November's Ten Things

November was busy and wonderful.  And, not surprising, a blur!  Here are November's Ten Things to Smile About!

1.  I have Oliver in my life!

 2.  Celebrating his first birthday.

 3.  Hugs from my children.  All of them!  Cooper gives really good squeezy hugs.

 4.  Our family of grati-turkeys.  I'm happy when I see what my kids are grateful for.

 5.  My sister's pumpkin party.  I love pumpkin everything!!!

 6.  I FINALLY finished Cooper and Oliver's stockings.  Having all of them done makes me SO HAPPY!

 7.  Had a fun girls night out with my cousin and sister.

 8.  My daughter's long and pretty hair.

 9.  Celebrating my 12th anniversary.  (I have the best husband)

 10.  Spending Thanksgiving week with my family!

Thanksgiving Week

My brother and his family flew to Utah for Thanksgiving this year.  It was the first time we have been all together since Oliver was born.  I loved every minute of it.  It was such a great week.  The time flew by too quickly though.  But it definitely was a week where I felt grateful for so many things.

Cooper was so thrilled to have Ryder to play with.  He kept saying, "Ryder is my friend.  He is my favorite friend.  Will you ask him to play with me mom?"  It was SO sweet.  In this picture, they are doing sneaky cousin secret adventures.  Shhhhh!

 In the craziness, I was also able to sneak in a date with Ethan.  We enjoyed watching his piano teacher perform in a concert.

We also took our cousins to the Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point too.  What a fun place.  Here is Ethan the Floating Head!

 And the girls were very proud of their creation.

 Me with my siblings.  Man, it was fun to all be together!

 Thanksgiving was at my sister's house.  We had fun doing food prep together, talking and laughing the whole time.  We even squished in a big family picture, thanks to my mom's request and my sister-in-law's awesomeness.  Can't wait to post those pictures!

 I am very grateful for my mama

 Feasting!

 My oldest and youngest.  xoxo

 Some after dinner entertainment...

 Some MAJOR after dinner entertainment.  My mom secretly taught all the (older) grandkids a flash mob dance.  It was epic and awesome and so fun!

 Speaking of epic, here are our pies.  I made the front three!

 These three sweet girls get along so well.  It was hard to let Alex go.  It was hard to let all of them go.  I had a really hard time saying goodbye to my brother.  There is just something about him that makes life happy.  I miss him and his whole family already!

This holiday season, I am completely grateful for family.  My little family, my extended family on both sides.  And so grateful we are sealed together forever.

My 12th Anniversary

Sometimes I can't believe how blessed I am that I've been married to this cute guy for a DOZEN years!  Okay, forget sometimes.  I seriously can't believe it!

We had such a fun anniversary.  Spoiled with good food and lots of time to talk and shop and see a movie.  We started with sushi for lunch.  SO GOOD!

 Saw the last Hunger Games movie and shopped in between.

 And had a fun and fabulous dinner at The Melting Pot.  We went there last year for our anniversary too, and I just loved it enough to want to go back.  It's fun and yummy, and forces us to take longer than 20 minutes to eat!

 Todd Morris, I love you so much.  Forever.  I am grateful every day for who you are.  And what you do for me and our family.  I'm excited to see what the next 12 years will bring.

Oliver's Birthday

I was lucky enough to get a hug from the birthday boy.  He was scrumptiously cute the entire day!

 I was pretty much overwhelmed with gratitude the whole day for him.  For my family.  My blessings.  Whew!  I celebrated in my heart the whole day and this little cutie didn't have a clue!

 But I had a lot of fun with him.

 He was completely clueless with presents, as predicted.

 But found the paper mildly amusing.  Also predictable!

 He did like the toys though!

 Party!

 He got a lot.  Too much.  Because he's loved by so many people!  And Cooper has been hogging all of Oliver's new toys since.  I'm sure Oliver will get a turn eventually.

 Oliver is lucky to share his birthday with Nana.  Two of my favorite people.  Happy Birthday!!!

I went a little crazy on the cakes.  The little one on the left was Oliver's smash cake.  The little one on the right especially for birthday girl Nana.  And the ridiculously tall one in the middle for all of us to enjoy!

 xoxoxo

 reaching!

 Cutie pie

 Happy Birthday to you!!!

Six layers of YUM!

He wasn't that big of a fan of cake it turns out.  Much different than Cooper's first birthday when he ate so much he got a tummy ache!  Oliver mostly just licked his fingers and flung it around.

 No tummy aches for you!  Happy birthday again my darling.  I love you!

Happy Birthday Oliver!

Oliver, Happy Birthday my darling baby.

I've spent a lot of time in the last few days thinking over your birth and first few weeks of your life.  I'll never forget my nerves and excitement when my water broke over six weeks early! I knew you'd be early but it felt like the day would never come.  How grateful I am that you made it as long as you did.  The first time I met you was in the overly bright OR.  Too many doctors were there and I only got to see your for a brief moment.  Into the NICU you went and it was hours before I got to touch you, hold you.  I saw you only ten minutes the first six hours of your life.  I spent those first six hours missing you.  

 And I missed you over and over and over in the coming weeks.  My heart trying to be home and at the NICU at the same time.  Hoping and praying you'd grow strong and could come home to us.  You did so good baby.  A quiet fighter.  And you've come such a long way this year.

 And today, I don't have to miss you.  I can hold you and kiss you and play with you and make you laugh. I can hear you say "mama" and watch you feed yourself.  I can watch you scoot around the floor trying to pick up every little piece of lint.

 You make me feel so happy.  You've always given me peace in my heart.  You are such a gift to this family.  You were meant to come to us.  And you complete us.

 Today is happiness.  Today is your first birthday.  And I love you with my whole soul.