Gratitude

In 2006, my mom had a reaction to a flu shot that caused her temporary paralysis.  It started in her feet and moved up to her lungs.  As she went through rehab, she expressed her gratitude for all the little things in life.  She mentioned watching the monitors to make sure the beeps went up and down, she talked about how nice it was to be able to feed herself again and even just tie her shoe.

Just over a year later, I was on my mission and I was asked to give a talk on gratitude.  Her experience really opened my eyes to how lucky we really are!  Sometimes life is tough, but there is always something to be thankful for!!

Shortly after I gave my talk, Elder Eyring gave a talk at general conference encouraging everyone to start a gratitude journal.  I really took it to heart and wrote down something I was grateful for everyday of my entire mission.  I wish I could say that I continued that habit, but I slowly stopped. 

A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak to the young women about the topic of gratitude.  I wasn't super excited to go because Travis wasn't home and I had to figure out what to do with the girls, but I am so glad I went.  The girls asked some really great questions and helped my testimony grow!  I have been blessed with a positive outlook on life! 

We made gratitude journals that night and I am getting back into the habit of writing in it.  Today I am grateful for my family!  All of my family (except Andrew on his mission) was able to come to my house for Thanksgiving!  I am so glad that everyone gets along and we are able to see each other even if it is only twice a year.  (picture from this summer)

 I am thankful for my sweet girls!  People probably get tired of hearing it, but I love these girls soooo much!  They have taught me so much and helped me grow in ways I couldn't imagine!  I am grateful for their health and positive outlook on life!  (even though it isn't always easy!!)

I am thankful for Travis!  I was down with an excruciating migraine today and he took care of the girls all day!  He is the best dad and the girls love him to death!  I am grateful he is worthy to give me a priesthood blessing on days like today when I felt like I was going to die.  I am thankful he is such a hard worker to provide for our family!  And I am thankful he still puts up with me!!

I am grateful for such great friends!  I think back to my first couple months here in Ohio and how I hated it!  Not feeling like I had a place.  Now I have friends that will last a lifetime!!  And I am thankful for technology that allows me to keep in touch with those that have moved away!

I am thankful for my church and calling, a beautiful home, food to eat, clothes to wear, cars to drive, jobs to provide, and much much more!  I am a blessed lady!!

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year!!!  Every year seems to get more and more fun as Adelyn gets older and understands more of what is going on!

At church, I was in charge of putting on the annual Trunk-or-Treat.  Everyone said how fun it was, but I honestly didn't really get to enjoy it.  I was busy running a booth and making sure everything was running smoothly.  I did get to walk around with Adelyn after the Carnival activities were over to trick-or-treat with her, but she didn't even want to go with me.  :(  She wanted to hold her friend/babysitter Kensey's hand instead of mine.  I still followed her around though!

For her costume this year, I thought we would try to be original and not be one of the usual Princesses.  Adelyn was Little Bo Peep and Lila was her Lost Sheep.  Adelyn's friend Tayvia and her sister were dressed up as the same thing though!

I love dressing Adelyn up in frilly things so this was the perfect opportunity to go all out!!  I had a vision in my head and this costume was more than I imagined!  I don't know if we can ever top it!

On Saturday, Travis took Adelyn out trick-or-treating while I stayed home with a sleeping Lila and handed out candy.  Adelyn had a blast getting candy, but enjoyed passing it out to everyone even more!  She waited by the door waiting for someone to knock and would ask us if more kids were coming!

Over a week later, she still puts on her costume and asks to go to a Halloween party!  It is safe to say that she loves this holiday!!

Oh, Travis and I went to a fun Halloween/Back to the Future Party the week before.  I just barely watched the movie for the first time today!  I was Doc and Travis was Biff.  We had a blast and will miss the Thomanders when they move next month!  They always have the best parties and are the nicest people!

Young's Dairy Pumpkin Pickin'

I keep being reminded that I have not posted in over 2 months.  Oops.  Life has kind of been busy!  I guess that's what happens when you have more than one kid.  

Rather than catching up on everything right now, I will do a quick picture post of our most recent family outing.  On a typical day, Travis gets home around 6:45.  This past Thursday, he called at 4:30 and said he was 15 minutes away!  It was a gorgeous sunny day so I quickly got the girls ready and we headed to the pumpkin patch as soon as he got home.

It was a quick trip because I had a church leadership meeting that evening, but I am so glad we fit it in!  We planned on going the following Saturday and it ended up being chilly and drizzling that day.

Adelyn was so excited to ride the tractor to find her pumpkin.  She insisted on pulling the wagon all the way out in the field.  I was actually pretty impressed!

The pumpkins weren't very impressive this year.  They were all pretty small.  Adelyn insisted on putting as many as she could in our wagon!  Once it got too heavy, she hopped in!

