In The Meadow We Can Build A Snowman...

The last time I showed you picture it was from the snowfall while our Florida friends were here. Then it warmed up a tad and rained and we lost all our snow. Then earlier this week we got about 3" of snow. We got more snow last night. Michael thinks we got another 3". The Wonderful Neighbor children were over bright and early to build a snowman. They knocked on our door and asked if Michael could come out and help with a snowball. I thought maybe they wanted him to be that snowball's target. :) However, they were talking about a LARGE snowball. Here is the snowMAN that they built for us outside our front door! It is HUGE!!! We love it.

Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

I have not been blogging much. Michael has been off and we have enjoyed our time together. He is still off for this week, so I may not be on here much until next week. :) We had a wonderful Christmas. Brittany cooked a delicious turkey dinner and then brought it over here on Christmas Eve. We watched a Christmas movie together and they spent the night. We woke up Christmas morning after all sleeping in. Michael read the Christmas story to us from the book of Luke. We opened gifts and then had a delicious breakfast casserole. They stayed until around 1PM. We then went to Michael's parents and got to see most of his side of the family. We then went to my brothers for a short while on the way home. Family is my blessing this week. I have a wonderful family and I thank God for each of them.

What is your blessing this week?

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Christmas is almost here...

We had a little bit of snow here today. It looks pretty coming down. My opinion is that if it is going to be cold, I like snow. :) We are getting things together here. Catching up on laundry and other things. It still seems way too quiet around here.

I thought I would share some more pictures from their visit.

We all went to Lehman's Hardware together. Here is Providence riding around in the cart.

Jeff and the children went upstairs to look down on the trains that are going around the toy area.

Some of our group acted up and got put in jail. Here is Jo, Berri and Boaz.

Jeff and Providence did not escape jail either.

Boaz decided to chat with Mr. Lehman.

Whenever Providence got put in the high chair, Star would strike her begging pose nearby. One day we caught Providence taking a bite of cracker and then offering a bite to Star.... GROSS!!!!

There are always several games of Risk played when the Browers are here. They also played Monopoly and Charge Large.

Everyone except Terri, Berri, Providence and myself went to Old Man's Cave to hike one day. The girls wanted to be entertained. We read lots of books and played with them.

They loved to sit with Brittany and she loved holding them.

The children would come in from the cold outdoors and want to warm their hands by the fire.

The younger set really liked playing Battleship.

Jeff kept checking his phone for the VERY sporadic signal. Their phones got basically no service at our house.

Provi loved Star and was really good with her. Star was very patient.

I could have taken a dozen pictures of Brianna right in this chair. It would be different clothes and different books, but this was her favorite spot.

They had brought along a book of Mad Libs and had fun doing them with each other.

I pray that as Christmas draws near that you will reflect on what we really celebrate. The real GIFT.... Jesus.

Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

This is the longest I have ever not had a blog post. :) We were so busy this past week and that is my blessing. Our good friends from Florida (Brittany's family) came and spent the week with us. They brought along some friends last weekend as well. The Case family was here from Sunday night until Tuesday morning. I only have one picture of Mrs. Case and that is when she was in jail at Lehman's hardware. I did not get a single picture of Mr. Case or their daughter Emily. Emily has a blog here, so you can see pictures of her family on her blog. The Case family were really sweet people. It was like we had been friends a long time. They fit right in. We are thrilled that they came on up and stayed. We hope they stay longer next time.

These are only some of the pictures, but I figured I better quit before blogger blew up. :) The children had prayed for snow and it went all week without it. They were scheduled to leave early Saturday morning for home. They woke up Saturday morning to about 3 inches of snow, so postponed their departure until 7PM. There were snowball fights almost all day. They built me several snowmen to remember them by.

Here are some of the weeks activities.

Here are some of them watching a movie.

Brandon seemed to enjoy sleeping often. :)

We went to a Mexican restaurant since we all enjoy Mexican food. We have a wonderful Mexican restaurant near us.

Brittany baked cookies a couple of times. She had lots of help.



This is Providence. She was born the day before Joshua and Brittany's wedding. She is so sweet and cuddly. We had a good time with her.

I took a short video of her putting her big brother's boots on. She fell over and sat there in the floor with them on.

Brasen wanted me to take his picture. I am not sure what he was trying to be. It looks like Brittany is not too sure either.

Here are some of the little ones playing Pass the Pigs with their dad. They are playing at the living room coffee table because their were two games going on at the kitchen table.
The girls were playing some sort of a card game at one end of the kitchen table.
The big guys were playing a game called Charge Large at the other end.
Here are some pictures of what they woke up to on Saturday morning.

This is after she came in from outside. She LOVED being out in the snow. Eating it was her favorite part. She would hold it in her hand for a long time and never even act like the cold bothered her.
This was before they gave the snow woman eyes or anything.

Star LOVES the snow and loved chasing and catching snow balls. Michael caught this picture of her catching a snowball. I love this picture.

Brasen is around the side of the house contemplating where to attack next. :)





Here is the snow woman after she was finished.

Here is the snowman they made me. I have this picture on my desktop.

Here are little snowdrop flowers. :)

This bush looked really pretty. Bethany posed for me.
Berri is wearing a coat that belonged to Joshua when he was little. Starting with Brianna on down, they have all worn it down to Berri.
I had warned them all to NOT throw snowballs at me. I told them whoever hit me with a snowball would not get to eat at my house for the rest of that day. I thought that was enough to deter them. I was wrong. There were very few who were eligible to eat that day. Here is sweet (or not so sweet) Bethany ready to hit me.
Brittany was really enjoying her family. She was right in the thick of the snowball fights too.
Here is some LARGE snowballs.

My sweet friend Terri. I miss her so much already. She is precious and God truly blessed me when He allowed us to become friends. She is the most selfless person I have ever met.
Here is Jeff, Terri and Providence.
Providence loved eating the snow.
Brasen wanted me to see the big snowball he was going to hit his dad with. :)
Berri might be tiny, but she had an arm for throwing snowballs.

Jeff was a favorite target.
Who could resist a smile like that.
Brittany was playing games with the little ones.
Here is Brianna keeping Providence happy while they were loading the van.
Here is Joshua and Brittany. We had to really get Joshua laughing so we could get a natural smile. He was being silly.
This is the Brower men.
Here are the Brower women. Although Brittany has a new last name now. :)
Brandon was really good with the little ones.
We are truly blessed with friend like this. We all shed a few tears when they left. Our house will seem very empty and quiet for many days to come.

Good friends are a real blessing. Our greatest blessing though is the Son of God. Who loved us enough to come down and die for us and make a way for us to live with Him for all eternity. What is your blessing this week?