13 years of December.....minus 1

I was encouraged when reading one of my favorite bloggers post, 9 years of Decembers.....

she is intentional about looking back through her blog posts and remembering 

so i decided to do that same.

i have been blogging for 13 years with one of those years only having 8 blog posts the whole year and that last one that year was in May so there was no December that was blogged then.......

My Decembers have been full of some of the same things like posts about the books that i have read every year.......chances to see best friends......

thoughts on life.........52 adventures that we experianced.......myself expressed in words when i can think about the answers later and not spur of the moment answers............celebration of new life..............funny kid experiances............



the gift of hearing................vacations................





Christmas pictures...................mom advice..........first home purchase..................before kids.................



sentiments on friends....................Three Things Thursday

It has been so fun to go back through the Decembers of blogging past.

Books Read in 2017.....

this is one of my favorite posts of the year

I have been recording the books that I have read every year since 2004

I have no idea why I started doing it but I am do glad that I did and it has been so much fun

my goal for this year was 52

here is my 2017 list

lets see if I met that goal

Dad is Fat-Jim Gaffigan

The Mistletoe Secret-Richard Paul Evans

The Baxter Christmas-Karen Kingsbury

Along the Infinite Sea-Beatriz Williams

Duck Commander Family-Willie and Korie Robertson

The Magnolia Story-Chip and Joanna Gaines

Wild & Free-Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan

Raising an Original-Julie Lyles Carr

Yes You Can Heather-Daphne Gray Whitestone

A Family Shaped by Grace-Gary Morland

Candle in the Darkness-Lynn Austin

Never Unfriended-Lisa Jo Baker

Fire by Night-Lynn Austin

Gods & Kings-Lynn Austin

Song of Redemption-Lynn Austin

The Strength of His Hand-Lynn Austin

The Secret Life of Peaches-Jodi Lynn Anderson

Uninvited-Lysa TerKuerst

Wind at the Door-Madeline L'Engle

Love and Peaches-Jodi Lynn Anderson

Love Story-Karen Kingsbury

Present Over Perfect-Shauna Niequist

The House at the Edge of Night-Catherine Banner

All She Ever Wanted- Lynn Austin

Hands Free Life-Rachel Stafford

A Light to my Path-Lynn Austin

My Lady Jane-Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Have a New Kid  by Friday-Kevin Leman

The Prayer Box-Lisa Wingate

Sea Rose Lane-Irene Hannon

Scrappy Little Nobody-Anna Kendrick

Eleanor & Park-Rainbow Rowell

The Chemist-Stephanie Meyer

The Princess Diarist-Carrie Fisher

A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey w/your Kids about Sex-Dr. Kevin Leman & Kathy Flores Bell

My (not so) Perfect Life-Sophie Kinsella

The Keeper of Lost Things-Ruth Hogan

The Seven Sisters-Lucinda Riley

Windfall-Jennifer E. Smith

Talking as fast as I can-Lauren Graham

Little Girls Can Be Mean-Michelle Anthony and Reyna Lindert

On Becoming Pre-teen wise-Gary Ezzo

The Storm Sister-Lucinda Riley

here are my lists from previous years

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Family Christmas 2017

Last year i posted this post, Christmas Through the Years.

I love looking through the family Christmas photos that we take every year. They go back further than 2010 too. We have ones with just Golden Boy before Little girl was born and my Hubby and i took them before we had kiddos.

Here is 2008 Christmas Photo

Here is 2007 Christmas Photo

Christmas Photo 2006 they year before we had kids

Family

My family (the 10 of us)

and silly pictures are a mist to get the kids to cooperate with a good one.  

My parents and their four grand kids

my hubby's side of the family (all 11 of us)

silly us, of course

my in laws and the five grand kids

Ironic

i just got finished reading a book called "My (not so) Perfect Life" by Sophie Kinsella 

I really enjoyed it. i loved this quote that was close to the end of the book......

 "but there's other stuff in her life too. Stuff that balances out the bright and shiny on the one side; the crappy truth on the other. I think I've finally worked out how to feel good about life. Every time you see someone's bright and shiny, remember: they have their own crappy truths too. Of course they do. And every time you see their crappy truth and feel despair and think; Is this my life, remember: it's not. Everyone's got a bright and shiny, even if it's hard to find sometimes."  

there is so much striving to have this perfect life......i have learned to not really care about the look of how perfect things are.

take this picture for example......how ironic that my son had to have a tooth pulled, me a dental assistant.

here's to #MyNotSoPerfectLife #embraceIT

Speech therapy

We have been going to speech therapy for 7 years now. It is hit or miss on how enjoyable it is. The misses have nothing to do with our speech therapist. We love her and think that she is just what Golden boy needs for this time in his life.