After picking our pumpkin, we went to see the animals.  Adelyn loves all animals and is so brave!  She just walked up and started feeding the goats.  She wasn't scared at all with them eating right out of her hands!  

Of course while we were there, we had to get some of their famous ice cream!  It was oh so delicious!  Adelyn takes after me and has a huge sweet tooth!  It was a quick trip, but totally worth it!  I love this tradition of picking our own pumpkins!

My Little Cowgirl

Adelyn has been huge into horses lately!  She loves to watch My Little Pony and play with her horse figurines.  We even made her a My Little Pony potty chart!  One of her favorite things to do is go look at the horses down the road.  We have a metro park less than 5 minutes away from us and she loves to see all the animals.  I follow them on Facebook and saw that throughout the summer they offer pony rides to the kids that aren't old enough to take the lessons.

 I knew that Adelyn would love it so we got her dressed and ready to go!  She even found Travis' hat to top off the outfit!  We had to wait in a pretty long line, but it was worth it!  Adelyn loved being on the pony!  She had a smile on her face the whole time!

I want to take her back before the summer is over!

While on the subject, look at this Beautiful horse!

This is my Aunt Libby's new horse!  Her name is Amberlyn!  She is named after me and Adelyn!  At the beach this year, Aunt Libby kept telling me how much Adelyn and this horse had similar personalities.  They are sweet and spunky at the same time!  I love that she even has beautiful blonde hair!  Now I need to find a time to go visit Amberlyn!

Lila 4 Months

Yesterday marked 4 months of Lila being part of our family!  It doesn't seem possible that it has already been that long!  I feel like I just had her!  The first little bit was really tough with her, but things are finally starting to settle down!  We finally figured our her constant screaming was due to a dairy sensitivity and we have her on a reflux medication.  She is a lot happier, so we are too! I start back to work this week so we are going to throw everything off again!

We went to her 4 month well check this morning.  Lila is trying to beat all of Adelyn's stats!
Weight: 15 pounds, 66%
Height: 24.5 inches, 40%
Head Circumference: 41.5 cm, 76%

Everyone says she looks like a baby doll.  I think it is due to her perfectly round, bald head! Or her plump body!

While Lila has definitely been a tougher baby, I still describe her as sweet!  She doesn't feel well so I can't get mad at her.  But when she is happy, she is REALLY happy!

She loves attention and will smile at anyone!  When she does, her whole face lights up and it melts your heart!

At 4 months she is giggling (my favorite!), reaching for toys, tracking with her eyes and she has recently discovered her voice!  She loves to talk/yell all the time!

Her favorite person is me!  She loves to watch Adelyn play.  She likes going in the stroller but has to be in a certain mood for the baby carrier.  She loves to sit up and face out to see what is going on.

She has been sleeping about 11 hours at night and usually only wakes up for 1 feeding (but lately it has been more).  She has been taking 3 hours naps in the afternoon with little cat naps here and there.

My dad calls her Baby Rae, my mom calls her Marshmallow, Adelyn calls her baby Lila (pronounced Why-ya), I call her Lila, Lila Baby, sweetie pie or precious and Travis calls her Baymax (from Big Hero).  We love this little baby of ours!

Emerald Isle

Every year my side of the family gets together for a family reunion in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.  We have been going since I was Adelyn's age.  This year we got to introduce Lila to a life time of memories ahead.

We spent the week playing on the beach and getting to know the cousins.  Adelyn was so happy!  She would wake up every morning and the first thing she would say was "play water."  She loved being out on the beach!

We got there on Sunday and Adelyn convinced Nathan to take her down to put her feet in the water.  They came back to the house and she was wet up to her waist!  He said she kept dragging him in further and further.  Likely story!

The next day we got her swimsuit on and she had a blast!

She thought everyone was there for her entertainment! 

 She loved playing in the sand...

 

And going for walks...

  

And collecting shells!

 Lila didn't spend much time outside since she is too young to wear sunscreen and I was worried about the heat.  Travis and I had to take turns inside with her or have other family members keep her.  We don't have many pictures of her unfortunately. 

I like doing comparisons! It's not letting me put them side by side though. :(

Let's just take a moment to realize that this was Adelyn at almost a month older than Lila in these pictures!  We used to call her a chunky monkey! (not the best pic of Adelyn!!)

 But Lila took over that nickname!  She is a lot taller than Adelyn ever was!  They look soooo different and have such different personalities!

This was right after she put her feet in the ocean for the first time.  She didn't love it!

At the end of the week, we took family pictures.  Everyone moans and groans about doing it, but I LOVE having an updated picture.  I had a hard time keeping my eyes open because it was so bright, but other than that I think it was perfect!  It wasn't too sunny with weird shadows, the sand was flat and hard from the tide and the colors were pretty.  I love how they turned out!

