Thanksgiving

At this time of year I am all the more reminded of all of the things I have to be thankful for. My family, both immediate and extended; friends; school; the gospel of Jesus Christ; teachers; those fighting for our American freedom and rights; modern medicine; health; all of the advancements made that I get to enjoy and take advantage of.

We here at the Davis house had a nice Thanksgiving, and we hope you did as well. Mark and I ate turkey and all that goes with it. The kids enjoyed a cheese pizza and jello. We were able to sit together and enjoy a wonderful meal of all of our favorites!

I am also thankful to be a mother. I will admit that this has not been very easy for me, and I often feel like a failure. To have children to take care of is a challenge, to have some with "special needs" is a whole new challenge. All of my training and knowledge of tending to children has been questioned and challenged from the start. It is so hard to open up to others because as we all know we don't really know what it is like for someone else until we walk in their shoes.

Once this precious gift from God arrives in our lives we want the best for them, always and forever. I am thankful for modern science and those who spend their lives researching, studding, counseling and working out new ways to solve old problems. At least at this point in our lives we have had a wonderful week. It has been the first time I can say as a mom that we had a good, normal week. I have not had to worry about my child and their constant well being or my own well being. We have been able to perform daily tasks that are daily for most families, but have not been for ours. We all need a little extra help sometimes and thankfully we have found ours.

Obviously I am speaking about John in particular. What a joy he is to our family. I am elated that he has been receptive to trying something new and willing takes it. It is an overwhelming feeling that is hard to put into words when you see your child that has been struggling finally find some peace and "normalacy". I am opening up something very personal to me to a lot of you. I only do this because I have started to use this as my journal and I just had to get the words out.

Thanks to all of you who love and support our family. I am appreciative of all of the words of support, physical support, acts of kindness, prayers and friendship you give us. In short I am thankful for all of you. I am thankful for my savior Jesus Christ and for all that he has done for me. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that I know lives and loves me. I feel his presence and guidance every minute of every day. I am thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and for the peace the gospel brings to me. I am thankful to be alive and experience life, the good, the bad, the hard and the down right difficult! Thank you again for listening and loving me and my family.

Love,
Jennifer

School Days

john- just wrote his own name. This is his Kindergarten school picture. I don't know what happened to the scan, I will re-try at another time. Both kids have now joined me and can't seem to keep thier hands to themselves. What a great day we are going to have!

Disney Princess on Ice

Our Princess

Last Friday, November 2nd, I took Alison to see Disney Princess on Ice. She had so much fun! Here eyes were wide open with excitement as she watched each of the princesses come out for their story. Her favorites are Ariel, Belle, Cinderella and Snow White. If you ask her what her favorite part of the show was she will tell you the thunder storm during Ariel. We carpooled with some friends but our seats were not together. So when we arrived I took her to the gift stand first and she picked out the Cinderella light up spinner she is holding in the picture. Then I saw the Minnie ears, which we needed on Halloween night, so I bought them for the dress up box. We also bought her a Princess t-shirt, which she wears proudly. Then we saw that you could have your picture taken with Ariel, so we had to do that. I asked her if she wanted me to be in it with her, she gave me the hand and said, "no, just me." We bought our popcorn and then headed to the seats. Thanks to the Internet I have found some better pictures than the ones I took. So here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

It was such a joy for me as a mom to see her eyes filled with wonder and excitement. I could just imagine what she was thinking as she saw these Princesses in person. I knew she was going to have great dreams that night. It brought back memories for me of going to Disneyland and seeing the characters in person and feeling the magic! She asks daily if we can go back to watch the Princess on the ice. Both kids are more excited to go to Disneyland now. We are working on planning a trip. If this show comes to your town, I highly recomend it.

Trick or Treat

50's Fun

Princess Minnie Mouse

BFF Jake and John aka Optimus Prime



at Trunk or Treat

Optimus Prime, Cool Dude, and Princess Minnie

Okay, so now I have time to finnaly finish posting our Halloween night fun. We started at 4pm and went to the local shopping center to trick or treat at the stores. That is where we saw the best homemade Optimus Prime (OP for short) costume ever! We just had to take a picture of it.

For those of you that don't know, Transformers is the big and one and only thing at our house right now. Alison was actually supposed to be OP for Halloween as well, made me buy her the costume and everything. Then a week befor she said, "I am going to be Minnie Mouse because there is only one Optimus Prime." Sounds like her brother got to her, what do you think? I thought for sure she would change back to OP on the night of Halloween, but she held firm as being Minnie Mouse. However, when she has her friend over for a play date and they dress up, Ella puts on the princess dresses, and Alison puts on OP. You win some, you loose some.

Then it was dinner at McDonalds and the kids kept asking if McDonalds was handing out candy. I had to tell them no. They were very sad. The McDonalds here has an ice cream case, where you can choose scoops of ice cream or "Dippin Dots". So then John wanted to know if they were handing out ice cream instead of candy. That boy just never gives up.

Then we headed over to the church for Trunk o Treat which started at 6pm. We were done and home by 6:45 where we handed out candy. The kids were so funny. They enjoyed running to the door each time they heard the bell. I had playdough and fruit snacks so that each of them got to put something in the bags. Alison has told me that she is going to be a Care Bear for Halloween next year after seeing someone in costume. As we were pulling out of the church parking lot to head for home John proudly exclaimed, "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the next day is Christmas!" Both kids cheered and were so excited. Oh if every day could be a holiday with candy and presents!