Since I've been focusing on a Thankful Soul this holiday season I've been sharing the things I'm thankful for each day on twitter. I wanted to list just a few of them here as well.

• I'm thankful for Aaron and everything he does for me. His strong arms around me at the end of the day are all it takes to feel the stress melt away. He is my true partner in life.
• I'm thankful for Everly and everything she teaches me. She is an absolute joy in my life. I am truly the luckiest to be her mom.
• I'm thankful for my parents. They've always loved and supported me no matter what I choose and they've always been an amazing example to me.
• I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters. They are the best. Just the best.
• I'm thankful for my niece and nephew. They are both so sweet and Everly just loves them.
• I'm thankful for my in laws. They're such wonderful people and they raised the greatest man I know. 
• I'm thankful for my friends, both old and new. I have some of the greatest friends a girl could ever ask for.
• I'm thankful for all our extended family. There's so many of them and they're pretty great.
• I'm thankful for my blog. It's a wonderful outlet no matter my mood.
• I'm thankful for my little shop. It's been so much fun to work on my jewelry these past few months. It's a gift to be able to share something I love with people. 
• I'm thankful for being a doula. I absolutely love my job of helping women give birth. It is empowering to watch these women warriors and support them as they become mothers.
• I'm thankful for books. I love to escape into them and dream of magical worlds. 
• I'm thankful for social media. Yes, I said it. I enjoy it. It's so much fun.
• I'm thankful for a kitchen to cook in. I love to dream up new recipes and tasty dishes for my family to try.
• I'm thankful for hot chocolate and warm cookies. They need no explanation. 
• I'm thankful for the new opportunities that have come our way despite the difficulties we've face this past year. 

Aaron, Everly, and I are truly blessed. We have so many beautiful things in our lives, including each other. I love them with all my heart and soul.

xo Sue

Yesterday I mentioned the thankful soul and I wanted to write more about it. Sometimes it's hard to be thankful. I know that in some ways we've been so blessed this year. Our precious Everly was born and we've had the absolute joy of watching her learn and grow. I cannot ask for anything more wonderful than that.

But this has also been a difficult year for us. Aaron lost his job and we moved our little family 5,000 miles away. We had to leave our precious puppies behind which was heart wrenching in itself. We're getting settled into our new home, our new routine, but it's only semi-permanent. We're still looking for new opportunities and ways to help our situation. Aaron has a job that pays him and gives him good health benefits for our family but it's not quite enough. We're so lucky to be with my family who love and support us through it all but we're ready to do more. We've adjusted to a new way of life. And sometimes it's hard. I'd even say that a lot of the time it's hard. There are moments when I wonder why this is the way things have gone. There are times I can pinpoint and ask myself "what if..." I try not to, but they happen. Sometimes too frequently for me. So in those times I've started something new. I take a deep breath, I concentrate inward, and I think of the things I'm thankful for.

And every single time these two are at the top of my list. Without Aaron and Everly my life would have little meaning.

I have a small confession. Since I was 11 years old, I have not liked Thanksgiving. It's not because I'm ungrateful, it's because of some particularly painful and heartbreaking memories associated with my 11th Thanksgiving. As I've grown older I've learned not to tell people that. Usually they assume I'm a brat because I don't enjoy this holiday. Slowly I've learned to let go of the hurt that accompanies this holiday for me but I don't think I'll ever completely lose it.

Two years ago was my first Thanksgiving married to Aaron and it was the first time in a very long time I've enjoyed the holiday. We spent it up at my cousins cabin, played in the snow, and enjoyed the togetherness of the family. It was also my last holiday before moving to Japan so I was particularly aware of what I was thankful for. Last year we were overseas for the holiday and spent it with some good friends of ours. It was nice to have somewhere to go instead of being alone... but it was a reminder of how much I love and wish for my big family when the holiday season comes around.

This year will be wonderful. I have my husband, I have my daughter, I have my big family to hug and share food with. I have so many things to be thankful for. They may be small or silly things but they're things I'm thankful for nonetheless.

