Day 1- December 1

Prompt from Think Kit by SmallBox: Did one photo encapsulate your year? Maybe it takes a gallery.  Go out and take a new one that represents your year if you need to.  Let's see those photos.


Im starting late on this, so have so me catching up to do. Being sick has put me behind a bit.

Not sure if one picture could sum up the entire year for us, but this one could come close. Our  little family of three was expanding to a family of four. I found out I was pregnant with our second in early February. We were so excited to say the least. Grant has been more than we could ever imagined he would be. He teaches us so many new things every day. Nothing even compares to being his parents. How could we be this blessed again?

  I have loved a lot of things in my past. Mostly going out and doing my own thing, with no where I had to be and no one to answer to and not having too much responsibility. Life is much different now. Im LUCKY to get to squeeze in a shower, go to the bathroom by myself, sleep in, spend extra money on something I do not need, or have an evening out with just my husband. But this amazing life is the one we have created. We are not fancy people, and that is an understatement! We do not dress all that fancy or have fancy things. and if we do, chances are it came from a garage sale or Craigslist. We are practical. We love a bargain and shop at garage sales!  We are sleep deprived most of the time....but most of all we are HAPPY!  We live a wonderful life. We love our home and our children to the end of the earth. I always want them to know how loved they are. Right now, nearly everything they do is pretty adorable. But I know there will come a time when I won't always love their choices and may not like them, but I will always love them.  To quote my all time favorite kids book " I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always,  As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be". Being a mom is the greatest thing I will ever accomplish. If someone were to ask me what I have done with myself, I can just show them this picture. There is no other accomplishment that will ever compare. If someone asked me 5 years ago about the things that make me happy, it would have been a much more shallow answer along the lines of a big house, nice car and expensive clothes. My definition of happiness now is chasing my rambunctious, very curious toddler around the house as he explores anything and everything and snuggling my sweet baby girl, and spending  my evenings at home with my wonderful husband discussing our day. It may sound simple, but thats what we are!

Now don't get me wrong, it's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time. I have days where my frustration is so high, I just want to scream or cry...or both. But those days get overshadowed by the days when I see Grant learning something new, or my sweet Millie smiling back at me. I have to take time every day to realize what I have and appreciate it in its entirety. I tell myself. " Someday we will laugh about this" and at the time, some of those things don't seem like they will ever be funny.

So this picture is our family of four. I don't care that Grant is squirming and won't sit still ( per his usual) or that I hardly ever want my picture taken and this one was taken before I could say " No just get the kids". I want to have pictures to show them someday of how proud I really was in that moment. Ross and I are so proud to be their parents, and its obvious here.