its beginning to look alot like Christmas....

daisy was IN LOVE with this Christmas candle. seriously for about 20 minutes she walked from each one of us- asking us to smell it. i have no clue why... she just loved it.



full filling her duty as oldest - to put the angel on top of the tree!



hot chocolate and marshmellows



#25 i am thankful for my sweet little family - our girls and my husband- so much more than i ever hoped for.

#26 last night decorating for Christmas - Sally actually did all of the ornaments on the lower part of the tree.... daisy's candle addiction... gow's GREAT Christmas cheer.... sipping on hot chocolate, eating mini marshmellows with Christmas music and the soft glow of lights....tons of my dreams came true last night.

#27 i am thankful that even though there is not much work for gow, even though we don't have extra $$.... we still have all we need. we are truly blessed.

#28 i am thankful for fleece and slippers. it's 28 degrees out today...... brrrrr

#29 i am thankful for the girls' naptime. nearly 2 hours each day of quiet calm.

#30 i am thankful for the internet that enables me to connect with ya'll in so many different parts of the world. (when my folks were first missionaries in AK - my mom would write a letter to her mom saying one of us kids were sick. 6 weeks later she would get a reply from my grandma encouraging her to hang in there and to try this or that with us... of course we were totally healthy by then.)

fall pix on a winter day.

we snuck in a few Nov picnics on our back porch with the sweet warm weather


dk wearing my Rim letter jacket that has now found it's home in the dress up box.



yes, i failed at getting a "girls in the leaves" pix. =) next year...


SJ running "the race track" in our house with Gow's superman outfit from his childhood.



#21 i am thankful for Dawny, CT, KT and Cheater (aka my cousin Steven!) =) It has been a blast to have my MN cousins come into town. They arrived Sunday evening and will hit the road here in a few hours to avoid ice storms.... So fun to have them just join us in our lives here... to play games, hang out and chat and to eat ice cream together. =) i am thankful for such a loving and FUN family.

#22 thankful that Gow has had some work. thankful that God is faithful to provide and knows our every needs. thankful to REST in His promises. and so thankful that He knows so much more than we do.

#23 thankful for a holiday to have my siso come from IA and to have my sibs and fams and my folks and auntie together

#24 thankful for my fantastic husband, i think i love him more each day.

purple meets pink = pinkple

the colors of this pix captures the essence of our girls....
pink and pink. EVERYTHING.

sally asked buela for purple panties for Christmas.
we occasionally have tears in the morning if there are no more clean purple clothes for her to wear. =)

then daisy - i have mostly pinks for her to wear because even in pink and with earrings, i am still asked if she is a boy at times.

oh my blessed bald baby girls. =)

so a month or so ago, i snapped this pix and was amazed at the colors that kris, sares and sally were wearing. pinkple. =)

had a super fun time last night with our YG. we played mafia as a goodbye to one of our middle schoolers..... good times. and the evening started off with a full game of dodgeball in our basement.... it is clean and perfect for lots of running around in! we are loving it!

today will be house stuff, swinging by the store, popping in on a middle schooler's bball game (anna holte), art show and then coffee shop tonight.

and maybe neal, cyndie and kiddos will have a sleep over.....

a fun day in the mix!

and my #20 - thankful for a "nothing" morning. =)

on the boat

it's cold.
i am thinking that old man winter is here to stay.

so to say goodbye to fall... summer... and just warmer days in general, here are some photos of our last time to be on the lake in 2010. Ode to Neal and Cyndie's boat and their big time generosity of bringing us out with them.








i love this shot. we are out to watch the end of Cyndie's race. yup, Cyndie is nautical! she is on a sailboat race team! so we went out to cheer her on and see the conclusion of the race. then, she literally jumped from her sailboat onto our boat!







tim's cheering for his mama here.







playing on the playground while the boat is bouyed.

#19 - today i am thankful that gow has work! he is in Milwaukee as we speak.
looks like he will have another day of work with About Face (his main client) on Monday and then will also be picking up two more projects from the Boettcher Company (the other client he has had some work from in the past) to bring home on Monday.

so PRAISE the LORD there is bacon to be brought home! Thank you God for providing!!!!!

basket o fun

#18 today i am thankful for hope.
can you imagine life without hope?

i have had times when hope has soo disappointed. where it has broken my heart or smashed my dreams.

today i am simply thankful for hope.

garage is ready!

just have to share the great news that the garage is ready for snow! =)

in other huge gowanito home news... we actually hung something on the wall! yup, gow and i have been debating about the location of a clock in our living room for 4 days.
gow won. =) and i must admit it looks great. =)

and- we are down to just a two boxes in the basement to take care of. yes folks, we are settling in!

also- ALL closet doors and shelves are up! woot woot! we are really looking great!
thanks to gow and dad's work these past weeks.

yes, on that note, gow is finishing his third week of no work. please be praying.
he has stuff in the pipeline- but the pipeline is not bringing in the $$.

we are trusting Him - and working diligently on the house as we wait.

