Because I have been given much.

In my countdown to Thanksgiving post, I mentioned some of the things that we are grateful for.  The lyrics at the beginning of the post are from a song that Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney sing in White Christmas (My FAVORITE holiday movie).

Our Thanksgiving was spent surrounded by family and friends. My wonderful Hubs, Mr B secretly flew my Brother, his wife, their baby and their very close friend out here to Long Beach from Buffalo, NY where they moved a year ago. Maga and Tutu made it out there to visit this past summer but aside from Facebook and cell phone pics, we hadn't seen them in SUCH a long time.

Needless to say, we were thrilled to have them here with us for 5 days! Here are some pictures of our fabulous Holiday!

 SO surprised to find Keola, Amanda, Anthony and Michael posed in the garage at midnight! Bad weather delayed their flight in Detroit so instead of a 6pm arrival, their plane didn't land until10ish. We had a heck of a time keeping up for seemingly no reason but were over the moon when that "no reason" turned out to be our wonderful family! THANK YOU HUBS!!

How cute are HeaBug and AnthonyMan? He's so tall, they're the same size and she's six months older! They had such fun together.

 Beautiful setting for a YUMMY dinner!

 My Thanksgiving Day team (some of them anyway, so not opposed to a kitchen FULL of helpers)! Stuffing in the Le Creuset, Beautiful 21 pound bird slathered in truffle butter, olive oil and herbs de provence, Gravy and Breezer's delicious last minute pumpkin pies!

Dinner for 30... including 6 mish who serenaded us with Because I Have Been Given Much, one of my faves! (Riddoch, JuiceBox, Reece, Klein, Serrano and Roberts)

B's at Rubble Mountain with Mia Marisa Photography

 Our AMAZING friend, neighbor, and photographer Mia Reed shot our fam in an abandoned lot on Signal Hill. These are some of my favorites! To see her faves as well as other moments in time that she captures check out her blog here!

 Hea Bug

 

JT

 

Mr and Mrs B

Counting our Blessings, one by one.

When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings

Following the example of my wonderful friend Mrs. Frost, I am using this blog to count down... up? hmm... the many wonderful things that our family is grateful for as we approach Thanksgiving. We work hard to live a life that we want and savor most seconds of the day. Often getting caught up in the daily grind, I will enjoy the time I spend each day asking my family what things they are most appreciative of...

November 1, 2010
I'm thankful for my family. All of them of course but especially my little Booth Ohana. Me, Mr. B, JT and HeaBug. Through the grace and wonder of God and his wonderful plan, my ETRNLFMLY is what I am first and foremost thankful for in all of this entire existence. -Mrs. B.

November 2, 2010

You. You're the thing I'm most thankful for. -Mr. B

 November 3, 2010
I'm thankful that you let me go to chess masters, and that you cook us dinner every night, and that we get to play on Thanksgiving. Not you guys, the children. We get to jump on the trampoline and stuff and eat pie. -JT

November 4, 2010
My awesome, funny, crazy (like make me want to pull my hair out) daughter, Ms HeaBug. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She's busy and smart. She's got an infectious laugh. She tells us she loves us out of the blue (both Booth Kids do) and she can do the Robot... need I say more?! -Mrs B

November 5, 2010
My Auntie Nini. She's a good Aunt and she teaches me how to pick up stuff with my toes and on Lego Batman, she does a level for me sometimes. I'm kind of missing her since she is here in Las Vegas. She's not going to live here right? -JT (from the Molina wedding in Las Vegas, NV)

November 6, 2010
Work. Busy is good. -Mr B

November 7, 2010
My sisters. I know that I've written, posted, blogged, status updated, and any other form that I often use of saying stuff I want to say, about how much I LOVE my sisters. They make my crazy moments feel a little more normal. Never awkward silences because we all have too much to say and if for whatever reason we are being quiet it's because there are some things you just don't have to say out loud. They are my best friends and partners in crime. They will go see Twilight movies with me at 11:30 at night, they will talk me off a ledge and be talked of ledges by me. Besides my guy, these are my it people. I love them and am so appreciative of their love. -Mrs B

November 8, 2010
To elaborate on the Hub's thankful for on 11/6... I am thankful for Rock Steady. I'm thankful that God has blessed us with such success that allows us to work full time for ourselves. I'm thankful that I believed in this dream (along with all the others but REALLY glad this one took off!) and for all the people in our life that are still believing right along with us. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be of service to others and to share the success and growth that we enjoy with other families. I REALLY miss being a full time stay at home mom but I know how lucky we are and when you work for yourself, you can never complain about too much work! -Mrs. B

November 9, 2010
My Grandparents. They taught me a lot about hard work. -Mr B

November 10, 2010
School and my friends at school, and my teacher Mrs. S. I love Mrs. S. I am thankful that I got a math award and that I had a lot of blue slips and got picked by Mr. A to get a pencil. I clean up a lot of stuff to get those blue slips. -JT

