Blessed. And Thankful. So Very Thankful.

About three years ago Matt and I were in a very hard place.  We were still adjusting to life with a new baby.  We both had demanding jobs that neither of us enjoyed.  We were still new to the DFW area and hadn't really made good friends.  We fought a lot.  I cried a lot. There were days when I wondered if the season of life we were in would ever end.  He was looking for a new job but had no idea what he wanted to do.  I desperately wanted to be home with Avery and felt like my baby was growing up without me.  I remember having a very hard time getting in the "holiday spirit".  I knew I had a lot to be thankful for but my heart was heavy most days and it was just a difficult time for me.

Three years later, when I look through the pictures on my phone, when Matt and I sit and bed and talk about the past week, when I think of how far we've come in the past two years I'm overcome with gratitude.  The Lord's plan for us was perfect. When I look back now I realize that some of the blessings in our life would not have been possible without the hard times we endured three years ago.  I have seriously neglected this blog and some days I think about stopping all together but I love looking back at the memories and pictures.  It's a public journal that I know I'll look back on years down the road and be so thankful for it.  So, this will be a long post with way too many pictures but these are the memories I always want to keep and the moments I never want to forget.

I was hoping to have nice family pictures to send out on our Christmas cards this year.  For various reasons it didn't work out so Matt and I took the kids to a nearby park and snapped a few pictures.  No one really cares about seeing us anyway... the kids are much cuter!

Awhile back we had a little fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows (or marshpillows as Avery calls them) for Smores.

This little girl cracks me up.  She talks NONSTOP. She definitely has her own opinion about EVERYTHING. But she is the sweetest little three year old ever.  

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving... the weather was perfect, Matt smoked a delicious turkey and we were able to relax and take a break from our normal routine.