Thanksgiving

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had this year. Ali made it home and we were able to spend a week with her. This is the first Thanksgiving we have had with Ali, in Mankato, in 3 years! It always goes by way too fast! I definitely soaked up every second of it though. We have so much to be thankful for this year. (knocking on lots of wood) This is the first full year, since Braeden was born, that we have not had a surgery and hospital stay. Every year we have had at least one surgery, several ER visits and a few hospital stays. This year we avoided ALL of it! What a blessing!! Everyone is healthy and growing up so fast. It was a great year and I am so thankful for healthy happy kids!! It is definitely the best Christmas present we could get this year. 2013 is going to be the year of change and wonderful things for us! I signed a lease on a office space/store. I take possession of the space on January 1st and will be up and running in it before February 1st to push Valentine's Day treats! I couldn't be more excited and nervous all at the same time. It is an amazing opportunity and I am so grateful for a husband and family that are so supportive. This past year I grew leaps and bounds and knew it was time to make the move. I am excited for the new year and what it will bring for our new adventure. I have amazing support from family and friends. We are definitely heading in a new direction.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving:

November already!

I can't believe that October is gone and we are only a few weeks from Thanksgiving. The time flies by faster every year! This pas month has been super busy for us. Braeden had a few swim meets on the weekends. They were in the cities and we were getting up and out of the house by 5:00am to get to the pools for warm ups. It sure made the weekends fly by and the sleep very important. We have all now had the colds and crud. I am sure it is from the schedule that we keep. The kids are involved in a lot of activities and we find that we aren't home much to enjoy comfy clothes on the couch. Braeden has been out of school for the last few days with strep. He will be home one more day and then I think he will be ready to go back. Poor kid has been down and out but I really think he has secretly enjoyed watching movies in mom and dad's bed while playing the iPad. Our renters in North Mankato moved out of our house and Nick has been working nonstop trying to get the house ready for the new renters. I made the mistake of going up to the house to see it. It looks great and it really is a perfect house. It has a great yard, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a double garage. If we could just move that house into the Franklin School District it would be perfect. Don't get me wrong I love my 1952 house with tons of character but we don't have a an attached garage and we only have 3 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. The extra space would be FABULOUS! I am grateful to have a home and know this is the best place for us right now.

The kids had a fabulous Halloween. It was so much fun to watch them run from house to house getting candy! My mom made all the kids awesome treat bags. They are basically as big as a pillow case. With the weather being pretty decent we were out trick or treating for 2 hours...2 HOURS! It was crazy and the kids bags were full. We have quite the candy load. Braeden said he wants to eat it all but it will probably last until Easter. We went trick or treating with our neighbors and had a blast.

Here are some pictures from our Halloween: