So thankful

I've done the month long Thankful series posts on Facebook before, and this year I even thought of doing a series on Instagram, for like a second. But I figured, if I do a blog post, add to it each day and post it at the end, that'd be best.

Better for me to catch up when I miss a day. And, trust me, it happens. (In truth, I'm starting this on the 5th!)

Here goes :

Nov 1 : my husband. He's my best friend, my partner in crime, my rock, and my everything. He does so much for me, for our little family. I am so blessed to have him in my life, so blessed to be married to him. 

Nov 2 : my home. I look around and see a mess of toys and stuff. But I am so grateful for the walls I have to raise my boys in. The walls that keep my little family warm and safe.

Nov 3 : my marriage. I am so grateful to have my companion, so grateful for our eternal perspective on this relationship. I am so grateful to have him, to have found him. I love my marriage. I cherish my marriage and relationship so much. I love him. 

Nov 4 : The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love this gospel and all the peace it brings. What glorious promises and blessings are in store! The people are not perfect, but the gospel is.

Nov 5 : The Atonement of my Savior. It took me a while to feel like I could be forgiven. Why on earth would He forgive me?! Look what I've done, there's no way. But His atoning sacrifice is for EVERYONE! I see how blessed my life is because I have lived both sides of the spectrum.

Nov 6 : little successes. Things have been hard lately, but when we have those little successes, it makes everything seems more attainable, more doable. Look out world.

Nov 7 : The family I grew up in. Today is my younger brother's birthday. He's 17! Holy crap. I am so blessed to have my family. I love them.

Nov 8 : my little Colonel. Good heavens, you sure did give us a scare, but we are so blessed that everything worked out and you're happy and healthy and so gosh darn strong!

Nov 9 : my Danger. You turn 3 today! What that?! How did that happen?? I am so grateful for you, every day I am. I love you. You have blessed our lives so wonderfully.

Nov 10 : I'm a mother. I love being a mom. It has changed my whole world. I am so so grateful to my miracle babies, so grateful to have been blessed with them.

Nov 11 : the soldiers. All I can ever say, is Thank you. And it will never be  enough. Never will those words capture just how grateful and thankful I am. Thankful that I can raise my boys in a home that is mine, surrounded by stuff that is mine, with the beliefs and feelings that are mine, married to the man of my choosing in the place of my choosing. Thank you for all of the comforts and blessings my family enjoys. Thank you for the opportunities we have, the rights that we have. Thank you. Just plain and simple, but honestly, not enough, THANK YOU dear soldiers. Thank you to the ones who have served, are serving, and will choose to serve. Thank you.

Nov 12 : our vehicles. We are truly blessed to have our cars. I'm so grateful that Shark has a car to drive to work, that I have a grocery getter, and that he has an adventure truck. I know how fortunate we are to have our cars. 

Nov 13 : modern medicine. Without it, I would really not be here. And even if I was, I know my miracle boys would not be. I see how far the medical world has come in 20 years and look forward to seeing what's in store in the next 20. 

Nov 14 : my husband's job. His job kind of is awful, cuz it's so far away but his job really is a blessing and I am so thankful for all his job does for us.

Nov 15 : staying home. I'm grateful for the opportunity to stay home with my rugrats. It's hard, but I am so very happy to be with them. I am so blessed.

Nov 16 : modern travel. How awesome is it that we can travel thousands of miles in a matter of hours?! Seriously! My family is in WI and we're in UT, we can fly to them in 3 hours. Or drive in 24. It sure beats MONTHS.

Nov 17 : all the ideas I can search thru on pinterest. I know that sounds stupid, but I find so much stuff on there. Things that help me out around the house, help with sickness, potty training, teething, siblings, dating my husband, cooking. I can find it!

Nov 18 : donuts. They make my little boy so freaking happy, they are filled with deliciousness and rather inexpensive. Sure, I'll plaster a smile on my child's face for 55¢.

Nov 19 : crafting. It helps keep my mind off all the crazy holiday stresses. It helps me not go crazy. It keeps me busy and I love making things.

