Day 6

I am thankful for my church calling. I admit that I wasn't exactly happy (bawled like a baby is more like it) when I was taken out of Young Womens and put in the primary presidency but I have learned and grown so much this past year in my new calling and I truly do love working with the children in our ward. We also have the best ward and I have never felt more at home in a ward than I do in this one.


What put on a smile on my face today was watching several of my young women (yes, they will always by my young women) bear there testimonies today at church. They are absolutely amazing girls and I hope Claire grows up to be just like them. They are kind, funny, helpful, righteous, friendly, and I better add great cooks to the list as well. They have brought me Italian Chicken at ten at night just because I mentioned it sounded good. And I can't even count how many times they have brought over yummy cookies straight out of the oven. AND I truly love the sassy text messages I still get from them. They are the best!!

Day 5

I am thankful that my family doesn't ever go hungry especially when there are so many in this world that do.

Also thankful for all the copycat recipes on that can be found on the internet. Our Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana and homemade breadsticks was absolutely delish for dinner tonight



What put a smile on my face today was walking in the kitchen to find Luke and Claire making breakfast....Macaroni & Cheese and bacon...and some licorice to go along with it.

A little more of October

We had a great October and enjoyed the cooler air and all the fall activities. Here is little sneak peek...

I took the kids to the Pumpkin Walk out at the Benson Grist Mill





Played outside on the days that were warm



My friend Amy talked me into doing a booth at a craft fair with her and we had a great time. Luke even made some really great birdhouses for us to sell. Now I need to talk him into making one for me.




Went to see the witches at Gardner Village.





One morning Claire told she had a great idea, "Lets go get dad from work and then go play at Chuck-E-Cheese all day. Well we didn't pick dad up from work just hours after he got there but dad decided to surprise Claire with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese the next week.


After 3 1/2 years of wanting nothing to do with tv, cartoons, disney movies, etc. Claire sat down at watched a movie. Yep, we were quite shocked!


Getting into mischief



And just played around

Day 4

I am so incredibly thankful for my hubby. Luke is such a great husband and father - hard-working, funny, respectful, loves playing with the kids, helps me out with different projects I am working on, and so much more. I don't even want to think about where I would be if I didn't have him in my life.



And today we put a smile on my face when we called me up during his lunch break and asked me out on a date. I got me a hot date my with hot man!!!

Day 3 Smile on my face

Today as we were walking into Walmart Claire reached up and held my hand...

Me: Claire, I like holding your hand.
Claire: Yep, it makes me happy too.

I am so thankful that I am her mommy.

Thankful Day #2

This little boogie man puts a smile on my face each and everyday. This is what I see every morning when I walk into his room to get him out of the crib. He is just standing there and bouncing away with a huge smile on his face and a nose that really needs to be wiped - and I just love it.

What makes me smile...

I realize that I still have alot of October updating I need to do but I also just realized that it is November 1st. And yes, I realize I am a little slow since I should know that Nov. 1st is the day after Halloween. And just to prove how slow I am, I also realized a little late that Claire had school today. (Halloween on a monday totally messed me up) So the mother of the day award goes to me....I took Claire to school late AFTER she ate tons of candy this morning and BEFORE I could feed her a decent breakfast. And she also had a little bit of clown paint smeared on her face that of course I didn't notice until we were walking up the steps to her school and there was nothing I could do about it. Man, I am doing good today!! But back to why I was blogging, last year I tried to do a grateful post everyday leading up to Thanksgiving and I kinda failed miserably. So this year I am doing a "What put a smile on my face today" post each day.

And today is this....




Yep, a shelf dedicated to sippy cups and baby bottles just makes me smile. Especially when several years ago we weren't sure we would ever have the need for sippies or bottles.

Halloween Party

Several weeks ago we had a Halloween party with all the cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Look how cool my moms house looks...and this picture doesn't even do it justice. She has these spiders all over her house and in the trees. It seriously looks so cool. I wish I could get into decorating as much as she does and I am hoping that I will when the kiddos get older and want to help me.

All the grandkids getting their pics taken. Claire has been in a "I don't want my picture taken" mood lately so I am hiding behind her and holding her in place. The little rascal.

But our little pirate was all smiles when it came to geting his picture taken

We played lots of fun games like musical pumpkins



And had gunnysack races. Yep, I "borrowed" some gunnysacks from my stepmom (some lady randomly dropped them off to her) a few years ago and they have been quite handy and nope, I don't think she will be getting them back anytime soon.






And had a root beer chugging contest.




And don't forget the pie eating contest.




And you can't forget the kiss after the contest


And of course the ongoing game was "See how many leaves Crue can stuff in his mouth when mom isn't watching". Or at least Crue thought it was a game


Thanks Mom and Ron for the great party!!

Carving Time

Part of FHE this last week was spent carving pumpkins and we loved every minute of it. Claire enjoyed it better than last year although she still thought it was gross. And Crue just wanted to munch on any piece he could get his cute little hands on.

I have the cutest boys around!!

And one cute little munchkin too!

The Pumpkin Patch

Can I just say how much I love Halloween!! It is quickly moving up my list of favorite holidays. And the older the kiddos get, the more I like it. We made it a tradition a few years ago to visit a pumpkin patch for FHE a few weeks before Halloween to pick out our pumpkins. In my opinion, it is so much better than just picking one out of a giant box at the grocery store. Well this year was a little different. Our Stake had a pumpkin patch down on the stake farm and then put together an activity for all the primary kids one saturday morning. I had to be there because of my calling in the primary and I dragged my kiddos along too. They sang a song, I think they played a game but we got there a little late, picked out pumpkins, and had donuts and apple juice. The kids loved it!

Claire and her friend Payton

And how is this little boy not the cutest guy around!! I just want to kiss those cheeks and never let go of him.


And since we didn't go to the pumpkin patch for Family home evening, we did something else that Claire also loves to do...we went swimming. Which was an adventure in itself when the fire alarms went off and pool got evactuated. Claire wasn't complaining much - she got to go swimming, see lots of firetrucks, and she had her first dipcone! (Umm ya, I didn't know they still made dipcones either.)