30 Days of Thanks

There are lots of blogging ideas out there but one of the ones I came across this morning that I really liked was: Blogging each day for the 30 days of November something you are thankful for.

So here I am catching up to this a few days late but I totally want to join in on this little trend...

4 things I'm thankful for for November 1-4:

Day 1: My husband.  My hardworking hubby has brought so much joy to my life from the very first time we met at The Squire almost 8 years ago.  I never knew what it felt like to be loved and cared for so much before I met him.  I am the kind of girl that daydreamed and prayed to fall in love every single day before I met him.  He provided me with the love story I believe everybody deserves.  I'm so lucky to have him by my side through every up and down that we encounter.  He's an incredible daddy, friend, son, son-in-law, brother, brother-in-law and employee.  He is passionate about everything he does and I admire his commitment to everything he puts his heart into.  He loves life and the people in it.  How lucky am I!?  I know.  That's why he's my number one thing I'm thankful for!

Day 2:  Braden and Gracie.  These two little humans have changed my life to the utmost level of happiness.  As much as I daydreamed about my love story I also daydreamed about being a mommy.  The thing is, I couldn't have imagined how great it was going to be.  These little beings have made my life so complete that it hurts.  Their cheeks can't be kissed enough.  Their hands can't be held long enough.  My eyes can't stop looking at them.  I am so in love with B and Gracie Girl that I sometimes can't imagine my heart won't burst at any second.  I'm blessed and I know it.

Day 3:  Other blogging mommies!  Okay, the first two were super sentimental - I don't think I can keep up with that for 30 days :)  My days are filled with "my life" and "my day-to-day happenings" that it's fun to check in with Hilary, Amy, Kate (yes, I'm a fan - so what!?), Lisa, Tessa, Jess, and Stef every day or so to see what kind of things they are up to.

Day 4: My real life mommy girlfriends.  The ladies I spend most of my time with are pretty darn awesome.  I think it is pretty rare as an adult to find a group of ladies that like to have the same kind of fun that you do and are in the same place in life that you are.  I'm not sure if this statement is true or not but I'm going to say that it is.  I'm so thankful to have girls I can call on when I have something to brag about, something to cry about, something to worry about, something to smile about and most importantly when I need to have some fun.  So thank you ladies, I'm so thankful for you and all that you have brought into my life!

Happy November Everyone!

Happy Birthday to....Me!

Thirty-One wonderful years ago (yesterday - I had too much fun celebrating that I didn't get a chance to post this!) my dear mother gave birth to the one and only...ME!

For 31 years I have enjoyed celebrating my birthday as big as can be!  I'm an attention lover - so this day is the best of the year for me.  It's all about me!  Ha - I think it's taken me 31 years to be able to say that out loud without feeling guilty :)  I mean, why not... I love this "holiday".  I love everyone calling and wishing me a happy day.  I love getting cards in the mail.  I love presents and flowers and all the special thoughts that people give me and, of course, I love the cake and ice cream that goes along with celebrating!  Ever since I was a little kid, I have always felt like the world has stopped and it's a day all about me (thanks mom and dad!).  I think every person should feel this way on their birthday.

Luckily for me my handsome hubby subscribes to the same birthday philosophy as my parents do and has treated me like a queen every birthday that we've spent together.  He has created amazing birthdays for me every year.  On my first birthday we were together he baked me a purple birthday cake and it has become tradition since.  His creations get better and better with each cake he's made.

Every year I am baked the most yummy and most purple 

birthday cake you can hope for.  Pete is quite the "cake boss" and has the ability to decorate a cake better than anyone I know.  On top of my annual cake that I have to look forward to, he always gets me amazing presents (which he wraps better than anyone I know.  He makes me dinner, cleans the kitchen and lets me do whatever I want.  He allows me to drag my holiday out across the week it falls.  I know what you are thinking - how did I get so lucky and where can you find someone like that - sorry ladies, he's mine!

This year my birthday week is filled with love from family and friends across my life.  I'm so lucky to have each and every one of you and am grateful for all the love and celebration you are providing for me this week!

Bunco and Swimming and HTML...oh my!

You might be wondering - What have we been up to since Tuesday?  In my ideal world I have all sorts of followers wondering what we've been up to and hoping for a new post today.  Ha!  I know that's probably a little far fetched since this is, what, my 5th or 6th post since I "re-joined" the blogging world?  Well with all the efforts and confusion and complaining I have put on to my poor husband about figuring out the layout and menu bar and links to my blog I certainly hope that this is interesting to somebody out there :)

I owe my husband a little shout out for being so awesome.  He knows EXACTLY what to say to talk me off the edge of insanity when it comes to just about anything.  I admit I have the tendency to *freak out* here and there.  I get fixated on things being clean or organized or looking the right way.  My handsome, hard-working hubby manages to remind me to "not sweat the small stuff" and he ALWAYS offers to help out!  Is this lucky or what?  Anyways - his most recent awesomeness happened yesterday when I was freaking out about how much I didn't understand HTML and fonts and links and uploads and all the things that I envy about other people's blogs.  He listened (or read - since we were typing to each other - you can still be awesome over the computer!!) and then reminded me that he was going to help and that we'd figure it out together and to remember all the little things.  And most importantly he reminded me that this is blog v1.0 and that the "upgrade" v.2.0 was going to be even more awesome.  So, with that said people...I promise this blog will be more entertaining that just us Fox stories soon enough. I want links (pintrest, other blogs, recipes, DYI projects) and fun fonts and pictures edited...we'll see one step at a time!

Alright a quick summary of where we've been...

Wednesday: Braden had school so Gracie and I went to Target.  Love that store.  After preschool pick up we had lunch, naps, I did too much blog reading/editing/envying.  We had spaghetti for dinner, kids went to bed and then Pete and I watched waaay too many episodes of Sons of Anarchy.

Thursday: Braden had swim lessons and SWAM by himself for the first time.  He is literally a FISH suddenly.  I'm in love with watching him do it.  He's so proud of himself and it makes me so proud to watch.  Afterwards we went to Stop and Shop and bought these seriously delicious looking cupcakes that I sometime want to be able to make (picture to follow).  Then I was a crazy lady throughout nap-time and spent the entire time trying to change my layout (do you like it!?) and add a menu/tabs bar (clearly not successful yet!).  After nap I cleaned and cleaned and chased the kids around to get the house all set up for Bunco - which I was hosting.  We ate pizza for dinner (I had big cooking plans but then realized that I had cleaned the house and wasn't about to mess up the kitchen!), kids to bed and then the ladies came over to play Bunco.

A couple pics from the last couple of days...

Gracie's enjoying a few snacks and smiles at Target

yummy cupcakes - clockwise Braden's, Momma's, Gracie's, Daddy's