November 11, 2010
Technology! I lost my iPhone in Las Vegas and literally felt lost! Through my phone I'm able to keep track of everywhere that we're supposed to be for who and what time. I hardly know any telephone numbers by heart and receive all my personal and work emails on my phone! Thanks to craigslist and my hubs, I'm back with my iPhone and in full swing. I cannot imagine daily life, home or work or play, without access to the internet or phones. I'm almost ashamed at how dependent I am! Well not really, just glad to recognize it. I can talk to loved ones in other countries through video chatting and email. I can stay in contact with friends and family via facebook! I am SO grateful for technology!! -Mrs B

November 12, 2010
Did I say you already? I'm thankful for my wife. Enough to use up all my thankfulness days. -Mr B (side note... man I love this guy)

November 13, 2010
As busy and time stretched as I feel on most days, I'm really thankful for all of the opportunities and experiences that we are able to offer our kids. Gymnastics, jiujitsu, piano, chess, baseball, Spanish, charter school, art, culture, food... People might think we're a little crazy sometimes but it's all worth it for these kiddos. We just love them so much and want them to experience LIFE! -Mrs B


November 14, 2010
Prayer. That direct line of communication between you and the Lord. It's amazing. -Mrs B

November 15, 2010
Music, occasional Xbox, pumpkin pie and my cowboy boots. -Breezer

November 16, 2010
Pictures. They really say a thousand words. I have 30,000 on my computer alone. I'm taken back to very specific moments and memories when I look at some of them. They'll tell the story of my life, those before me and those after me. I love my pictures. -Mrs B

November 17, 2010
Mothers. Motherhood. The challenge and the reward. It is the best thing I've ever done. It's the best thing I've ever seen my mom do. My mom is the best mom and it's through her example that I am confident I can be a great mom to my kids. -Mrs. B

November 18, 2010
Music. We like it. Our kids like it. Makes us feel good. -Mr. B

November 19, 2010
The comforts that we are able to enjoy. We work very hard to live a life that we want. We work REALLY hard and feel blessed by the Lord with the work that has come our way. We are grateful for the ability to work and we are grateful for all the things it enables us to do.

November 20, 2010
Talents. We have been blessed with many talents and enjoy sharing nurturing them and sharing them with others. We know that our lives are blessed when others share their talents with us.

November 21, 2010
Friends. Good Friends are the best and we love them.

November 22, 2010
The thoughtfulness of my husband. He loves and adores us and puts so much thought into things for our family. He knew how much it would mean to everyone to see my brother and his family so he (and Brina helping) flew the NY Kamaes out for Thanksgiving! He's SUCH a good man!!

November 23, 2010
The kids in our life. They are full of life, joy, mischief, ideas, imagination, kindness... They make us happy and we love spending time with them.

November 24, 2010
The Plan of Salvation.

November 25, 2010
Food, Helping Hands, Loving Family, Friends and Neighbors. Warm Homes, Good Company, Smiles and Songs, Surprises, Patience, Kindness of others, Prescription Sunglasses and iPhones. lol

We have a LOT to be grateful for.

All dressed up with places to go, our Frightfully Fun Halloween!

Halloween isn't typically one of the holidays we go all out for... In fact, when we drive by the houses that are crazy decorated by October first there's a definite mumble of, "crazy white people" haha. Well, this year, I had these little B's all costume ready by the time they had cleared out the school supplies at Target. Always attempting, never successful at Family Costuming, Hea Bug and JT were dressing up as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan. As long as JT get's some sort of weapon, he's satisfied... last year it was wolverine chopstick claws, the year before, Indiana's whip... Peter Pan has a dagger, he's happy.

This year we dove right in with the activities. The Disney Store at the Lakewood Center Mall hosted a pre Halloween costume party, kinda lame but the kiddos had a good time.

Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland was MUCH more fun! We only trick or treated at maybe 3 or 4 of the 10 stations set up throughout the park and seriously came home with about 10lbs of candy! We had a great time there, GK joined us so we took advantage of that, "We're with the scooter" front of line pass. So many great costumes to be seen though! The park and the fireworks were awesome and HeaBug rocked out to some dance favorites at Club Skellington in New Orleans Square.

We were supposed to venture off to San Pedro with our Schlarb Ohana but they all came down with some yucky sick bug so they weren't able to join us at Pt Fermin Lighthouse. For a $15 donation, we toured the "Haunted Lighthouse" (which freaked out the little man), painted a pumpkin, decorated treat bags (one for himself and one for his sister who had gone to a halloween party at Uncle Kene's ward), sipped a cup of cocoa and snagged a string cheese. It was ok, for people who don't normally do the "Halloweeny" stuff. The sunset from the bluff was outta sight though. The pre festivity play on the playground was pretty fun too.

JT had "Trunk or Treat" at school on Friday then HeaBug and I went to our church trunk or treat. I was glad we got some serious use out of our costumes this year! Both kiddos were feeling under the weather over the weekend so we decided to stick close to home and just pass out glow sticks, candy and healthy treats at our door. We didn't get too many trick or treaters but the ones who did come were very cute. JT had glow bracelets all over his arms and was standing at the end of the walkway waving and saying "Over Here! We have candy, come trick or treat!" Kinda sad when  you have to recruit trick or treaters huh?!

We had fun, stayed safe and spent a lot of time together, when it comes down to it, one can't really ask for more!