Thank you for Thanksgiving

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving this year, I have so many things to be thankful for. As a teenager I was a nice girl but definitely opinionated. My Mom would say much of that can be credited to my 3rd-6th grade teacher, Mr. Downey. He wore salmon pink polo shirts and jeans, with a short ponytail and glasses. He played Queen during reading time and threw starbursts at us when we answered questions correctly. When we had sore throats he let us suck on hard candy and he always let us decorate our room like a jungle or rain forest. I adopted a lot of his mannerisms being around him 7 hrs a day 5 days a week and to this day I write my eights using two circles instead of the traditional figure eight, like he did. I can only imagine how hard it was for my parents not to slap me silly for talking back so much. I'm thankful that growing up I was allowed to wear my jean skirt, hooded sweater and skater shoes to church. (I'm thankful that they curbed me but didn't completely shut me down.) I'm thankful for sisters that let me sleep in their beds, brought me home subway sandwiches to share after work, who on my birthday, away at a basketball tournament, bought me a stuffed animal so I new she didn't forget. I'm thankful to have been told to "go play outside" a time or to that developed my love for tree climbing and pine cone throwing and spear fern fighting. I'm thankful for brothers who let me ride their scooters, play legos and paint models. For tying my barbies to plastic garbage bags and throwing them off the sky bridge or balcony(convincing me the whole time it was a parachute and she'd be fine). I'm thankful for memories and laughter. For family, for fun. For Husband and daughters. For fast cars and the color brown. Mostly I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who placed me in a family that I fit in perfectly. For a Savior who forgives me for all my imperfections and for the Spirit that helps me understand my feelings and untangles the questions in my mind. So mostly this post was a rambling of thoughts and thanks! And in the end I'm just Thankful for Thanksgiving !

All Hallows Eve

Harley's decided to throw trantrums, she arches her back, throws her hands in the air and SCREAMS so I've tried to let her be on the floor a more lately. I always told myself that my kids would be really nice and very well behaved and then my 3 almost 4 month old throws a tanrum. Now I see how easy it is to fall into bad habits, and realize how much control it takes to not hold her all the time and let her learn a little independence. Friday night we tried to let Harley cry herself to sleep. After 15 minutes of what felt like a lifetime of screaming, we gave in and picked her up. The minute she was in my arms she became dead weight, took a few ragged, sad breaths and was out like a light in less than 30 seconds. So my goal for this week is to try to teach our spoiled infant how to put herself to sleep, and to figure out how NOT to cry along with her.

Harley Jane was a ferocious tiger for Halloween. She got extremely mad the first time I tried to draw a black nose on her! The heart nose I drew on when she passed out in the car!