Much Thanks!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, and as always, I feel SOOOO thankful today! We spent T-day eve with our family for our nephew Jake's birthday. We had a lot of fun celebrating with our buddy who is NINE years old -- hard to believe! What a wonderful big brother and cousin he is! Kaiya loves Jake and he is always so sweet and kind back to her. Good thing she will have this tough and sensitive guy to watch out for her! Happy Birthday, Jakey!

And today we spent the day with Chris' family at his parents house and had a FABULOUS time! The food was so delish and we had a really great time catching up with everyone! Of course we all ate WAY too much, but that's part of the fun of the day, right?! We missed everyone who wasn't able to make it and are always so grateful for Chris' parents' hospitality! What a wonderful day! And of course, I can't let this day go by without expressing gratitude for ALL that I have. I mean, seriously, I just don't deserve the myriad of blessings that I have. My heart is so full and if ever I am having a hard time, I only have to start thinking of everything that I have in my life, and I just have nothing to complain about! I decided to start a new tradition this year to make sure that I took more of an opportunity to think of my blessings, not just on this one particular day. So, I started a "Gratitude Jar" and wrote down things all throughout the month that I noticed and felt grateful for. Of course, it was not hard at all to fill that thing right up and it really helped me to be more aware of my blessings! I gave the jar to my family tonight, since most everything that was written in there was about them! A few things I wrote down:

The way Taylor smiles at herself in the mirror.
Kaiya's sweet, high voice saying, "Ohhhh pretty!" every time she sees Christmas lights.
Chris' extreme patience -- and he needs a lot of it with me!
Taylor's wet, slobbery open-mouth kisses.
Reaching back to hold Kaiya's hand in the car.
Chris' charity and kindness in serving his family.
Good parents who inspire me to be a good parent.

I have so much and I am soooo grateful. It is humbling and motivates me to be more aware of all that I have.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!