These are a few of my favorite things...

I feel a need to express my gratitude for a few things as of late. So, without further ado, here they are:

~ I love that Gage and Molli both share my love for art. They could sit and draw, and draw, and draw... and draw forever! I'm so grateful that they can be so easily entertained by something so simple. When Gage would finish a picture, he would always say, "Ta-Da!" and show it to me. A few months ago, Molli caught on to this. After making a few strokes on paper, she'll lift it up, show it to me, and yell, "DA!!!"~ I am grateful that even though we are not going to have snow for Christmas this year, we still have reason to wear warm clothing. Although, we are not really sure whether to break out our winter clothing because some days it will be in the 30's and other days (like 2 days ago), it will get up to 80 degrees! So, our kids end up looking something like this...
~ It would be extremely sad if I was not grateful to be pregnant so rest assured that I am grateful. And to have a healthy baby without any problems will be even better! However, this picture makes me grateful for the stage Gage is in where we just can't get a normal smile out of him! Actually, I take that back. Faces like this ARE normal for him right now... and I LOVE it! He makes me laugh and I'm glad I have this to always remember... and to show his girlfriends someday.
~ Speaking of Gage... I love the things he says that I know he has put a lot of thought into. Like after he put a plastic bag on Molli's head, we freaked out a little, and told him that could kill her. He thought for a second, then got a big smile on his face and said, "That means she'll get to live with Jesus soon!!" I think we failed to teach him something somewhere...

That happened a year or so ago. A few days ago, I told him he could not play Dad's computer because he needed to go to bed. He disappeared for a while and I just helped Molli clean up her toys. Gage reappeared with something behind his back. I told him it was time to go to bed. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I made something. Do you want to know how you made me feel?"
I said,"Sure."
He handed me the following picture:
I chose to point to the smiling one and say, "happy?"
He replied, "No, that's you smiling. I'm the frowning one. You made me sad."
He then continued to show me two other pictures with the same stick figures on them. I tucked away a chuckle, apologized, and began to take the pictures from him to save them for his scrapbook. He pulled them back and said, "I need to keep these so I can pull them out the next time you make me sad."

It was all I could do to not laugh. I LOVE moments like this!

~ I love that my kids have so much fun playing together. It makes me so happy! I want them to always be best friends and sometimes, I think it might just be possible. Nooooo my kids NEVER fight!!! (Don't you know blogs are all about making your life look perfect?)

Of course they fight. On a daily basis in fact. But there are enough moments of fun together that I think they will pull through and be friends in the end.
And I especially love that they get to play with their Daddy and he loves to play with them too. Whenever we read scriptures down stairs, the kids know that means they get to ride on Jake's back up to their bedrooms. So, the moment we say, "amen" after prayers, they run and jump on his back. This time, Jake didn't even get to get up after prayers before the two monkeys were on him.
~ Molli has been sleeping in a queen bed, all by herself the last few months. HOoray!! Now the baby can use the crib. With this development has come other ... developments.
The little stinker has a hard time staying in bed. Jake and I will be downstairs watching tv and we'll hear her little noises over by the staircase. We tell her to "go back to bed" which is followed by a total fake cry as she makes her way back up to her room. However, there have been occasions where we just can't help giving in to that cute little face (plus, if she's going to stand there for a picture, she needs to be rewarded somehow, right?)
This night, we gave in and here she is, watching "The Christmas Story" in Gage's chair. She seriously get's away with so much more than what Gage did!
~ It cracks me up that Molli loves wearing shoes! She put's them on all the time and goes tromping through the house like she's the cutest thing on earth. She is right!
~ I am grateful for pictures like this that make waiting in line to see Santa well worth it. Gage had been puking all night and had fevers this day (which we later found out, turned into strep). We were completely irresponsible parents and let him go to see Santa because he wanted to so bad. Have I mentioned I'm an imperfect blogger?

This was also Molli's first interaction with the big guy. She seriously screamed bloody murder! You would have thought he poked her with a needle or something. Actually, she screamed louder on Santa's lap than she did when she got her shots recently!

Well worth it...
~ Most importantly, I am EXTREMELY grateful for this guy. He is the best husband I could ever hope for! During times like these (mainly pregnancy), I realize even more how great he is. Every day, he get's home from work, and I know he is tired and probably had a stressful day. Yet, he will help me with dinner, play with the kids while I'm finishing up, do dishes, tell me how great I look in my pajama pants that I'm wearing for the 4th day in a row, and even kiss me when he knows I probably haven't brushed my teeth and am on the "every 3 days" shower rotation (who am I kidding, sometimes it's 4). Now that's love! I seriously am so grateful for him. He even likes to go all out during Holidays and always makes the best of everything. He especially doesn't care that I post this funny picture of him decorating the tree! (right honey?)

Really, really, I am incredibly grateful for him and love him to death! But...
There is one other thing I might be more grateful for right now.

~ The passing of a beloved friend. As stated in a previous post, Jake has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little (tiny, itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, minute) stone. His beloved "stoney" as we have come to know it.

The pain and agony that Jake has shown over this passing would make you think it would have been bigger. But nonetheless, we're grateful for it's showing and that we can bid it "goodbye" and give it to the doc. I'm happy to say, we will not miss Stoney but are grateful for the wonderful memories he has provided us. BTW- that's my pinky.