So we have our fair share of discouragement and frustration while at speech but he almost always pushes through even through gritted teeth and tears. 

When he was smaller I used to sit beside him and attempt to help keep him going.

Another time in life we decided for me to wait in the waiting room while he went in and had therapy by himself.

It's been a while since then. Now I am back in there with him but I drag a chair back behind them. I don't say much. He clearly knows I am there but if he really gets going and isn't distracted it's like he forgets I'm there but if he is struggling and not focusing I can help get him back on track and be there for a hug during the times he looses it and the tears start. 

It is truly amazing to think of where he was in speech and language and where he is now.  There are still things that need to be worked on but the leaps and bounds that he has made have been incredible. 

Recently she is working on these pages where they give statements like:

The sun____________

A lion_______________

There isn't really a wrong answer unless you said the sun is not real or something like that but today these were his answers to those two and our Speech therapist said how much she liked his answers and I just had to jot then down because they were great:

The sun.......lights the world

A lion........hunts

I think the more common answers may be is bright and roars. Golden boy is not common or ordinary. He is unique and creative and head strong and energetic and strong and brave. I know speech therapy can be a struggle and frustrating (the great thing is that his sleech therapist gets that too. She understands how much energy it takes for him to listen all day long and sometimes by the time he gets to her he is just done.) She is patient and kind and pushes when she needs too and steps back when she needs too. We are so very thankful for her.

Halloween 2017

halloween 2017 was pretty easy for costumes. 

Golden boy never really knows. i think at one point he said he wanted to be Baymax. he also mentioned Director Krennick but ultimately he went with Baymax. and i am so glad he did. 

The costume had a little fan inside that blew up the suit. he wore the costume to the school fall festival and got so many comments on the costume. everyone loved it. if there was a costume contest i bet he would have won.

 after seeing Descendants and then Descendants 2 Little Girls was set on being Evie. We thought she was going to choose to be Moana but it was Evie, all the way.

when they were little i was all about making their costume. now if they want something i have to buy it is all about finding the best deal on them. those costumes can be pretty expensive.

TODAY'S the DAY

SnapShop HALF OFF sale

till 11:59pm tonight

use CODE FALL50 for half off your registration

Click HERE to register and don't forget the code FALL50

the courses are so worth it!

if you are looking to take your camera from Auto mode to Manual and learn more about how to use your DSLR or great tips on using your camera phone.......this is the course for you.

TOMORROW......

.....is the day to sign up for SnapShop

it is a great program to help you to get your camera off of Auto mode and into Manuel. She has a phone photo course and lots of other great lessons of different areas of photography. 

I have been a student for over a year now and have really enjoyed the content and the access to it when i have a question about something with my camera.

Tomorrows deal is HALF OFF the registration for ONE DAY only.

Flash Sale will start at 12:00am CST on October 26th and will end at11:59pm CST on October 26th.

your discount code is FALL50 

 HERE is the LINK to sign up

don't forget to put in the code FALL50 for your half off special.

Twenty-Five

i am reading a book right now called Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist (you can download a sample chapter of the book at her website here.)

I have really enjoyed it, even though i am still early on in the book. 

these last few years i have been devouring non-fiction books, which are usually not my favorite kind of books.

the chapter that i am currently on in the book is called twenty-five. i was't sure what to expect when i started this chapter. what did twenty-five mean. Age, was not what i was thinking when diving into twenty-five.

i started thinking back to twenty-five.

i was married

no kids yet

living thousands of miles away from anything familiar

becoming familiar with new places

meeting new people

having adventures i could have never imagined
it my have been the poorest time in our life
but a time that changed and shaped and grew us the most

her chapter about what twenty-five is different and somewhat the same from my twenty-fifth chapter in life.
i was married young so there was no decision to be made about a relationship that my be good or bad for me.
i worked to pay the bills
i didn't have a season of space from going to church, in fact we jumped into finding a new church when we moved to WA state and we fell in love with the church and the people who attended that church. There was much community there.

Twenty-five was great. But over ten years later......so is the now. There is lots we have learned from twenty-five. Lots that is better  because of twenty-five. Equally lots that we miss from being twenty-five. Surprisingly the no kids is not one of them. They have made life interesting and added to an adventure like no other.