Day 30 - Thankful for Thirty Days of Thanks

Thankful for our thirty day blogging adventure. It has been a wonderful experience. It has also been quite humorous. Of course a few days into our challenge our house got turned upside down, walls knocked out, our front yard torn apart, scared all of our neighbors! All the excitement had Declan sleeping about every two hours (THE WHOLE MONTH OF NOVEMBER!) and Jonathan's car died requiring a full engine rebuild and leaving us with one car right in the middle of the house projects. It was God just exhibiting his sense of humor! I think we did fabulously! Thank you to everyone who let us stay at their house, cooked for us, let us borrow their cars, offered to watch Declan so we could shop for a new car or checked in with us to see how we were doing and asked if we needed anything. We truly feel blessed to have all those wonderful people in our lives. Your generosity is appreciated more than you know.

Thankful that we have wonderful friends, near and far. Thankful that I joined Pi Beta Phi after transferring to UNM and meeting most of my best girls. I met the best of friends in that house. Thankful that Rachel and Jane have babies around the same age that we have grown closer and closer through the years. That now we are growing as women and raising our families nearby. Thankful for my family, my brother and sister, who really became more than just siblings, more like true friends and life companions. Thankful to have met my friend Liz at school my freshmen year of college, the best part of my year and that now we can share parenting Thankful for Camp Enchantment and our Camp E family. Thankful because that is where Jonathan and I met over ten and half years ago. Thankful for all the children that have blessed our lives and prepared us for parenthood! Thankful that we were able to love those that came to Camp Enchantment and grieve together when we lost one of our own. Thank you Camp Enchantment for blessing me with my husband. Also for some of the most inspirational people I have ever known. Thankful for those friends and family who know that my love language is quality time. That they make the effort to spend time with me and our family. Thankful that we had the opportunity to travel, explore and ramble all over the world. Thankful for our little blessing that is Declan. He is more than we ever prayed for, imagined and dreamed. We love you more than there are stars in the skies.
Thank you for all of you who have continued to read throughout our thirty day journey. Thankful that we, as a family, took the time and found a blessing each day to be thankful for, even though life had its challenges. Thank you to Jonathan for sharing in this experience with me and for being so passionate about this journey. I Love You.

Thankful for a photo that needs no explanation...

All the love in the world,
The Mommy Tree

Day 29 - Thankful for 5 Amazing Senses

I am thankful for my eyes – they let me see the beautiful world around me.  A world filled with my wife, with Declan, with Family and Friends that we love and cherish.  A world filled with interesting and unique things.  With strange and amazing people and animals.  A world with Declan speed walking around the house!

I am thankful for my hearing so I can...what?!...WHAT??  *pinky in ear*  ah better - so I can share in much laughter, stories and conversation.  So I can hear ‘I Love You!'  For music I can dance to.  For all of the baby cooing and noises, for the sound of the wind, the rain, our friend’s and family’s voices.

I am thankful for my nose and that wonderful baby smell!  I love that Tara makes our house smell like fall, winter, spring and summer with her essential oils and diffuser.  Cinnamon, Citrus, Wild Orange and so much more.  I am grateful that our home always smells like baked goods and cookies and other delicious things! 

I am thankful for my taste buds.  They let me experience the splendor of a kiss, the succulence of sweets and the savory goodness of a delicious meal.  For fresh Maple Syrup poured thick on a stack of homemade Pancakes!

I am thankful for my sense of touch – That I may hold my son and wife and embrace them with love and warmth.  That I can feel their little hands in my big hands.  That I can give hugs and show people how much I care about them.  That I have doggies to pet, with white soft fur.  That Declan loves running through the racks of clothes, arms outstretched, as much as I do.  The way the shower hits, the softness of a pillow, the feeling of clean sheets.  I am thankful for them all, for all the little things that let me take in the world and experience it to the fullest.

5 Amazing senses – now that is a gift from God.

If you agree - give me your best Halleluiah! in the comments.  (feel free to use whoo-hoo, woot, BOO-YA.  Whatever uncorks your enthusiasm - pop that sh#%!!)