Nov 20 : my strong boys, who get stronger every single day. Seriously, every single day they get stronger. Last week, Colonel wasn't showing any signs of teeth, besides being fussy, and now they are SO close to popping. He is climbing all over EVERYTHING. Last week he didn't look at the stairs, didn't pull himself up, now he goes to the stairs everytime and he pull himself up on everything. Danger now poops and pees in the potty every time. Last week, he did not. My boys are so big. And tomorrow they will be bigger than they were today, just a little, but they will still be bigger.

Nov 21 : my love of reading. I love finding new books to read. And I love being transported to new worlds. I love learning of my Savior, of His life, of His teachings. I love reading faith-building books. I love it.

Nov 22 : friends. I am so very grateful for my friends. They have helped thru some very hard times. I am so blessed in the people who have come into my life. I love you.

Nov 23 : inspirations and feeling the spirit. I am so grateful the Holy Spirit whispers to me. And I am grateful that I hearken to the whisperings of The Spirit.

Nov 24 : family traditions. From watching football to a certain grape punch, from Easter egg hunts to stockings. I've enjoyed melding our family's traditions. We've still got some perfecting to do but most families do.

Nov 25 : that I see the blessings in my life. I have a wonderful life and I am so so SO very grateful that I can see the blessings in my life, that I can show my gratitude.

Nov 26 : family. I love my little family. My boys, my husband, my dog. I love the family I grew up in. I love my in law family. I love the friends that have become my family. I am so blessed that I have them. So very grateful.

I know some of them are silly, but I truly am thankful. I really do have a great life, and I'm grateful that I can see how blessed I am, even thru all the struggle we've had.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Thursday Nap 4.4

So, since I usually have Thursday free and I want to blog weekly at least, I figured I could put something kinda constructive into my Thursdays - rather than just watching TV and eating chips.

Danger's napping so the timing is perfect!

This past week has been pretty run of the mill.

We did kind of go on a spending spree. Ugh. I know.

I'm such a hypocrite! I sit here and complain about money and not being able to skrimp and save. But then we register the boat, get used tires on the boat trailer, we bought some (cheap!) seasons of Survivor, and I HAD to buy my Mother's Day present early.

Ok, the boat - I put it under Shark's Father's Day present. That boat has been sitting on the side of our house since we moved here. Not working. Every winter it fills up with snow and ice, then every spring it drains into the boat and thru it. He's excited cuz the boat works now! Yayay!

Survivor - I started watching Survivor again, and freaking fell in LOVE with it! It's so awesome and then I had to get Shark in on it. It's now a show we LOVE together! There are a few seasons on Hulu, well, once those seasons were over, we bought some seasons on Amazon Instant Video. Well - no more are left on AIV, so we had to buy some. You know, we HAD TO!!

My Mother's Day present this year is baby books. We only have 1 little guy, but I want all my kids to have the same book, and I don't have a baby book for Danger yet. Well, I have a beautiful 1st Year Memories book my aunt made, but I want books that have more than 1 year. The books I picked out are 1-5 years, they have a family tree page. AND these weren't too expensive, I've been looking at memory books for a while, and they can be anywhere from $16-60! I want all my kids' books to be the same, so I bought 4, we're planning on having 4 kids. :)

SO yeah....

Last weekend was fun. Friday night the whole family went to Wendover for a buffet. Shark's brother got free buffet tickets. So we all headed over Friday after Shark got off of work.

We got home around 2 am, so we slept in Saturday morning, and did NOT make it to any Easter egg hunts. Saturday was just an easy relaxing day. After Danger was in bed that night, I put some candy in some plastic eggs and hid them for the little guy. As soon as Danger figured out there was goodies inside and there were more than 2, he got so excited.

I picked the black and mint green suit for him for Easter. And he was such a stud muffin at Church.

At Shark's parent's house he played with bubbles and his bug magnifier. And he ate TONS of candy! It was a fun Easter for him! He's been pretty cute signing MORE and PLEASE all week!

