Gratitude

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It is my most favorite holiday. None of the shopping, wrapping, parties and pressure that the Christmas brings, just a time to be simply grateful. With that in mind, I was REALLY looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I was aching to spend time with my kids and family and to just relax.



Wait! Relax? I think that word is no longer in my vocabulary...

I got off work a little early on Wednesday, ran home and packed up. Lex and Noah were going to ride up to Logan with us because Dave had to leave early. Seuao was working and was going to join up with us in Logan on Thursday morning. First of all, packing for two babies for 4 days is tough enough. Trying to anticipate the amount of diapers, changes of clothing, etc. just wasn't coming together in my brain! To make matters worse, my mom had sent an email out to everyone that she had booked a photographer to take a big family picture during the weekend, and we needed to bring black, brown, khaki or green clothes for it. WHAT??? I have little girls! Everything they own is pink or purple! I decided I would just have to shop for new outfits for them in Logan. So, it took much longer to get everything together than I thought, and by the time I picked everyone up and hit the road, we landed smack in the middle of the get-me-out-of-town-rush-hour traffic. Good times.

The kids held up ok. Well, no, not really. Tessa held up great - that girl amazes me. Sometimes she is such a light sleeper, but other times she has a serious coping mechanism that lets her zone out the screams and howls that often surround her, which was the case that night (thank heavens). Lily and Noah completely lost it. Lex and I sang every Christmas and Primary song that we could think of, which sort-of kept them at bay, but it really was bad. I think these pictures prove my point...

Before:



After:




It was a long drive.

Thanksgiving day itself was awesome. Seuao got there around 10 or 11. We spent the day looking through ads, cooking, watching the Macy's parade, playing with the kids, playing Lex's new "Raving Rabbids" game on the Wii (so much fun!), and of course eating!



Lily spent most of the time searching for open Diet Coke cans ...



Helping Granny decorate (and mostly undecorate) the Christmas tree...



Drinking bottles of lotion, tormenting her smaller-than-her cousins,



And laughing with Ella...



She certainly kept busy!

Well, let's see.... Thanksgiving just isn't complete without the plotting, planning and budgeting for the big after-Thanksgiving sales! Seuao and Dave were set on getting ginormous plasma TVs at Walmart, so they took off at 3:30 a.m. on Friday. They got their TVs without any problem. The drama was at Kohls where we were! They opened at 4:00 a.m, and when we got there at 3:55, the line was around the building, across the parking lot and to the doors of K-Mart next door! Insanity!





So, there were a bunch of people just hanging out in the parking lot (us included) planning on just merging into the line and going in when the doors opened. Not very nice, I know. Well, the people in line were REALLY not happy about it. They were so upset, the police came and cleared everyone out of the parking lot who wasn't in line!



Rebecca, Mary and I headed back to our car and were just going to wait in there when the doors opened, and everyone just ran... The major thing I wanted was a video camera. We don't have one, and I feel like I'm losing my babies, and need to document them! Well, I ran right past the one I really wanted, picked up two others, not remembering which one I saw in the ad. After Mary told me I had the wrong ones I was bummed! Luckily I was able to find the one I really wanted even an hour after they had opened. I guess I really didn't need to be part of the stampede after all!

I think we all were pleased with our finds. We ventured over to ShopKo (who doesn't have a CLUE about how to organize lines for check-out). In fact, as soon as we walked in the door, Mom got in line, while we shopped and we met up with her when she got to the cashier. Such a great system! We hit Sams Club too, then were home by about 7:00 a.m. just in time for babies to wake up... good times!



After the shopping extravaganza, I spent most of the day watching Rebecca's kids while she packed. She and Lance are buying a little house, and were planning on moving on Saturday. Four kids under 4 in a house that's not your own, combined with two other babies (Noah and Benji) plus various mommies and daddies in and out is really a recipe for chaos! I really underestimated how exhausting it would be, especially considering Seuao left around 11 to head back to Salt Lake. He had a flight leaving at 3:00 for L.A. to go to his friend's wedding.

Friday and Saturday were pretty much a blur. I spent the entire time wrangling babies. Beck was moving on Saturday and recruited the guys to help. Allen had Jazz tickets, so he, dad and Dave went to Salt Lake for the game Saturday night.

Sunday was Mia's first birthday, so we had a make-shift birthday party for her that morning. Mary made her a little cake, which she thoroughly enjoyed!



Of course she had to have some help...



We did mom's family picture (even though Seuao wasn't in it), minus new outfits for the kids... oh well!



Lily had a rough day. She was screaming nearly all morning. I got her settled in nursery so I could hear mom's lesson in the combined 5th Sunday class, when I heard her screaming down the hallway again. The fam stepped in to help me with Tessa so I could deal with Lily. We survived church (barely), took nearly 2 hours to gather all of our gear, and made it home around 9:00 p.m. Sunday night. Right when Tessa decided it was time to get up and play! This single-mom thing is NOT for me!!! I finally collapsed into bed after 12:30 a.m., just to wake up again at 5:30 Monday morning to get ready for work!

The weekend was just so busy. I love spending time with my family, but I really missed having Seuao there to help out. While there was NOTHING relaxing about my weekend, I do just love Thanksgiving.

What I'm grateful for this year, in a word, is LOVE. The love I have for my own little family is something I never thought or dared to dream I would have. They consume every breath and thought I have. The love I have for my extended family motivates me to try to be a better person constantly. The love I have for my Savior is the core of my soul. I am grateful for love.