Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving, and there are so many things I am thankful for.  We've had a nice day, spending all morning at home getting some things around the house done, and then making a quick trip to my parents' house to say hello before heading to Thanksgiving dinner.  We are having Thanksgiving at Carl's grandparents' house, and there are a lot of people here.  None of Carl's siblings could make it, or his parents, but Carl has a huge extended family with lots of aunts, uncles,  cousins, and cousins' kids.  It is nice to spend Thanksgiving with such a big family.

We just finished dinner, and everyone is now sitting around relaxing, reading, and playing Rock Band.  Garrett just enjoyed a piece of cherry pie.  It's nice to sit here in such happy company.  I am thinking about how grateful I am for everyone, and especially for Carl's grandparents for always putting so much effort into Thanksgiving dinner.  I also started thinking about everything else I am grateful for, and thought I'd make a short list.  Here are a few of things I am thankful for, in no particular order.

1. Garrett - (No order, but of course he has to be first!) He is the joy in my life.  He is such a wonderful, sweet boy, and I am so grateful I get to be his mom.

2. Carl - He is the nicest, best, most wonderful husband and best friend anyone could ask for.  I don't know what I would do without him.

3. My parents - They are the best parents ever.  We love spending time with them, and we are so grateful for everything they do for us.

4. Carl's family - They are all so great, and his siblings really help to fill the void of being an only child.  I just wish we could all be together more often.

5. All of our grandparents, and extended families - We have such fun, crazy, loving families.

6. Our friends - Our friends are the best.  They are always there for us, and we love spending time with them.

7. Our home - We recently donated a few items to a homeless shelter, and it was a cold, snowy night.  There was a line of people standing outside in the snow, waiting to get inside the shelter, and it broke my heart.  I am so thankful we have a safe, warm home.

8. Our neighbors and church - We have the best neighbors, and the best ward.  We have a couple of neighbors that are especially wonderful.

9. Our cats (and all animals) - We love our 3 kitties.  Chloe, Gabby, and Sebastian are part of our family.

10. Korinne, Garrett's birth mom - We are so thankful for Korinne.  I always think about her a lot on holidays.  We love her so much, and we are eternally grateful for her.  We are also so grateful for adoption.  We get to be parents because of someone else's sacrifice and love.

I could go on and on,  but this post is already way too long.  I am just so thankful for everything I have, and for all of the blessings in my life.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Home Study Day

We had our home study for our adoption today.  This was the last step we needed to accomplish before we could be approved.  We've had everything else done for a while now, but have not had the time to get our house organized and really clean.  We finally scheduled our home study for a couple of weeks ago, but all three of us got sick, so we had to postpone. 

I really wanted to get everything done before Thanksgiving so we wouldn't have to be worrying about trying to get approved during the holidays.  We scheduled another appointment for today.  Of course all three of us got sick AGAIN, so we didn't get as much done this past weekend as we wanted to.  We ended up really scrambling last night to do everything.  We managed to get it done, and even though everything wasn't as organized as I would have liked, it was just fine.

Our caseworker Larry came over, asked some questions, walked through our house, and then we were done!  He said he should know in a few weeks whether or not we are approved, but he doesn't expect any problems.  I am so excited to finally have this last step done!  One step closer to a new little bundle of joy. :)

Happy Halloween!

We had a lovely Halloween.  We spent the whole day at my parents' house today.  It was a nice day, and Carl and Garrett spent part of the day playing Lightsabers in the front yard. 

Then we carved pumpkins with my parents.  Garrett enjoyed helping his dad carve, and when they were done with that, Garrett drew faces on a couple of little pumpkins.

It wasn't too cold for trick-or treating, and Garrett had lots of fun and got lots of candy.  Afterward he had fun helping my mom pass out the candy to the other trick-or-treaters.

Happy Halloween!

Wheeler Farm

We'd been wanting to go to Wheeler Farm for a while now.  Last night I realized that we only had a few days left before Halloween, so we thought we'd better hurry and go, even though it was already getting dark by the time we made it over there.

Even though it was so dark, we still had a good time.  We saw the cows and chickens, and we went through the corn/hay maze, which Garrett loved.  We even went on the tractor ride, though by then it was pretty cold.  Next year we'll try to make it earlier in the season so we can enjoy ourselves a bit more. :)

The Pumpkin Patch Part 2

We really like Halloween.  So we always go to multiple pumpkin patches every year.  It's fun for Garrett to run around, and we like to see the different decorations at each one.  Also, we love to take lots and lots of pictures of Garrett, so it's a good excuse for us.

Yesterday we went to a little nursery near our house.  They have a cute little pumpkin patch there, and it's Garrett's favorite.  He had a lot of fun, but he was not loving the camera.  Usually he'll put up with us taking quite a few pictures before he is done, but yesterday he didn't want us taking any.  We finally managed to get a few.  We even got a cute shot with Garrett and his grandpa.

The Witches Are Out!

Every fall we go see the witches at Gardner Village.  We started doing this the year Garrett was born, and now it's one of the traditions that we HAVE to do every year. 

We went last week and had a lot of fun.  We saw all the witches, searched for fish in the pond, did a little shopping, got some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and Garrett had some cotton candy.  A ladybug even landed on Carl's shirt, which Garrett thought was fascinating.  It was a good day.