Messy Braids, Signs and Wrestling

Just a few random pictures and grateful thoughts:

my niece Clara with Sissy

I'm thankful for messy little pig tails and braids. I'm thankful for little girls, holding hands.

Sissy has gotten into saying, "Momma, I think you're the best Mommy ever." And then the boys join in on saying it, too. Actually, maybe one of them started it originally, but she says it all of the time now. I'll take it any way I can.

I'm thankful that my niece Winnie wanted to give her picture to Aunt Jenny.

Tornado has been in a sign making mood lately. He's always done this, before he could even spell. He'd scribble on post-its, tell me what they said, and stick them everywhere. He always remembered what each scribble said. I'm grateful for my sign-making little guy.

I'm particularly fond of this one he made. It's hanging on the door of the pantry, where we keep our dog food.

Tornado is our rule-follower/people pleaser. He's very helpful. :)

I'm thankful that Ryan doesn't mind being invaded by the kids when he's trying to relax.

Oh, and I almost forgot...Ryan scrubbed 2/3 of our toilets this weekend. And he cleaned out our bathroom sink. And cleaned out the downstairs closet. AND scrubbed down our horrifically dirty tile shower. It's white again! What a man I have.

I'm thankful that he kept them entertained for a bit while I cleaned the kitchen.

I'm thankful for squeals of great joy, silly fun, and once again - a daddy who doesn't mind a kid and a dog invading his head.

I'm also thankful for Photoshop. With the click of a mouse, my carpet looks clean.

I have won a couple of blog giveaways lately, which is always a day-brightener.

I won a 3 month family membership to JumpStart.Com. Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns was hosting this giveaway. I was excited to win this because I was thinking about trying it out, anyway. More than one child can use this program. We were trying to play it the other day, but it was loading pretty slow. I'm pretty certain it was our computer, not their site. I'll let you know later how it works for us.

I also won this "Natural Resistance Fitness and Toning Kit" from a CSN giveaway that Kristi from Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice was hosting. Goodness knows I need a toning kit. I've always wanted to have a big exercise ball like this for doing crunches, etc. Now I don't have to use the sweaty ones at the gym. And the kids have been having fun rolling around on it. We're waiting for the first big accident. I also like the resistance tube. My arms have been getting a workout.

I am happy about these awards that have been bestowed upon me!

Thank you for thinking of me, you guys!

My friend Karie honored me with this Best Blog Award many, many months ago; finally, I'm getting it on here. She does really great work, seen on her photography blog. The rules are: accept the award, mention the award, pass the award on to other recently discovered blogs I love, and contact the bloggers to let them know about their award.

I guess my most recently discovered blog is O Butter, Where Art Thou. A teenage guy is writing about his quest to give up meat and dairy, which is entertaining to me.

Let's see...two of my other latest "follows" - Cabin in the Woods and One Little Word She Knew, which are two homeschooling family blogs. I am a fan of simple, homeschooling blog stories.

I'm also going to pass the award on to Scraps of Starlight. I enjoy her blog (and the name of it), and I think she's probably a lot like me. She actually very graciously gave me this award:

I'm supposed to pass this on to 12 bloggers who "bring sunshine to my screen." I'm going to have to say that EVERY blog I read brings sunshine to my screen at some point. I get so many ideas and so much inspiration from you all. (I wish I could link up 12 specifically, but for the sake of time...I didn't even feed my kids supper tonight until 9, the poor dears. We went to Little Rock, and time got away from us. I guess I should be GRATEFUL, indeed, that they still think I'm the "best Mommy ever.")

And how could I not be thankful for this?

That's #'s 192-223 on my Gratitude List.