Thankful

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write it out. I've been feeling so thankful lately, not just because of Thanksgiving last week, but also because of the big changes made to my life a couple of weeks ago. Here's what I've been thankful for lately:

1. Our daughter. Despite not having many chances to sleep and moments of feeling like a cow, I am so, so, so grateful for our beautiful baby girl. 
2. Smooth pregnancy/delivery. I'm so thankful the entire pregnancy went smoothly and the delivery was complication-free. On a similar note, I'm also thankful for modern medicine :)
3. An amazing husband and happy marriage. In addition to our daughter's arrival, our 4th wedding anniversary was earlier this month - I'm so happy I get to share my life with my best friend. I can't even begin to describe how great a husband he is, and he's already such a fantastic father.
4. Supportive friends and family. We're so grateful for all the ways family and friends have helped us as we adjust to life with a newborn, especially by providing some meals and helping with housework. I'm also so thankful that both Matt and I have great relationships with our parents, siblings, grandparents and in-laws.
5. My boss. I'm so, so thankful for a boss that's so understanding and encouraging. It's hard to believe I've been with the same company for 6 years, and from the day I told my boss I was pregnant she's been so supportive and excited for me and our expanding family.
6. Matt's job. It's so great he has a job he enjoys and that provides what we need. 
7. Giants winning the World Series again. I love the team the Giants put together this year, and I was so happy they won again this year.
8. Cold, rainy weather. I just love this time of year - whether I'm bundled up inside listening to rain on the skylight or venturing outside to enjoy experiencing it for myself.
9. Our house. I'm so grateful we were able to buy the house we bought. At the moment it's perfect for us and hasn't needed a lot of work done to it.
10. Resources available to us. We live in a time and place with so many resources available to us, and I'm so glad we can use some of them.
11. God's grace. I know I mess up a lot. I'm so grateful for God's grace, and the grace of those that forgive me for my mistakes.
12. My iPhone and its apps. My phone is certainly very handy for connecting online when both hands and lap isn't available.
13. Chocolate chip cookies. C is for cookie, that's good enough for me :)

I know there's a lot more I am thankful for, but that's all I've got right now - my favorite daughter is calling for me :)

We're Moving!

That's right, we're moving again. It's kind of funny, I've lived in 4 different cities within 13 months. Haha. So the scoop is that there is a church in the Olympia area that said they'd be happy to have Matt help out, and while we were trying to decide whether or not this was God guiding us to move, Matt found an apartment in the area that was having a great deal on a complex that was much nicer than we expected to find. We applied a couple of days ago (on our way back up from Thanksgiving in Portland) and just found out that as of today the apartment is ours. We took that, in addition to a couple of other instances of convenient timing, as God making his direction a little more clear for us. We have a little bit overlap with our current place which will make moving a bit easier, too.

Thanksgiving was great! We headed down to Portland where Matt's sister and brother-in-law live with their son - the cutest nephew I've ever had and my current favorite (above with Matt, below with Matt's parents). Matt's parents and brother also drove up from California, so it was fun to get to see them, too. The food was delicious, and we had a great time hanging out, shopping, playing Apples to Apples and watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox. 

And, just for fun, here are couple of links. Enjoy!

• The Geekiest Wedding Cakes EVER - http://is.gd/59GHU (my favorites are the TaunTaun Cake and the Star Trek Cake).
• The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody - http://bit.ly/800ulO.
• A cool way of making music - http://tinyurl.com/cqkc8l.
  

Happy November!

It's hard to believe Matt and I have been married for a year already. Well, almost. Our anniversary is Sunday (the 15th), so to celebrate we're going to Cleveland. We picked Cleveland nearly 6 months ago when Matt found cheap tickets to the game on the 16th. Not only is it the day after our anniversary, but it's going to be on Monday Night Football! Be sure to watch for us on TV - we'll be the two Browns fans on the 3rd deck in the corner. I'm sure you won't be able to miss us (haha).

This time of year always seems to go so quickly for me. In fact, the last couple of weeks have seemed to fly by, despite our wide-open schedule. Here are a few activities I've found to keep myself busy around the apartment:

Stacking the Mannatech pills that were sitting on our coffee table (I hadn't gotten around to putting them away):

...and watching them fall:

Borrowing 3 of the 4 Twilight Saga books from the library:

...and then reading them so quickly I wanted to read the 4th book before it came in to the library. I kind of broke down and talked Matt into buying the 4th book for me on his Kindle (it was half the price of even one of the books):

 

Watching Matt's Xbox avatar play with his pom-poms:

 

We'll see what the rest of the month has in store for us and what other ways I can keep myself entertained around the apartment...

I'm so excited for the holidays coming up! This is my favorite time of year...it's cold, wintery, Christmasy...there are 2 holidays within 2 months that call for delicious food. Plus it looks like we'll be able to see family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, thinking about Christmas gets me thinking about that song we used to sing in Sunday School ("Christmas comes but once a year, I wish it could be more..."). But it still seems a bit too early to start in on the Christmas wonderfulness. Perhaps after Thanksgiving...