Just feeling thankful

For every toothless smile
Every surprise hug from behind
Every silly face in a picture
I'm so thankful

For every long winded story
Every "hold you mommy"
Every sentence that makes no sense
I'm so thankful

For every day he comes home
Every conversation good or bad
Every hug and kiss
I'm so thankful

For every breathe He took on earth
Every sin forgiven
Every time He shows me grace
I'm so thankful

For every time he says, "I love you."
Every time they say, "I love you, Mama."
Every time He reminds me of His love
I'm so thankful

Today I'm feeling so thankful for all I have been blessed with. There are so many people going through hard times right now. In comparison, I've got nothing to complain about and everything to be thankful for. Thank you Lord for giving me such an amazing, loving, sweet family. I can 't get enough of them:) Thank you that we will be celebrating your birth in a few days. Without your birth and death on the cross, there would be no salvation. Without salvation there would be no hope. Thank you for giving us hope. Thank you that I don't have to rely on just doing good to get into heaven. At my best, I am nothing but filthy rags. Thank you for saving me.

Makin Stuff, Jumpin in Stuff, Pickin Stuff

For Thanksgiving the girls wanted to make turkeys so we brought out all the craft supplies and got into it. They did a great job. I love watching them be creative.

The leaves her at the Bowick household are numerous. We usually clean up the yard every other week during this time of year but we lose the battle every time. Within hours, our yard is full again. This year we decided to chill a bit and just do the yard a couple of times which the kids love. While Camryn was taking a nap one day, Taylor and I got out the rake and started making piles. She had a blast acting like a frog jumping from leafy lilypad to leafy lilypad. I had a blast watching her and remembering doing to the same thing as a kid.

Our lemon tree is a funny thing. Every other year it produces close to 100 lemons. Very cool to see and pick. Every other year it produces less than 10. We haven't figured this sourpuss out but we surely enjoy picking the lemons no matter how many it has. This year it had 3. I don't mean 13 or 30. I mean 3...total. So the girls picked one a piece and then joined together as a team to pick the third. Just enough to make a pitcher of lemonaide....if I had remembered before they rotted:)

Water Park In the Winter

Yep, we went to the water park in the winter. Jason and some of his buddies went fly fishing in Cherokee so us gals decided to take the kiddos the Dunes Village in Myrtle Beach. Packing for both cold weather and a warm indoor water park was almost like having the best of both worlds!! My college friend Joey brought her son Hampton and Taylor's bff Hannah. My other friend Amy brought her two boys Nathan and Camden. We put ourselves in the Penthouse suit. Yes, I said penthouse. 13 floors up in a three bedroom condo. All rooms had a plasma tv and a dvd player. My room just happened to have a jacuzzi tub!! The water park was a lot of fun. There were two separate ones. A younger side and an older side. Both had slides, pools and hot tubs. The younger one had a lazy river, pool tables, ping pong, Foosball, etc... Taylor and her friends couldn't get enough of it. Did you notice I didn't mention Camryn? Yep, she got enough of it after the first slide down. All it took was a face full of water and she was done. The slide was too scary, the pool was too cold and the hot tub...well, it was just too hot. I think it was the last hour of the last day when she finally played a little in the 1 foot deep pool. Just a little though. We wouldn't want to get water splashed on that poor delicate head. It actually made it easier to have her by my side. I had to keep a close eye on Taylor and Hannah. They can both swim but there were no lifeguards there so I didn't want to take any chances. The hotel was just icing on the cake for the girls. They LOVE staying in a hotel. I enjoyed having them sleep with me in my king size bed. It was awesome and I slept great! The only issue I had with all of this was the fact that you had to walk outside to get to the water park. It was like 40 something and super windy!! The walk there wasn't so bad but the run back was! Imagine being soaked from head to toe in your bathing suit and having to run across 2 parking lots to get to the elevator that took you 13 floors up only to let you out into a hall that is outside!!! It was more than freezing at night!! We finished up our vacation in MB at Brookegreen Gardens' Night of a thousand lights. It was pretty cool. The weather was great. Not too cold and no rain. The kids especially liked the children's area where all the lights were different colors. Taylor enjoyed seeing all the statues of horses. Thankfully it was too dark to see most of the naked statues. I have a feeling Camryn would have noticed. Sunday we went by Bass Pro Shop to do a little Christmas shopping and to let the kids meet Santa. Then we made one more stop to enjoy a little dessert before heading home. The ice cream was delish!! Jason made it home about an hour after we did and we all crashed that night. It was a fun, full weekend and I can wait for my next vacation. Amy has become my travel partner. I'm looking forward to a vacation with her without the children. What a treat that would be! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to death but....