Thanksgiving 2012

Hmmmm...I just WISH I had something this year to be thankful for...

But I just can't seem to think of anything...

I'm not getting as much sleep as I'd like,

My presidential candidate was not elected,

The Hogs and The Cowboys are having terrible seasons...

There is an endless amount of laundry to do...

Yep, I just can't think of a single thing.  =)

Clearly, I'm being VERY sarcastic.  Do you ever just feel so incredibly blessed that you can't find words strong enough to express your gratitude?  I keep trying to write Thank You notes to people, but feel like they are falling short of letting everyone know JUST HOW APPRECIATIVE I am.  People are just going way out of there way to help and serve our family and have made this transition for us CRAZY easy!!  I know I'll never be able to "pay everyone back," but hopefully God will provide avenues for me to pay it forward!!

So very thankful for:

1.  ERIN!!  My neighbor kept Brooklyn ALL DAY LONG on Gibson's delivery day!!  She got her to her gymnastics lesson, took her to Chick-fil-a and really just made it such a special day for her.  She picked up our Thanksgiving turkey for us so we didn't have to get out and make that trip.  AND she made dinner for us the first day we were home as we began the adjustment to life with 3 kids.

2.  SHELLY!  Another neighbor did the actual transportation of Brooklyn to and from gymnastics.  It was so nice and comforting to know that Brooklyn was in the care of people that I totally trust and B is still talking about how much fun she had that day!

3.  ELIZABETH!  ANOTHER neighbor (I have the best neighbors, don't I???) helped Erin prepare the dinner on our first day home.

4.  STEVE - a.k.a.  DooDad!  Since Chan woke up with fever on the delivery day, she couldn't go to the neighbors house as planned.  So Dad stepped up and agreed to keep her all day long by himself.  He made her lunch, set his watch and took her potty every couple of hours, played toys, put her down for a nap, drove her thru Chickfila for dinner and then picked up B from the neighbors house and kept BOTH of them for a while!!  Whew!  That's a lot!

 some pics of their fun day

 pretty happy!

5.  EDDIE - It was really overwhelming for me to think about preparing a Thanksgiving meal.  I would have been totally happy ordering pizza or doing something non-traditional, but Eddie volunteered to take care of everything so that my only jobs were to heal and feed the baby.  He did an AMAZING JOB!!

6.  MARGARET - a.k.a. Gigie!  She was never formally asked, but jumped right in and helped Eddie with the Thanksgiving meal.  She helped time everything to be warm at the same time and did much of the work in helping the meal to look pretty...using nice serving dishes, pretty pitchers, etc.  She helped do all of the meals actually and did much of the clean-up as well.  She also prepared a casserole for us that she left that we've been able to eat on all week so evening meals every night have been so easy.  SO INCREDIBLY thankful!!

7.  LOU - a.k.a.  Big Bird!  Although, he was feeling terrible while he was here.  He still managed to help with the clean-up and hand-washed many of the dishes.  Such a trooper!

8.  NATALIE!  She and her family were able to come down the day after Thanksgiving to meet the baby and she was a HUGE help while they were here!!  She cleaned up after meals, put food away, washed dishes, made tea, prepared plates for my own children while I was in the back feeding Gibson. I was completely amazed to come out to find my kids totally fed and the kitchen all cleaned up when I was done feeding him.  SUCH A BLESSING!

9. SUE - a.k.a Mimi!  Where to even start?!?  She got the girls up and dressed on delivery day and got B to the neighbors house.  Took care of them the next day and brought them to the hospital to meet their brother.  She came back several days later and has helped me get all my Christmas decor out, taken the girls to school, done fun things with them every day, prepared dinner, cleaned up afterwards, bathed Gibson, done laundry, done dishes, cleaned our stroller, I could really go on forever.  Really, she has just made life so easy and given me a chance to get back to 100%.  She leaves tomorrow and I feel very "on top of things" and am totally healed.  I'm ready to take on these 3 kids!!  (At least until the next wave of relief arrives on Monday =))

This has been a very special Thanksgiving and one that will be hard to top!  Thank you to everyone who helped make it so special for us!!