The Olsen's: Thankful in 2011

In true Thanksgiving fashion I would like to take this grand opportunity to be thankful. I am really not sure if there is a better word to wrap up my overall feeling and mood right now anyway... Many things in my life make me Thankful...

First, I am pretty excited to be celebrating 5 years of marriage this week. It has flown by and been absolutely nothing like we had it all planned but sometimes the good things in life are made out of many little surprises.

We together are sooo thankful for our little man Bennett. He has absolutely amazed us at every turn. The things he has overcome in the last 3 years is more than most people have to deal with in a lifetime and we couldn't be more proud of the little boy he has become.

I am still in a little shock that this year we are thankful for a little baby on the way. Last year at this time if you had told me that I would be enormous at the thanksgiving table dealing with sciatic nerve issues due to the pending birth of a little girl I would have told you, You are crazy we would never get so lucky! But here we are 28 weeks pregnant with a healthy mama and baby!

Lastly I am pretty thankful for our families and friends this time of year. We have so many fun things to do this time of year, so much family to see and so many silly traditions started already. This week will mark the beginning of our advent calendars, including our serendipity Santa and our ornament tree wall hang. Hopefully both these things will be a huge part of each holiday season here at the Olsen's. I am also going to put up our new stockings this year that I have been working on like crazy... my crazy sewing explains my lack of picture taking over thanksgiving weekend, but here are some of our fun family moments.
I know these are all the obvious things to be thankful for, family, kids friends etc... but sometimes I seriously sit back and think, how did I get everything I ever wanted?!? This little lady has somehow not given me that pregnancy glow and I usually come accross as uncomfortable and grumpy... but in the quiet moments of the day I just feel THANKFUL for everything in my life right now.

On Thursday we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Olsen's house. Bennett and Alanzo played like crazy.

They also got to sit at the adult table... although Bennett spent most of the time crawling underneath.

We got up early Friday morning and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa Jones' house. We stayed the whole weekend and it was a blast full of football, good food and lots of relaxing and sewing with the kiddos.

Somehow most of the kids were sleeping during dinner including our little man.... but I must say it was nice to eat a whole meal without the help of our toddler...

The boys all got up Saturday morning to head up to the Tacoma Dome to see Uncle Marty and the Chehalis Bearcat football team play in the semi-finals for the first time ever! They played great, but unfortunately the team they played were a little bit better. We are proud of the Bearcats this year and Bennett had a blast at "Marty's football"