Grateful Nov 30

Okay last one. I should have done it last night but I was working on stuff for our next Relief Society Meeting (can I just call it Enrichment??) and got completely distracted. So this one probably won't be as meaningful as the last two, but hey, doing 30 of these wasn't exactly easy!

I'm grateful that it's now December! But I'm also freaking out that it's December! Time goes by so fast, doesn't it? It's insane! By the time December rolls around I'm thinking about Christmas, how many pictures I should have taken throughout the year and didn't, about how many sessions and weddings I have left to edit to meet my clients' deadlines, how I'm going to keep my house clean, and this year I'm so anxious to punch that "reserve" button for our vacation I haven't done it yet! It's crazy.

But I'm honestly just grateful to have all of these worries, things to look forward to at Christmas, to have my little family, to have another day to live, I love my life!

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Grateful Nov 29

I'm grateful for that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that it is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am grateful for the daily tender mercies I receive. I'm grateful for my eternal family. I'm grateful for modern day prophets and apostles that lead and guide us. I'm grateful that I have a foundation to build the rest of my life on.

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Grateful Nov 28

I'm almost done!

I'm grateful for MY AWESOME HUSBAND! He works hard. He works long hours so I can stay home with our kids. He is patient with my craziness. He has Shelby wrapped around his little finger (and vice versa). He can make Ben laugh harder than anybody else. He is a strict disciplinarian and it shows in how well our kids behave (most of the time). He honors his priesthood. He supports me in everything that I do. He puts up with my huge, somewhat nosy family. He lets me drag him to photo shoots and weddings. He laughs at my attempts at being funny. He will admit when I am right (which doesn't happen very often). He can remember tiny little details about our life that I seem to forget. He can fix just about anything. He texts me that he loves me probably 10 times a day. He never forgets to kiss me goodbye in the morning. He loves me. I love him.

And he's pretty easy on the eyes. I love you John!

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Grateful Nov 27

I'm grateful for the missionaries! Our North elders stopped by a couple of nights ago since they were in our complex meeting with a less active and Ben had the best time chatting with them on the porch (since John wasn't home). And we finally had a chance to feed the South elders yesterday which we haven't done in over a year and I forget how much I enjoy having the missionaries over. Especially when one of them was a HUGE Harry Potter fan! So of course we all talked HP the whole time. :) I can't wait till Ben gets to start going home teaching with John and then on splits with the Elders. I can wait for him to go in his own mission though...I'll enjoy him being little until that happens!

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Grateful Nov 26

I'm grateful that for the past 3 days in a row we've gotten to sleep in until 8:30! Ben has been waking up at about 7:15 and playing Legos at the kitchen table and Shelby has slept in till after 8! It's been so nice to sleep longer than usual, especially for John who is up before 6am every day!

I'm not grateful that John had to go in to work for a bit today, BUT we have an afternoon full of mini sessions and we're really excited about working with some new clients!

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Grateful Nov 25

I'm grateful that we are NOT Black Friday shoppers! John was tempted at about 8:30pm on Thanksgiving to go stand in line at Best Buy but we were both so tired that definitely did not happen! We needed sleep because we shot a wedding yesterday and needed to be on our A-game!

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Grateful Nov 24

I'm behind again! We had a great Thanksgiving this year. TONS of people in my mom's house, lots of good food, a win for the Cowboys. I'm grateful that when we all went around and said what we're thankful for Ben said he's thankful for his family! The kid LOVES his family and extended family, especially his cousins. And I'm grateful that Shelby has turned into a hugging machine at Grandma's house and loves to hug anyone and everyone, even Jonathan's sailor buddy that was here for Thanksgiving got a hug! It's so cute!

