November 2012 - Family

November was a month filled with family.  

I am so thankful for my family.  I am thankful to have a stable and loving marriage, and a husband who loves and supports me.  I am thankful for my two beautiful, miracle children, and for all the joy and meaning they bring to my life.

I am thankful for my in-laws.  What gratitude fills my heart when I think of the example Gerald's parents are setting as they serve their mission in London.  I love all of Gerald's siblings and their sweet families, and feel blessed to be a part of their family. 

I love my mom, and the amazing example she is to me and the love she generously shows us.  I love my siblings, their wonderful spouses, and all my nieces and nephews, and the fun time we have when we all get together.  

Here are some family activities that we enjoyed this month.

Daddy-Daughter Date Night

  Gerald took Katelee on a date night to the local roller skating rink for a school activity.  They had so much fun!  Katelee loved riding her scooter and roller skating around, and had a GREAT time with her daddy.

Playing in the Snow

We got our first snow storm this month.  It wasn't really more than a skiff, but we bundled up and went to play in it anyway, before it all melted!

My snow angel:

Blake didn't really like the snow or cold, but he'll grow into it.

Katelee loves to throw snowballs at me!

 

We wanted to go sledding on a hill near our home.  There were two problems with this idea.

1. We don't own a sled.  So we took a laundry basket, hoping it might work as an alternative.

2. The snow wasn't very good for sledding.  But we tried it anyway!  These videos are the funny results of our attempts at sledding.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanskgiving in Mesquite this year at my mom's house.  All my siblings and their families came, and we had so much fun!  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and enormous!  :)  The weather was beautiful and we ate outside and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine.  Over the weekend we enjoyed playing lots of Pickle Ball,

 riding the four-wheelers,

 going on walks and hanging out in the warm weather,

 (Blake chasing the ball around while we were playing Pickle Ball), 

playing outside

(the grandkids LOVED grandma's new toy Jeep),  

playing board games, having another Wii Just Dance tournament (this time I had to give up my winning title to the new champ - Brittany!), watching TV, seeing the new James Bond movie, shopping, and just hanging out.  It was a lot of fun!

We loved meeting our newest, precious little niece, Kora.  Here's a new picture of grandma with all the grandkids.

 Uncle Duane entertained the kids by shaking leaves out of the tree.

While we were all together over the weekend, we also celebrated 

Blake's First Birthday!

We sent out invitations that read:

_______________________________

C is for Cookie, F is for Fun,

Can you believe it? 

Blake is turning ONE!

Me Want Party!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

12:00 noon

Grandma Thurston's house

Lunch, birthday cake, and COOKIES will be served!

This party is brought to you by the Letter B and the number 1.

_______________________________

I made Blake's birthday cake, complete with homemade mini chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip cookie frosting.

Sesame street plates, presents, cookie monster cake, and a plate of cookies!  We are ready to PARTY!

I love this birthday boy!

We made Blake's favorite lunch: Hawaiian haystacks. He LOVES rice with sauce, cheese, and pineapples.

Enjoying my birthday party lunch!

The guests: Aunt Kim and Uncle Duane, cousin Alex, Great-grandma Thurston, Tyler, Taylor, Melissa, JD, Wyatt, Madi, Trey, Brittany, Todd, Kora, Grandma Thurston, and of course, mom, dad, and Katelee.

Awesome!  Birthday presents are so fun!

Singing Happy Birthday and eating some cake!!

Blake LOVED the cake!  We gave him cookie monster's face to eat and destroy all on his own.  He had a lot of fun with it.  :)

The cake when Blake was all done.  :)

Later the next week was Blake's actual birthday.  We kept it simple, but still wanted the day to be special.  When Blake woke up in the morning, we all went into his room together with a bunch of balloons and sang to him.  This boy LOVES balloons!

We spent the day playing, reading books, and just having fun.  Later that evening we met some friends at a restaurant for a birthday dinner.  The Watsons also had a son who has the same birthday as Blake (only four years older) so it was the perfect opportunity to get together and let the kids play.

Blake LOVES drinking out of a straw!

I can't believe that a whole year has gone by since Blake was born.  But on the other hand, it feels like he has been part of our family forever.  We love him so much.  He is such a smart, energetic, sweet little boy.  

He loves to explore, open drawers and cupboards (and unpack their contents), unroll the toilet paper from it's roll,

stand himself in the middle of the room and balance (though he doesn't quite yet dare take a step), crawl-chase his sister around the house (he's FAST!), stand on his head,

 

be held up so he can turn off light switches, feed himself, pull books off the shelves, hug his stuffed animals (he got two new adorable 'stuffies' from Aurianna for his birthday, which he loves!),

 

bounce, eat anything he finds on the ground, bite, be tickled, take baths, and move, move, move!

When Blake was born, I made him a jean quilt and then also made each of his birth parents a matching quilt.  Then, at regular intervals, we did "Jean Blanket Photo Shoots" to send to his birth parents.  They could see how big he was getting in comparison to their own quilts, and I love that this is a way they can be connected.  In the past, he would lay so nicely on the blanket and let us stretch him out so we could measure him.  Like this from his 2 month photo shoot.

Awww, so sweet!  And you can see that he is 5 squares across, with his arms spread out.  :)

Well, when we attempted to do a one-year photo shoot, I got the blanket all ready and inviting, and Gerald, Katelee and I all worked together to get Blake to sit on it, or lay down on it, or hold still at all.

These are the two best pictures I was able to get.

 Are we done yet mom?? 

 Argghhh....  Maybe we'll have better luck at age two!
(By the way, that cute elephant is one of the gifts Auri sent him for his birthday!) 

 Katelee's Christmas Piano Recital

Last but not least, Katelee had her Christmas piano recital on the last day of the month.  This was her first recital where I wasn't the teacher.  She felt a little nervous about that, but she did a great job.  I am so glad that she has such a wonderful teacher!  And I love that Michael is also my cousin and an all-around great guy!  :)

Side note: I just have to mention, also, that we voted in the presidential election this year. The results were not what I wanted, but it's important to me to vote and also for my children to know that I think this is important, which is why I added it on here.