Finding Thankfulness

Every year when November rolls around you start to see the 30 days of thankfulness pop up everywhere on blogs and status updates. And every year I never participate b/c I know that I'm thankful for everything in my life, yadda yadda yadda. Really though, if I look and try a little deeper, do I really find something each day to be thankful and grateful for? I think once I made it past day 10 of the things I should be grateful for (Tony, Grayson, family, job, etc. etc.)... could I really dig in deep to find things to be thankful for?.... especially on the hard days. 

So this year I'm going to join the bandwagon of 30 days of thankfulness.  Not for the blog or for the readers (if there are any readers.... hello, anybody out there?), but for me - to force myself to find thankfulness. I'm not a natural "find the good in things" person; so I'm hoping this will help me during a season in life right now that I really need to find reasons to be thankful. I think it will help me appreciate this chapter in my life instead of grumble through it.

Day 1: Today, I'm thankful for First Fest last night. For just the selfish reason of having a tough couple of days and getting to get out and have fun and watch Grayson be completely joyful in a bounce house. So thank you First and all the amazing people that made it happen!

So, who's with me? Will you challenge yourself to find thankfulness with me this month? Praying for the challenge and encouragement this brings and what God will do in my heart through it.

FALL!

Have I mentioned how much I love fall!!? LOVE it! The crisp cool air, sweaters, scarfs, boots, hot cocoa/cider/pumpkin spice latte... it is all FALL! Anyway, I say that because we had a nice little cold front this weekend and it finally felt like fall for a quick minute down here in Houston!  And the cold fall feeling was perfect timing for some fall fun at the Middle School Retreat! That's right Grayson and me both got to go with daddy to the retreat and we had so much fun!  I always love seeing Tony work with students and watching/listening to him preach, and this weekend Grayson and I both got to see daddy in action! And Grayson got to join me with my group of 7th grade girls small group... they called him our mascot. ;)

  

Grayson was definitely not short of attention....

... and we definitely wore him out!

The next week after the retreat was Halloween! If yall have read our blog, you know how much Tony and I LOVE Halloween!  We dress up and go all out.  This, however, is our first Halloween not dressing up, going to Halloween parties or haunted houses. It was a little sad feeling like such an adult, but had fun focusing on our sweet little skeleton baby and Tony had to work for First Fest at the church.  It is a giant festival of carnival games and food and fun for families.  We put our lil guy in glow in the dark skeleton pjs. Tony worked a carnival game (there were lots of carnival games for kiddos to get candy at).  While daddy did his shift, Grayson and I explored and had some of our own fun! He experienced his first little ball pit (wasn't sure what to think about that) and got lots of love from some of our students! He definitely is loved on here :)

October

This month is flying by!! I can't believe that it is already the end of October... Christmas is right around the corner and I am sooo excited! :)

Looking back Grayson is just growing like crazy, I can't seem to get him to SLOW DOWN! He has been on solid foods now for almost 2 months. He's eaten green beans, peas, carrots, squash, avocados, prunes, bananas, peaches, pears, apples and oatmeal.  He really likes yogurt and bananas and prunes (thank God he likes prunes for as much as he needs to eat them, poor baby). He loves to gnaw on and share bananas and watermelon with you, and he is getting the hang of the Gerber puffs! We are about to try mangos, apricots, mashed potatoes, zucchini, blueberries and turkey. He is sitting up and rolling all over the place, he scoots and crawls backwards, but we're not quite to crawling yet.  We will probably be needing to move his crib down a notch soon - scared to walk in and him be sitting up on his own in the morning! ;)

We have had a lot of firsts this month! I left Tony and Grayson overnight for the first time to go to the Women's Retreat... and they did AWESOME!  Tony ran his first 5K, Grayson went to the park and on the swings for the first time, Grayson had his first sleepover buddy this last weekend, first pumpkin patch and first movie going experience!

