Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Isaac has hit that phase where every little thing that goes wrong, no matter how minor, warrants the Death Scream. He'll outgrow it soon, I'm sure; the others did it too. In the meantime, I have about three heart attacks a day, and inevitably, DON'T come when he's actually hurt.

On the other hand, Brenna has figured out how to make him laugh really quickly, and its such fun to see her step into that role on behalf of her pesky little brother.

In related news, last night, the kids were being SO LOUD in bed, what with the cackling, bouncing and merry-making, Brian made a sarcastic comment about it clearly being time for sleep. I responded, "yeah, but they really like each other."

"Yeah, I guess they do," he said, and we sat there for a bit and just enjoyed that idea.

Animals are people too, I guess.

"Benjamin, you have so many people who love you!" I told him.

"Yeah, you have me, you have Paisley, you have Brenna, you have the chickies...." says Nathan.

Thankful

This Thanksgiving, the blessing that stands out to me most is the gift of exceptional friends. While my friends have always been amazing, recently, I feel that we have turned our attentions to spurring one another on to holiness so much more than happiness.

Thank you, ladies. For helping me grow, for demanding it. For not being content to stay the people we are, but also for loving, unconditionally, the people we are. For turning my eyes to Him.

I am thankful for you.

Beards

Says Brenna:

There are two people in our family with beards now. But Paisley can't get rid of hers.

Fwends

Says Isaac: I wish daddy could be my age so we could be fwends.

On Time. Or Not.

This morning as we were leaving for church, I looked at the clock and said, "if we leave now we might actually be on time. What would we do with ourselves then?"

Brian responded, "act like a family with four kids that has their act together."

Never fear, we wouldn't want to look like we have our act together. Before we got on the road we had to turn a jacket around the correct direction, untangle a twisted seatbelt and buckle in an oversize teddy bear that we all understand (thank you, Nathan) is not really a person.

Keeping expectations high around here!