Beautiful Desert Sunset

I was outside watering the other evening and couldn't help but notice the beautiful sunset! This is taken from our front porch....I love our mountain view.

Congratulations to Patrick!

I am so proud of Patrick...we found out today that not only did he get hired as a Riverside County Sheriff, but he also starts the academy in two weeks! We are so thankful this long process is finally over, but not quite prepared for him to be gone for six months in two weeks. Blake and Ryan are so proud of their daddy. Ryan is now saying he wants to be a police officer too!

Depth of Gratitude

I have had some challenges this year at school and sometimes it is easy to forget all of the wonderful things i have to be thankful for. I found this and thought I would share it with all of you...just as a reminder that we are all so very blessed. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Abundance and gratitude are inextricably linked. By living with gratitude, you open yourself to life's immense abundance.

If you are a little bit thankful for this, and a little thankful for that, just every so often, you'll have glimpses of abundance. When you enable and allow yourself to be continuously thankful for every big and little thing, your life will be immersed in abundance all the time.

It may seem strange to feel thankful for those events in your life that appear to be negative. Yet it is precisely by being thankful that you can identify the opportunities for transforming the setbacks and obstacles into successes.

You may not think it's worth the time and effort to be thankful for all the little, seemingly insignificant things in your life. However, without the little things there would be no big things.

Seek to develop a depth of gratitude by seizing every opportunity to be thankful. Make genuine gratitude a constant companion to who you are, in all that you do.

As your gratitude grows deeper and more all-encompassing, life's abundance shines more brilliantly for you. Be truly, constantly thankful, and there is no end to the level of abundance that you will experience.

-- Ralph Marston

Sweet Boy

Evan is growing by leaps and bounds. These last couple of days he has started clapping his hands, shaking his head yes and no (instead of just no), and is trying so desperately to talk! In his mind he is speaking in full sentences...to us it still sounds like babble.

My Baby's Growing Up

Evan was sitting with Patrick this morning on the couch and when I glanced over at him I realized my baby boy is not a baby anymore. I cannot believe how quickly this past year has gone.

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic lately seeing my boys changing so much. Everyday is something new with one of them. I have stepped into my mother's footsteps, because it is simple times like these that I find myself rushing to find the camera. I want to save all of these sweet moments in life just like she captured Amy and mine. We are truly blessed to have all of our memories documented in pictures and I want my boys to have the same.

A Day in Oak Glen

We spent Labor Day picking raspberries at Riley's Farm in Oak Glen. The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery. The boys had a lot of fun with their cousin Olivia who was visiting with Auntie Kathy and Uncle Mike. Ryan had an empty basket when we were finished because every raspberry he picked went straight into his mouth and Blake of course only picked the very best, most perfect raspberries. Me on the other hand could only think about all of the snakes that had to be hanging around. After raspberry picking we went to the cute little town and the kids got to go on a pony ride. We ended the day with ice cream and caramel apples...absolute perfection! The best part, the kids slept the entire way home.