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. 

Pack's Pumpkin Patch

Last week, we headed out to the pumpking patch at Pack's Farm with my cousin and her kids. Jaxson LOVED the pumpkins! He was kicking his legs and had such a big smile on his face the entire time we were there. It was so fun to watch him get so excited...I wasn't sure how much fun he would have "picking" out a pumpkin.

This picture looks a bit distorted, but Jax loved posing by the pumpkins, simply because there were so many to touch and hit.

Aynsley apparently had fun at the pumpkin patch, too. She was so smily, which was a change from her normally serious demeanor. She has been smiling a lot more in general lately; she is seriously such a sweetheart.

Jaxson loves his pumpkin!

When we first brought our pumpkins home, I had them inside by the front door. Jaxson kept throwing his toys down the stairs, hoping someone would take him down and then he could play with them. He loves to hit his pumpkin and give it kisses. 

Fall Festivities

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year! I always look forward to the changing leaves, the smells, the food...everything! It worked out well for me this year that I had maternity leave during October, because it has given me quite a bit more time to take everything in!

When Mike was off for work, we went to Gardner Village to see the witches with my family. Here are a few pictures:



 Family photo...as you can see, Aynsley wasn't too excited to have her picture taken.



 Aynsley in her stroller. We took a ton of pictures of Jaxson when he was younger, so I keep saying that we need to make sure and get more pictures of Aynsley.

We went for a fall drive to see the leaves over Conference weekend. We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon, over Guardsman's Pass, and down into Heber. The kids did great in the car, especially since we were gone over Jaxson's nap. Aynsley slept the whole time, so we decided not to get her up for a picture.



We went to Gardner Village with some friends yesterday. I love this picture of Jaxson...seriously so cute! I can't get enough of this cute little guy.

Besides the festivities, we are doing good...just staying busy. Jaxson has started to walk, although it seems he sometimes still prefers to crawl since he is able to get around faster by crawling still. Aynsley is doing great! She only gets up once or twice at night, so I can't complain about that. I am just loving my time with these cute kids...October is going by too fast!

Life is Good!

Wow, I can't believe that it has already been more than three weeks since Aynsley joined our family. She is such a sweetheart, and we can't imagine life without her! Here is a quick update on how our cute kiddos are doing:

Jaxson is at such a fun age! He is SO smart and I swear you can just see him soaking up everything. His first real word was "hi" and it is so cute to hear him say it to people, especially when he sees his little sister. He is also getting much closer to walking. He is very confident in being able to walk around furniture and is getting a bit more confident in taking steps on his own, although he hasn't taken more than three or four on his own. I love spending the morning with Jaxson. He usually wakes up before Aynsley, so it is great to have one on one time with him. He loves to snuggle up with a blanket, his bottle, and watch 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse'. Jaxson is always on the move, so I love having this time to spend with him. He has also been very curious about having a new little sister; he is always trying to touch her and he always wants a bottle whenever he sees Aynsley eating. I can't believe that Jaxson is already almost eleven months old...seriously, where has the time gone? I swear he is becoming more and more like a toddler every day.

Aynsley is a doll. She loves to be held and is a pretty good sleeper. She will usually only get up once or twice at night, which is great. She is a very serious baby, but she is starting to smile a bit more and it has been fun to get to see her personality coming out more. I think that she looks a lot like Mike, except she has my long fingers and curly hair. So far her eyes are still blue, so we'll see if they end up darkening up. I never thought I would give birth to a blue-eyed, fair-skinned baby, but I can't imagine her being any other way!

Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to the zoo for my cousin's daughter's birthday party. Jaxson loves going to the zoo and seeing the animals. This time, his favorite were the monkeys and the porcupines. It was so much fun to have almost my entire family there with us, and I could tell that Jaxson enjoyed spending time with them. Of course, Aynsley wasn't too impressed by her trip, but I am sure that will change by next year. :)

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Little Miss Aynsley

Aynsley Marie Pearson joined our family on September 5 at 11:25 AM.

7 lbs 11oz

21" long