Giving Thanks Day 2

I am thankful for the snuggle/talk time I get with Nate in the mornings.  He doesn't slow down much so this time is truly precious to me.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving

I am going to attempt to post something I am thankful for every day for the entire month of November.  Please forgive me when if I miss a day...or two or three. :)

Day 1:  When thinking about having a thankful/grateful attitude, I am thankful for the book Growing Grateful Kids by Susie Larson.  This book is based on 1 Thessalonians 5:18:  "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  I will be the first to admit that left to my own devices, I like to grumble and complain quite a bit and I certainly don't have an "attitude of gratitude."  This book could have been called Growing a Grateful Julie, because God used this book to totally change my perspective and how I view things.  You should check it out.  It's full of great spiritual truths, but simple and quick to read.

Happy Halloween!

Nate and I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon with my mom at the Pumpkin Patch.  There were very few people there - just the way we like it.

 

Carving Jack-O-Lanterns

 

National Down Syndrome Society Buddy Walk

Last Saturday we had the privilege of celebrating children with Down syndrome at the Montgomery Buddy Walk.  The Buddy Walk is kind of like Relay for Life.  They take place all over the United States and are a  fundraiser for children with Down syndrome. 

We were there to celebrate all of the children, but especially this cutie, Joel. 

Nate with Joel's sisters, Josie and Julia.

These two ladies are very special to me - Joy, Joel's mom, and Sandi. 

 

Nate balloon sword fighting with Sandi's son, Gabe.  I think this was his favorite part of the day.

Columbus Day

Nate and I were very excited that Darren got to be home on Columbus Day.  The day started with crazy hair day at preschool.  I wanted to spike Nate's hair up really crazy, but it it so long it would just fall over. I even bought some hair glue that is supposed to be super strong, but it didn't work.  Nate also got tired of practicing for crazy hair day.  We ended up just spraying it with red hair paint that morning.

While Nate was at school Darren walked with me.  I've been trying to walk/run several days a week. This is definitely not Darren's favorite thing to do so I really appreciate his willingness to go and spend time with me.  On our way home from walking we bought some vegetables for our garden.

Nate enjoyed getting to help plant the new vegetable plants.  Do you notice the red paint in his hair?  His hair looks kind of crazy all on its own.  This was taken two days before a much needed haircut.

He and Darren planted three different kinds of lettuce, Swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower. 

After giving Nate a much needed bath, we headed to Old Baker Farm. We usually go to our local pumpkin patch but thought it would be fun to do something different.  It was lots of fun and not as commercial as the pumpkin patch.  They had all different kinds of pumpkins.  It took us a while to decide which ones we liked best.   

Here's what we ended up with:  two for carving and one for decoration.

After choosing our pumpkins it started to rain.  The rain didn't stop us from doing the corn maze, hay maze and seeing the animals.  It was a great day!

Project

We haven't had a home improvement/furniture project in a long time.  We used to have something going on all of the time, but not since Nate was born.  I had been wanting to move a cabinet from our kitchen to Nate's room to use as a bookshelf, but we definitely didn't want to purchase a new piece of furniture for the kitchen. Darren's mom had an old Hoosier kitchen cabinet in her basement.  She graciously let us use it in our kitchen so we could move use the existing cabinet to Nate's room. 

It needed a good bit of work before being ready to paint.  Thankfully my dad was able to do all of the work for us.  Darren was very kind to do all of the painting since I've been very busy with adoption paperwork.

It was hard to get a good picture, but we are very pleased with how it turned out and love having a better bookshelf for Nate's room.