Even though times may be hard, this holiday season I'm truly striving to keep a thankful soul.

xo Sue

I know that I'm not the only one who loves getting mail. When I pull out an actual letter addressed to me I get so excited! So this year I'm making a real effort to send Christmas cards out in the hopes that I'll get a few back. With that in mind, let's swap Christmas cards! If you want to mail out cards this year just send me an email sue.asitseems@gmail.com and let me know your mailing address. I'll send you mine and we'll get excited over the beautiful cards we get. Sounds wonderful, right?

This was last year's card. I miss those sweet puppies but I'm sure glad that baby isn't in there anymore!

PS If you want to swap cards with several bloggers hop over to Amira's blog where she's doing this same thing, except organizing whole groups of bloggers to send each other happy mail. So fun!

xo Sue

I love this time of year. The music, the lights, the general spirit of cheeriness in the air. A lot of people get angry that Christmas decorations are out before Thanksgiving but I see no point in that. Instead of thinking of the two holidays separately, I like to think of the Holiday Season in general. The happiness, the love, the beauty of the world. I like to focus on those things.

Since this is Everly's first holiday season I'm trying extra hard to make it a good one. I've been thinking about traditions I want to start with our family and things I want to teach her. She may be only 9 months old, but she's so smart already and learns every day. She's not to young to understand the meaning of love, happiness, and giving.

Last year Aaron and I started two family traditions that I hope to continue for a very long time. The first was a Secret Santa for another family. We wrapped up a little bundle of goodies we thought they'd enjoy and we dropped it off at their doorstep on December 24th. I was 7 months pregnant so I waited around the corner while Aaron rang their doorbell and ran like the wind. It was so much fun! That evening we settled onto the couch with new pajamas, hot chocolate and our Christmas book for the year, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Aaron read it to my round little belly and Everly kicked him to say thank you. It was such a sweet moment for us all. I've already picked out our Christmas book for this year. It will be wrapped and waiting for us under the tree on Christmas Eve! I hope Everly enjoys it as much as I did growing up.

It's such a gift to see the world through my daughter's eyes. I took her outside a few nights ago to see the twinkle lights that are hung over the garage. She looked at them in awe and reached her chubby hand out to try and touch them. I've never seen more beautiful twinkle lights.

Because of Everly I'm seeing things in a whole new way. I'm remembering the true spirit of Christmas and I'm learning to keep a thankful soul. It's such a magical thing.

xo Sue

Have you ever in your life been unhappy with your weight or how your body looked when you saw yourself in the mirror? Have you ever had someone stand in front of you in a picture so that you didn't seem so fat? Have you ever tried to lose weight or become healthy and quit after a week or two because it "wasn't working"? I have been through all of those things. And let's put a beam of light in saying that one, you are not alone and two, there truly is a light at the end of the long dreadful tunnel. I say long and dreadful because of the pure and simple fact that being healthy and losing weight is a very long and hard process. You will fight with yourself, you will fight with your loved ones, and sometimes you will fight with a workout machine (yes I've done it). But it's worth it. Yes you've heard it before with the whole "oh stick with it you'll get there" speech that your skinny friend or family member gives you and you just want to scream because they make it seem so easy. It's not easy, there's no magical pill, or magical treadmill that will give you instant results. And quite frankly as much as you want to just talk to someone about how you feel it's hard finding someone who actually understands and will listen to you and try to help. Let me just tell you a little bit about my story so that you won't feel so much like I am a broken record or some infomercial about losing weight.

Hi!! My name is Heather and I am what they like to call an emotional eater. If I'm sad, I eat. If I'm mad, I eat. If I'm happy, well yeah I think you get the point. I have struggled with weight loss my whole life!! Having an obese mother and a father who taught us to eat everything on our plate or we'd go hungry it was a struggle to be healthy and I grew up having a relationship with food. Food equalled happiness and fulfillment in my life and that's something I needed because I didn't get it from anyone else. Okay moving on, so like I said I was a chunky girl all the time, well I changed that once I graduated high school. I wanted so bad to get out of the home I was in that I went to join the military. But I was way too overweight for them to even think about recruiting me. So I had to lose weight. A lot of weight. I lost 50lbs before they would consider me and after ending up not joining the military and moving away I lost another 15 or so pounds. And then I got married and ended up pregnant!! Yay!! I had a rough pregnancy, husband was gone a lot (he's in the military) and I had high blood pressure so always getting tested, and being stressed out I'm sure you know what I did... Yep that's right I ate, and ate and ate. And even though I threw up so much of what I ate I still kept eating. It was so comforting. Well after I have birth to my amazing little boy I had lost about 40lbs of my baby weight which meant only 20lbs more pounds to go to get to my comfortable weight yay!! And then reality set in. I was basically a single mother with my husband not really connecting with our son (he's sooo much better now a year & 1/2 later) and my marriage was on the rocks. I fell to a very dark place in my life to where I gained so much weight I was just miserable. I was obese, miserable, and still searched for comfort within eating.

