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blessed Christmas season! 

30 Things I'm Thankful For

It's November. You know what that means, right? Yup. It's my birthday month! No? That's not what you were going to say? Right. It's November. That means everyone thinks about what they're thankful for, which is great. But it's a lot of pressure too. That's because there are people out there who are posting their things of thanks daily on Facebook. There are people who are blogging daily about what they're thankful for. I should be able to do it too, right? Wrong. Not this month. 

November is also the month of crazy in our world...the world of teachers. Conferences, benchmarks to meet, not to mention regular every day things. And at home-the ins and outs of "just being"- made it a bit difficult for me to get in the routine of writing daily. Yes, it's an excuse, but it is the truth for me this month. 

So instead of letting the month pass by without acknowledging what is happening tomorrow, I thought I would compile my list of 30 things tonight. So here it goes...in no particular order, of course.

30 Things I'm Thankful For

1. My husband, who loves me more than I can express
2. My house
3. Warm fall days when I can play outside with the kids
4. My kids
5. Moments when my kids are selfless and do things for others without being asked
6. Laughter
7. Ice cream
8. No schedules on the weekend
9. My friends
10. Little boys who love to snuggle
11. Little girls who love to sparkle
12. Mammas and Papas who live close
13. The beach
14. Healthy kids
15. Smiles
16. Shopping
17. Doctors that give you good news!
18. Ours kids' singing voices-both at home and in church
19. Calm-no mater where we are
20. Sparkly things (you know where A gets it from!)
21. Music
22. School-going to school to learn, teaching at school, going to my kids' school-all things school
23. Comfortable shoes
24. Vacations-vacation days, summer vacation, family vacations, couple vacations-all sorts
25. Food
26. Confidence in myself, my kids, my husband, my family
27. The ability to write
28. Flowers
29. My parents who support and love me unconditionally, as only a mom and dad could
30. Jesus

These are my 30 days of thanks, condensed by being written all in one day. But it's not about the way you do it, it's about the fact that I did it. Taking time really think about the things I'm most thankful for-no matter how big or small-taking the time to make my list here and now; it's the best thing I could do today!

Fall is...

Fall is...

 jumping in big piles of leaves.

 Fall is...

 raking over and over.

 Fall is...

 leaves in my hair.

 Fall is...

 "Did you see that jump?!"

 Fall is...

 saying goodbye to shade.

 Fall is...

 getting ready for the next big pile.

 Fall is...

 fun, because we have each other!

First Grade Photos

I love watching the progression of school photos as the kids get older. Here are this year's photos, cute as always! (at least to this biased mommy)

I always analyze these photos, wondering if we need to do retakes. A sits up so straight in this one, but I can only imagine the photographer saying, "Ok, sit up straight!" And then there's C, big boy smile and missing teeth to boot. Man, when did they start growing up?! Stop already!!

Another note from C

I love my son. Always. Forever. Especially when he writes sweet notes like this one: