wonderful country and go about our simple day without a worry or a fight. This past week has been a crazy one for our country. All I am going to say is that I will continue, as I was before, to pray for our nation, our leaders and our children. I will continue to raise productive and kind citizens of the world. My prayer is that every other parent out there in the world will do the same. Think about what a wonderful world that would be! 

This is what my wonderful world looked like by Friday night. August Samuel destroyed the bottom half of the kitchen. Douglas with his losing pot of chili destroyed the top half of the kitchen. If you look closely you can see marker covering the counter, due to Em. And if you look closely again you will find the fancy drink Doug made me that made all of this okay ha!

This makes me smile so I wanted to add it in. Emery is getting so much better at writing letters and drawing. Can you guess who's turkey is who's?? 

And lets just take a second to talk about Auggie. The boy had a rough week. First of all, he chipped his front tooth. Yep. Fell in the bathtub because he will NOT sit down and took the front corner right off. After his bath fiasco, Em was stepping out of the tub and stumbled a bit. Her reaction, "Oh man....I almost broke my tooth!" Now we say that for everything. Two nights later we heard a crash and found blood again. This time a bad busted lip--still not even sure what he did it on. On top of this he has a bad cold and has been puny since Wednesday evening. Grouchy, hurt, ornery and still oh so sweet!

Saturday night we left the Aug at home with Nana for two reasons. One--he was sick. Two--he would have been zero fun. We had a Chili Fest to celebrate! This is the second annual one that has happened outside of college and I think I heard someone say the 12th Chili Fest was happening at the same time in college. I love this tradition. Some of my favorite nights in college were at a Chili Fest. Times have changed just a little--there are now happy kids running around everywhere and I know we were in bed before midnight. These get togethers remind me how awesome it is to have friends close by. Ones that will scoop up your kid while you are holding their's. Ones that are laid back, that laugh often and ones that make good chili! I think these two Jansen girls had the best time out of everyone.

A night by a fire would not be complete for Em without a s'more. On the way to the party she asked me if Charlie's Mommy had everything needed for s'mores. 

E:Does she have marshmallows?

M: Yes.

E: Does she have "bram trackers"?

M: (giggling at her pronunciation) Yes.

E: Does she have fires????

M: Ha! Yes...I am sure she bought some fire too.....

My favorite moment of the night was sitting by the fire, Emery and Charlie on my lap, as the men played guitars and sang "You Are My Sunshine"....such a sweet little mom-memory. 

I am glad we didn't stay out too late Saturday celebrating because the biggest and best celebration happened Sunday. We celebrated Grandma Angie's 100th Birthday!!!! And doesn't she look beautiful. Church was full with her family. The hall was packed with so many smiling faces. The love everyone has for Grandma is just so powerful and the crazy thing is she gives it right back to every single person. I think she would have every great-grandkid sit on her lap. She makes every one of them feel special. This picture is Emery and Katie asking her when she was going to open her presents--because in their eyes that is what you do at a birthday party. Grandma just giggled and said she didn't even know she had any presents. I think to her having those sweet little girls by her side was present enough.

Even though it was her party, Grandma Angie was the one that gave everyone the best present. The present of a memory they will never forget. She had said that the one gift she wanted was that her grandkids and great grandkids would have fun and remember this celebration. So after a big family picture, grandkids and great grandkids were given a balloon and did a birthday celebration release. It was so cool. But the coolest part....Grandma's #100 balloon got stuck in a tree right in the church yard and wasn't going anywhere! Just this week I was learning about the Holy Spirit. Some say things in life are coincidence or chance but really they are the workings of the Holy Spirit. Not a family member there thought her balloon got stuck due to coincidence or chance....I love these simple little signs from God!

Emery LOVED the balloon release. She of course picked pink and swore she could see her balloon long after they were out of sight. She will remember.

I just realized right now how happy Em looks here. She would have stood there and taken pics with Grandma all day! It was great to see everyone today and no better reason to celebrate. 

Looking forward to a busy week with even more celebrating this coming weekend.

Happppppy Monday.