November-Give Thanks

For the month of November, several people on facebook put the things they are grateful for everyday leading up to Thanksgiving. I thought it was a good idea and decided just to put my list on here to refer back to when there are times I feel the world is against me and life just seems "unfair". I really have so much to be thankful for and here are just a few.

25. Opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and attend the baptism of my brother-in-law and to celebrate my daughter's 1st birthday!
24. Miracles
23. Pizza (I could seriously eat this with every meal)
22. Good examples of others
21. Ability to read (and those who helped me--teachers, family, etc.)
20. Kindness from others
19. Chocolate
18. Humor of my husband
17. Laughter from my children
16. Smiles
15. Trials
14. Forgiveness
13. Conversation
12. My education
11. Homemade blankets
10. My testimony
9. The ATONEMENT
8. My church family(s), Mville, Muncie, Indy 3rd, Avon, White River, Hebron
7. My MOM (more than she may realize)
6. My family
5. My daughter, Em
4. My son, E
3. My daughter, C
2. My Husband
1. JESUS CHRIST and HEAVENLY FATHER

This month has seemed both fast and slow. Slow because I have been excited for the upcoming holiday, but once it came it seem the remainder of the month flew by too fast. C had her first invite for a playdate from someone at school. The kids and I joined her at her friend's house (L). L has a couple brothers, one close to E's age and they hit it off too. The Mom and I had a great time conversing while the kids played. Hopefully we will be able to get together for more playdates. Also, S had an extra day for Thanksgiving break, so we all ventured to C's school to have lunch with her. She was sooooo excited.

Em is getting more teeth. She has 4 with another growing in at the top. One week she woke up one or two times at night, but she is better now. She also celebrated her 1st birthday. Really, can you believe it? I sure can't. I still remember how excited I was that she came at Thanksigiving instead of waiting until Christmas. She has been a great addition to our little family.

For Thanksgiving we ventured down to my sister's house on Friday. (Thursday-I did some Christmas shopping and yes, I did spend an hour in the freezing cold outside Toys R Us and then another 45 minutes inside, for a gift. It was fun. Just wish I had a buddy with me. :) My grandparents were driving in from Oklahoma, my parents and some friends of the family all came. The men fried the turkey and we had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. My fave the stuffing. Then on Saturday, my brother-in-law was baptized. It is so wonderful how it has all happened. We all went out to Cheddars for dinner. They prepared three booths for us and S and I ended up sitting in a booth by ourselves, so we pretended like we were on a break. Following, the men and women separated. Women did some more holiday shopping. Sunday, we attended the first hour of my sister's ward and S did my brother-in-law's confirmation. We packed up our things and the kids and headed back for the 4 1/2 hour journey (which ended up being 6, with holiday traffic and backups).

Earlier in the month we took a mini vacation to my mother-in-laws. S's oldest niece and two kids (a month younger than my two oldest) was in Chicago (because her husband has been working there for a few weeks) and decided to come down to our place and then we loaded up the van and headed down. I took C out of school for three days. We kept very busy. We went to the zoo and the children's museum (both were not busy at all and it was a perfect time to go). We saw our first snow for the season--beautiful white fluffy flakes. When we came home from the zoo, there was no power on at the house. It ended up being off for 3 hours while we were home. Dinner was prepared by the fire and we ate it by candlelight.