Then there was a weight loss competition on base and I joined. And I was determined to beat a lot of people if not win. I dedicated a huge part of my life to working out and eating right. And when I say working out I mean I was always doing something to burn calories, and I calorie counted (so hard to do!!) I limited my caloric intake and I burned as many calories as I could and I drank A LOT of water!! I worked my butt off... Quite literally. I lost a total of 36lbs between Jan-April, and I won. I won the competition, but even better I was able to play with my son more without feeling like I was going to pass out, I started feeling better about myself, and the best thing is that I had no help, I did this all on my own with my own determination my own will power and my own sacrifices. Looking back I would say that had I gotten help from someone there's no telling how much better it would've been. Since then I have lost more weight to a total of about 50 or so pounds and I am wanting to lose more but am just not letting it control my life right now.

Okay so back to the reason I am writing this. My point in this very long blog is that losing weight and being healthy IS POSSIBLE!! I wanted to quit so many times, and sometimes I did. I would take a couple days off because I was just tired. But when I was done taking a break I went back at it full force because I WANTED TO BE HEALTHY!! And WANTING something is the biggest part of doing something like this. I've done it twice, because I WANTED it, not because someone else wanted it for me. Did I struggle? YES!! Do I still struggle? YES!! Do I still find comfort in food? YES!! But I've worked so hard to get to where I am that I am just not ready to give it all up for unhealthy food. That doesn't mean that I don't splurge and get a cheeseburger over a salad but I've come to a point to where I know how hard it is to work off what I eat, and I am an adult and have to make the decision as to if it is worth it or not and well sometimes to me it is. "One bad meal isn't going to make you fat just like one good meal isn't going to make you skinny" -that's something I've had to learn to live by.

Being healthy and losing weight isn't always fun, or the cool thing to do but it's so rewarding in the end. Feeling good about yourself is something that a lot of people in this lifetime just have never felt because they just don't know how. If you don't like something about yourself change it, you are the only person in this world that you should allow to change something about yourself. Allow yourself to live an amazing long life, feeling good about who you are and what you look like. And most importantly when you feel like giving up, know that you are not alone, someone out there is cheering you on and looking up to you as their inspiration!!

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If you'd like to submit your own story to share with The Discover Yourself project we'd love to hear it. Visit our form here or send an email to thediscoveryourselfproject@gmail.com.

I feel as if Everly's 9th month of life went by so quickly. More quickly than any of the others. It might be because her newest cousin Sam was born and we spent a good amount of energy and time focusing on that. And E just kept right on growing. Didn't she know she needed to give me a little break? But despite its quick passing this month has been absolute magic. Having little Sam around has reminded me deeply of when I gave birth to this little miracle of mine. And now I see her as this beautiful nine month old baby and I realize that she's been outside my body as long as she was inside it. There's something special about the ninth month and I believe that's it.

Everly is becoming independent and curious like never before. She wants to see everything, touch everything, taste everything, do everything.