I chopped my hair off (9 inches) the day before we left!

My parents with all the grandkids!

Everyone minus Andrew who is on a mission.  He will be in the next one!  This is my favorite family picture to date!

With all the different families and schedules and naptimes and time zone changes, we never had the whole family all together until the last day.  That Friday the weather was perfect, the ocean was calm, the kids were in good moods and everyone was outside.  It was by far my favorite day of the week!!  I loved that we were all together and that the kids were getting along and playing so well.  I remember doing the same thing with my cousins!  I will do a separate post of cousin pictures, but here are a couple from that day!

This picture cracks me up!  Look at how she is holding her hands!  There were times that she did not like her hands to get dirty...

And other times that I could not get her away from the sand!!

We all miss the beach and all the easy entertainment it offers!  Adelyn would play outside all day, everyday!  It makes me happy to have my girls share some of the same memories I had as a child!

We have taken this picture every year!

Travis with the girls.

And me with them!

 

I love going to the beach and spending time with my family!  I am grateful everyone gets along! It will get more and more fun as the girls get older! Thanks mom and dad for making it happen!

Fourth of July-Indianapolis

Warning:  I posted way too many pictures!

Travis told me on Thursday evening that he had off the next day for the fourth of July.  We made an impromptu trip to Indianapolis for the long weekend.  It was our first vacation as a family of four!

We left on Friday morning and drove straight to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  We wanted to get our money's worth so we stayed pretty much all day.  Adelyn did awesome considering she missed her nap all together! 

Tea Party with the three little bears!

She was facinated that the stars on her shorts lit up!

First carousel ride for both girls.  This was the best picture Travis could get. 

There were so many fun things to do!  If you have never gone, go!  It is huge and there is something for everyone!  Here she is loading "rocks," moving them with a pulley and stacking them!  So much fun!

Still in the construction zone!  This was her favorite area!

 Lila was a champ too!  Here we are taking a lunch break!

Adelyn is into dinosaurs right now and loved dressing up as one!  She was sitting on her eggs in this picture!

Daddy's biggest fan!  I can't tell you how much these two adore each other!

The Museum closed at 5 so we headed to our hotel.  We found a great deal and ended up staying right in the center of town!  I loved it!  After settling in, we went out to explore and grab some lunch.  Indianapolis is such a neat city!  It was very clean and not too crowded!  I felt completely safe walking around with my two girls where I don't think I ever would in Atlanta!  The city center had such neat architecture and classic feel!  We spotted this neat car!  It said just married on the back!

After dinner we found the cutest little frozen yogurt shop where we got a small treat and sat watching the people go by.

 

We retired to the hotel early to get this little one in bed.  She looks cute here, but it was a nightmare!  She did not want to go to sleep and she wanted to sleep in bed with us.  It was miserable!

Vacationing with kids is so much different than if it was just me and Travis!!  We were so laid back and go with the flow.  This is a huge change for me because I like to plan everything out and make the most of every minute!  I am learning that it is better to relax a little and meet the needs of everyone.  Everyone ends up much happier that way!

Adelyn hasn't been in a pool since she was a baby so I really wanted to take her.  As soon as we got up, we headed to the pool.  Adelyn had the time of her life!  Look at how happy these two are playing with each other!!

She did remarkably well considering she hates getting her hair washed!  We never let her go under all the way, but she almost did when she would jump in to Travis!

After checking out, we explored down town a little more.  I really did love the feel of the city! 

Our hotel was right on this street!

Adelyn loved all the places to explore!

After walking through the city, we went down by the canal.  I don't have any pictures on my camera, but we went on a paddleboat.  It was such a cute area!  Adelyn loved sitting on the back with me and hanging her feet in while Travis took us around! 

Since it was the Fourth, a couple museums we open free to the public!

I hardly took any pictures of Lila because she was always strapped to me.  This was back at the hotel!  We did not stay out for fireworks but we were able to see some from our room!

On Sunday we got up and drove by the new Indianapolis temple.  I wanted to get a picture by it but there was someone there blocking anyone from entering because it is not yet open to the public.  I had never heard of this before, but apparently they have people on watch because of protesting that surrounds the openings of temples.  I was sad we couldn't stop more.

After church we headed over to a park that was recommended to us.  We didn't realize it was more like a museum and it was more expensive than what it would be worth with the time we had left.  Instead we looked up a local park and it was perfect!

It had 3 nice play areas in the shade and a splash pad!  As we were driving, we saw so many nice parks.  I really was impressed with how clean the city was and how many free places there were to go with the kids!

I have only taken her to a splash pad once and she was not a fan!  This time she LOVED it!  I assume it's because it wasn't crowded and Travis went around with her! I love her faces!!

It was such a fun, quick trip!  The girls did great and it was a good family refresher for us!