There has been so much going on around here lately. First of all, November is our busiest month of the year for birthdays. My dad's is the 15th, Reagan's is the 18th, Chads, my father-in-law, and one of my best friend's are all on the 20th! So we have been busy this week celebrating birthdays. Morgan had a huge yardsale on Friday and Saturday to get rid of some of her junk and I had a few things I wanted to sale too. Morgan did most of the work b/c I had Jane Baird to take care of and she did all of the work on Saturday b/c we had our Christmas pics made in Birmingham Saturday morning. She had a great turn out and it always feels great to get rid of clutter! Alan and I helped with the clean up after we got back from our photo session. As I mentioned, we had our family Christmas pictures on Saturday. We met Grethel at this place in Vestavia...it was a plant nursery and it was a cool place for photos. We had a blast!!! Grethel is so much fun and Jane Baird was full of smiles and laughter. I was so happy that she was feeling well just 8 days out from her surgery. We got our proofs back tonight (yes, Grethel is really fast, which I love b/c I'm impatient!) and are having the hardest time choosing which ones to choose for our Christmas cards. I emailed Grethel for help deciding so she is going to play around with the pics and card layouts and send me some samples tomorrow. Today we put Jane Baird's big girl car seat in the car and she got to ride in it for the first time this evening when we went to eat dinner at my parent's house. I made dinner and took it to my mom and dad's house and Morgan, Chad, and the kids came over to eat (aren't I a great daughter and sister!) It was so cute looking back in the mirror at Jane Baird sitting up straight and looking out the window at everything. On the way home tonight, she fell asleep and she looked so comfy. One of the dowsides to this new seat is waking her up to get her out of the seat. We am hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. This is not the first Thanksgiving we have hosted, but it is the biggest crowd we have had. It will be a nice change to stay at home this year. After all we have been through we are so thankful to have our healthy, sweet daughter at home with us and all of the hospital stays behind us. I'm excited to have Alan home with us for a long weekend. He has been working so much lately and really long hours. I can't remember the last long weekend we had together (the hospital stays don't count). We plan on enjoying Thanksgiving with our families and then on Friday we are going to pick out a Christmas tree (yep, we always buy a real tree...no fakes at this house!) and decorate our house. Alan always likes to buy the biggest one he can find. We usually get a 14 or 15 ft tree and this year he wants to go bigger...we'll see. He is one of those dads/husbands that will do anything to make his girls smile and I love that about him. We can't wait to see Jane Baird's face when she first sees our tree with the lights and sparkly ornaments. I'll have to try to capture that look on camera. This is the time of year to give thanks and I have so much to be thankful for this year. What I am most thankful for is my beautiful, healthy daughter. Thanksgiving day will be her 8 month birthday and I am so glad to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with her at home. We have been through a lot over the past 8 months and I am thankful that the hospital days are all behind us. Our photographer, Grethel Van Epps, is a member of the ACPCG Organization which is a non-profit, volunteer based organization of child photographers from all over the country who are dedicated to children in need and their families. She actually photographed Jane Baird for the first time through this organization and I loved her and her work so much that I keep going back. Anyway the other day she posted some photos on her blog of Joey, a little boy she met at Children's Hospital. (As many of you know, Jane Baird spent A LOT of time there so this story was close to my heart.) Anyway she also included a link to Joey's mother's journal. I started reading it and it just broke my heart. I went back to read all of the previous entries and just cried my eyes out. I could relate to Joey's mother in so many ways...there was a time when Jane Baird's condition was so critical that the doctors and nurses feared that she would not live...thankfully she was able to fight for her life and make a full recovery. Unfortunaltely, Joey doesn't have much time left. Words cannot not express the sadness I feel for Joey's family. Anyway I'm about to cry to I'm gonna wrap this up...We all have days when we take things for granted and sometimes we need a little reminder of just how lucky we are. No matter how bad things are in your life, there is always someone out there who has it worse. Visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joeypaulin to read about Joey.