Thankful for so much

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Visited a lot of family and ate some great food!

I have to say looking at these pictures I have so much to be thankful for. Not for just my little family (which is my world!) but for all the extended family that has become so dear to me. Often I think of how lucky I am to have so much family around me,and for them all to live so close.

As most know I was widowed when I was 24 (Tanner was 2). It was a horrible loss and will always be a part of who I am. It's been 7 1/2 yrs now,which is so incredibly hard to believe. What I'm thankful for the most is that I'm still so close to my late husbands family. They treat as me as one of their own,they never even blinked an eye about not including me even though their "link" to me was gone. I know it's how it's "suppose" to be but so often thats not the case. Many times the widow is somewhat "tossed to the side" by the inlaws and the only time they visit is when they want to see their grandchild or whatever relation your child may be to them. Whats even more incredible is how welcoming they were when I met Paul. They opened their hears and their doors and were more than happy to let him become a part of the family. My heart smiles when I think about it. I'm so incredibly blessed,so blessed I can't even describe in words how it makes me feel. Maybe it's because I'm not close with my mother,that both my fathers are gone and that my family really isn't all that big,I don't know. Truly they ARE my family.

It was funny today in face. One of my late husbands cousin (maybe it's a second cousin,I don't know,I can't remember.lol) was talking about how we knew someone in common and I explained to him who I thought it was and that when I told her I knew him she said "so then we're related?" and I said "well no because it was my husbands family". When I said that he said "Well we've always thought you were(related)" . That made me smile :) They don't see me any differently than any of the rest of the family. I'm treated no different. I'm invited to all the weddings,graduations,baby showers,etc etc. My mother in law considers Emma one of her grandkids. She looks at Emma no differently than she does Tanner and that makes me swell up with happiness. I really and truly don't know what I'd do without his family around me,making me "whole" and having a mother in law who feels like my own "surrogate" mother and thankfully a wonderful grandmother to both Tanner and Emma.

So today we took family pictures. Thanksgiving was held at Todds cousins house (brand new and HUGE..wowsers,what a pretty house!!) anyway they had TONS of windows and I'm still green with envy! LOL I want that many windows..taking pictures in a house like that would be a dream come true!! Anyway I found a decent area with decent light and thought it would make a great place to take some quick family snapshots. They all turned out pretty nice. Course after a few people realized we were taking pictures it became more 'hurried' and I wasn't as happy with them because I was rushing somewhat and people were going here and there and well his family is HUGE and there were a ton of people there (easily 50 people) so it got a little nuts but I tried my best. They weren't always posed correctly so there are some people shadowing others but they were still ok and definitely better than nothing!! I will share some of my favorites :)


Todds Aunt with her three daughters (has a son too but this was an "all girls" picture :)


These are the "older boy" cousins. Not the greatest picture but other people were taking pictures too so the boys were looking this way and that and being goofy on top of it so I got the best I could.lol


This is Todds aunts,his mom and his grandmother
left to right is Becky,Sallie,Nancy (my MIL) and Charlene


got a candid one I thought was so sweet :)


Todds cousin and his wife. They actually live right around the corner from us! They are such wonderful people and their son is such a cutie pie,look at those eyes!


Was was completely pooped out at come about 3pm. So she laid down with Todds uncle (Nancys brother) and took a nap. I swear every single child is so drawn to him,he's just got the "touch" I guess! LOL They took at least an hour nap!


and us..not the best picture.Tanner with his super goofy grin and my husband looking half drunk..but well better than nothing! LOL

It was SO hard getting these pictures. I couldn't put them too far from the window because of the limited light and my 50mm almost didn't have enough room to get some of the people in the pictures. Maybe if I'd set it up differently it would have worked better but oh well! It wasn't a super great set up anyway with the clock and door in the background but oh well,gotta make do with what you have! lol

Ok I'm off to bed,it's been a long day!!