Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a difficult one for me. I have so much to be grateful for and I know it, but every time I started to count my many many many blessings, I felt a dark cloud would come over me and hide all the wonderful things I have been blessed with. Please know that I do truly know how blessed I am in my life but at this time of struggle and sadness its been hard for me to see the good through the bad.
For Thanksgiving dinner, we headed down to Brandon's grandma's church for a wonderful dinner and a lot of family visiting. Brandon family is so wonderful. I love them all. It was even fun for Sawyer I think. There were lots of little ones his age he could play with so that was great! Brandon went motor cycle riding shortly after dinner with Kade and his dad and Kelly and I headed home. I went up to visit my dad then had to make another trip to my mom's. My sister had come in that morning so it was so wonderful to see her and get to spend time with her. We ate at my mom's {I think I have gained probably 10 lbs from all those yummy dinners} and then we looked through the Black Friday adds. There wasn't anything I wanted to wake up for but Nikki said she wanted to go to a few places so I decided I would stay over at my mom's with her and go fight the crowds. We didn't go to sleep until about 1:30ish and woke up at 4:30am. It was my first night being away from Sawyer voluntary {the other times I was in the hospital} and it was really rough! I'm a baby I know but I totally missed my little one. We hit up a few stores and got a few things. We spent soooo long in lines that it was nuts. It was fun to go shopping with Nikki though. After we were done shopping, we both went home and got ready for the day and headed to my dad's.
Yesterday was another hard day but turned out great. I had my sister-in-law Melanie come to my dad's and take pictures of him and all of my siblings and their families. It was very crowded and very crazy but we got through it with several good pictures and I can't even wait to get them all back! Here are a few I snagged from Melanie's photo blog...

I am sooo incredibly happy with these pictures! I love the silly ones we did. They capture a lot of my dad's personality. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful sister-in-law who was so willing to do these pictures for us. They will be most likely be the last family pictures we are able to take with my dad. She was so great and has such a wonderful eye. Love you so much Mel!

I am so grateful for families. I have been so blessed to have such wonderful parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of eternity. I know that this is not the end for my father. I know that when it is his time to return to our Heavenly Father, he will be greeted with open arms by my grandpa, his sisters, and all those that have been waiting patiently for him. I am grateful he was able to be sealed to his wife LK and that I was able to be a part of it. I am grateful for the extra year in which we were able to spend with him. The doctor said he would only live 6 months.... he survived a year and a half! He's such a miracle. I am so grateful for prayer. I know that so many of our prayers have been answered and that we have been so carefully watched over. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and am so grateful for everything they have done for me and my family. I have been truly blessed.