The Smith Family: Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a Thanksgiving that I will never forget. What a fun experience to celebrate the holidays with children of your own. Thanksgiving is a perfect time for me to reflect on the things that I am thankful for and this year we have been blessed in so many ways.
1. Our baby girl. She has added so much to our lives and I just can't get enough of her.
2. My loving husband who takes excellent care of me and is a wonderful father to our daughter.
3. Family who is there for us whenever we need them and who we can always count on for fun and laughter.
4. My job/colleagues. With talks of layoffs again this year I am finding myself on an all too familiar path so I am feeling truly blessed that I have a job and colleagues that have literally gone above and beyond to help out while I am on maternity leave (especially Char, Cindi and Kim. You guys are awesome! I cannot thank you enough). Now that the laws have changed (eliminating seniority as a basis for layoffs) I am hopeful that I will keep my job, but I can never be too certain. Let's hope the state legislatures can figure something out.
5. My AWESOME sub Lisa. She has been such a huge help with taking care of my students while I am gone.
6. Our courageous military who continue to put their lives on the line in the name of their country. I am SO, SO grateful for their sacrifice.
7. Sleep. It is not what it used to be (not even close), but when I get it I am very thankful.
8. AZ winters :)
9. My home
10. The best dog in the whole wide world. Katie! She is being such a good big sister and we love her dearly.

This year we started our morning at my dad's house for Thanksgiving breakfast. This started about 3 years ago and we have maintained the tradition. I didn't end up taking any pictures though :( After my dad's we headed off to Matt's parents. They always do a big Thanksgiving feast. There were a lot of people there this year and Kendyl was able to meet her Payson family (Matt's aunt, uncle, cousins and their children) so that was fun. Matt's cousin was nice enough to take some family pictures of us so I will have to post them when I get them. Once we were finished at the Smith side we headed off to my side of the family. It was pretty much my immediate family, except this year my second cousin Ellen and her boyfriend Neil spent the day with us! My mom came up with lots of goofy things for us to do such as roasting marshmallows and playing dancing musical chairs (apparently she saw it on the Ellen show). I am proud to say that my husband was the winner :) Although, he did have a little size advantage. All in all it was another fun and busy Thanksgiving. Next up...Christmas!

Here are some pictures from the day: