This post goes with the previous one -- SO blessed! :) Thanks, my friend (Amy K), for coming over and MAKING me put up a regular Christmas tree this year. It looks beautiful and Kate is thrilled. Now... are you going to come help make take it down in a few weeks? And organize all those ornaments? ;) ... and drink some chocolate chai tea? Mmmm...

I am so RICHLY blessed to have sweet friends who love me and pray for me without judging... and encourage me along the way more than they even know. Misty gave me this last night... I think to say "your house will look this YUMMY someday!!" :D It brought tears to my eyes. (love you, Mist)

To ALL of my sweet friends -- "I thank my God upon EVERY remembrance of you..." I am so so blessed...

Isaac and Ben... awwww...

That water was COLD, man! :)

A story to go with the picture... (I just copied this from an email I sent to a friend during vacation...)

We went to the beach yesterday. Haaaaa ha ha ha! You should have seen it! It was hilarious. It was freezing cold but they still got in b/c, hey, it's the beach and we live in Ohio! :) We looked like such the tourists. But it was fun. But it was VERY windy (like sandstorm windy after a while) and like I said, freezing. And... the boys got a new Nerf football at WalMart and Todd thought it would be funny to make them run into the water to catch it... so he did that a couple times and then he went off to play with Ben so the boys were doing it amongst themselves. After a couple minutes, I looked over and Jesse's pretty far out there trying to swim after the football! There were moments where it was up to his neck and he was still trying to swim out further (and every wave pulled the ball further away from him). I freaked out and ran like a crazy woman down the beach screaming. It scared me to death!! So.... long story short.... goodbye brand new football. They were pretty sad. We watched the bright orange football being tossed around the waves and floating out to sea. It really was a sad sight. And Jesse was a little bit indignant that I didn't think he could go get it. I said, "Buddy, you're a little more important than that football!! It's just not worth it." So superdaddy Todd stopped by WalMart on the way back to the condo to buy another one. I told him it was his responsibility since he showed a poor example by throwing it into the ocean in the first place (though it sure was funny to see their faces as they ran into the cold water to get it). :)

Look who got a haircut!!! -- Cheeseball got a haircut! :) (long overdue)

... or this one (which is too bad b/c I love the background and the lighting - a beautiful setting)

Yeah... don't look for this in the 2008 Christmas cards

The FIRST day we got to Williamsburg, Ben woke up w/ a fever (shocking, I know). This beach trip was day 2 of our vacation and the poor guy is still running a fever. He's not so happy to be on the beach (his first trip to the ocean).

Ahh - vacation pictures! I'm going to take this nice and slow and not do too much at once (b/c I have a lot... well, a lot for ME anyway)...
We went to Williamsburg, VA for vacation and it was SO nice! We had to take a trip to Virginia Beach, of course... gotta go to the BEACH on vacation, right? Ha. Here we are before venturing out on to the beach. The sweatshirts are an indication... it was chilly! In the 50's and windy. Here's the best pic I got of all five kids. My goal was to get some good beach pictures for Christmas cards but you'll see how those turned out in a minute.

I can't NOT smile when I look at this picture... :)

I love this picture...

Kate loves Lucky Charms too (what kid doesn't?) -- but thankfully, she eats them a little more "normally."

... and as soon as he realized he was being photographed he turned into a cheeseball. "Deese!" That's my Ben!

Ahh - success! :)

This was Ben this morning - eating Lucky Charms... well, eating the CHARMS out of the Lucky Charms anyway. :) I had to get a picture of him fishing through the milk looking for the charms.

Cute pic of my boys playing soccer on the sidelines of one of Jesse's games

Hey, 13 candles makes a lot of smoke, man!

Look who's a TEENAGER!!!! :) Happy bday, Sam!
Enjoying cake after eating at his restaurant of choice - Olive Garden.

Isaac wanted to make Kate a cake to eat ON her birthday.
We went out to eat to the restaurant of her choice (Red Robin) and then came home and had cake and presents.

Proof that he climbed in there voluntarily (Kate actually caught this picture)

NOT a bad idea, Ben... NOT a bad idea......

This doesn't give the best idea of what it will be like in the end (esp. since those 2x6's will eventually be a wall covered in cabinets) but... I had to show a bit of my husband's awesomeness since he did such a good job on the future-family-room windows. And there's my little girl vacuuming sawdust. What a helper. :)