Thankful.

Even though, as my sister reminded me, we shouldn't need a holiday to make us express our gratitude, Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays. I love that it is still a holiday that focuses on important values without being super commercialized...unless of course you count all of the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales :).

Anyway, I wanted to take a minute to write about all of the gratitude I feel in my heart. I feel like I have so much to be grateful for..my heart is bursting. We have been so richly blessed this past year, and I don't want to ever take those blessings for granted.

I am so thankful for my family. I am so fortunate to have Mike as my husband - he is such an amazing man, husband, and dad. He is considerate of my needs, keeps me on my toes, and does a great job caring for our family. He is so sweet to work all day, then come home and help me care for the kids...including getting up with them at night! Jaxson and Aynsley have brought so much joy to my life! I can't imagine them not being here. It took a lot of heartache and pain for them to come, but it was definitely worth the wait and I would experience it all over again just to have them. I absolutely love being their mom. They make me smile and laugh every day, and I am amazed at the things I learn from them. I also have an amazing network of extended family members who are fabulous - I was raised by amazing parents, am part of a great family, and have been fortunate enough to have that family grow when Mike and I married. I am thankful for my sweet sister, who watches my kids and loves them almost as much as I do.

I am thankful to good friends - so many of you have been with me during good and bad times. We have shared laughs and tears. I love knowing that I have friends that I can call on and will be there for me. We have had so many good memories, and I look forward to many more!

I am so grateful for the "material" things that I have in my life, meaning my home, cars, warm clothing, etc. I know that there are many people who have to go without, and sometimes I wonder what I did to be born into a life/situation where these things are so accessible to me. I don't mean to sound stuck-up; I just realize that these are things that I probably take for granted more often than I should, and there are many people who don't have that luxury.

I am thankful for my health and a healthy family. All things considered, I have a body that serves me well. I have a husband whose health allows him to work, be active, and spend time with our family. I have healthy children. We are blessed.

The last thing I want to express my gratitude for (but certainly not the last thing I am thankful for) is my Heavenly Father and church membership. There have been so many times when I have needed help, and He has always been there for me, patiently waiting. I love having the Church in my life and the help it gives me - where else can you find such a great network of unconditionally supportive people? I love the knowledge that I have that I have a forever family...just one of the many blessings I am so thankful for.

Going forward, I want to make more of an effort to acknowledge the blessings that I have and verbalize my gratitude for them. Thank you to my friends and family who have had such a great impact on my life. You are amazing!

Somebody Turned One...

Wow, I can't believe that my sweet boy is already a year old! He is getting so grown up...time just goes by so fast. He is running all over the house, super curious, and seems to be chatting up a storm. He is such a sweet and considerate little boy...always trying to help his little sister.

Before his birthday, I took Jaxson down to Fotofly for some pictures. They turned out so cute, even with Jax not wanting to leave my side. Here are a few of my favorites:

This picture totally describes Jaxson and Aynsley's relationship. He just LOVES  her and is always trying to give her loves and kisses. Sometimes she gets a bit overwhelmed.

I decided to give Jaxson a Mickey Mouse birthday party since he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so much. We had a lot of fun celebrating with our family, and Jaxson definitely got spoiled.

As you can tell, Jaxson loves eating his cake. He was a little careful at first and kept dipping his fingers into the frosting, but eventually started digging in. It was fun to watch him get so excited over it...I think he was in a little disbelief that he actually had an entire chocolate cake all to himself.

Thanks so much to my sweet boy for such a wonderful year...I look forward to the next year!

Happy Halloween!

Happy (belated) Halloween! Halloween was so much fun this year with two little ones, even if neither one had any clue what was going on.

This was the first year in a long time that we had carved pumpkins, we each carved one, and then the two small ones were for Jaxson and Aynsley. Maybe this sounds a little crazy, but I was really looking forward to being home for Halloween and having trick-or-treaters. It is just something that I really enjoy. Mike also "helped" Jaxson trick-or-treat at our house, which was pretty cute. He was excited to get his piece of candy!

One of my sisters-in-law had a baby about a month after Aynsely was born, and while we were at a family party, she had the idea to hollow out a pumpkin to put her baby in for a 'baby's first Halloween' picture. I decided to try it with Aynsley, and as you can tell, she was NOT a fan.

Our little family dressed up...

My mom and dad hosted a Halloween party at their house this year. When we were discussing our potential costumes, Mike had the idea for us (meaning my sister Beth and me) to go as Kardashians. We decided that was a great idea, but told him he would have to dress up as well. It ended up being a pretty fun costume idea, and we were able to get our other sister and her boyfriend to go along as well.

Meet the Kardashians:

Kris, Kim, Kourtney, Scott, Khloe, and Lamar

This Halloween was definitely so much fun - we were fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time enjoying some good food and even better company. I am already looking forward to next year's Halloween, because by then Jaxson will be able to participate a bit more and will be more excited to get dressed up and trick-or-treat.