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Grateful Nov 23

I'm grateful for my little business! I started taking pictures in 2008 and things have grown more than I expected, but just the right amount for my busy life. It's given us the extra financial boost we need at what seems like the perfect moments. Most of my sessions and weddings come through referrals or Google searches and we couldn't be more thrilled with the clients we have! I love taking pictures. It really brings me a lot of happiness. I've been really careful not to overextend myself or book to many clients that I can't handle and things always seem to work out perfectly. So to anyone out there reading this who has given me the great priviledge of photographing your family, THANK YOU!

P.S. I have a couple of openings for mini sessions I am doing this Saturday the 26th in downtown Ft Worth. $100 for a 20 minute session and 7-10 digital files! Email me or leave me a comment for more information!

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Grateful Nov 22

I'm grateful for cooler weather. It was pretty ridiculous that we were wearing flip flops and John had on shorts when we went out to dinner on Saturday for my birthday! Even though there's been a lot of rain, I'm happy the weather is finally starting to get a little cooler! Who knows if it will stay, but it never really feels like Christmas is around the corner when it's 70 degrees outside!

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Grateful Nov 21

I'm grateful for my mom! Today is her birthday. Yesterday we celebrated our birthdays since they're so close together. I got to pick what we had for dinner (roast beef, duh) and she got to pick dessert (yellow cake with buttercream frosting). It was all made from scratch and it was delicious!

My mom is probably one of the most interesting, complicated, charitable, loving, feisty, no-nonsense, compassionate, and generous people you will ever meet. She's been the greatest example of service to her family, to her friends, her church, and her community. There is nothing she won't do for you or your neighbor. There's nothing she won't do for her family. We all love her, all of our kids adore her, and she is the matriarch of a family she raised to be righteous, independent people. She truly loves and cherishes her posterity.

Happy birthday, Mom!

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Grateful Nov 20

I'm grateful for NEW CARPET! Man, it's amazing how much of a difference it's made in our house. I mean, we knew it would be a huge change, but once we got all our stuff back in we were like WOW, that's a huge difference! Hopefully it will help our condo sell fast!

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Grateful Nov 19

I'm grateful for another birthday! I love my simple, complicated, stressful and joyful little life. I'm grateful for every day I have with my family!

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Grateful Nov 18

I'm grateful that I wasn't one of those Twihards out till all hours of the morning to watch Breaking Dawn. I'll do some crazy things like midnight showings for Harry Potter and MAYBE The Avengers...but Twilight? I've been hearing it's awful or it was amazing. Either way, I'm glad I'm not a zombie today because of it!

Team Neville!

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Grateful Nov 17

I'm grateful for Cars 2. My kids LOVE this movie and they watch it at least once a day. It's kept them occupied while I've been feverishly cleaning and packing up boxes and sweeping out from under beds. I still feel completely unprepared for all our stuff to get moved out and back in tomorrow, but I know it will all work out! And we have a realtor coming on Tuesday to do a market analysis on our condo. Eek!

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Grateful Nov 16

I'm grateful for birthday lunches! A group of friends of mine in my ward celebrate all of our birthdays Pappasito's style! Even if it's not a birthday we find an excuse to go to lunch there. Their beef fajitas are THE BEST. It was such a treat today and these ladies are awesome. I was thrilled to get to spend my Ulta gift card afterwards since John and I decided we're not doing birthday presents for each other this year (so we can hopefully go on Christmas vacation). I got a new curling iron to replace the ridiculous one I've been using that I've had since high school!

P.S. And I'd be completely ungrateful if I didn't thank Chrystal for watching Shelby for me so I could go kid-free. You know I love you Chrystal, THANK YOU!

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Grateful Nov 15

Today I'm grateful that I'm not sitting in a doctor's office getting tested for strep like I was two weeks ago! I had feeling really groggy since Sunday and my throat was hurting pretty bad. By noon yesterday I had a 99 degree fever. Sunday night John shined a flashlight down my throat and there they were, those pesky white spots. Remember when I said I got sick the past two weekends we said we were going to try and get carpet (but thankfully neither weekend worked out?) Well, yeah, that would have been fate's cruel joke on me to make me sick AGAIN when we're getting carpet this weekend!

