thankfulness and gratitude

when we came home from so-cal, M immediately left on a "Man-cation" as he calls it, to Pismo beach with his dad and a good friend of his dad's to golf & ride on the dunes in ATV's and dirtbikes. this is like his heaven-- and he had a blast.

 unfortunately, back at home, things weren't so smooth, as all three of us girls got the flu, and got it BAD. we all spent several days taking our turns puking our guts out- which as anyone knows is no fun at all, especially doing it alone. it made me have a lot of compassion for single mothers- and how difficult some of those moments must be.

 {that's a sad, pathetic picture taken in the middle of the night after Alice had already thrown up at least a dozen times, taken three baths, and still had plenty to go. poor lil thing.}

but soon enough, we were all healthy and getting ready for thanksgiving! i like to think that we got super sick right before so we could really enjoy and feast without any guilt....and to help us be grateful for our health (which is so easy to take for granted!).

some pics of us enjoying the fresh air of the park after being cooped-up-sickies for a week:

and of cute Alice, feeling 100 x's better:

the Monday before thanksgiving, we each made little thankful Turkeys that hung in our entryway. i loved the things that Ellie and Alice said they were grateful for:

Ellie: toys, ballet & gymnastics, broccoli & steak, Mom Dad Ellie Alice + baby brother, Mrs. Perona
Alice: fruit snacks, Ellie, my bed & lovie, Super Why, coloring

and the things i'm grateful for-- well they are too innumerable to count-- but i can definitely start with these two cuties right here:

it was my parents' first holiday without any kids at home (since they are now officially empty nesters! so weird-- they seem way too young for that to me). my inlaws were kind enough to invite them up to spend it with us, and so they made the trip and joined us all. it was such a fun week/weekend spent with everyone. of course i felt like i always seem to feel: overwhelmed with love and gratitude for such wonderful people that God has placed in my life. i love my parents and M's parents. i love my kids. i love my siblings and siblings-in-law. being surrounded by wonderful people is what life is all about, and my cup truly runneth over with wonderful people.

and so, of course the day was lovely-- here's some peeks into our beautiful thanksgiving day:

xoxo