Thankful Thursday

I got the idea to write what you are thankful for every Thursday in the month of November from my sister Angie. But since this is Thanksgiving, and also the last Thursday I thought I would definitely take advantage of it today.

I am Thankful for...

1. I am so thankful to have the gospel in my life, and to know that I can be with my family forever!

2. I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who works so hard for our family, and shows us so much love.

3. I'm thankful for my sweet kids who love us so much that they tackle us with kisses every night at bedtime.

4. I'm thankful we didn't have any injury's today.

5. I'm thankful we were able to spend time with both of our families this Thanksgiving.

6. I'm Thankful for my Mom who cooked such s yummy dinner (and thankful I didn't have to cook).

7. I'm Thankful for having such a wonderful family (both mine and Dave's side).

8. I'm thankful for having great friends who are fun to talk to and to hang out with (even though the guys are usually out of control).

9. I'm thankful for quiet moments that I can use to read my vampire books without feeling guilty (and yes Love, I do love you more than Edward).

10. I'm thankful for my health and the health of my family.

11. I'm thankful for Thanksgiving break and the chance I get to sleep in just a little bit longer.

Full of Gratitude!

I found this video on another blog and it really touched me, so I had to share it. The parents on the video said that they made the decision to live in the moment and be happy for each day they had. They would be sad later. It really made me stop to think about my life and think about how I need to cherish every moment I have with my kids. Even though there are many days I feel frustrated as a mom, I realized how blessed I am to have each day that I do with them. I am so grateful for all the love and laughter each one of them bring into our home. I know I will never take that for granted again!

Fulfilling my Tag!

OK Kris, this one's for you!

So last month my sister Krista tagged me with a photo tag trying to get me started on my blog. The rules were to go to "My pictures" and click on the 7th folder and then select the 5th picture and tell about the picture you've found.

This picture brought back a lot of fun memories. First let me tell you the story behind it... Lauryn, Abby and Abby's friend Jaylee somehow thought it would be fun to jump off of the top of Jake's bunk bed onto pillows and blankets. (by the way, they were doing this while I was distracted with something). Anyway, Lauryn and Jaylee apparently had successful jumps, but Abby on the other hand is one of the clumsiest people on the planet, so when she jumped she missed the padding and landed on the hard floor. I heard a blood curdling scream so I went running in to find the scene of the accident. Now Abby is a verrrry dramatic little girl so her cry sounded the same as it would have if she had fallen down and got a tiny scrape on her knee (like she was being murdered). I knew it was serious though when the same scream lasted until I was able to get her into the doctor. So as you can see from the picture she ended up being in not only a cast but a wheelchair as well. She was in the wheelchair for a good 4 weeks...which she hated, and the cast for another 4 weeks after that, So needless to say we had some good times with that.

I'm beginning to think that Abby isn't the only clumsy one in the family, let's just count up the injury's...Abby broke her leg and when she was about 3 she was climbing on the couch and fell off the back of it onto the tile and fractured her elbow.

Jake thought it would be fun to surf down the stairs on a crib mattress. Well, the mattress ended up stopping and Jake flew over it and landed hard at the bottom of the landing breaking his arm (cool black cast though).

Just this past Monday Ava was walking down the stairs and tripped over her own two feet landing on her neck and shoulder. Well luckily Dave's brother Steve is and orthopedic PA, so when ever we have such injuries, (which seems to be constantly) we can get them checked out by their nice uncle. Ava ended up not breaking anything, thankfully, but she was really sore from the fall.

As I was carrying Ava back to the room, there were a few people watching us in the hallway, and Steve said "uh oh, someone call child protective services", which was funny, but if people didn't know us they just might think that we beat our kids. So anyway maybe one of these days our kids will learn to stop being monkeys and start being more cautious. So in the actual picture above we were at Steve and Ruthann's house and the kids were playing with their cousins Belle and Macie, or at least trying to play anyway. Thanks for the memories Kris!

Our New Bundle of Joy!

Well, I started setting up my blog about a month before I had baby Gavin, or as the kids like to call him "baby G", and now he is officially 2 months old. But I had it in my head that I would start out the new blog with our new baby so that's why this is what my first post is about.

Gavin was born on September 18th weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 10 oz. (ouch!..not really, that's the magic of the epideral) he was 22 inches long. He was by far the biggest baby in the nursery, and the nurses just couldn't get over how cute and healthy he looked. A couple of the nurses would joke that he was ready to go off to kindergarten... all of his dark hair does make him look older.

The kids absolutely love him to pieces, especially Ava, she still can't see to give him enough loves and kisses. I'm so glad that Dave talked me into having just one more, he is so precious and he just fits perfectly into our little family.

But like I said before he is now 2 months old and he is getting more and more fun by the day. He smiles and coo's and loves all the love and attention he can get...which is a lot with all of the siblings he has. Jake is so happy to finally have a baby brother, and can't wait until he can teach him how to play baseball and ride a skateboard. Welcome to the family Gavin, We lovc You!