We sure do love that little man.

Christmas 2012 photo dump

So, this year for Christmas, I didn't photo document my gifts as well as I have in the past. I bought a lot more than I have in the past, as well .

One thing I made this year, (that totally rocked!) was Ninja Turtle hats, with a mask that folds down over the eyes! I made one for Shark and his 3 siblings. They used to play Ninja Turtles growing up, they were each one of them, and Shark's dad made them all their own weapons. So I crocheted them hats! They loved them!

This year, my big thing I made for (almost) everyone, was Hogwarts House scarves. I made some Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. I made some of each, and I'm pretty sure they all loved them.

I also made sports team glasses. I found out which team they liked and I etched the team logo onto the cups. Pretty sure they loved those too.

I made an awesome plate for the grandparents (Shark's and mine).

 

(I'll post a pic once they all get it!!)

 

I made this freaking cute shirt for Danger cuz I realized he didn't have any Christmas shirt.

 

And now for the photo dump!

 So much cheese!

 Danger and Aunt!

 By the Power of Gray Skull!

Yeah man!

 Christmas!!

 

 scarf!

 shake shake shake

Little Man has started to make a CHEESE face when I get the camera out. Even if I'm just moving it from the shelf to the diaper bag! He toddles over with his huge CHEESY smile on his face. He squints his eyes up and has this big huge freaking grin! He's so stinking cute.

It's been so much fun discovering his little personality and finding out who he is. He loves buttons, and flicking switches. He loves shaking anything that makes noise. He also loves destroying things. But he's super cute when he's destroying things. For the most part, he only destroys his cheap dollar store toys. :)

We had a very Merry Christmas! We hope you all did as well. Happy New Year! Love to all!

Holiday traditions

So we've got some holiday traditions that I enjoy quite a bit.

Pillows from Santa. Every year Santa bring us new pillows. The old ones either get recycled to Bandit or thrown out (cuz lets face it, after a year of being punched by Shark, you'd want to be thrown out too!) Santa also usually brings us new pillow cases. The tradition might evolve into getting matching pj bottoms and pillow cases. But we'll see...

Making monster cookies and hot cocoa. I can remember my mom making these every year. Pretty sure a single batch of monster cookies makes 30 dozen. Yup. I remember not having a bowl big enough to mix it in. I also remember not having enough cookies to last thru Christmas. Ever. I remember dipping our toast in the hot cocoa mix mom would make. I also remember never having it last thru Christmas. Knowing this recipe has den wonderful cuz there are some people on my list who LOVE hot chocolate.

Looking at Christmas lights. Every year we'd pile in the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights. There are parks that decorate every tree and you can drive thru them. And there are houses that decorate their ENTIRE house and yard and put the lights to music!

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Watching holiday movies. Ever since I can remember, we've always watched Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, Frosty, a Christmas Story. And now more movies have been added to the list: Elf, and Christmas Vacation. I'm excited to sit down and watch those movies with my little family.

 (imdb)

Pajamas and books from Santa. This is one I'd like to start with my family. Maybe to go along with the pillows. (To be gotten on Christmas Eve.

(pin info)

4 gifts. A friend of mine in CO had a rule for giving presents : something I want, something I need, something to wear, something to read. Well I tried it and I just need to keep it to something not somethingS!!

(pin info)

Sleeping under Christmas lights. I remember having a night picked out (not Christmas Eve) where we would sleep under the tree. I want to do this with my kids as well.

(source)

Santa bags. Each year (also on birthdays!) the kids will pick 10 toys to put in a bag for Santa to take with him to give to less fortunate children. (Seriously, Danger is 1 and every single night his toys COVER the entire living room! He has sooo much!)

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Elf on the shelf. Or the Grinch. The Elf has a good story/purpose but the Elves are kinda creepy... So it might take some looking into. But I like the idea of keeping a little guy around who reports to Santa. I wish it would work all year long.

(pin info)

So those are the holiday traditions I have or want to have. But we'll see how ambitious I am when Danger gets older and when we have more kids.