photos

to our water angel

December 23, 2011 By lissa 3 Comments

I tell him that someone anonymously donated $500 to his Clean Water for Christmas project during the night’s sleep. He falls to the floor in shock and disbelief.

smiles. tears. lots of hugs.

overwhelming feelings of gratitude and love.

That $500? Will bring 25 more people safe drinking water, but oh so much more. TWENTY-FIVE children will have a greater chance at life. They will have the opportunity to grow and learn and pass on love and generosity. It’s so much more than just money. It’s LIFE. That’s like the twins’ entire classroom of 3rd graders being given a brighter future.

The sky is a little bit more blue today.

The sun a little bit warmer.

Thank you, secret water angel. Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for every kind word shared, every dollar donated, and every ounce of encouragement to my little boy. Our hearts are growing bigger by the day, and there are no words that can express our gratitude.

Merry, MERRY Christmas.

{if you wish to give Clean Water for Christmas, go here}

Filed Under: charity, kids, my life, people, photos Tagged With: amazing, angel, Bridger, charity: water, doing good, gratitude, kids, water, wow

you capture {festive}

December 22, 2011 By lissa 8 Comments

I simply cannot believe that it’s December 22nd already! Just this morning, we loaded up the truck {and trailer!} and sent Justin, Kane, the dog, and two cats to work. The kids still in school, the other cat, and I will follow tomorrow or the next day. How we are all going to fit in our tiny little home-at-work is beyond me.

This is the warmest Christmas in North Dakota that I ever remember. There are only a few remnants of snow from a brief flurry we received a few weeks ago. North Dakota. Not a white Christmas. Pure Crazy!

{festive}

Our youngest little man is swearing off Christmas presents for the 2nd year in a row! Last year, he raised $5,622 for charity: water, and a clean water well is currently being built in Ethiopia! How awesome is that? This year, his goal is TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. Bridger currently stands at $1,317 raised for people desperately in need of water. Did you know that a child will die every 15 SECONDS due to a lack of safe water? If you want to help Bridger change that statistic, you can donate on his secure web page, just click on the photo below!

I saw this mitten garland on the Land of Nod website and fell in love. I swear, I turn instantly happy every time I see it!

Christmas balls:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

linking up to You Capture! Join us!

Filed Under: kids, my life, people, photos Tagged With: 2011, charity: water, Christmas, christmas card, decorations, festive, garland, kids, mittens, ornaments, photos, You Capture

it takes a village.

December 19, 2011 By lissa Leave a Comment

This boy.

This little, blue-eyed boy with a BIG heart.

He steals MY heart.

His wish this Christmas is not for an iPod, Pokemon, or Legos. The one item on his Christmas list?

WATER.

To raise $10,000 for clean, safe water for 500 people.

It takes a village, friends.

Can you help?

Will you help? Will you share his story on your blog, on Facebook, and through email? Or place a Pig with a Purpose at the center of your family gatherings this week?

Let’s harness the power of OUR VILLAGE to help another village thrive. We can do this, I know it.

Clean Water for Christmas.

Filed Under: charity, kids, people, photos Tagged With: BB, Bridger, charity, charity: water, clean water, clean water for christmas, donate, friends, photos, village

Anderson Snow Bowl 2011

December 17, 2011 By lissa 3 Comments

It was the perfect day for the first annual Anderson Snow Bowl 3-on-3 tournament!

Don’t be jealous of my cornstalk overalls. They’re pretty hot.

Averie, Bridger, and I versus Justin, Kane, and Ashton.

Bamboo vs. Outlaws.

It was fierce competition from the get-go.

Not really.

I think my teammates were more interested in eating snow than getting the football into the endzone.

The Outlaws prevailed.

Better watch out. We’ll get you next year.

water = life. clean water for Christmas.

Filed Under: kids, my life, people, photos Tagged With: anderson snow bowl 2011, bamboo, endzone, family, football, game, kids, outlaws, winners

instaFriday

December 16, 2011 By lissa 4 Comments

Happy Friday, friends! What’s new? Are you constantly running around trying to get things done and wishing there were more hours in the day, like I am?

Do people even READ my blog any more? I have noticed that when I don’t write a lot, the comments kind of taper off. Weird. Note to self: Write more blog posts. So, if you’re still around, say HEY! in the comments! What’s on your Christmas list? What are you doing for the holidays?

Here is my week, in iPhone photos:

Saturday morning, we were having our laid-back, lazy morning and I came across this post from one of my favorite ladies in the blogosphere. I cried. I read it to the twins, then might have cried just a little bit more.

The twins, looking at the photos in the post:

The twins and our “pig with a purpose”:

We got our hair done, my roots were getting dang skanky, and the twins were looking like they were born in the wrong decade:

We played with a box. A big box. There may or may not be a child in there during this photo.

Bridger has been busy singing his little heart out at 539 different concerts this week. We got to have our own special “lunch date” on a school day!

Do you like my outfit? Pajama pants? I channeled my inner-person-of-Walmart for that one. My shoes are pretty darn cute though. I have them in gray and brown.

