Beautiful Brooke: Still Thankful...

Meg caught this awesome picture! I just wish she could giggle along with that smile!

Quiet time with Pappy Ray!

Sorry for the delay in posting! Grammy Kathy is close to having a canary and she's definitely going through Brooke withdrawal - so I've finally found a minute, while the princess is sleeping, to say a quick hello! (Grammy Kathy - Did you see that I updated the Walmart site, too?)

It seems that Thanksgiving came and went quicker this year than ever before!

Brooke and I spent 3 awesome days at my Mom and Dad's while Aunt Meggie, Uncle Jason, and cousin Joshua were home for the holiday! I basically camped out at their house from the minute Brooke and I were ready each morning, to about a half hour before her last feeding each night!

This is the first year since Meg and Jason have been together that I've had my sister for Thanksgiving - and I loved every second of it! I'm very selfish when it comes to my sister - I can't get enough of our 'girl time' which has now truly changed into 'Mommy time' with our kiddies! I love being able to hand Brooke off to her Aunt while I chase Joshua around the house! It's a great change of pace for both of us...and I love it so much!

Sunday, we spent the day in Belletown with entire Wray clan - I swear, someone really ought to video tape these Thanksgiving get-togethers! I'm not kidding when I say that the table gets bigger each year and it stretches from one end of the living room, through the dining room, and all the way to the end of the kitchen! I didn't do a head-count, but as I count right now, I'm coming up with 35 people! Can you imagine!? It's incredible! Zig isn't really as close to all of his 'Wray cousins' as I am to my own, but it's great to be with all of them for the holidays and we're already looking forward to seeing them all again on Christmas Eve.

My sister wrote in her blog about how she really had our Gram on her mind this Thanksgiving - and I couldn't agree with her more. This is the first Thanksgiving without her, even though we haven't spent a Thanksgiving with the real Gram in a few years.

I had to laugh as we sat down at my Mom's table for our Friday-night-after-Thanksgiving meal! My Gram always made homemade waffles to drench in the leftover turkey, gravy, and filling balls - and my Mom does a fantastic job keeping this tradition alive! This happens to be my most favorite meal in the entire world - BUT there was always a catch! Something you might not know about me is that I'm a PANCAKE FANATIC! I've always loved pancakes - my Mom used to make a batch of pancakes every single Sunday morning before church...I've even won pancake eating competitions! No joke... So having homemade waffles ( a close cousin to the pancake ) for supper is a special treat - At Grandma Mary's house, however, I wasn't allowed to have any waffles with syrup until I hate 2 waffles with gravy and turkey! I always cleaned my plate of turkey waffles quickly in order to have that syrup! My sister laughed on Friday as I was done with my 'turkey waffle' before anyone else had even put the gravy on their plates! I was ready for my syrup! I couldn't help but think of Gram...she would be so proud! :) And MAN, those angels up there are awfully glad that THEY have Gram for Thanksgiving - I can guarantee that no one in Heaven was hungry this year!

This is also the first holiday without Zig's Dad...

This was the first time we sat at the enormous Wray family table where Shanty wasn't at the end with us. He always sat on the very end, with Zoe on his lap... We miss him and we've talked about how we wish he was here to see Brooke and Marlee... We know he sees them though, and he's loving them and Zoe Joy from Heaven. On the way to Belletown, we got a sneak peak at Shanty's headstone which is now engraved with all three of the girls' names as his grandchildren! It's so cool...

Zig and I have so much to be thankful for each and every day... This year especially...

We have a beautiful daughter to show for the love we have shared for 11 years...a love that has stood the test of distance and time... and a love that will last forever through the eyes of our little girl!