Day 30 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 30:

I am thankful that over 2000 years ago a King, a Savior came.

I am thankful that He came to die.

For you.

And for me.

Of all the things I am thankful for in this amazing life that I am blessed to lead, I am most humbly and assuredly thankful for my salvation.

Christmas can be a lot of things.

Its family and food and fun.

Its gifts and lights and traditions.

But what it really is, is a time for us to celebrate that the baby in a manger grew to become a man who was hung on a cross for our sins.

That morning a miracle occurred and the greatest act of love was shown.

The Father sent His Son to die for a sinful world.

I'm not sure we can even begin to grasp the magnitude of what He took for us.

And of how unworthy we are of the gift!

Without that all the rest of my blessings would be of little value.

As we set off in another holiday season it is my prayer that I will have this verse at the front of my mind to help me remember the Reason for the Season:

Matthew 6:33

'But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be added to you.'

Day 29 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 29:

I am thankful for little girls who can have their days made by the 'Enchanted Forest' at Menards.

The three of us had so much fun and spent SO much time walking through the lights and trees displayed at Menards today. I was dreading taking them into the store but it ended up being the favorite part of my day!

I'm so lucky I get to spend my days with them.

Phillipians 4:4

'Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say Rejoice!'

Day 28 - 30 Days of Thankfulness - Lauren's Edition

Day 28:

written by Lauren

I am thankful for my mom's blog.

I am thankful for it because I like to see the pictures of our family. I also love to read what she writes about us. I always laugh at the pictures of my siblings. My favorite picture of all of us is the one she just took with us around the Christmas tree. I like how we all have our arms around each other or are holding hands.

I like that I can always look back at my family's memories.

The blog is special to my family because when we are older we will be able to look back and see what it was like when we were kids.

I Corinthians 13:7

'Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.'

p.s. edition - 30 days of thankfulness

I have to add....soooooo thankful for late starts on Monday mornings. I think we are going to need the extra hours in the morning.

AND

for my husband who cleaned, and I mean CLEANED my laundry room for me today. If you saw my laundry room in my 111 year old basement...you would understand that this is the hugest gift!

Day 27 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 27:

I am even more thankful for all the wonderful moments of the past week...

since today has not been so wonderful.

It started out bad...I hit snooze. We both fell back to sleep and woke up 20 minutes before we were needed to be walking out the door for church.

That was however probably a blessing because about an hour later Torrance threw up and about 3 hours after that Tess had a fever for 103.

We really did have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving break.

And I'm holding tight to all of that so I dont lose it before bed time tonight!

I'll be reciting this verse below and praying for me to act a little bit like that.

Psalm 86:15

'But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.'

Want to see my heart walking around outside my body?

Here it is.

I'm sure that someday I will look back at this picture and wonder how they

could all look so young...but this year, they all seem huge.

These years are going too fast.

And I'm thankful that in our craziest moments, even tonight, my husband stops me and says, 'Someday we will miss this noise and chaos'.

He is so right.

Day 26 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 26:

I am thankful for our Christmas kick-off night!

We have been looking forward to tonight for a couple of weeks.

I love this night. I love how our traditions have evolved and that the kids look forward to each part of this night. I hope they never forget any of it.

I had the tree up and lights on and the cookies made by mid afternoon - I wised up a couple of years ago and started getting the most stress inducing parts of this night done before the fun!

While I worked there was a lot of this...

And dancing to Christmas music.

There is nothing I love more than watching each of the kids go through their box of ornaments. They really treasure them and love to talk about how we picked them out for each of them every year. This year one of them noted that our tree is going to have to get bigger to deal with 5 new ornaments every year! They are right.

Lauren has to hang all of hers up as high as she can now.

Tess was just in awe...like 3 year olds are...about the tree.

She asked if she could live in it.

I dont want to forget her at age 3. This is going to be a special Christmas for her.

Avery remembered really cute things about each of her ornaments.

precious.

After supper and decorating we settled in to watch ELF.

And took a half time break to decorate these!

