Our Thankful ABC's

Saunders and I brainstormed an ABC list of some of the things we're thankful for this year. We've got so much to be thankful for that this isn't even a complete list, but it is a good start!

A is for…

Amanda- Katie Anne’s teacher. She does such a great job with the kids. We appreciate that she reads with the kids every day, plays music and dances with them, does tons of art projects with them, buys them treats with her own money, and is kind and sweet. I love it when I walk in Katie Anne’s class and see her art work all over the walls, snapshots Ms. Amanda has taken of her playing on the bulletin board, and her playing happily with friends. She told us the other night that the only people who were nice were “Anana and Gingo” (Amanda and Ginger). :)

B is for…

Brothers. We love Greg and Carlton! They are both fun-loving, easy-to-get-along with guys that we love to talk to and hang out with. We are even luckier that Greg and Carlton are such great friends outside our familial relationships, because it makes hanging out together even more fun. We are very lucky to be so close to both our siblings. We’re thankful that Katie Anne has two kind and fun uncles!

C is for…

Cars. We have two reliable, paid-for cars that never give us a minute’s trouble. (Well, the Element resents being called a car… it prefers to be known as an SUT, but I think that’s pushing it.) Our cars are pretty nice, hold a lot more than it looks like they would, and safely get us where we need to go. And- a big plus during the high gas phase- they get great gas mileage!

D is for…

Dogs. Even though they sometimes drive us nuts, we are grateful for Abby and Ginger! Their little antics crack us up, they are very loving and cuddly, and Katie Anne just adores them. Sometimes they are stinky, and sometimes they destroy things, but they are always happy to see us when we walk through the door.

E is for…

Eating. We are grateful for delicious food! At Thanksgiving, all your festivities are focused around food and family, and that’s so nice. Although we’re so stuffed later, we’re so excited to eat all that yumminess! We are so thankful for plenty of food to feed our family, too. We are fortunate that going hungry is not a worry for us, and Katie Anne always has plenty of food on her table.

F is for…

Friends. We have great supportive friends that add so much to our lives. Our friends support us, care for us, rejoice in our successes, and lift us up when we’re down. I tried to make a list of our helpful, generous friends, and I realized there are too many to try to list, and that’s truly something for which to be thankful!

G is for…

Grandparents. We are so thankful for Gigi, Granddad, VJ, and Doc. All their help and support is invaluable! They are always ready to lend a hand to our family, and we are lucky to live within just a few miles of both of them. When I think of raising a toddler many miles away from our parents, I cannot imagine how hard that would be. We could not do it without the grandparents! We are glad that Katie Anne has a big, loving extended family to grow up around.

H is for…

Home. We are so grateful for our lovely house and the shelter it provides. Of course, there are projects we’d like to do, but it really is our dream home. We’re thankful that we have room to grow our family without having to move again for a long time.

I is for…

Internet. We’re so thankful for the internet! It is truly an integral part of our lives. It’s hard to remember life without it! We use the internet to keep up with friends and family, get news and information, and just look at funny videos on YouTube! And, of course, we couldn’t blog without internet access!

J is for…

Jobs. We are so thankful for our careers. In today’s economy, it is a wonderful thing to be employed and have a reliable income. We both are lucky enough to work at places we enjoy, doing things that challenge us, with people we like, and that’s something for which to be thankful!

K is for…

Katie Anne! Of course, we are the most thankful for our precious baby girl. I was looking at pictures of last year, and she has grown up so much since last Thanksgiving that it’s amazing. Katie Anne adds so much to our lives… so much joy, so much fun, so much craziness! We could not imagine our lives without her.

L is for…

Laughter. It seems that Saunders and I are always laughing together, with Katie Anne, with family, and with friends. We love to laugh and are grateful for the joy in our lives!

M is for…

Marriage. We are thankful for our happy marriage. In December, we will have been married for five years, and in January, we’ll have been together for ten years! Although we have our fights like any normal couple, we truly make each other happy and have a great time together. We agree on so many things and work together toward common goals very easily. We think we make a pretty good team. :)

N is for...

New Couch! We got our new couch this year, and we are very thankful for it. We were so tired of the old couches, and they were looking rough and feeling uncomfortable. The new couch is big enough for the whole family to stretch out on, and the new arrangement gives Katie Anne more room to play.

