Only 89 more to go! To see my personal challenge to myself, check out my first blog post about it..

#11: Sleepovers. Haha, you probably think I mean sending my girls to a sleepover and having some time to ourselves…. well, that’s definitely something to be thankful for, too. But, not in this case, I’m talking about my girls having their friends over. I’m thankful that they have friends in their lives that care enough to spend extra time with them and I’m also thankful that I get to meet and interact with these friends. It’s a great way for Steve and I to get to know their influences and understand those that they are in relationship with. It also gives us the opportunity to share our home and our love with their friends. We really enjoy it…. well, the earplugs do help )

Last night was Heather’s first sleepover with her friend, Helen, from school. The girls all had a blast.

And, just so you understand the need for earplugs… here’s a short video I captured of the girls performing Karaoke – they did this for well over an hour…. click the link below to share in our joyful experience.

karaokegirls

Practicing thankfulness,

#10 and still counting – thankfulness is fun! To see my personal challenge to myself, check out my first blog post about it..

#10: Outfits my pre-teen daughters approve of… if you have pre-teens, especially girls – you’ll understand this one. It’s not often that you hit that homerun outfit that they love and want to borrow. Well, I succeeded tonight. So, for that I’m thankful. And, no Kristan & Heather, you can’t borrow it ) Well, maybe sometime….

Practicing thankfulness,

Up to #9 and still counting – thankfulness is fun! To see my personal challenge to myself, check out my first blog post about it..

#8: Rare treats. Seriously, I know you may not believe it from my last few food focused posts – but we really do eat healthy. However this morning, I decided to treat my girls and their friend, Aleksia, to a very, very rare treat – a donut from Dunkin Donuts. Ok, I confess I had a free coupon. I didn’t participate in the sugary fun, but I’m thankful for the enjoyment the girls found in their donuts. Oh, the simple pleasures.

#8: Random silliness. If you have children, you know that random silliness comes with the territory and is one of the pleasures of being a parent that brings consistent joy and laughter into your home. Here’s Kristan being randomly silly with a pair of scissors. Yes, I did teach them better. But what can I do? )

Practicing thankfulness,

And the thankfulness continues, …. to see my original personal challenge to myself, check out my first blog post about it..

#4: Great times with good friends – especially when those friends are people you work with everyday! My Marketing Team had a department picnic today – it was a lot of fun and a great time just to enjoy one another’s company. Here are the cast of characters:

Pete & Gladys Torres. Gladys is our Marketing Project Manager and Pete is our Marketing Web Producer (yes, they’re married)

Erik Rogers and his daughter, Kalani – Erik is our Communications Manger. Isn’t his daughter beautiful?

Cat Franklin our wonderful graphic designer – she makes our world pretty!!

Mike Robertson and Shannon Ketchum. Mike is one of our Video Editors and Shannon is the Marketing Assistant. (yes, they are both married, but not to one another )

Craig Obrist our Senior Video Editor (I think this was when we were playing Catch Phrase – Craig’s team lost to our team by the way – haha)

Mike Darling sitting with Erik. Mike is another of our Video Editors and our photographer (and he’s pretty good at April Fools too… got the ENTIRE church staff this past 4/1)

Steve & Pam Parish (that’s me!) Steve is the Director of Web Development (our resident web guru) and I am responsible for this crew of fun and wacky folks. (yes, Steve & I are married and the baby isn’t ours – she’s Craig & Unchong’s beautiful little Emma

Here’s a slideshow of pics from our picnic:

#5: Picnic Food!!! I eat pretty healthy most of the time, but when it comes to a good ole’ picnic – I just can’t resist the urge for burgers, dogs, potato salad, baked beans, chips and lots of wonderful yummies for desert! You gotta be thankful for that!

Chips!!! Lots of Chips!!

Ok, we did have fruit, too!!!

Cat’s yummy fruit pizza!

Gladys thought Cat’s fruit pizza was da’ bomb!

I must confess, this was my plate.

In honor of a full confession, this was my plate a few minutes later.

#6: Daddy/Daughter Love! I love it when I see one of our daughters crawl into their dad’s lap for a snuggle. I caught Heather getting some Daddy love this afternoon and I am very, very thankful for that!

Practicing thankfulness,

Yay! I love spontaneous thankfulness…. to see my personal challenge to myself, check out my first blog post about it..

#3: Displays of love! Today is my assistant’s 5th wedding anniversary and her hubby showed up with roses to surprise her. Look at the smile on her face! Priceless.

Practicing thankfulness,