Welcome to Blessings Abundant

Hi ya'll! And welcome to Kentucky, well at least via cyberworld! I'm so glad that you've stopped by, especially those of you coming from the Ultimate Blog Party 2010, sponsored by 5 Minutes for Mom! And to my "regular" readers, I'm glad to see you too :P For those of you joining me for the first time my name is Kari and I am a SAHM in the beautiful state of Kentucky. My family and I have lived here for 20 years (we moved here when I was 8, so you can do the math and figure out how old I am! :) ) and I love living here! My husband, Steven and I got married in 2003 and have since had 3 amazingly beautiful and high energy children...

Brianna who is 5

Jonah who is 3 

and Micah who is 9 months old as of the writing of this post

I started this blog to help me count the many blessings that God gives me on a daily basis, hence the name Blessings Abundant. As I continued to write on it, this blog became my journal, helping me keep track of the special memories we were creating with our family.

I tend to write about a little bit of everything: religion (we are Catholic, but don't hold it against me! :p ), politics (I guess I can safely tell you that I'm a Republican, I did NOT vote for President Obama, but I DO pray for his guidance over this country every day!), homeschooling (we are finishing up our first year of homeschooling with our little Princess and have really loved it...even the rough days!), homemaking (I'm always learning new ways to keep my house in order and clean, which is sometimes a lost cause :) ), crafting (I got a Cruicut Expressions machine for Christmas and I am in LOVE!!!), my obsession for Twilight (Team EDWARD!!!!! Although I truly understand the weakness for this

and a little bit of anything else that I might want to write about! Whatever stricks my fancy, well, that's what you get that day!

I also like to participate in meme's like The Simple Woman's Daybook and Menu Plan Monday (although it's been FOREVER since I posted a menu plan!)  But even more than writing on my blog, I love to find new blogs that I never knew existed before! I find it so fun to learn from others and see how they run their families and their homes! It's inspiring to me to see so many awesome women (and men, although I don't read a lot of blogs written by men, no offense guys, I just haven't found very many that interest me!!) out there making a difference in their homes and their communities!

So, why should you continue to come back to read my blog? Well, aside from the adorable kids I showed you earlier (isn't that reason enough?) I'm interested in starting my own meme called Friday Family Fun to give families the opportunity to share what they are doing to build up their family relationships.We try to hold a weekly family night with our children. Sometimes we are learning important lessons (we've talked about reverence in church and obeying our parents) and sometimes we just have fun (like family game night and camping "out" in the living room.) It's not about what you're doing, just as long as you're trying to build those really important relationships and teaching the lessons that you value the most to your children. Who knows...what you're doing may inspire someone to do something similar with their family! So, if you're interested please leave a comment and let me know. And also leave a way for me to contact you so I can let you know when the first Mr. Linky goes up!

Well, I hope you enjoyed stopping by. I know it was rather wordy (but you might as well get used to that, as well as my obsessive use of exclamation points!!!!) I hope to see you back here as we continue to recognize how the Lord keeps abundantly blessing our lives! And now, a parting shot:

 Don't ya just want to squeeze those cheeks!?!?!

Ya'll come back now ya hear?!?!?! Bye for now!

You're still here? Great because I forgot one key point to this post...you see, when you participate in The Ultimate Blog Party you have the chance to win some fabulous prizes. Well, we're supposed to list the prizes we want the most in case we win (oh,oh, pick me! Pick me!!) So, if I were to win one of the prizes here are my top 3:

#1: Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum for a 3-5 year old provided by The Itty Bitty Bookworm (since I'll be starting preschool with Jonah next year and I LOVE this curriculum!!! It's awesome!)

#2: a custom made tutu from Sweet Patootie's for my precious Bri who LOVES ballet!

#3:Buds to Bloom Photo Tile Necklace provided by Lisa Laverty at Elemental Memories because I love to show off my kiddos!

And if all of these are already gone I also really like prize #11, 18, 27, 36, 39 and 40 (way cool!!!), 75, and 83 from the US list. As you can tell, I really like all the prizes so I'd really be happy with ANYTHING!!! (But I REALLY want that Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum!!!)

OK, that's all! You can leave now! What are you still doing here?!?! Get back to the party! Bye! (But come back soon!!!!)