• Everly has started walking. Last month I shared that she was taking steps here and there. Now she walks for real. She walks everywhere and always looks SO proud of herself afterwards. It probably helps that I cheer for her, but initially we did nothing to encourage her walking except watch in awe. She definitely decided to do it on her own. She's slow but steady and I'm sure the pace is going to pick up soon. She's already made improvements in just a few short weeks.
• She learned how to clap. She'll walk up to me and clap her hands. I always shout "Yay Everly!" when she claps for herself. She has the biggest smile when we do this.
• E's favorite song is "If You're Happy and You Know It"- obviously because she gets to clap the whole time. 
• We've found her ticklish spots this month and her giggle when being tickled is music to my soul. She also loves to blow raspberries, usually on my cheek to wake me up in the morning.
• Everly celebrated her first Halloween this month and was the cutest little lion there ever was. She also had her first taste of chocolate thanks to her daddy's love of it. She enjoyed the chocolate but thankfully still likes all the other flavors in the world and doesn't need the sweets.
• We finally found a food she didn't like: canned asparagus. I do wonder if she'd like baked asparagus because it tastes so different. Perhaps we'll test that theory at Thanksgiving!
• Ever picks a word of the day, usually mama or dada, and says almost nothing else for 24 hours. Then she picks again the next day. It's precious and I love when her word is mama. Then again, I love when it's dada too. This girl sure loves her daddy.
• E is still breastfeeding, bed sharing, and baby wearing every day. We've been doing those things since birth and I really feel the connection it's helped us develop. She adores me and I adore her. She's so much happier just being in a room with me and if she has my attention she shines. She loves her daddy and grandparents too, but right now she's definitely a mama's girl.

I cannot be grateful enough for this precious lady. She is everything that is good in the world and in me. I count her as my biggest blessing every single day. Mama loves you bugga.

xo Sue

Ask yourself this. What's your least favorite thing about yourself? Now lets change that. Lets change the way we see ourselves. When we look in the mirror lets not see the thin tired mouth, the dark circles under our eyes, or the fly-aways sticking out of our hair. Lets instead see the smile on the lips, the brightness of the eyes, or the curls (or straightness) of the pretty hair we have. Lets take the negatives and make them positives.

I have this idea for people to share their stories. Everyone has a story, right? I know I do. And maybe it's not the most fascinating story that's ever been told, but it's my story. And that matters. We all want to share our stories, to be heard. We talk about ourselves, every one of us. Especially bloggers! We write entire pages on the internet dedicated to ourselves. We like to share our stories because we want to be heard. We want to know that the things we value are important and we are not alone.

Lets start now, and make it a 2014 personal intention. Lets talk about body image and self love. Lets talk about the things that are good and the things that are bad. Lets talk about the beauty of motherhood- and how damn hard it is. No one told me it would be this hard. No one told me it would be this wonderful. Lets talk about the beauty and the hardships of just being a woman. Lets talk about it. 

Lets talk about the fact that while I was pregnant I had more than one person accuse me of having an eating disorder and hurting my baby. I didn't. I had a very dangerous and scary disease called Hyperemesis Gravidarum that caused me to be hospitalized three separate times, triggered pre-term labor, and made me so sick I couldn't move for days. I cried myself to sleep repeatedly because I was terrified that something bad was going to happen to Everly because of this disease my body was fighting.

Lets talk about the fact that childbirth was the most painful, beautiful, intense, emotional, difficult, spiritual, amazing thing I've ever experienced. And when it was over the realness of life began. I had the most perfect daughter who depended on me entirely. She loved me and I loved her from the moment she was born and that love has only intensified with every passing day.

Lets talk about the fact that daily I question my abilities as a mother. I often look at Everly and think to myself that I am not worthy of her. She is superior in every way. She is smart and curious and beautiful and I will fight for her every single day of my life just so she can know happiness. My life is better with Everly in it. I am so lucky she is mine. She teaches and tests me every single day.

Lets talk about the fact that because of my HG I didn't gain any weight during pregnancy, but in fact lost 20 pounds. But now that I'm healthy again my stomach has gone down but it's not where I want it to be. My stomach is my least favorite part of my body. I do crunches, sit-ups, and other exercises and still my stomach is not flat. WHY? I'm learning to accept it, to love it even. I love my stomach. I carried my daughter there for 9 months and even without weight gain it stretched out and changed. And that's okay.

Lets talk about the fact that I love my face. I know, that sounded pretty vain right there, but part of this experience is talking about the good things too. It's okay to say that I love my face. It's not perfect, but it's mine and I really think it's a good one. I like the imperfections too. I honestly do.

