Sunshine

Aubriana is the sunshine of my life (and Trace too, of course).  I love them both dearly, more than words can say.  Aubri constantly brings a smile to my face and fills me with joy.  She.is.my.daily.sunshine!!

 I love you soooooo much!!

HOT CHOCOLATE NIGHT

 Aubri & I enjoyed some hot chocolate with marshmallows tonight!

 Cheers!

Drink up!

Finally!

This was the weekend Trevor came to visit again and like always, it was filled with lots of fun, playing, laughing, movies, and shopping!

The best thing about this weekend visit was our trip to Walmart to buy him whatever he wanted for his reward for...going potty on the TOILET!!  Yes, that's right, he is finally wearing big boy underwear and going potty on the toilet.  He did a great job all weekend of going to the bathroom when he needed to...sometimes he told me first and other times he simply went all by himself and reported to me afterwards.

We've been telling him for a very long time that as soon as he goes potty on the toilet, we would take him shopping to buy whatever he wanted.  He's had his eye on a leaf blower for a couple of months and that's what we were going for.  Unfortunately, it was no longer there so he picked a caterpillar tractor truck.  I'm not sure what the correct name is for it, but he likes it!! 

 Trevor and Aubri watching none other but the Iron Giant!

These two are so cute together, I love seeing them love each other!!

Stuck Like Glue

This has been our family theme song for the past month or so! Trace and I both heard it on the radio at different times and fell in love with it (me more than him probably), but anyway, we both liked it. It got to the point where whenever we heard it, we would text the other the radio station it was on. The text would say 97.3 or 92.5 for example, and we knew what that meant without saying anymore!!

Then...Aubri got wind of it and immediately picked up on the words and started singing right along with us. She is always asking for "Stuck like glue".

Then...Trevor heard it from us always singing it and finding it on the radio and he got into it.

It's a fun song with great beat! I'm still not sick of it. Trace has found another song for us by Train now, but we still like this one too!

We are definitely STUCK LIKE GLUE and we LOVE it!!

Up Goes the Tree!

Today, Aubri & I tackled the job of putting the tree up!  Trace had to work all day and he's doing overtime at Walmart into the morning hours as well to monitor all of the crazies shopping EARLY for Black Friday.  Anyway, since we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I thought today would be the perfect day to get the tree up.  Together, we got the job done and now all of our Christmas decor is officially in place.  I love it.  The house is so warm and cozy with all of the lights, color, decorations, and smells.  This time of year is the best!!

 Ready to get started!

 Aubri's 1st job was to pull all of the pieces out of the box.

 Then...sort them (with Mommy's help!)

 My little peanut!!

 Aubri had more fun reading books and watching "Iron Giant" while I assembled the tree.

 She would come into the living room every once in awhile to make sure I was doing ok!

 Then when it was time for the ornaments, she was there to help!!

 She made sure they were all getting attention.

 This was her favorite part! 

 She is one silly little girl.

 Standing on the couch playing her guitar and singing "Jingle Bells".  How appropriate!

 Done at last.  Blue & clear to match out outdoor lights!

 With two naps (for Aubri, just 1 for me), cleaning, and much organization accomplished, it was time to end the day with a popcorn party and "Iron Giant" movie.  Our Aubri girl loves her popcorn!!

 She is sooooooooooo sweet.

I love you baby!

Thanks for your help decorating today.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving with Trace's family in Elkhart.  He has to work tomorrow on Thanksgiving Day so we decided to celebrate a day early.  We had a wonderful day and were thankful the weather cooperated for our travels. 

I am thankful for:

* Jesus loving us so much and dying for our sins.
* My loving husband.
* Our angel daughter, Aubriana
* My parents.
* My brothers & sister.
* My In-laws.
* My positive upbringing.
* My awesome family (all of them).
* Ellie.
* Our friends.
* Our healing.
* Health.
* Our church.
* Grace & Mercy.
* Our jobs.
* Finances
* Our many, daily blessings.
* Our home.
* Our faith.
* Safety.
* Our freedom.
* Endless love.

The list goes on and on.  I am thankful for oh, so much!  Even the littlest things like starburst jelly beans, candy corn & peanuts, seasons, popcorn, foot rubs and back rubs from my awesome husband, smells, lights, music, dancing, singing, kisses, hugs, friendship, parties, pictures, transportation, clothes, sunshine, snow, vacation, sleep, etc.  I know there is a lot I haven't listed, but I am so THANKFUL!!

 Sam & Trace preparing to move the turkey from the cooker to a plate for transfer!

 Get ready...

 ...comin hot!

 18 pounds of delicious meat!

 Grandma Alice cooking the gravy.

 Trace cutting the turkey.

 Trace says, "Oh no, the camera again!"

 Feeding me M&M's!!

 Trace showing you what they look like chewed up!

 Me & Joan

 We were going for a family picture here, but Aubri wanted to hug on daddy and she grabbed for him while the picture was in progress!

 Baby doll

 Let's eat!  We had a spread of delicious food.  Joan & Grandma Alice are great in the kitchen.

 All homemade desserts:  Chocolate pie, cheesecake, and pumpkin pie with made from scratch pecan crust.  Joan, you outdid yourself!!

 Aubri got her very own little chocolate pie!

 Her 1st bite.

 While Grandma Alice, Jolita, Uncle Terry, and myself broke out a game of Pay Me, Grandma Joanie took Aubri in for some craft time!

 She likes to wear Grandma's glasses while she works.

 It's a giraffe...not quite finished.  She helps glue and then colors it.

Happy Thanksgiving

to all of my family and friends!

Amazing!

Trevor can say the Pledge of Allegiance.  He's 3 years old!  Now, that's amazing.

See for yourself:

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

...at the Kendig's!!  I have been so excited to get my Christmas stuff out this year.  I have been trying to fight back the urges to put things out early, but I lost.  The other night I finally gave in to my desires and started digging through my totes.  I have been picking up some new items this year too so I think that's what really sparked me to get things out NOW.  I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving, which is when we will still do the tree...Maybe...it'll actually probably be on Thanksgiving Day!!  But, this year I decorated our home with everything except the tree.

PLUS...

I finally got what I've been waiting only 10 years for...

...Christmas lights on the outside of the house!!! 

Thanks to my awesome mother in law, she just couldn't take another year of me begging for lights and her son telling me "No" so she decided to intervene and do it for me!!! She's the best.  Thanks Joan.

I'm so excited for this season.  I love Christmas and everything that comes with this time of year.  The baking, the smells, the lights, the decorations, the ornaments, the celebration, the love, the excitement, the smiles, the warmth, the fireplace, and even the snow!!

I'm very excited too because it will be so much fun with Aubri.  She knows how to open presents now and to see the twinkle in her eye just warms my heart!!

I love snowmen if you can't tell from the pictures above!!

PLUS...I now have a snowman family outside in front of our house too!  Joan couldn't resist and spoiled us with these too.  All I need is the little dog now to represent Ellie!

I couldn't pick just one or two of the pictures below so I chose them all.  Aubri absolutely loves Frosty the snowman!!

 They were put together inside...and we are preparing to take to out!

 Ta Da...our happy little snowman family!

 And...they are beautiful all lit up!!