What a wonderful time of year!

I absolutely love this time of year. I love the warmth and upbeat feeling that comes with the leaves changing and the snow falling (although I have yet to see snow fall this year :). I love decorating my house and enjoying family time.

This year for Thanksgiving we were able to go to my brother Tracy's house in Corpus Christi. I have not seen him or his family in about 11 years. Back when I was about 13 I spent every weekend at their house. I did absolutely everything with them. Then they moved to Wisconsin and I saw them at one of my other brothers weddings and that is it. So for me to be able to be reunited with them was such an awesome experience. There was so much that has happened to me since then and it was so fun to catch up.

For Christmas we are flying home to Salt Lake. As much as I hate being cold I am super excited. I'm even excited for snow. Blaine has never really played in snow before so this will be so much fun. I am glad to see my family. I am so lucky because I do get to see them regularly. I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks this summer in SLC and then go back for my grandparents funeral. Everyone was so worried that I would never see them now that I moved to Texas, but I have been lucky enough to have no problems with that.

I love being a stay at home mom. Some days I am lazy and do nothing, but I love having the time to get things done. Since I have been home I have been able to do so much more for my calling. When I was working I was very limited with the time I could spend on it, but now I have plenty of time. I love figuring out different hand outs I can make for the girls. I love that I have time to sit on the floor and play with Blaine. He is such a happy baby and playing with him is pure joy. I love watching him learn something new. I even love sitting in the background watching him explore his world. He surprises me everyday with the things he picks up on. I love having conversations with him. He can only say mama and dada and sometimes baba but he makes all sorts of noises trying to communicate. I feel like I have full conversations with him because he responds to everything I say. Sometimes he argues with me, but that is to be expected ;) He is doing a really good job of copying what we say. I think he will catch onto using real words pretty soon.

The weather in South Texas has been amazing. Most of the month of November has been a beautiful 80 degrees. We have had so much fun playing outside. Being outside is one of Blaine's favorite things. He loves to have the space to just run. He loves playing with his football. He is also very interested in the leaves. He will sit down outside and just pick up one leaf at a time and look it over. The humidity has been very low and there is usually a breeze so it's not too hot. It has been amazing.

I am so grateful for my never ending life of blessings. The lord has been very good to our family. I am grateful for my husband and son. They make my life complete. I look forward to Rob's days off so that we can enjoy each others company and spend time together. Blaine loves his daddy so much. When he hears the door open and sees daddy walk through the door he stops whatever it is he is doing and he runs to him. He loves playing with him. I am grateful for a husband who works so hard for his family. I know that Rob has our best intrest in mind. He does everything so that we can be a happy family. He has even sacrificed time at the golf course to be at home with us. That really does mean the world to me... although I do want him to have some "me time" as well. There is so much to honestly be grateful for!!!!