I am thankful for...

I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite Holiday. I will post more pics later but I just wanted to pause to express my gratitude for the many, many things that I am thankful for. There are too many to list but definitely the top ten things are...
1. My Heavenly Father
2. My Awesome Man and eternal friend
3. My Beautiful Children
4. Our Families/Heritage
5. My Friends
6. My Freedom/Country
7. My experience and opportunities
8. My Health
9. The Beauties of nature
10. And most of all my Testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ,which brings endless, happiness, joy and peace into my life.

Happy, Happy Birthday Rach

Rachel turned six on Nov. 19th and was so exited to have birthday. The morning of her birthday she woke up and came right into my room and said "Mom, where is my special dress? I must be all ready for when my guests come my party!" Just the way she said it made me giggle and think how much she really is growing up. Rachel is a sweet little girl who loves animals of any kind. She is a total girl and yet there is a tomboy side of her who loves to get dirty, pick up bugs and run wild and free. She is also have a very tenderheart and is the peacemaker of the family. We love our little Rachel and are so thankful she is in our home. Happy Birthday Rachel!!

Fun Princess Night Out

The girls and I went to the Princess Disney On Ice Show while the boys stayed home for some father/son bonding time! We had a great girls night out. One the way to the show we truly had a princess moment when one Rachel's princess shoes broke in half and she had the climb the stairs with only one shoe on and stated "Look Mom I really am Cinderella!" The show was wonderful and the girls ask everyday if they can go back to the princess show. My sister Kathy and her little girl went also and it was fun to meet up after the show and go to dinner. What a great night it was to spend time with my sweet daughters. I love having two little girls that I can dress up and hang out with. They are my little princesses!!!

Under Construction

Yes we are moving………a block away!!!!! On November 9th we started construction on a new home just a block west of where we live now. We have way out grown our home and have needed additional space for our growing family. To keep a long, long, long story short we have been blessed with the opportunity buy a beautiful piece of property and begin building a home. The kids are very excited and yet confused about what is really going on. Someone asked Ella if she was excited to be getting a new house and she said “Yeah we are going to live in a dirt pile”. Hopefully by the time we are done there will be a house she can play in too.

First Haircut for Ethan

I finally broke down and got Ethan's haircut. I had put it off for as long as I could cause once he got a haircut he was really going to grow up and not be my baby anymore, and I was right. His new little haircut really made him look like a BIG, BIG boy. HE didn't really enjoy the whole experience too much but grandma did a great job working around his little freak outs.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This year the girls were princess fairies and Ethan was Buzz Light Year. Halloween is so much fun with little kids. After filling our bags with candy we head back to our place and had a Halloween party with our friends. The kids all had a great time together playing games and watching movies.

Daddy's Speical Day

Happy Birthday to the best Dad and Husband Ever!!! We appreciate all your hard work to provide for us and most of all the way you love and care for us. For his birthday we gave him a ticket to attend Monday night football in Denver, Colorado to watch his favorite team The STEELERS. The Steelers have been his favorite team since he was a boy, so this well deserved gift was greatly appreciated. Happy Birthday Honey!! We love you!!!

In Memory of Sweet Ashleigh

The past month has brought about a whirl wind of emotions that I don’t even know where to begin. The week before school began we received word that our friend and neighbor Ashleigh Farnsworth had abruptly been admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Over the course of a few weeks things kept progressively getting worse and we all fasted, prayed and hung onto hope. On September 28th 2009 our sweet Ashleigh Marie Farnsworth returned back to her Heavenly Father. In her short 28 years on this earth she accomplished and did more than most do in a lifetime. She was a devoted wife and mother of four beautiful children, Sarah 6, Alex and Lucas 3 and Aubrey 2. I will be forever grateful for the life lessons she taught me during this trial of cancer. Ken and I had the special privilege of visiting her in the hospital during the last few weeks and days of her life. What a blessing it was to be with her and meet her amazing family which felt like we have known for ever. Ashleigh, we miss you dearly and can’t wait to see once again. Till then we will be there for Jeff and your sweet children. The knowledge and testimony of the everlasting gospel is priceless especially during times like these. May we all continue to press forward in faith, faith in Jesus Christ, it is through Him all things will be made whole again. Ashleigh did all that she was asked to do by God and truly returned home with honor. We love you Ash.

BIG TWO

Ethan is our big two year old with lots of personally and love. He was so much fun on his birthday. Ken and I had been gone a lot with everything surrounding our friend Ashleigh that it was nice to spend the day with him as a family and watch the excitement on his face as he opened his birthday present and blew the candles out on his cake. Ethan is a wonderful little boy and is a complete joy to have in our home. How grateful we are to have little E.E. around. We love you son!!!

At last... Ella's first day of DANCE

Ella has waited two long years watching her older sister attend dance class and now it was her turn. Her face lit up like Christmas as I put on her new dance clothes and ballet shoes. “Now I am going to be like Rachel” she said. Rachel was excited about that too. Now the Albrechtsen family has two dancing princesses.

Rachel's First Day of Kindergarten

Where has the last five years gone? I can’t believe our sweet Rachel is on her way to Kindergarten. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going get all teary eyed about her going to school because she was so happy to start going to the big kid school but that didn’t happen. I couldn’t hold back the tears when I saw her walking up the hill all grown up on her way to school. I wasn’t the only one sad that she was going to school, Ella and Ethan didn’t like that their big sister wasn’t going to be around to play with, but thankfully Kindergarten is only a few hours a day. Rachel loves school and her teacher Mrs. Jones is amazing. She is learning so much and well on her way to being a good little reader.

Gardening, Canning & Gardening, Canning

In my spare time (what spare time) I can This year I canned green beans, corn, salsa, peaches, pears and freezer jam. After my seventh batch of salsa I called it good for the year. Good food and eating healthy takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears literally. This pic shows a few of the many, many jars I canned. I lost an exact count but I canned over 250 pints of various fruits and veggies, half of the number of pints were salsa!!! YUM!!!

Getting SO BIG

Ethan really has grown up into a little boy lately and along with that comes more cuts, bruises and injuries. In one weeks time Ethan hit his head really hard three times. One of which he split his head open and could of used a couple of stitches if it weren’t for our friend and neighbor nurse Len. With one phone call she came over and brought medical superglue and helped us close up his wound. Thanks Len for helping easing the pains of growing up.