I use Jordan's aunt Jean's amazing recipe.

I am getting better at them...but I'm still missing Jean's most secret ingredient...patience.

:)

Tori loved her first taste of Christmas cookies.

She actually tried to dig part of mine out of my mouth to get more!

And these lights will never cease to bring me to tears in memory of those who aren't here to celebrate with us. They bring about a longing for my own childhood and the ability to curl up on my dad's lap and stare at the tree.

And a wish that I could freeze time and live in this moment for a very long time.

1 Corinthians 11:2

'Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain

the traditions even as I delivered them to you.'

Want to see what adorable looks like?

Here it is...

Day 25 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 25:

I'm thankful for Jordan's family and family fun!

We have a lot of fun with Jordan's side of the family too.

I wont lie...with this group - there is little time for long discussions or leisurely meals!

But there is plenty of laughter and noise.

We had Thanksgiving at Cindy's tonight and headed up town for our town's Christmas kick-off!

There are trolley rides, cookies, hot cocoa, real reindeer, santa is available for pictures, the shops stay open and its just fun.

We waited and waited for the trolley.

Really, she is so old.

She did great even though it was getting pretty late.

She was so excited to see the horses pulling the trolley!

Yep, sweetie.

Crazy.

Finally! On the trolley!

SO excited!

I'm sad knowing that this is our last Christmas with a baby.

Sad, sad, sad.

She's the sweetest.

We don't 'do Santa'.

But 2 of the kids were wanting to go see him tonight.

So we went and I gotta say these pictures were so adorable.

She was tired and not about to let go of that thumb.

But Santa wanted a smile so he worked at getting her thumb out.

There you go!

It was a fun night and everyone crashed hard tonight.

Psalm 103:17

'But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children.'

Thankfulness

I completely stole this from here.

But it was so what's been on my heart...about why I want to be intentionally thankful.

About why I want to instill a spirit of gratitude in my children.

About why being thankful is important every single day not just in this season...

After I read it all I could think was...Amen.

And Thank you.

THANKFULNESS...

BONDS FAMILIES

STRENGTHENS FRIENDSHIPS

UNITES COMMUNITIES

THANKFULNESS IS THE...

DEFENSE AGAINST MATERIALISM

ENEMY OF ENTITLEMENT

CURE FOR SELF PITY

THANKFULNESS...

IS GIVEN BY THE SPIRIT

WAS MODELED BY THE SON

HONORS THE FATHER

THANKFULNESS...

IS BORN OUT OF HUMILITY

SUSTAINS FAITHFULNESS

IS A PRE-REQUISITE FOR JOY

LEADS TO GENEROSITY

THANKFULNESS IS...

A COMMAND FROM GOD

AN ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE

A CONDITION OF THE HEART

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD

FOR HE IS GOOD

HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER.

PSALM 107:1

Want to see what pure joy looks like?!

Here it is...

He's another one of my favorites.

Man, I love this kid!

Day 24 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Day 24:

I am thankful that I am surrounded by an amazing family both immediate and extended.

I would say that my family has always been close but after my dad died even the word 'family' took on new meaning. And we banded together. Not just my brothers and I but my cousins.

And it feels different than it used to.

And it means more to me than I will ever be able to express.

After the meal at my mom's today we took the kids and headed to the park for a game of kickball. The weather was fantastic!

There were tons of kids between all of my cousins. I tried to get pictures of everyone but I know I left a lot out and I didn't hardly any of the adults present.

But four of my favorite were these first four in no particular order!

My Avery

My Lauren

My Torrance...climbing on the bench all afternoon long.

My Contessa...girl...I cant even start.

And this one...can I just say...I love him more than breath itself?

He loves holidays. He loves traditions and he loves family.

Even mine.

My brother Jordan and Contessa are always quite the pair.

My niece Olivia. Stop. Just stop.

My nephew Joshua. I could try to explain the sweetness of his adorable voice but there are simply no words to describe it. Id do anything for him!

Some of the gang...Joshua, Joe, Micah, Olivia, Nick and Nate.

