Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving was special for me on several accounts. For one, it was Colten Luke's first Thanksgiving! Secondly, we were able to spend it with the entire extended part of my mom's side of the family. We saw many cousins, aunts, uncles whom we do not get to see very often (some hadn't even met Jonathan yet!) so getting to visit and share my family with them was a huge treat!

Overall, one of the BIGGEST Thanksgiving praises was having my Grandma - literally a walking miracle there celebrating with us! In February of 2012, she got e-coli, and was admitted into the ICU. Soon after we learned her kidneys had failed, along with a domino effect of many other issues putting her in severe condition. Her four loving daughters made sure there was a rotation of family and friends to stay by her side and pray over her. We were all asking for a miracle, even though things were looking very grim. I specifically remember one hospital visit that I went with Jonathan, my brother Chris, and his wife Summer. Summer and I were in the room together when Gramma was able to talk for the first time after about a month and a half due to her Tracheotomy. It was obvious she had something important to say that we couldn't seem to lip read- so the doctor came in to plug her trache for us when she blurted out "I, Helen, in the company of my grandaughter and grandaughter-in-law, am letting you know I want to go home. I can't do this, I know it's hard for you, but you all need to let just me go." That was it. That was the night I thought would be one of the last we would have with her.

Even though that wasn't the last mention of letting her go, she managed to hold on. We began to see signs of improvement, and against all medical odds her kidneys miraculously returned to full function. After eight long months of hospitalization and rehabilitation she has now re-learned to talk, eat, AND walk! So, as you can see this year was an enormous celebration of Thanksgiving for all of my family. Gramma is a true fighter, and her family, her daughters especially, did not give up on her. More importantly God did not give up on her, and he obviously has a reason for her to still be here.

In light of Thanksgiving, I am SO thankful for the recovery of Gramma. I'm thankful for my husband who is a hard worker, and takes such good care of me and Colten. And I'm thankful for Colten, who brings so much joy to my heart and my life on a daily basis. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

This photo is of my sweet family with Gramma Thanksgiving 2012. The other one is at Colten's birth September 2012. Gramma's first rehab center shared a parking lot with the hospital that he was born at, so she was able to come visit us! She was still in a wheelchair at that point, but started walking soon after!

Two months

My baby is already two months old! Where does that time go??  We have already witnessed many, many smiles and sweet baby coos. He usually will smile big for Jonathan when he comes home from work, which is a big treat! My favorite part of the day with him is the morning though, because he wakes up in the best mood babbling and smiling with excitement for about an hour or so! It definitely takes the edge off the fact he kept me up all night, and it's still too early to want to wake up :) Within just these two months, Colten has already brought so much joy to our family, and we're loving watching him grow up (but not too fast!) 

Aside from Jonathan and Colten, my biggest focus lately has been on getting the house in order. It's no easy task moving with a newborn, much less decorating a house twice as large as what we had before! But, I do have a few parts of the house that I'm loving, and wanted to share the progress on here with you! 

First off, the two big pieces of furniture we knew we wanted to invest in were a bed, and kitchen table. As for the bed, our previous one's head board actually fell apart. Plus, we had decided if we could find a good deal we would like to graduate to a King size. Well, I've always dreamed of a four post bed, and so I started searching on Craig's list months ago (because I would probably die of a heart attack before paying full price for one) I finally landed on this AH-MA-ZING one that was a great deal. The nice thing too is our master bedroom is really big, so with this baby in there, it actually looks 'normal' size. (I will post pictures of the whole room after it's done later on)

So, same thing with the kitchen table, started searching on Craig's list months ago, knowing I wanted a farmhouse table to go with my decorating taste, and I found this one: (excuse the clutter on top)

These are two projects that I am happy to have finished in between Colten's naps :) You could say I was 'pin-spired' to do these awesome enlarged black and white photos. I saw on pinterest that staples did them for a little over a dollar each! I bought these huge frames a while back at a thrift store for $3 each knowing I wanted to try it out. I sanded and stained the frames, then just popped in the print outs and in the end was only a $14 project. (Saving money makes me happy if you couldn't tell) Then I reused an old window I had decorated with in my other house. I painted it and added the photo behind! The window is definitely my favorite decor so far :) 

Anyways, that's about all that I've done so far. I'll have to post more pictures of it complete later on. Until then, I want to try and get better at more frequent blogging! 

Thanks for stopping by! :)