- My family. I have been blessed with a great family, including amazing parents, and now I am so blessed to be a parent myself. I certainly wouldn't have imagined myself with three kids five years ago. I know modern medicine and adoption were tools that Heavenly Father used to make me a mom. November was Adoption Awareness Month so between that and Thanksgiving I have been thinking a ton about Seth and his birth parents. Obviously there aren't words that are adequate to thank someone for choosing you to parent the baby they loved and brought into this world, but I am so eternally grateful to Seth's birthparents and their choice to place Seth with us. I can't imagine our lives without him, and I just know he was meant to be a part of our family. I will never forget the raw emotion, heartache, and joy of the day we met with them and brought Seth home. Someday I hope to explain to him just how much he was loved by so many people right from the start. Today I got an email from someone who has no children and has been trying to adopt for three years. That would be so hard. I am so lucky.
Luke and Seth--Thanksgiving 2007
- Jer. He of course fits into the family category, but he deserves a bullet all to himself for being my best friend, the person I most want to spend time with, such a hard worker, and an incredibly supportive husband and dad.
- Where I live. I know I live in the greatest country on Earth, and my little corner of it (Cache Valley) is the best. Thanks to all those who make living in this free country possible.
- The gospel.
- My health.
I could go on and on but that's a good start.
Our Thanksgiving was spent with my family this year at a big dinner at my aunt's house. The food was so good, the kids played great, and it was a fun day. It was such a nice day that Jer and the boys spent the morning going on 4-wheeler and motorcycle rides. (My dad was nice enough to give Jer his old dirt moto, and we also "store" the newer one for him. Jer bought this four-wheeler from his dad a couple of years ago for "plowing purposes.") Luke likes going for a ride but Seth loves it. There's not much he would rather do. Just today we got a big snow and Seth was in seventh heaven riding around with Jer while he plowed the street and flipped some cookies along the way (the snowy day driving kind of cookies).
I got up ridiculously early on Black Friday and went shopping with my mom, aunt, and cousins. The earliness was made even a little crazier when Ian was up all night with an earache, but it was fun anyway. I don't particularly enjoy shopping, mornings, cold, or crowds but on this one occasion it is fun. We divided and conquered and everyone got what they were looking for. You know you started early when you're able to go to every store in town, eat out for breakfast, go home for your baby and back out to the doctor's office, pick up a prescription, and still be home by 11:30 am!
The whole weekend was great and having Jer home for four straight days was awesome. Saturday night we took the kids to Preston for the Festival of Lights. It included fireworks, candy, a light parade, Santa (a scary one in red sweat pants I might add), and a trip to Big J's with cousins so it was a hit.
Notice Luke is only wearing a sweatshirt while everyone else is bundled. He pitched a fit about taking his coat, so I decided to let the consequence teach the lesson. He was quite chilly, so I'm hoping we're done with that argument!
4 comments:
Awesome!! We are so blessed to live here in Cache Valley with good families! How nice to reflect on all the blessings!!
great post ... and because you started with seth, i couldn't get the tears out of my eyes to finish reading the rest, and just had to skim the pics. :) ah, we do have much to be grateful for ... :) thanks for sharing your list!
ps-and you are crazy, and so am i. stac and i did the friday shopping thing to. i've vowed to never NEVER do it again. :)
Okay, I am jealous that you guys are settled in Cache Valley, but glad that you get to enjoy life there. (One of our dreams/goals.) You and Jer and your three little men are such a neat family. Thanks for posting this!
So funny about the sweatshirt. I let Mark wear shorts to school when it was freezing once because of the same reason...maybe that will teach him. I feared the teachers would think I was an idiot and neglecting my child because when I substituted I used to see the kids not properly dressed and wonder what was the parent thinking. He came home, said he was just fine and that he would do it again. I later talked to his teacher and she said he was freezing all day and that he told her he wouldn't do that again. Yeah, he tried to man up and make me think otherwise. He hasn't asked again though.
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