Happy Thanksgiving 2019!!!

LaFeber Family Thanksgiving 2019! Just 5 more weeks until we become a family of 5!!!

There was a huge chance that this would be the world's worst Thanksgiving due to some serious family drama that happened just a week prior..... but we showed up anyway and it actually turned out to be one of the happiest!

You see, we checked my Mom into the mental institution at Valley Hospital after she started howling at the moon and cackling like a witch at 2:00am...... Then she became a dog and was growling at people and trying to bite the Paramedics who arrived at the scene to take her to the hospital. This meant she was then restrained and not allowed to be released for 72 hours until whatever drugs she was taking was out of her system (insert major eye roll here). You see, she and my Uncle Creg (the family screw up) decided to have a wild night and it ended very badly. Now they both deny any use of drugs and just claim she was possessed by the devil (again, rollings eyes here). So it was some serious drama trying to get her cleaned up and cleared by doctors to come home again. And to make matters worse, she decided to bring a homeless friend home with her from the insane assylum!! (is there a limit to how many times I can roll my eyes??). So all of this was a recipe for disaster and family discord. How could it not be? Josh and I had already made plans to do our own Thanksgiving but Briana and Grandma Wiegel talked me out of it, begging us to show up for them. So we sucked it up, and to our surprise, it actually turned out great! Granted, our expectations were very low, but we had a great time anyway! That's probably mostly due to the fact that the whole family showed up and we only associated with the non-dramatic ones. The others, like my Mom and Creg, did their own thing and left us alone for the most part. And my Mom's homeless friend actually wasn't too bad! She was more functional than my Mom that day, and that impressed me! My Mom spent too many hours obsessing over the turkey like she always does and didn't put it into the oven until it was time to eat (eye roll), so we didn't have turkey because it wasn't ready until we were heading home.... but instead of fighting with her about it, I just let her be her crazy self and ignored her. I'm learning that's the key to my family. Just ignore the crazy ones and you'll be fine!!

Josh didn't want to go because this was his only day off this entire week and he didn't want to spend it with the loony bin, but he showed up for me and I was so glad. We hardly get to see Josh and I needed him to be there. The kids needed him there. So he helped set up tables and hung out with Grandpa Frank most of the time, talking about the football games they were missing thanks to the fact that my Mom doesn't have TV..... Yes, he always has to bring that one up.

Then we took our turkey-less dinner and we ate and ate until we couldn't eat any more! We sat next to Uncle Brian which was perfect because he's the funny one of the family :). I haven't laughed that hard in forever!!! Seriously, he had us rolling!! Meanwhile, the kids ran around with their little cousins Cayson and Gracelynn and there was love and happiness everywhere. It really did turn out to be a beautiful day :).

Evie helping me at home cook food for our Thanksgiving Feast!

I don't know what I'd do without my sisters during all the crazy times and feel it is such a blessing to be raising our kids together! Sadly, Sadie is far away and we don't see her much :(.

We love our Gracie-pie!!! Even if she doesn't smile or show any emotion ever..... hahaha!

Chatting about football

Uncle Brian keeping us rolling while we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive!

The trouble makers! They had so much fun together!

These kids ate 6 cans of olives all by themselves! It was crazy!!

Briana caught a lizard and the kids had a blast with him!

And then suddenly I hear Cayson say to me, "Excuse me? Can you put the tail back on the lizard?" and I looked over and that poor lizards tail had fallen off! I couldn't help but laugh at the kids. They were mortified and so worried about him as his tail sat in the corner jumping around all on its own....

All in all, on our rainy drive home, I felt grateful. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, and to count your many blessings. And I realized that day that despite the drama and the insanity, I have a lot to be thankful for. There are so many blessings and so much love hidden in between the crazy days. I feel so sad that my Mom can't seem to get it together and is only getting worse down her path of insanity, but only she can help herself. I am grateful for the realizations and self reflection that has come with all of this. It has helped me heal a lot of childhood wounds and inner child issues, which has also helped me help my sisters out in that department. This has been a huge year of healing, that much is true! I am so grateful to have a handsome husband who works so hard for us, and two beautiful children who make my life worth living. And then there's this sweet baby girl in my belly who actively reminds me of her presence and fills me with her sweet, spunky spirit. It is getting so painful to be pregnant, but I am so grateful. I feel like with her almost here, I am now complete. I have been decluttering and feeling the urge to nest so strongly! That's part of my pain problem.... I wake up with this insane urge to clean and prepare, which leads to extremely productive days and super exhausted, painful nights. But I can't help it! I want to hold her so badly but I can't. So for now, all I can do is turn that excitement into preparation! :) The countdown is definitely on for Christmas and Baby time! It makes this exciting time even more exciting! And for that, I am so so grateful....