(Micha and Olivia both graduate this year!)

Nick, Jessica, Bethany, Micah, Lauren, Avery

Lauren and Jessica

Julia, Olivia, Avery

(someone please help me with my sunspot issue!)

I am so blessed.

And grateful beyond words.

Psalm 95:6-7a

'O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God...'

Day 23 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 23:

I'm thankful for holiday breaks with my kids.

We had a lot of fun running errands, playing and baking today.

And everyone got along!!!

They seem so sweet around the holidays don't they?! ;)

(And to keep it real, I'm sure I will be more than ready for them to head back to school on Monday...because likely by Friday the fighting will be driving me MAD!)

James 1:17

'Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.'

Day 22 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 22:

I'm thankful that my husband cleans out our sink drains.

Period.

And if you'd seen what came out of our sink tonight you would

fully understand why this deserves its own post.

Thank you, baby. You are my hero.

Psalm 51:7

'Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.'

Day 21 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 21:

I am thankful for little bitty girls in great big, big girl beds.

Sunday night Contessa finally got to sleep in her big girl bed!

The poor thing has been lopping off the end of her toddler bed for months.

She was sort of excited!

And extremely cute.

If I could bottle up her adorable 3 year oldness and sell it I'm pretty sure I'd make millions.

And possibly rule the world with the power of that bottle!

Sleep tight little one!

Exodus 33:14

'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'

Day 20 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 20:

I'm thankful for a weekend away with my ten year old!

A number of weeks ago I asked Lauren if she wanted a 'friend birthday party' or a weekend away with just Jordan and me. I was only partially surprised when she chose the weekend with us! I truly felt honored that she chose us! Jordan and I both kept telling each other all week how excited we were...we were totally as excited as she was!

I really wanted to make the most of our time knowing full well that a weekend with just her could literally never happen again. sad.

We had a blast.

Starting off at Bass Pro - shopping and then bowling and eating at the Fish Bowl!

We would never do that if all the kids were with us. It was totally fun and probably my favorite part of the weekend.

Next we headed to Jordan Creek for some shopping and crowd watching and then we checked into our hotel.

It was all seemed so laid back and easy with only 1 child who happened to be 10!

It was just so fun to say, 'Ok, Lauren what do you want to do next...' And she would just throw something out and we automatically would say 'yes!'

The best part about a 10 year old is that we had a blast getting ready together and helping each other with hair and trying out a little make up on her but at the same time she was literally running around the room, giggling and asking if it was time to head to the restaurant for supper.

She wanted to go somewhere 'fancy'.

We had a long wait because we neglected to remember a reservation.

But it was still fun and Lauren just continued eating up her time with us.

After supper we did a little swimming, played a game and ate junk food and watched part of a movie. Lauren even got to drink pop! A big deal for a Dirks kid!

Then due to a hotel snafu we all snuggled into a king sized bed together and slept until after 9 this morning.

This smile didn't leave her face.

She was so very grateful and happy every minute of our time together.

I don't think we will forget this trip anytime soon.

I love her.

And freezing Lauren at the age of 10 would be a perfect age!

Big thank you's to the grandmas for dividing and conquering with the younger 4!

Ecclesiastes 11:9a

'You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your

heart give you joy in the days of your youth.'

Day 19 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 19:

I'm thankful for adorable little girls in matchy-match outfits having playdates!

Melanie and I got Charlee and Torrance together for a little playtime.

We didnt realize the girls had talked and coordinated outfits.

I'm sure these two are going to have tons of fun growing up together.

At this time however there is a lot of Tori bullying - and biting Charlee.

So sorry Charlee!

(I didnt realize my camera was set to no flash...the girls were very active during our photo session and all the pics but this one were incredibly blurry! ugh)

Proverbs 17:17

'A friend loves at all times...'

Day 18 - 30 Days of Thankfulness

Day 18:

I am thankful for moments like the one in this photo...

Enough said.

1 John 4:21

'And this commandment we have from Him; whoever loves God must also love his brother.'