Thanksgiving Gratitudes-2009

To everyone who has impacted my life…  Thanks for giving.  I sincerely appreciate all that you have done to make the world a better place.  As I prepare to fill my body with obscene amounts of homemade cooking tomorrow (ALL DAY!), I want to take some time to pinpoint some very special people in my life.

Even though there are a ton of special people in my life, this post is dedicated entirely to  my wife and children…  Isaac (7), Sarah (6), Maddux (2), and Alyssa (6 months) have each blessed my life in their own little ways.  Isaac is very inquisitive and has transitioned into first grade extremely well.  He loves to ask GREAT questions (and hear himself talk!), tell stories about special experiences he has had, and informing others about what he is learning in school.  He does a great job helping out the family whenever we ask him to do something.  I am so proud of how he has grown and matured over the past couple years.  Thank you, Isaac, for being such a great step-son.

Sarah is our little helper!  She loves to help take care of her younger brother and sister.  As a matter of fact, Sarah sometimes likes to help a little too much!  Just yesterday she asked me if I wanted her to take Alyssa (who is only 6 months old!) out to the Durango and put her in her car seat!  Sarah loves learning new things in her kindergarten class.  We were at a birthday party in a bowling alley a couple weeks ago, and I couldn’t believe how well she wrote her name on the “birthday pin”.  Although she can be a force to be reckoned with at times, Sarah has a heart of gold and loves to be silly.

Maddux Danger Roland (yes, Danger really IS his middle name!) is legitimizing the “terrible twos”.  He is certainly finding his voice (yeah, his SCREAMING voice!) and is not afraid to use it.  His vocabulary is growing by the day and he is already stringing 6 and 7-word sentences together.  His favorite food group is the Fruit Snack (I’m surprised his teeth haven’t fallen out yet) and he loves to ding the bell on his Radio Flyer tricycle that Great-Grandpa brought from Iowa last Christmas (even though he can barely touch the pedals!)  Mad-Dog definitely keeps our family lively-waking up at the butt-crack of dawn on a daily basis, sneaking in and out of mommy and daddy’s bed, going downstairs and grabbing breakfast (Fruit Snacks), and ulitmately making a lot of noises so that I have to get up and make sure he’s ok!

Alyssa has a smile that just makes you melt!  Not really that much hair yet, but her smile and belly laugh reel people in!  Mamma took her to get her ears pierced last weekend and she looks adorable.  Not really sleeping completley through the night yet, but very close.  She wants to crawl so badly already-probably before Christmas.  She can’t speak sentences yet, but she has NO PROBLEM saying “Dad-da”!

Which brings us to My Love.  Mamma does so much for our family-it’s truly incredible when I think about it.  She gets up in the morning, wakes Isaac and Sarah, rounds-up Maddux to get him dressed and feeds him breakfast (Fruit Snacks), gets Alyssa dressed and gives her a bottle, fixes Sarah’s hair, gets herself ready for the day (working with kids!!), and still manages to make it out the door on time (for the most part!).  Please note:  Daddy’s not a deadbeat, so he helps whenever he can; however, Mamma does most of the work and deserves to be recognized for all that she does.

I am truly grateful for my family.  Each day and night I say “thank you” in my own little way, counting my lucky stars that I have such a wonderful family to brighten my days.  I feel more connected to my wife now than ever before-she is my world!  Baby, I LOVE YOU with all my heart…  Thank you for making me want to become a better person.  Kids, I love you too.  You always seem to put a smile on my face, even when I’m doing my best to be the “serious disciplinary force”-we always seem to laugh.  Thank You.

I can only hope that next Thanksgiving will give me the opportunity to express my gratitudes all over again.  And if I get that chance, I know that my life will be great, and that all other aspects or concerns will still be dwarfed by the bliss I feel when I get to be a father and a husband.

Thank You to my family (again, and again, and again)