Jaxon's 11th Birthday

So I may have cried myself to sleep last night as the reality hit that my oldest is 11 years old today! I remember holding him in my arms and my heart bursting with love...this morning the first thing he said to me was, "Mom, can we just snuggle"..."ABSOLUTELY!" My heart flooded with love again as we held each other for a solid 2 minutes. Then he scurried off...how I just want to be the best mother for him and teach him all he needs to know before he heads off on his own one day. I feel like the next 7 years are going to go light speed! Here's my sweet boy kindly letting me photograph him...you can see the "aw, Mom, are you done embarrassing me yet?" face on number 3. The 4th and 5th are him in his element as his school hosted the Reptile Man and Jax was in heaven!!

Thanksgiving 2016- some for us and some for others

Thanksgiving this year was spend just the seven of us and it was glorious! The kids helped prepare the food.  And it was nice to not stress over having our house clean or the food ready by a certain time or if it tasted good for company...and it didn't matter when Zlee was a little extra helpful and made extra messes in the kitchen.  

We made a massive feast, enjoyed it, and then shared it.  A few days previous, a thought crossed my mind to share our thanksgiving dinner with the homeless around town.  So often I see those without a home begging for food at street corners and stoplights and bus stops, so we boxed up our left overs and made "Thanksgiving dinner bags" complete with pie, of course.  We said a prayer that whoever the food needed to go, that Doug and the boys would be inspired to head their direction.  I stayed home with the younger two who were napping and off they went.  I prayed the whole time they were gone that they would find who ever needed this food.  They returned, empty handed, having passed out all the food.  Doug said one bus stop people started running towards them when they realized they were passing out food.  Next year I hope to make more food and more "Thanksgiving Dinners to go".  

Halloween 2016- Peter Pan

For the last decade, we've been doing family costumes.  I thought this year might be our last so I the idea of "Neverland" or "Never Grow Up" was a perfect symbolism for my yearning to hold onto my kid's youth.  This was by far my favorite family photoshoot I've done...my very own family!!  How I love them all so much and LOVE them just as they are!