This is a small part of my story. I want to share more. I will share more when the time is right. I'm starting this now, The Discover Yourself Project. If you want to share your story I would LOVE to hear it. You can send any and all submissions to thediscoveryourselfproject@gmail.com or if you'd like to share your story anonymously just go to this form and tell me all about yourself and your life.

xo Sue

As of right now, stories sent to us will be shared through As It Seems and The Discover Yourself Project. If we start to get a lot of stories (and hopefully we will!) they'll mostly be shared through The Discover Yourself Project. Please take a few minutes to visit us there, like us on Facebook, and share us with your friends. It would mean the world to us! THANK YOU!

Today I'm linking up with the Pintester Movement: Ho Ho Ho Edition. If you haven't heard of the Pinteseter you definitely need to check her out. Her blog is all about the pins she actually makes/tests from Pinterest. They're pretty entertaining. I planned to do this a few days ago but since life had other plans it all fell to today (which coincidentally was the last day to play).

My original idea came from this image I found on pinterest. I cannot for anything find where it originally came from though, and believe me, I've looked! The farthest back link I've found is here but that's where the trail ends. I also found something pretty similar here that I liked a lot. Anyway, if you know where the pin originated please let me know so I can update my links. Also, I didn't like how the recipe from the image turned out and decided to go with this one instead (but I halved it since I only needed a few ornaments). It was very simple and we had a lot of fun with it.

Whew, that was a lot of explaining for one pin! So today my neighbor girls came over to play. I asked what they wanted to do and they said something fun. I told them that Everly and I were about to make Christmas ornaments and they were thrilled over that idea. So they jumped right up onto their stools and we all made ornaments.

Everly hung out in the sling with the girls and I worked on our ornaments. She was helpful by lending me her tiny hand to make handprints. I made 2 of hers, turning one into Santa and one into a keepsake for myself. The Santa one I finished with paints and the handprint I just used a marker to color in her hand. I haven't had a chance to seal them yet because they haven't completely finished drying, but I'll do that in the morning. And in case you don't want to follow the links, here's the recipe I used.

Salt Dough Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup salt

Preheat oven to 325. Mix dough (I used the bread extension on my kitchen aid but you can hand mix it too). Make your ornaments (be creative if you like- my husband made a mini Cartman). Bake for 1 hour. Decorate! 

xo Sue

We have a tradition in our tiny family to take a picture every year on our anniversary. It started sort of accidentally because obviously we had pictures taken on our wedding day. The next year we just so happened to take our Christmas card pictures on our anniversary. And so the tradition began.

In my mind our anniversary is not only a time to celebrate our love, but to celebrate the day our family began. That's why I love family pictures on our anniversary, to see how much we've changed in a year. This year I was so excited to take our picture, but because of extenuating circumstances (more on that a different day) I spent exactly 5 minutes of our anniversary with my husband, and none of it with my daughter. I wasn't sad about that. I was exactly where I needed to be. But I was a little sad that we didn't get a family picture taken. So the next day we were walking together, all three of us, and I happened to have my DSLR in my hand. I decided that a day late was better than not at all and we took a family self portrait. It's perfect.

xo Sue

Two years ago today Aaron and I were married. Part of me feels like we've always been married. It's so natural and normal that it's hard to remember anything else. But of course I remember life before Aaron. It was still a good life, but he's made it infinitely better. I am so lucky, so blessed to spend my life with this guy.

Happy Anniversary Lover.

xo Sue

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Nietzsche

My mama shared that quote with me this week and said it made her think of me. It made me happy.

Thing on my mind: My brain feels it's shattered into a million tiny pieces with how much I'm doing lately. I've getting everything organized and ready to open my newest little space on the internet (you can visit me here!). I'm so excited but also nervous and perhaps a touch afraid of falling flat on my face.

Books I'm reading: Craft INC. and Thirteen Reasons Why (one of my favorites to read over and over again)

Favorite food: Anything quick and easy. Unless I find a new recipe I need to try on Pinterest!

Favorite show: Criminal Minds - my all time favorite.

Favorite activity: Baby watch! My next client (someone extra special to me) is due any day now. I LOVE being a doula. LOVE.

Project: Creating - product, content, information. Everything.

