Thanksgiving 2010

This might seem strange, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that it is the start of the holiday season and that it is about being thankful and spending time with family. The fact that there is tons of yummy food does not hurt either.

This year was our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Clifford side of the family. We started the festivities at Grandpa and Grandma Clifford's house. Not only was the food delicious, but the company was great too. Merrick is now at the age where he enjoyed playing with Jeremy's cousin's kids and exploring the backyard.





We are also able to take the opportunity to take some family pictures. We were just missing Uncle Bryce, who is on his mission in California.




The food and the fun wore most of us out.



After a quick power nap we headed to my grandparents to see some of my family and let Merrick play with other cousins. After some time there we headed out and rounded out the day with a stop at Carolyn's cousin's house. The boys all watched James Bond and the girls looked through the Black Friday ads. Again, there was someone just Merrick's size to play with.

By the time we made it home we were all exhausted, but it was the perfect Thanksgiving full of family, food, and fun.

P.S. The pictures were taken with our new camera...I love it!

Sedona

Last week Jeremy finished his law school applications. This has been such a stressful time and it was such a relief to push send on that last applications. As a celebration of getting past this hurdle, we spent the weekend as a family in Sedona. My grandparents have a time share we were able to go to and it felt so nice to be away and be together.

We spent time by the creek watching the current and ducks swim by.



We played on the playground on the property


We swung on the big swing



We also went to the shops, went swimming in the indoor pool, and just walked around.


More than anything it was just nice to be together.

Outside

Our camera problem is not yet solved, but luckily I was able to borrow my sister's camera for a few days. I just had to get some pictures up of Merrick out in the backyard. Sorry they are a little blurry. I guess I am camera challenged when I am not using my own camera.

So my child is completely obsessed with "outside". When he wakes up in the morning that is one of the very first things that he says. When we are inside he stands at the back door with his face pressed up against the glass and just stares out.

Needless to say, now that the weather is nice, we spend large chunks of each day outside. The funny thing is that he really is not interested in doing anything while out there, he just wants to walk around and look at things. Even at the park he would prefer to walk around than to swing or go on any slides.

It makes me happy to see the joy on his face when I tell him we are going outside. I hope he continues to find joys in such simple things as he grows.

The Bitter with the Sweet

The interesting thing about blogging and something I have definitely noticed in some of the blogs I follow is the tendency to only talk about the good and sweep the bad under the rug. The problem with this is that we all have challenges, but you read these blogs and it appears that nothing hard, stressful, or frustrating ever happens. I also understand that for some people, including myself, blogging is a way to not only keep a record as time passes, but a way to focus on the good and be positive and grateful for one's blessings. It is a fine line to walk.

I was prepared today to specifically talk about some the challenges we have had in the last few month with Jeremy applying to law school and a few other things, but as I began typing and was listing out the negatives I thought of how ungrateful I was being in a month when it is particularly important to focus on being grateful. Instead, it suffices me to say that our life is not perfect and we have challenges, but we are also VERY blessed.

One last thing, you may have noticed that there are no pictures in this blog. That is because one of our more recent challenges is that our camera broke, but hopefully we will resolve that and be back up and running again soon.

Halloween 2010

I have been feeling the pressure from a number of sources to get some Halloween pictures up here...so here we go.

This year Merrick dressed up as a lion. I got the costume from my sister and two of my nephews had worn it in the past, but Merrick looked so cute that I just could not resist. On Saturday night we went to both Jeremy's parents' and our own trunk-or-treats. Merrick's favorite part of the night was definitely the food. We had two stops of nachos, chili, and hot dogs and he ate and ate (you will notice the food on his face in the pictures). He is still a little young to understand the trunk-or-treating, but he had fun walking around and liked to hold his pumpkin with his candy off and on.

Merrick was such a trooper about his costume. He never complained through all the times we took it on and off to get in and out of the car. He never pulled at it or tried to take it off during the night. This was truly amazing because it was quite warm out, low 80's to high 70's. It was not until we took the costume off to go home that we realized that the poor baby was drenched in sweat.

Despite the heat stroke, I think we all had a good time. I already have his costume for next year picked out, but I think I will keep you in suspense.