what i'm thankful for..

So in honor of Turkey day swiftly approaching us.... (food coma, yes please.)

I want to spend time to express what I'm thankful for this year!

I think I'm going to try and do one everyday until T-day gets here... that means you get 11 more days of my thankfulness! I would LOVE for you lovely people to also tell me what you're thankful for this year :)

I don't think I spend enough time telling the people I love what they mean to me-- maybe this will be a good way to start.

Day 1:

MY NEPHEWS :)

Many of you know I have much older siblings that have kids. So, as you can imagine I became an "aunt sam" at a pretty young age. I was in 4th grade when I found out my sister was having her first child, Blake. I love being Aunt Sam to Blake and his younger brother Evan. Blake just celebrated his 11th birthday in September (Evan turned 7 in August) and this picture of them is from Blake's family birthday party.

These boys have my heart!

On that same note, I have 4 other nephews from my brother! (boys totally outnumber the girls in this family!)

Two of them are his step sons that are a few years younger than me, Matt 2o and Collin 18. His two kids with his wife Susaine are Caden, 8 and Keaton, 5. I got to spend lots of time with these boys this summer in Tennessee when their family came to meet us there from Illinois.

My brother Mark, is in the Navy Reserves. The boys love to dress up in his jackets and gear! This was a couple years ago.