What I am thankful for in 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! At church this morning, the priest talked about the fact that many people may not be able to find anything to be thankful for and I truly believe that. It makes me all the more grateful for the many blessings that have been given to us. 2009 was a big year for us and I have managed to narrow down my list of "thanks" to general categories:)

10. Rob's job-It is very easy to take this for granted, or even be annoyed about it on the nights Rob has to work late, but I am grateful, especially during difficult times in the economy, that Rob can provide for us, and I don't have to be up nights worrying about our finances like too many families do.

9. Our old home-I will always think fondly of our little home for the many many memories it held for us and for welcoming my two beautiful boys into it. I am definitely still sentimental about leaving this home behind, but I am grateful for all the wonderful times we spent there:)
8. Our new home-I am so grateful for the opportunity to move into our new home tomorrow and I am so excited to raise our family here. God works in mysterious ways sometimes, but he seemed to have a pretty obvious hand in helping everything to fall into place for us.
7. Our health-I am so thankful for every day that goes by that my loved ones are healthy. I realize that it can be taken away so quickly and severely and I never want to take it for granted. I am also so so grateful that my Aunt Lisa is still pursuing all treatments available to keep herself in the best health possible and that she is willing to fight with all that she is for her health. We are with you all the way Aunt Lis!

6. Friends-I've needed my girls on more than a few occasions this year, whether it be from the stresses of welcoming a second baby or trying to sell our house, or moving to the new one. I am so blessed to have so many amazing women in my life and I am so lucky that they love my boys so much:)


5. Family-I think it goes without saying how very very much I love all of our family members. We are constantly shown love and given help, before we even need it. Thank you, to all our family members for all that you bring into my life and the lives of my husband and boys.





4. My Tommy-My first and always my little boy, I love you so much and I love all that you have become in the 2.5 years that you have been alive. I can barely remember what my life was like before you came into it, and the funny thing is that I don't even want to:) I love you my funny, crazy, little wild man!
3. My Jack-You are truly Mommy's little boy. Even though you still wake me up at least 2x a night and will only stop your tears for Mommy, I am so thankful for all the joy you have added to our family. To think that I ever feared not having enough love for 2 children seems absolutely crazy now. You have shown me that a heart can grow without measure when the right little person comes along :)
2. My Rob-For the man that has made all this joy in my life possible, I am THANKFUL! I realize that when you fall in love and decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, that no matter how much you think you know a person, sometimes it just comes down to sheer luck that you have found the right person. Well I know how lucky I am but I know that God put the two of us together, two complete opposites that manage to fit together like yin and yang, and I realize that I am the luckiest woman alive:) Thank you Rob, for our beautiful family, and all the craziness that comes with it:)


1. God-For my nine previous reasons for thanks, I owe it all to God. I don't know how God decided to have me born into my family, and find me the wonderful husband he did, and then send me the two precious souls he gave me to raise and mother, but I realize that I have been blessed, and I can only hope that I will have a long life so that I can try to give back to those around me all the love that God has shown to me. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 50th Birthday Mom/Grandma

Today is my Mom's 50th birthday, and although the weekend of celebrating is over, I still had to do a blog post for her:) So here are 50 pictures (all large-I realized too late) of my Mom with her little grandsons, and a couple of just her where she looked cute. Happy Birthday Grandma-bia!!

This was leaving to go to the hospital to have Tommy-I was on the phone with my Mom:)

Yikes

Mom's 48th birthday?

We love you Mom! Hope your 50th birthday weekend was as happy as you have made us all our lives:)

Jack's home photo shoot

While trying to throw together Christmas/We Moved cards I realized I didn't have enough recent smiley pictures of Jack, so I plopped him in his chair and started making goofy faces and noises at my little sweetie. The following is the result. While I did get several HUGE mouth grins, most of them came out looking like surprise or fear. Reason being, every time I would hit the shutter to focus a red light would point at him and he would get this concerned look on his face, mid-smile. I tried to take a couple without flash, but they kept coming our blurry, so I just had to trick him by pointing and focusing the camera at the floor then shooting it up right as I would hit the button. That also explains why several of the pictures are not in frame. Do these make up for the fact that I still haven't taken him in for professional pictures? Ahh, the Mommy guilt is never ending. Don't worry Jack, I promise that we will be going in for your 6 month pictures:)

More singing Tommy

I asked Tommy to sing "Happy Birthday" to Stephie for the camera so I could show her my camera instead of giving her a card. Here is the outcome:)



We sign for the house tomorrow and then the real work of moving begins-as you can see from the background of the video, we have been living in chaos for some time. I can't wait to get to the point where we can walk through a room without almost killing ourselves:) It can't be here soon enough-Get these boxes out of my house!!

Flashback Friday

Not much of a flashback, only a few weeks ago, but all my posts will have to be flashbacks since I am getting so far behind in them. Unfortunately it won't be getting any better in the near future. We sign for the new house on Monday and then we have just shy of 2 weeks to get everything prepared and everything moved in. I am terrified, but I know it will all eventually fall into place. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family who have been helping out, and who plan on helping us move in/paint/etc. We couldn't be doing this without you:) So sorry for the lack of posts, I may just have to stop sleeping for the time being to get things done:) Anyways here are a couple pics of my cuties in the tub. Yes, I am a bad Mom who puts her baby in the Bumbo in the tub, but it is the only way we can bathe them at the same time, without me being in the tub:) I'll post soon, hopefully-Wish us luck!

Tommy playing with Jack ( by throwing anything he can find on top of him). Don't worry, Jack, you'll get your payback someday:)

Happy Birthday Doggy/Auntie Stephiebia/Luphie!

Happy 20th birthday Stephie! You have given me 20 amazing years of memories from being your big sister. We are all so blessed to have you in our lives-and I can't wait until you are done with school so we can live down the street from each other:) From all the Misso boys and me, we love you with all our hearts. Here are some of my best memories with you:

Jack's birth, but especially you driving me to the hospital and being with us from start to finish. Also for doing a "documentary" of his birth for us, one of my most priceless gifts:)

You and me at Tommy's baby shower-wearing our matching headbands:)

You cutting a rug at our wedding-and looking as cute as can be-can you believe you were only 15 here?

"Playing" baby with Jack

Walking in Aunt Lisa's race-love it!

You and your Tommybia

We love you Doggy!

My Choir Boy

As I have posted before, Tommy loves going to church. He usually goes several times a week and on a couple occasions has gone twice in a day. We certainly don't push him to do this, but if the option to go to church is offered to him, his response is "Yaa, see big lights" or something along those lines. It also helps that most of the extra church visits are made with Papa or Grandma. So needless to say he has learned most of the church songs. I had to catch bits and pieces of him singing on tape, because although he sings in his "monster" voice much of the time, I still think it is really cute. He usually sings himself to sleep before his naps, and he is so loud I can usually hear him from upstairs. So, for the first tome ever, I am dropping 2 of Tommy's greatest hits for your listening pleasure:) Enjoy!

Tommy singing "Glory to God"


Singing the "Holy Holy"


Even though he is asking for waffles in the first video, and pizza-pie in the second one, I swear I am not withholding food from him so he sings:)