Giving Thanks

I would like to start off by saying a few things I am thankful for.
MY FAMILY- my boys are everything to me and so is my husband, I am so thankful to have them. They make life better, easier, more fun, a little crazy and especially rewarding. Also my extended family parents, brothers, sisters and in-laws, grandparents and cousins, aunts and uncles. I know that it is such a blessing to have a close loving family, and am so glad that I get to see my family so often.
MY FAITH- I am so glad I was born into the church, having the gospel in my life fullfills me and adds so much to my life that I know would be missing without it.
HEALTH- I have truly been blessed with great health as well as my family, I can only hope that we will continue to be healthy.
MY COUNTRY- Who can not say that living in this county is one of the greatest blessings.
MY FRIENDS- My whole life I have been blessed with great friends who have helped shape me and influenced me for good. I have been truly blessed to recieve these friends in my life.

I am so glad for THANKSGIVING, it really lets you sit down and think of the things that you have to be thankful for. My visiting teachers shared a talk from General Conference with me about recognizing the blessings in your life everyday. Saying that we should recount them and reflect on how Christ has blessed us in our life at the end of the day and even write them down. I thought what a good idea so this will be my first one. The rest I hope to put in some type of blessing journal. It is amazing how writing them down can really make you see how much we are given.

Sorry for the sap.

On to the festivities of the LONG weekend.

Thursday- Stephen didn't have to work in the morning so he was home when we woke up which I love. When we got up I started getting the Ruths Cris Sweet Potatoe Casserole (YUM) ready to cook. Then we packed up for the long day IN TOWN. We started off the day with Stephen's family for a Super YUMMMY dinner. Sarah came to say hi, and give the kiddies a little Thanksgiving treat. Stephens cousins the LeSuers had rented a bouncy thing and all the kids went over to play on it, a great investment for the day. We were able to go around the neighborhood visiting since all his cousins were eating nearby. While I was making the Sweet Potatoes Stephen was kind of stressing out thinking that it wouldn't be enough so we put it into two big dishes to make it look like more, well about a 1/4 of one got eaten. SAD! It seems not matter how you plan there is always too much food. After the Cummards we went to my moms to finish with dessert, course I was way too stuffed to even have a bite of pie ( which is ok with me since I am not a pie person) Once again there was way too much food, my grandma made 6 pies, Heather made a pumpkin roll and we brought a Cream Pie. It was a great day lots of family and food.

The Babies and the Grandparents
Stephen always has to take a picture of himself
Molly
Quincy
A rare smile from Jon
D3
Hudson climbing on the Dishwasher one of his favorite pasttimes


Hayley and Huddy
My mom and the boys

Friday- now I used to get up Super Early to hit the sales but I decided it wasn't really worth it, since most of the HUGE deals that you stand in line for at 4 in the morning usually end up still being there at NOON. This year there wasn't even any great deals I cared about at all though, but I do love to go shopping on this day anyways. So I got a baby-sitter ( my Step sister Rachel) and me and my mom headed out at about 9am. We went to Bath and Body since I needed some soap and they always have a sale plus a $10 coupon. After that we went to Junky Trunk hoping they would have a sale which they did and we went crazy, we called Hayley to come down and we all got some great stuff. Then Heather, my mom, Hayley and I all headed out to get Pedicures at this great place in Chandler. That took kind of awhile but our toes are all so cute and festive. Heather even got her picture taken for their book. We were so hungry at this point so we headed off to Oreganos to warm up with some YUMMY food, and Colin met us there. It was fantastic. We finally ended our day at 4:00. I went and picked up the boys and took them to the Cummards. Where Jackson rode a bike for the first time. Stephen bought him one a year ago with training wheels which he never rode, and then Steve drove over the wheel. So he bought some bikes at a garage sale last week without training wheels. Jackson was rididng the bike great, and of course now that is all he wants to do but since he cant get on by himself we have to help him up. Ater that I went to the movies with my mom, and Colin & Heather to see August Rush, it was great.
Our beautiful pedicures
Hayley's is the Burberry, Moms is the red & white, Heather's is the snowman and mine is the red & gold argyle
How cute

His first time ever isn't he good
He runs into things sometimes to stop
Then he ends up falling to get off the bike
But everytime he got up got back on with a smile on his face