Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family here in Houston. We spent the day at my parents' house hanging out and enjoying a yummy meal. We had turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, dressing, candied yams, rolls, and of course limas (I think we may be the only family that does lima beans on holidays?). My Aunt, Uncle, and cousin from Austin came, as well as my sister and her boyfriend from California. (We missed you Kimmels!!) Lainey had a fun time crawling around and getting lots of attention. Cambry loved playing with the nativity, looking at all the decorations and getting lots of attention as well. The girls wore their beautiful Christmas dresses from Gigi and looked so adorable.

I have so many things to be thankful for. I am of course thankful above all for Jesus and his mercy and saving grace. And here are a few things that I am particularly thankful for this year.

Lainey's progress. Whoa. God has certainly answered so many prayers. At one point we thought she had hearing loss when she failed her hearing test at the pediatrician at 6 months. Turns out her hearing is normal. We thought she might not be able to see when she wasn't tracking or really looking when we tried to get her attention. Turns out it was strabismus and surgery went great and now her eyes are doing really well. She is now doing new things all the time. She is crawling like a champ, pulling up to high knees, and is starting to pull up to standing position by herself now. She is so so sweet and adorable.

Cambry's sweet heart. God has given her a special love for her sister. She often wants to play with Lainey and be a little mommy to her. She will sing to Lainey "I'll love you for always" (from the book she loves to read). And she is such a sweet heart in general. I just love her personality and the way she thinks.

Our church community. One of my fears when we started working with youth about 6 years ago was that we would miss out on community. Teaching in the middle school department on Sundays means we don't get to go to a class of our own. I was worried we would miss out on friendships. But I have never felt lacking in this area since we started. In fact, I feel like we have twice the community. We have our wonderful group of bible study friends (as well as other friends from our old Sunday school class)  that we have been with since the beginning of marriage, and we also have wonderful friendships from the other people who serve with the youth department.

Medical care. We have seen a lot of doctors and therapists this past year. We live in one of the best cities and countries for quality medical care. As much as I get annoyed at insurance issues and referrals and tons of phone calls and how the med center is just so hard to get to, those are really first world problems.

Of course I am also thankful for Greg - the best husband and father, both of our families who are always there for us, and many many other things.

A couple days after Thanksgiving we drove down to Brazos Bend State Park for the day. I am not quite ready to try tent camping with the girls yet. Lainey is a bit unpredictable when not in her bed. The park was just under an hour away so a day trip was great. The weather was perfect. We hiked around, had a picnic lunch, and found some playgrounds where Cambry could run around. I would love to get some friends together and go back some time.