Thankfulness

I have learned that true happiness stems from an attitude of thankfulness and contentment.  This is hard in a world where we are constantly tempted to buy, buy, buy. This holiday season, I have decided to really focus on those things in my life that bring true happiness, true contentment...and surprise, none of them cost anything!!

Here is my 2009 thankful list:

1. My faith and relationship with Christ. He is the only one that can bring true contentment and I'm incredibly thankful that Greg and I have built our family around Him.
2. Five years of being married to my best friend, a man I'm proud to say is my husband. He does complete me, as cheesy as that sounds. He's my sounding board and tells me what I need to hear, not necessarily what I want to hear. He is the leader of our family, a strong Christian with an incredibly good heart. And an awesome dad to Davis!
3. Watching Davis go from infant to toddler and learn to walk, run, jump, play, talk, sing, dance, laugh, point, color, feed himself, dress himself, oh the list goes on!
4. Hearing Davis say "i lub you" for the first time
5. The hugs and kisses that Davis gives me.
6. Giggle fits and tickle fights with Davis.
7. Our families
8. Our church and my Women of Faith group
9. Good health
10. Holding my niece for the first time
11. Our friends
12. Greg and I having jobs in spite of a troubling economy
13. Having the necessities that many people take for granted, yet many more are in need of : food, income, water, shelter, clothing, transportation.

The Terrific Two's!

Everyone calls it the "Terrible Two's" but I thought I would psych myself out and call it the "Terrific Twos!!". Davis turned 2 years old on November 20, 2009. I can hardly believe that 2 years have passed since he entered the world. I look back at pictures and can barely remember him being that small. He is now 35.5" tall, almost 24 lbs, and has boundless energy.

Greg and I took his birthday off to celebrate with him. We woke him up singing "Happy Birthday", which he then said the rest of the day in this British accent..."HAPPY BUTHDAAAAAY!!". Too funny. Here he is holding up his 2 fingers to signify how old he is, the deuce as daddy calls it.

We surprised him with a train table, which he spent most of the day playing with. He loves his "shoo shoo" trains, as he calls them.

We surprised Davis with a haircut before we headed out to lunch. He hasn't had a haircut in forever, so it was way overdue.  His hair went from looking like a bowl on his head to an actual little boy's haircut.  He was THRILLED to get his haircut, see:

We went to Ted's Montana Grill for lunch and had fun playing around while we waited for our burgers (delish!).

New 'Do!

We made him horns out of the bendy toy they gave us to play with.

After lunch, we played outside in the leaves at Triangle Town Center. This was the picture we used for our Christmas cards. We were going to do a family portrait but Greg took this on his iPhone and suggested using it instead - I loved it! It completely captured how happy he was at that moment, sheer and utter joy.

On Saturday, we had Davis's birthday party. We started the fun at the Wake Forest Fire Department. Our friend from church, Bill Wandrack, works at the Fire Station and was nice enough to have us come by and show all the kids the firetrucks. He also gave out hats, keychains and erasers to all the kids.  It was a blast. Davis was a bit apprehensive at first because he had just woken up from his nap. But after a while he finally got into it and wore his firehat and even sat up in one of the fire engines for a picture!

Afterwards, everyone came back to our house for red velvet cupcakes and to open Davis's gifts. We then let all the kids outside to play with toys in the yard and Davis decides to run up our hill in the backyard into our neighbor's yard, then back down the hill. Again, with a look of sheer and utter joy on his face. What a perfect way to end a perfect birthday.