Big Daddy Tree  

Day 28 – Thankful for not enough time…

  As we approach the end of our Thirty Days of Thanks, I find myself saying “AGH, I haven’t done blog posts on everything I wanted to do blog posts on!” If I haven’t posted about it yet, it doesn’t mean it/they aren’t important it means they are so important that I have too much to say and I just haven’t had the few hours that it would take to pour my heart out. That is the perfectionist part of me coming out, also the reason why I can’t seem to finish a scrapbook! Also our blogs have been time sensitive the last few days as our internet has stopped working. No signal, nothing. Not even super technology man Jonathan could fix a Comcast only problem. So at night we have been driving to the parking lot of Flying Star, finding an unsecured network and hurrying to upload a photo or two and our post. So silly. Hopefully that is the third of the three things that is going to break for us…cross your fingers. 

  So today I am thankful for having people, opportunities and experiences that are so heartwarming, beautiful and memorable, that I have too much to say and too much love to fit in a few paragraphs. I pray that I will have some time tomorrow (during nap time?!) to write a few posts!

Just a few random thankful thoughts: Thankful for a delicious dinner that Jonathan made tonight.

   

  Thankful for a job that I love and the ability to work with truly amazing people, especially my friend Carla who I have worked with since the beginning and starting next week we will be working opposite schedules, WAAAAAAA so sad, so blessed to know her. Thankful for the friendships that I have developed with these great women that are my coworkers. Thankful for my friends and family’s health. Thankful that Declan is someplace safe and being loved by his Grandma when we are at work. Thankful for my friends who live out of town and the ability to use the phone, email, facetime to communicate and stay in touch. Thankful for my dearest of friends. I miss you terribly. Thankful that I am living with my best friend. Thankful for our beautiful baby boy, who has inherited his father’s ability to make others laugh. Thankful for the giggles that are happening as our little boy takes a bath. Thankful for many wonderful people and thankful things and not enough time. 

Love The Mommy Tree

Day 27 – Thankful for Half Baby-Daddy Days!

Today was one of my most favorite work days EVAR!  It’s a day when I get to leave work at 12:00 p.m. and spend the day with Declan.  I am so thankful for these days!  They come every 4 weeks and we always have an absolute ball.  We got to hang out with our mechanic Wayne and went for a run with Josh.  We learned all about what’s going on with my 4runner engine rebuild and admired the new parts that had come in.  Declan was keen to get his mitts on one of the engine mounts.  Then we played in the house, rocked the guitar, and Declan took a sweet 75 minute nap!  While he slept, I tried to fix our internet which went offline a couple days ago.  Then we sauntered outside, bumped into a neighbor, and had a lovely chat with her and her adorable Chihuahua Lola!

 It was an absolutely delightful afternoon.  And of course, the best part is when Tara gets home! Hooray!!!

-Big Daddy Tree

Day 26 – Thankful for an extra week of the Christmas Season!

Woohoo! Thanksgiving was a week earlier this year, which means bring on the Christmas carols, holiday decorations, candy cane Joe Joes, hot chocolate, peppermint mochas and toasted marshmallow hot chocolate, matching Santa hats for our whole family, Christmas arts and crafts, Holiday movies and books, time with family and friends! Thankful that we get an extra week of this fabulous season. I LOVE THIS SEASON!!!!! Beyond love, actually. Ha! One of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. My holiday season starts October 1^st and goes till at least New Year’s. Anytime in there is fair game for Christmas carols and once Starbuck’s starts with the Pumpkin Spice Latte the avalanche of holiday fun starts! 

This year is going to be even better than any year before because well life gets better every day. Besides that, this year we have Declan! Truthfully he makes everything more fun! Although on a little side note we have been sleeping miserably in our house (worse and more sleep deprived than when he was a newborn…) So we are working really hard to make sure he is well loved, cuddled, snuggled before bedtime. However, we are cutting two more top teeth…which we would like to believe is our culprit. Anyways….that is not dampening our holiday spirit! 

Today we had some hilarious moments with Declan! Tonight at Costco Jonathan set him down on the piles of clothes to look for his size. Declan proceeded to climb all the way over to the sign and laugh the whole time. So did we…the lady folding clothes the next table over, not so much. He also knew exactly what to do when Jonathan sat down with him at the piano, he just started banging away. Oh and he also was flirting up a storm with the six ladies behind us in the return line…and waving at anyone and everyone! He is hilarious and most definitely his father’s son!

Hope everyone is having a hilarious and happy week so far! Oh and leave your favorite holiday movie in the comments!!!

Love and Laughter,

Tara