O is for…

Organization & Order. I am very thankful for organization and order because it makes my life easier! Saunders is thankful that I love to organize and keep things orderly! I spend a lot of time getting things neat and keeping them that way, and I get very sad when things are messy. We both agree that a neater house makes for happier people, and we’ve finally found a balance between my OCD-ness and Saunders’s messiness!

P is for…

Photographs. Anyone who knows this family knows we love our pictures. My pictures make me so happy. I love to go back and look at pictures of my childhood, teen years, our courtship and wedding, Katie Anne’s first year… it just brings back all those fun memories. We are so thankful to have the digital technology to preserve all the good times in photographs for enjoyment years from now!

Q is for…

Quiet. Now that Katie Anne is a little fireball of energy, we are thankful for those few peaceful hours between her bedtime and our bedtime! Especially after spending a loud day in a small room with twenty six-year-old chatterboxes, spending a little time in silence is a good thing for me. We really value those precious hours of quiet time!

R is for…

Reading. We are so fortunate that both Saunders and I are big readers, and we’ve passed that love on to Katie Anne. A love for reading is the number one predictor of school success, and we are so happy KA loves to read! Our house is filled with books, from toddler board books to beautiful picture books to crafty books to education books to philosophy books to business books to novels and nonfiction! We read all kinds of things. Saunders and I both love to spend time in the evenings, laying around on the couch or in bed, reading quietly. So relaxing!

S is for…

Sister-in-Laws. We have two wonderful sister-in-laws, Jillian and Trisha. Neither Saunders nor I ever had a sister growing up, so it is so fun adding two girls to our family! I personally am so thankful that they’re so creative and love crafts, because we have a lot in common and can bounce ideas off each other. We are very fortunate that Katie Anne gets to grow up with two fun and loving aunts!

T is for…

Tivo. We got our Tivo this year, and it has completely changed our life! Well, maybe not our life, but it has completely changed the way we watch tv. Now, we never miss shows that we used to not be able to watch. Being able to Tivo Sesame Street has been great, too. We’re not home in the morning when it is shown, so Katie Anne watches “Hermie” as she calls it (she means Murray, the puppet who starts the show) in the evenings. Saunders loves Tivo because he can really analyze the football plays on UGA Saturdays. I love it because I can go to bed and still watch the good shows that come on from 10:00 – 11:00 pm!

U is for…

United States. We are so grateful to live in The United States of America! We live in the greatest country in the world and have so many opportunities, and that’s an amazing birthright.

V is for…

Volunteers. Since I’ve been sick, we’ve been privileged enough to have friends and family volunteer to help us out. Family members have brought food, picked up Katie Anne, helped watch her in the evenings, done household chores, picked up things from the grocery store, driven me places when I couldn’t drive, etc. My friends at work totally picked up the ball when I was out for seven days and helped the sub, wrote almost all of my lesson plans for me for the next three weeks, and cut out/copied tons of fun Christmas activities for my kids to do in December. We are so thankful for the help we’ve received- it is greatly needed and appreciated!

W is for…

Wii. We love the Wii! The Wii has been the most fun gaming system that we’ve played in a long time, and we can’t wait until Katie Anne is old enough for us to play together.

X is for..

Xenodocheionology. (That means a love for hotels and inns.) We do love to travel, and we love to stay at great hotels and unique inns, so I guess we’ve got a case of xenodocheionology! We’ve been fortunate to take some amazing trips together- New York, the Bahamas, Florida, Jackson Hole, the Carolinas, Arizona, Las Vegas, and more. We love to take trips, go places, and have adventures. We’re so thankful for all the neat and exciting places we’ve been!

Y is for…

Yard. When we moved into this house, our yard was horrible… I mean, embarrassment-of-the-neighborhood horrible. We had a ton of work done on it, and I spent hours and hours of my maternity leave watering the new grass, and now we have a beautiful backyard for our kids to enjoy.

Z is for…

ZZZZ’s! We’re grateful for getting plenty of sleep because Katie Anne is a great sleeper. She goes down between 7:00 – 7:30 each night, and she sleeps until 7:00 – 8:00 each morning (or until we wake her up to go to work). She’s been sleeping this way since summer of 2007, and we’re quite lucky compared to other parents of babies and toddlers! Now, I'm off to get some of those wonderful zzz's myself!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!