Thankful

There are a ton of things to be thankful for this year. Some are big ones like a healthy family, a warm house, and happy, smart kids. Others are smaller and more subtle and those are the ones I'd like to mention:

Ella's sweet smile up at me when we went with Will to see the high school theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. She loved seeing real people sing and dance with so much energy. They did a really great job.

When Alex gets really angry he growls "Noooooo!" real loud and points his finger at you. Cracks me up.

Will doing a great impression of a sloth during charades on family night.

Ella crawling down the stairs on her tummy.

Will creating a whole pop-up book on the different zones in the ocean and the animals in them.

Alex requesting before and after each nap to have his "neigh neigh" and "baket".

Will and Ella both discussing the pilgrims and indians during Thanksgiving.

Alex playing with Thomas trains and saying "woo hoo hoo" with a giggle as he watches them go around. Then, he meticulously straightened the track, adjusted the buildings, and kept the trains from colliding.

Will saying he loves playing violin because it's fun. I love watching him get so good at playing the songs.

Listening to Alex sing Will's scales and songs on key.

Ella hiding all of Mimi's toys in hard to reach places: the top of the closet, on the computer desk, behind the tv, etc. She tortures that dog. Mimi comes over and jumps and cries and wimpers until we figure out what's going on.

Alex coming over and after listening to me complain and say "I'm miserable" he says, "uh owies?" How did he figure that out?

At meal time after Will says the prayer, Alex says "I wan sayit too." And we repeat the process.

Ella getting frustrated that her friend won't stop playing so she could finish explaining something. The explanation would have to take less than 10 minutes I'm assuming....

Alex requesting to dance with me when music is playing.

I've also enjoying watching Lord of the Rings lately and anything that involves getting away and taking a break! I'm especially grateful for such a giving husband who doesn't mind taking over once in a while.