Tony's 5K and Grayson and I cheering him on!

He LOVES playing at the park!

Grayson had his first buddy stay overnight....

... and we got to practice having 2 kids :)

First (of many) Pumpkin Patch!

 

First Drive-In Movies

I have to share how awesome Tony is.  He has Fridays off (since he works Sundays), and every Friday (and sometimes Saturdays) he lets me sleep in while he gets up with Grayson between 6:30/7 and feeds him his first bottle and plays with him and usually they go get Bro-Nuts (donuts for bros).  And usually when I wake up I walk in during Grayson's morning nap... on daddy. That boy loves his daddy and cuddling for nap time and it melts my heart!

Make him stop growing!

4-7 months

This coming weekend we will be going to the Middle School Retreat! Should be fun with Grayson, all the students love him :)  For Halloween we will be at our church for First Fest and he will be a skeleton (above picture of his skeleton sleeper). As much as I want time to slow down and for him to stop growing up, I'm ready for November to zoom by so we can get to December! We LOVE Christmas, and I'm fairly certain my son is a Christmas elf with as much Christmas music he listened to in my tummy and how much he kicked last year. So excited to have our first Christmas as a family of 3 and to go to Illinois to see family and hopefully Grayson can experience snow!  December Grayson will be 9 months old and will have his 9 month Dr appt. Time is flying... Catch it and make it stop! ;)

** I added a button on the sidebar for you to go directly to my photos on Facebook if you are needing more Grayson pics!! **

Happy Halloween!

Most of you who know us, you know that we LOVE Halloween!! I LOVE fall and all things fall fun.. including dressing up for Halloween!!! And we had a lot of fun this year for Halloween! I really wanted to have fun with my belly bump this year... as you just never know when you'll get to again! ;) SO... This year the Tony was a basketball player, I was a referee, and Grayson was a basketball!!

The Bianco three

We had a LOT of Halloween festivities this year with lots of get togethers, friends, trunk or treat, candy and MORE candy! :)

At one Halloween party I had a few friends that were expecting as well! Here is my close friend/seminary wife, Melinda. We are due exactly one week apart!

And the three prego ladies, in order of due date!

Of course we can't forget about the guys

We also had fun at Trunk or Treat at our church again this year!...

Batman family and Toy Story family

and finally, me and Mr. Potatoe head showing off our big bellies

Did you have fun on Halloween!!?
Next week is my 3Day for the Cure walk! I will have lots of pics in a couple weeks showing all 60 miles of fun! :)
Diamend

Happy Halloween!

We had such a spoooky fun time this last weekend! :) We were busy busy and I was a little sick, but that did not slow us down! Our plans for the weekend were: a Halloween party on Friday with some of Tony's co-workers from Apple; Saturday I had class all day while Tony worked all day, then we went to our friends, the Horton's, (who used to be our downstairs neighbors) for dinner at their house before getting a scare on at Thrillvania!; Sunday we had Trunk or Treat at our church the afternoon followed by Halloween party at the Horton's that night! Whew, I'm tired! Really, I am... All the fun and being sick caught up to me because I had to take a sick day yesterday to recouperate :(

Anyway, back to the fun! Every year Tony and I try to dress up as a couple for Halloween. This year we dressed up as one of Tony's favorite Halloween/Disney movies: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Tony was Jack Skellington and I was Sally, for those that know the movie. What do you think of the costumes? ;)

Our costumes were fun! And here is our trunk, although you can't really see it, it is a Christmas tree decorated with Halloween decorations and our pumpkin.

We went to Thrillvania Saturday to get spooked! ;) It is a thrill park with 8 different attractions of haunted hauses, animatronics shows, 3D shows and all kinds of spooky fun! Needless to say, we had FUN! ;)

And of course, I have to brag and share about my precious nephew's very first Halloween trick or treating!! My sister sent me some great pics that I have to share :) My little Koen is Tigger!

happy halloween!! :)