Thanksgiving 2012

Tupelo, MS

HAPPY TURKEY DAY! We sent our puppies to doggie daycare and boarded a jet plane to Birmingham, AL, eventually ending our trip in Tupelo, MS to visit my large, wonderful, loving, crazy family for the holidays.

I am incredibly blessed that my large, wonderful, loving, crazy family loves and accepts my little family as if they never knew a life without them. They love Butch and Darius just as they love me and I am so grateful for that.

Darius was out of school for Thanksgiving before we were off work for the holiday so my mother happily picked him up at the Birmingham airport and spoiled him rotten until we arrived. She then happily drove back to the airport to pick us up.

After a long day of traveling we were finally in the south, with our family.

Time with my family in Mississippi is never too dull. My parents had about 10-12 people in and out of their house every day and there was a minimum of 5 people sleeping there each night. With all these people in one home wouldn't you guess that something crazy would happen? The septic system failed while everyone was staying there. There was no quick fix for the problem so my parents ordered a port-a-potty. Hilarious! It will always be the Thanksgiving of the port-a-potty for me. Just weird! It was 20 degrees at night and we were hiking outside to the port-a-potty.

Let's EAT! There is no shortage of children in MS!

A nice family game of Yahtzee!

Darius got some quality practice with his Favorite Uncle Darren.

All of the girls were really excited to have a photo shoot with Aunt Kristen. This makes my heart happy. I love taking photos and I'm so happy that they look forward to having their photos taken while I'm home.

My sister's oldest step daughter, Taylor, sometimes "Tater."

My sister's second oldest daughter, Alexandria, goes by Alex.

My sister's youngest, Anna, known to answer to "Anna Banana."

My brother's oldest child, Dusty AKA Dusty Bug.

My brother's youngest step daughter, Kylee, also known as Kylee Fred Hammerhead. :)

This photo is just awesome. I love all their different expressions. Not to mention that Kylee (the little lady in the white) heard last minute we were going on a photo shoot and dressed herself in that fabulous white dress. She cracks me up. This photo is a full assortment of personality and individuality. I love them all dearly. On the far left is the beautiful Anna, Daughter of my Uncle Darren. She wasn't up for a photo shoot but wanted to tag along. You know I had to put her in at least one photo!

After the photo shoot we came home to take some fun photos in the back yard.

We are missing a few kids but this is most of them.

My brother's son, Austyn.

Now for the hilarious part of all these photos. I wanted a nice place to take family portraits of Butch, myself and Darius so that I could send them out in Christmas cards. Our front porch isn't exactly photo worthy so I told them I'd find a place. We drove about a mile down the road to a nice subdivision and I scouted out homes until I found one I thought would work. Butch and Darius were really blown away at my approach. Butch asks, "What exactly are you going to ask these people?" I assured him, don't you worry about a thing, I've got this! As I exit the van Butch tells Darius, "You know your stepmother is ghetto, right?" HAHA! Call it what you will be we got beautiful photos out of the deal. My mom and sister went along to take the photos. Thank you ladies for being a part of our ghetto Christmas card photos. It's something we'll always remember though, right?

Our beautiful Christmas card photos. I love them!

My beautiful family. I love my boys so much.

This is one of my favorites.

My pride and joy, my love, my life.

It's not just today as I type this, or Thanksgiving as we're surrounded by family and remember our blessings, but it's every day I am thankful for my amazing family and my beautiful life. I take nothing for granted. I am blessed beyond measure. I couldn't be happier with the life I was given and the life we have created.