Grateful for happiness...

This is a list of random things from the last several days that have made me feel very happy & grateful...

• Going out to eat, thrift shopping, & Starbucks with a sister and friend
• Seeing friends & family that have not been seen in a very long time
• Seeing a girl in Starbucks reading her Bible -there's just something so refreshing about this-
• Laughing a lot with family over various random things
• Fresh baked cinnamon rolls & tea ring to eat with coffee and sisters and mom
• Learning new pieces of music...some happy and but most sentimental :)
• The nice checkout lady at Walmart offering me a good coupon that was a saving of $1.75 :)
• Pinterest :)
• Music videos 
• My sisters black & white cheesecake bars
• Pulled pork sandwiches with stir-fry for supper :)
• Sewing new things
• Making fabric flowers
• Making and selling candles

Us... Having apple & cream cheese tea ring with coffee, 

and missing the sisters and sister-in-laws that couldn't be here....

So this is a very random list as you can see, but it helps to look for small things to be grateful for. And I like to write them down sometimes and see what all I can come up with! :)

What has made your days happy recently?

In which...

....I will post about December and Christmas...'cause I haven't posted since October 31 and this seems to be a good place to start....

Around the beginning of Dec. Dorcas, Rhoda & I went to Iowa for several days to surprise 2 of our cousins... It turned out to be a rather profitably fun couple of days including an amazing afternoon of thrift shopping and Caribou Coffee with an aunt and girl cousins! 

Here I play memory with Liz & Rebecca....they beat me every time. 

I'm not getting old. I just have a tired brain sometimes.

 Here we play dutch blitz....

Here is us girls.... even if we are blurry. :)

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 Wes & Sara came for Christmas and Jon & Mary were here as well...  We drew names among us girls and set a $5 limit. Rather small I know but we hunted our minds 'till we found creative things.... we made the gifts or bought them from thrift stores ( or on Black Friday ;)) and in the end we all got  with very useful presents! It was a lot of fun to see what could be come up with! ;)

 One of the kidders most favorite games is pegs in the park.  You can play it most any way you want when you are the one making the rules! ;)

Miss Mya ;) she rather liked to play with the little houses and people... ;)

 and the others play legos. :)

 Here we are in the middle of a "picnic"..... never mind that I look terribly tired... After all, we had just climbed to the top of a VERY steep mountain (with our babies) to reach this perfect spot for a picnic.  Sound like fun? It was! :) 

 Dad, Jon, Sara & Micah play the stock market game. 

 I am quite certain that I would not win if I ever attempt to play! 

 Kyler is so happy to get Scarloey for Christmas! 

He seems to like Thomas & his friends quite a lot... :)

  Aubrey gets a scarf! And it's pink! What can be better than that? :)

 Mr. snowman/cheesball. He looks rather fierce... I suppose he was....

 Stories with Uncle Jon. I love how Mya is looking at him on this picture...

 ...and again.

 And then we wash dishes. It's so fun to wash dishes with these helpers...

 Especially this one. :)

So there you have it. (some of it) 17 pictures and some words. A little more than 2 months since my last post & I must say I enjoyed updating! does that sound odd? I hope not.

  

Life has already changed since Christmas. Jon & Mary have moved away to Iowa and I already miss them. Dorcas will soon leave for 3 months and I will miss her. But like Pooh says - it's a good thing when you like people well enough to miss them and the other way around..... (something like that I think)   But know I need to go 'cause it's getting kinda late....Have a good day tomorrow! :)