But I can gratefully say that I woke up this morning with only a slight irritation in my throat and no white spots to be seen! And so I've been able to spend my morning caulking, touch up painting, scrubbing baseboards and cleaning out my bedroom.

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Grateful Nov 14

I'm grateful for Ben's school. I know I say this a lot, but we cringe to think what school would have been like had the transfer not worked out. He LOVES school. He is so excited on Sunday nights because he knows he gets to go to school. Here are some fun things that his school does that we love. I know some of these are standard for a lot of schools and are nothing special, but hey, we're first time school parents so we think it's awesome:

• Hill U – 6-week long extracurricular courses taught on fun subjects like frisbee golf, cake decorating, Legos, etc. For $35 Ben got to stay an hour later every Tuesday for 6 weeks and play Legos and make new friends. This morning was the first Tuesday since the classes ended and he told me he was going to be sad after school because he'll be remembering how fun Legos was.

• Reading Buddies – Each Kindergartner is paired with a 3rd grader and once a week they get to read together. Ben LOVES his reading buddy!

• Highlander Bucks – Teachers, hall monitors, staff and the administrators all carry around little Highlander dollars and hand them out to kids who are doing good things or behaving when they're supposed to. Once you get to a certain number you get special privileges. Ben has like 25 of these and has already gotten to have 10 minutes of extra recess. I love incentives to help kids focus!

• Specials – I know all schools have specials. But I think Ben's school is different in some ways because Kindergartners get to do all of the ones some other schools don't allow. So every week Ben gets to go to Computers (his favorite), PE, Spanish, Art and Music.

• Peanuts and Popcorn – Every Thursday after school they sell popcorn and candy outside the school for 75cents. All of it goes to the PTA. Ben gets to do it if he hasn't gotten his binder signed all week. Okay so he's never had to have his binder signed so I guess we'll be eating lots of popcorn (and it's quite obvious if you look at the state of my car!)

• Parents Night Out – In December the PTA is doing a night where you bring your kids and for 4 hours you get to go out and do whatever you want! I can't remember how much it costs, but we might do it to celebrate our birthdays.

Anyway. We love this little school. Ben told me the other day that he doesn't want to move until May so he can go to Hill until May. We can't guarantee what will happen, but we're glad he loves school!

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Grateful Nov 13

I'm grateful for Sundays. Life is hectic. It's crazy. It's busy. It's hard sometimes. It's frustrating. But Sundays are my perspective days. The day when you remember why you survive all the craziness. There is nothing better than sitting in the chapel feeling guilty for reprimanding your 5-year old for making too much noise, but realizing that you're just grateful to be there because you know it's where you're supposed to be. I love Sunday School. I love Relief Society. I forgot how much I missed Relief Society for the nearly 3 years I was in Young Women (but I'd still LOVE to be back with my girls!) I feel so much better about my week when we've been to church. Even if last Sunday we got stuck in Fielder Rd Baptist Church traffic (don't even get me started) and missed half the sacrament. Even though Ben insists on making tooting noises during Sacrament meeting. Even though I always forget to bring my scriptures and my phone us almost always dead. It just feels good to be there!

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Grateful Nov 12

I'm grateful for the simple conveniences of modern life. My smart phone, tv, air conditioning, a car that runs, stores with everything you could ever want or need, the internet, DVR, modern medicine, digital cameras, the list goes on and on. They can be a severe distraction in many ways but having them available to me is a huge blessing!

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Grateful Nov 11

I'm grateful for my dad. That sounds so trivial! How could I NOT be grateful for my dad?? He passed away over 10 years ago, but not a day goes by that I don't think of him and the influence he has had over me and so many other people. His life was such a testament of what are all striving for and I hope that he's looking down on us and are proud of what me and the rest of my siblings and mom have become. It would be bestowing him the greatest honor to live a happy and righteous life. 

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