Ashton’s campaign to raise money for clean water ended yesterday. His grand total for his 3 months of fundraising? $1,100.10. Pretty awesome, huh? Bridger is still actively collecting money for his CLEAN WATER FOR CHRISTMAS campaign. I swear, he was the easiest person to shop for this year! You can give back by clicking here to visit his page!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Filed Under: instaFriday, instagram, my life, photos Tagged With: busy, charity: water, choir, Christmas, haircuts, instafriday, instagram, my life

more than us

December 8, 2011 By lissa 3 Comments

Ignore the bedhead and the ~~momfail~~ sugary cereal… HE DID IT!

We woke up this morning to a notification that Ashton had reached his goal!

$1,040 raised to bring safe water to villages in Ethiopia!

The smile on his face and beaming eyes? Priceless.

Way to go, buddy! I am so proud of you!

Thank you to all of you that encourage and love on my boys!

Clean Water for Christmas.

Filed Under: charity, instagram, kids, my life, people, photos Tagged With: Ashton, boys, campaign, charity: water, ethiopia, making a difference, safe, thrilling drilling campaign, twins, villages, water

found while cleaning

November 17, 2011 By lissa 1 Comment

His Dad will be so proud.

After waiting all these years, he finally has a son that is interested in football.

Just not as much as Pokemon.

I can’t wait for the day my house is covered in footballs instead of these freakin’ cards.

Filed Under: instagram, kids, photos Tagged With: Ashton, football, instagram, kids, nfl, photos, pokemon, trading cards

it’s the little things.

November 15, 2011 By lissa 1 Comment

Filed Under: kids, my life, photos Tagged With: kids, love, texting

seven on sunday

November 13, 2011 By lissa Leave a Comment

*We are spending the long weekend with my husband at work. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s a little like a mini-vacation for me, albeit a white-trash mini-vacay. I don’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning or the 10 million things I should be doing. I get some work done here and there as I fight with the totally-inadequate internet connection, but we have a whole lot of this:

and that:

with a nap or two thrown in for kicks and giggles.

*Bridger and I worked on a blog for his ongoing charity campaign, as well as a FB page! Check them out!

*We also launched a new project he is working on to raise more money! Looking for Christmas ideas? Make a donation to BB’s charity: water campaign in your certain someone’s name! Bridger will hand-draw and send a Christmas (or holiday, or whatever) card for that person, informing them of your gift, as well as send you a personal, hand-made card! Who knows? They may be worth millions some day!

*My husband took the time to answer many of my questions on how drilling operations work and how they take many precautions to make sure that our water supply here isn’t in any danger of being contaminated by the whole process. Knowing how I need to see things to understand, he even drew me diagrams. How sweet is that? He even had a pot of coffee waiting for me when I woke up this morning!

*We had an early-November garage sale and donated all the money to the boys’ fundraisers. It was freezing-ass cold, but we got rid of a lot of clutter and made $300!

*Someone decided to play a little trick on me the other morning. These nasty grubs were waiting on my beloved aeropress when I went to make my morning brew. This was AFTER I had cleaned up a crap-tastrophe left for me from one of the lovely animals, so I already had the heebie jeebies. I screamed and demanded the twins come remove them. Being the manly men that they are, they refused to touch the critters. I poked them and discovered they were RUBBER. Funny.

*This little guy has had his first-ever choir performance. I just die every time he puts on his uniform. LOVE.

Ready to head to the performance:

Filed Under: instagram, kids, my life, photos Tagged With: Ashton, Bridger, campaigns, charity: water, choir, clean water for christmas, drilling, fracking, games and naps, kids, oil, rigs, thrilling drilling campaign, white trash

instaFriday

November 4, 2011 By lissa Leave a Comment

We had a pretty awesome week!

We packed, loaded up the coffin on top of the Ford, and set out on our Colorado adventure! We stopped along the way and grabbed my Dad, who was desperately in need of a break.

My husband is a die-hard Lions fan, so I had bought tickets for the Lions/Broncos game a few months back. He convinced Ashton to be a Lions fan, too, and the rest of us sported our Broncos gear!

The game was a blast! My husband might have claimed it was the best day ever… The Lions kicked some serious ass and after the game we and 70,000 other people tried to leave the stadium. Justin decided he and the boy would take a victory pedicab ride all the way back to our hotel. I made the pedal-er promise to take good care of my little one and off they went! My Dad, BB, Averie and I got in line behind, and I’m not exaggerating, 300 other people waiting for a cab. Five minutes later, the cop told us to go meet her down the block a little and she would help us out. We kept it on the down low, and snuck down the street. She inconspicuously wandered over to us and told us to back up a bit so the rest of the crowd couldn’t see us talking. The plan? She was going to talk to another cop and he would flag us a van-cab before it got to the mass of people. She talked to him, he gave us the nod, and two minutes later we were happily on our way back to the hotel. Seriously. We roll VIP like that.

We spent the next morning shopping the streets of downtown Denver. Bridger wore his costume, and the sign we had made. Totally heartwarming moment? A random {assumed homeless} man came up to me and gave me a handful of change for Bridger’s charity: water campaign. $2.47. How awesome and selfless is that?

We trick-or-treated in a random neighborhood in Cheyenne the next night, as we made our way back home. The kids made a total haul.

Now, it’s back to the grind. We are trying to pull off a garage sale before the snow hits tomorrow, and I have nothing done. We are giving everything away for donations, and every cent will go to the boys’ charity: water projects!