on the kiddo front-

gow and i turned around yesterday to find daisy kate standing on top of the kitchen table. crazy lil monkey!
and when happy- you can often hear daisy making piggy noises to herself. =)
i watched her play "tea party" tonight by herself for about 20 minutes.... she is just growing up so fast.
she is also SUCH a reader. seems like every hour or so i find her sitting down somewhere with a good book. she is happy reading alone, happy reading on your lap, happy reading by my feet while i do dishes, in the car while we drive...

sally-cita is a total crack up with the things she says. she's a smarty - and so often adds the greatest facial expressions to emphasize her points. this morning at 7:30, after listening to her and daisy giggling from their beds, she says "mom- it's a sunny day!" =)
she is really into her independence right now- asking to do things by herself.
yesterday she took off her clothes and put on her own pull up and jammies, today she went potty by herself at her cousin caspari's house. and she even told daddy that she was going to be the one driving a few days ago. =)

#16 thankful that we get to/have to/need to sleep each night. i am glad our bodies NEED it- cuz it just feels so good.

#17 thankful for family both far and near that i absolutely love spending time with. we are truly blessed.

daisy... MA! "BOP" (UP)

daisy, sweet daisy kate, is in the mommystage. oh bless her lil heart. this is a pix of what i see about a bazillion times a day. if i am doing anything in the kitchen she is hugging my legs saying "bop, bop, BOP!" (up, up, UP!)
so i am doing alot of things with her on my hip, or i just surrender and go sit down. and when i sit down, she happily goes about her own business playing.

and a fun thing - whenever i walk around a corner and see her she says MA! MA! MA! =)

#15- i am thankful for coffee creamer. we currently have aldi brand Hazelnut $1.99 a bottle.
and it is good. i am going to go make some coffee right now....

tons o fun with our fam in cali!

okay- was gonna do a MEGA post with pix from our trip to Cali to be with the Hillis' and Gowanitos... but just can't get enough time to do ALL the pix. and more and more time keeps slipping by...

so here is round one...

sally PUMPED for the trip! wearing her "packkack"

on the plane - this is what we hoped for... dk to SLEEP. as sj loves watching movies... dk was at that "i have to be moving all the time" stage.

we spent an afternoon at Gow's Aunt Betty's ..... and got to play with all of Gow's cousins' kiddos. this is Terran on the sweet play set in the back yard.

Kat and Tay on the swing

Sally riding a pony with Macy

Gow and his fab tricks - with daisy and saddie

Sally and Daisy loved being able to play with more cousins!

Macy and Daisy

Buela living it up with aunt joanie's convertable cooper

we were soakin it up!

this was at "old grandma and old grandpa's" house

hanging out with buela at old grandma's and old grandpa's

Daisy in old grandpa's chair

hanging out with old grandpa on the front porch

taking a walk with buelo and old grandpa

looking at a grape tree with old grandma

just going for a ride

tay! so stinkin sweet! and i can not believe how much she has grown and changed already since august! you should see what she's doing now!

love this pix with auntie katy

gow and tay

the gang - hanging out at old grandpa and old grandma's

old grandma giving dk some cuddling (magarita, this pix reminds me of you holding daisy kate RIGHT after she got her ears pierced!)

check out the bandaid on daisy's chin... she biffed on a coffee table, poor baby.

now onto the hillis anniversary celebration! we all surprised them! (i have pix of the surprise... to come to you soon!) =)



brandon chilling with daisy

tania and ezra-- love this pix... he is soooo snuggled in there safe and sound with his mamita!

the wedding anniversary cake- this was sooo super sweet to watch as they cut the cake together.

that is the same cake topper that they used on their wedding cake!


gow with ezra

Tirza playing with Daisy Kate



Great Grandpa Hillis leading the gang in a song that he wrote... a silly song about how his kids snuck around, and even LIED (gasp gasp!) to make this surprise happen. =)

singing from the soul...

uncle cookie and auntie nancy with the littles ladies

great grandma feeding dk

ha- this cracked me up.... daisy is wearing uncle paul's moto helmet

buela and sally playing at the lake

daisy and buelo at the beach

mud pie for you buela!

auntie joan! the amazin woman that did SOO much to make this weekend surprise get together possible! you are one in a million auntie joan!

sooo sweet! buela swinging with daisy.

and that is peek #1 into our august gowan/hillis vacation. =)

and now the #12, #13 and #14 things i am thankful for...

#12 - we are continuing to make progress on our home. it just keeps getting better and better.
we now have all closet systems up. woot woot! which means no more boxes, no more tubbies or storage stuff just piled up. ALMOST everything has a home. i love it!
this morning we put up a mirror in the girls room for them to "dress up" with and dance in front of and we also put a full length up in our room. we also organized a few cupboards in the kitch... small, but wonderful steps. =)

#13 - youth group. we are all really having a fun time with the yg. last night we had a Parents Night Out night where we did free childcare for 2 1/2 hours. The students are great, the adults helping out are great... we are just really enjoying it. this morning sally asked if the youth group could come over to play. =)

#14 - a slow sunday morning. sally made a tent for her dollies in the living room and then helped daddy (whom she has just began calling "uncle gow") put up the mirrors. daisy read a bunch of books, dumped out all of our videos - a tubby of washclothes and 2 boxes of toys. =) and gow and i enjoyed a slow morning of coffee, zucinni chocolate chip bread and house stuff.

and there you have it folks.

ta ta!