Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving:

noun

1.

the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits orfavors, especially to God.

For those of you who are also Canadian like myself, you would've celebrated Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago.

This year was a first for Everly, like the majority of holidays have been. For our little family we have three Thanksgiving dinners to arrange, travel to and provide food for. As Thanksgiving approached I found myself getting very anxious, making lists upon lists so I could remember what we needed to take, what we were going to wear, timing everything out to accommodate Everly's naps etc. Not to mention she was also massively constipated and beyond cranky. Didn't want to see anyone but me or Mike fussing every other minute. I had three apple pies to bake and was planning on doing pumpkin pie bars as well. The day I scheduled to do the pies Everly was a needy little fuss face. I called in reinforcements to help watch her while I tried to do these pies. The end result was not what I has envisioned. I expected perfect pastry, perfect filling, sparkling clean kitchen, happy baby, happy mommy. And what I got was the exact opposite. My pastry was dry and flakey, I didn't season the filling as much as I should've, my tiny kitchen was a disaster zone, my baby was crying the whole time and I started getting stress, beyond stressed. I only ended up getting two pies done. Then of course she chose that weekend to hit her 8 month sleep regression. I thought I was going to go insane.

But as I sat up feeding and cuddling her in the middle of the night, I found myself thinking I need to slow things down. The more agitated I became the easier it was for everything to feel like they were falling apart. I wasn't enjoying the precious moments with my baby like I should be. In the blink of an eye she will be grown, not wanting to cuddle only me, but wanting to be off with her friends and arguing with me about clothing and hairstyle choices.

So as the weekend passed I tried to be in the moment as much as possible, enjoying time with Everly, Mike, and my family and instead of wishing the days away I longed for them not to end. I think its a philosophy we can all attribute to every day. Life is so fleeting, babies grow too quick and moments don't last long. So while we're here we need to enjoy every step of the ride. Embrace every situation and cherish every second with our families and loved ones.

As I write this Everly is on the floor practicing her crawling, which is really a modified version of the worm in which was wiggles backwards and tries to grab Misha's toys then barfs all over the carpet. But just the fact that she's become to mobile is insane to me. Just a few months ago I could hold her in my arms and she wouldn't wiggle or yell to get into a standing position or grab at my face and hair. She would just lay and look up at me with her big beautiful eyes. And while I find myself missing those days I can't tell you how much fun she is now. With her silly little personality, her "words" and facial expressions. She's just a little delight, my delight.

So I would challenge everyone reading this to focus on what Thanksgiving really is and focus on your blessed life rather than the stresses and hard times. God gives us one life to live and fills our hearts with love and joy.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend.