Thanksgiving

In my opinion, today is the best holiday of all and is my favorite.  You sit around with family and friends and eat, and eat, and eat, all day!  What's not to love?  This holiday more importantly, gives us time to think and reflect on what we are thankful for.  I am thankful that the God I serve gave me a life with a fantastic husband, a wonderful family and a supportive group of friends, all of who I love dearly.  Sometimes this life is trying and full of struggles but it is important for us to actually be thankful in the mist of those trials.  I for one find this nearly impossible, and surely fail from time to time, but when I stop and start giving thanks, I become thankful for all sorts of things!  I hope you all had a wonderful day today!

  

Here are some pictures of our fest at my parents house.

 

My pies, 2 pecans an apple and a pumpkin

Table setup complete with paper plates.  I am so against this but I gotta be honest it was easy peasy clean up!

The goods

My brother and I

My mom loving on her son in law

Jesse's momma and his step-dad

My dad

Poor Jesse!

Us

19

Today is my brother's 19th birthday!  Happy Birthday Jared.  I can't believe this is my brother's last year of his teen years...wow!  Seems just like yesterday we were jumping on the trampoline, bike riding, and playing Donkey Kong 2 on Super Nintendo!  Now I'm married and most of my time consist of working, experimenting in the kitchen, taking care of the house, and spending time with my hubby.  He is in college, has tons of friends that take up his time and totally is enjoying his life.  Good for you Jared!  I hope you have a fantastic year!

I figured I would take the time to show some pics of his surprise party from last year.  My mom and I planned this one for months.  It was so much fun!

Love this face!  He had no idea!

Cake Table (see the framed invite, I designed that)

Wonderful cake (also made this, with a friend's help)

Love this pic

Us!

Far and Few...

My sister in law and nephew came in for a visit.  The time spent with them was nice and time sure does go by fast when you are having fun.  Dominick is getting so big.  He is a little person now, not just a baby!  When we saw him for the first time, he was about 2 months old.  He was so tiny and fragile and getting a smile out of him was nothing but work, but boy, oh boy when he smiled, it just melted your heart!  Here is a pic from that visit.

We then took a visit to Florida to visit them for the 4th of July holiday, he was 5 months old.  At this time he was more playful and sweet as can be.  I had the privilege of taking care of him during the night. As much as I missed my sleep, it was pure joy caring for him.  I'll never forget, a few times around 3 or 4ish AM, after his feeding and changing, he would become Mr. Smiley, Mr. Raspberry Blower, and Mr. Chatterbox ALL IN ONE!  That was funny!  Here is a picture from that trip.

This visit he was over 8 months old!  Little demanding person!  He knows what he wants and when he wants it.  He knows when it's time to unwind and when he is ready to watch his "shows" (Sesame Street) and he even has a certain place (the exersaucer) where he has to be, in order to.... to...you know, take care of business!  haha!

Amazing how babies grow so quickly.  Tomorrow he will be 9 months.  I can't believe it, his first birthday will literally be around the corner!  Wow!

Here are some pictures from this visit.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I look forward to it every year, but I gotta be honest, I'm looking forward to Christmas getting here and getting here quickly.  I can't wait to see this little man again!

Such a cutie!

Dommie and Mommie

We did a little trick or treating

Who are you?!  You don't look like my Uncle Jesse with that hat!  haha!

After, we went to a coffee house, he was some smiley!

Cheeeessse!

<3 them both!  :)