Songs on repeat: Let Me Go, Acoustic #3, and Some Nights.

Favorite moment: Watching Everly take steps. It wasn't long ago that she started crawling and now she's decided steps are a good idea! They're only 2-3 at a time but I can't even believe her every time I watch. She's usually taking steps towards me. Heart melting.

Daily revelation: I am grateful for my mind. I don't mean to brag here but I've got a pretty great one.

Favorite pictures:

my first night out alone since E was born // E in her lion costume // first taste of chocolate

xo Sue

"I tell myself I can do anything, and most of the time I believe it." 

I am beyond excited! Today is the day I'm opening my brand new corner of the internet, Foreverly Design. I've loved making my own jewelry for years now and I finally decided to gather all my courage and open my own shop. Currently my shop has bracelets, necklaces, and earrings available for immediate purchase. I'm adding more stock this week and by next Monday I'm hoping to have my customizable sterling silver jewelry added too! 

I would love for you to take a peek at my new shop and let me know what you think. Between now and the 18th (my first two weeks of being open!) you can enter the code below for a discount on any order. Thanks so much for checking it out!!

xo Sue

taken in Japan when E was only 2 months old

Tis the season for all things pumpkin! And these pumpkin rice krispie treats are super simple and hit the spot. Just be sure to add extra krispies so they don't get soggy (gross). 

Jessica shared a recipe for sautéed tomato sauce that I'm dying to try. It looks so tasty! 

I've never made roasted pumpkin seeds before, but after Aaron carved ours out (on Halloween) I decided to try it. This recipe for sweet & salty surprised me with how good it was! I love when I take a chance on a strange idea and it turns out. 

Alex wrote a post called things younger me would like about older me that totally inspired me and made me think. What would younger Sue like about older Sue? Perhaps I see a post about that coming soon. 

This recipe for hot french onion dip was possibly the greatest dip I've ever made. I love the cold french onion dip that I use on chips so I gave it a chance and I'm so glad I did. 

Amira posted a recipe for mini chicken pot pies that looks a.maz.ing. I want to make them now that the weather has turned cool around here. 

And this skirt has always been one of my FAVS. I'm going to attempt to make one myself. If I fail I won't blog about it. If I succeed... that would be wonderful. 

PS Are we seeing a trend with all the recipes I'm sharing? I think I might be hungry at the moment... 

xo Sue

Like any crazy parent who uses too much social media (especially Instagram), I created a hashtag for Everly's first Halloween. I plan to do this for pretty much every holiday for all of time because I LOVE looking back at pics from a specific event without having to trudge through everything to find them. I'm aware of how crazy I sound. But the hashtag #everlyeden is my absolute favorite to look back over in IG.

My Halloween hashtag was #everween2013 and I posted periodic updates of my progress on our DIY costumes as well as pictures from today. I found this fab tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess (my daily stalk for creative ideas). They're obviously a lot more skilled than I at getting things done quickly because this took me two weeks of working. Of course, I have an 8 month old who thinks she needs to try walking already so I'm up to my elbows in trouble.

At the beginning of September I told myself I was going to make our costumes for Halloween. My mom always made ours and those were some seriously cute costumes. By the time October arrived I still hadn't started them (or even chosen them). When Aaron and I finally settled on lions (in case you were still guessing what we are) I jumped right in and got to work. I'm thrilled with how they turned out. Everly wasn't fond of the mane tickling her face but she was quite skilled at pulling it apart. I watched horrified as my daughter tried to destroy in 30 seconds what had taken hours to create. She ended up not wearing her hood for most of the night but she sat still (or we held her hands) while we snapped some pics.

Our Trick-or-Treat adventures consisted of knocking exactly six doors (grandma's included) and explaining our costume every time. I thought it was obvious but I was wrong! Lizzie came with us, dressed as the cutest bunny ever, and she was delighted to be getting so much candy. Unlike Ever, she knows what candy is! Our neighbor girls came along too and it was a fun 10 minutes out in the cold. Afterwards Everly chewed on a wrapped candy bar while Aaron and I giggled at her and stole candy out of my mama's big bowl. I couldn't have asked for a better first Halloween for my lady. I'm already excited for many more to come!

xo Sue