I am grateful for DISNEYLAND! It truly is a magical place where dreams come true! Because...
I'm grateful for MY FAMILY. Growing up, my extended family was very important to me. We got together at least once a month and one of my best friends whom I spent a lot of fun times with was my cousin Cami who is only 8 months younger than me. Cami and I were inseparable at times. Some memories I remember sharing with her are throwing eggs down grandma's driving, Cami teaching me how to tie my shoes, our many dance classes and vacations together, our goofy sleepovers, our time shared in high school with boys and drill team, and going through pregnancy together. I sure love that girl!
Our family has been through a lot and we have grown together because of it. Even though we have so many different personalities and beliefs, we still share a lot of love and support. It's so fun to see all my cousins grow up and now we're having families of our own. I sure love you all!
I am grateful for MY BEST FRIENDS TIFF & STEPH! We first met 10 years ago in our 7th grade health class at Lakeridge Jr. High. We've been friends ever since. Even though we may not have spent every moment together through all those years, we are still friends now. And I'll always remember our cheese days. :-) I am so grateful to have them in my life and for their love and examples. I will never forget them and I hope we will be friends forever more! I love you guys!!!
I am so grateful for MY BED! It is so big and comfortable. I love going to sleep and taking family naps on it. Whenever I am away from it for vacations, I look forward to coming home to my own bed. It was definitely the best big purchase Steve and I made when we were first married.
I saw New Moon on Friday with my mom, aunt, and cousin. It was overall a good movie and I'm anxious to see it again. The werewolf scenes were very cool! And I must admit that watching it has changed me to a Jacob fan instead of an Edward fan. He's just so much more better looking, warm, and happy. But I still don't like Bella's acting, especially when she's with Edward. It was funny being in a theater full of die hard fans. The audience was making all sorts of unified reactions to certain scenes. It made me laugh. And I was surprised at how many males were there. I still haven't been able to convince Steve to read the books or even watch the movies. Maybe one of these days he will. :-) Now I just have to patiently wait for the next movie. The time better go by fast!
I'm am grateful for MY TRUCK! It allows us to get around town safely, it keeps us warm during winter drives, and it helped Cooper stop crying today! :-)
I am grateful for CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. They are soooo yummy and the best comfort food.
Even though it may be hard at times and I may not be the best teacher, I am grateful for MY JOB. I couldn't stop thinking tonight about how much I love my 27 little four-year-old's. I feel like I'm not only teaching them but they're teaching me as well. Steve and I are so blessed to have my job so that we can have awesome insurance, a house, and a vehicle. And it's even better that I get holiday's and summer's off!!! I couldn't ask for anything more.
Last Friday I had a girls night out with my mom, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law to Disney's Princess' On Ice. It was a beautiful show full of the magical love stories from Aladdin, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Cinderella. We even got to see Mickey, Minnie and Tinkerbell. The skaters were amazing and I loved the costumes and songs. I actually spent the rest of my weekend singing some of the songs. (Whistle While You Work, A Dream Is A Wish, Once Upon A Dream, and A Whole New World)
Anything Disney is just so magical and it makes me want to go to Disneyland again and again! Hopefully we really get to go next summer. :-)
On the drive up there, my sister-in-law Mary kept talking about it being Friday the 13th. She happened to notice that some of the people we saw during the night really were having a bad day. (We saw 3 bad car wrecks and a ladies battery had died after the show and she had a van full of kids needing to drive to Layton.) Good thing we had a lucky night! :-)
Here are some pictures of the skaters...
I am grateful for THE TEMPLE. Temples are a beautiful place where I can go to feel my Heavenly Father's love for me. No matter the service I perform, I always come out of the temple feeling happy, calm, clean, peaceful, and rejuvenated. It is the place where Steve and I were sealed for all eternity and I am so blessed to have such a gift-a gift of eternal life with the one I love and our children.
I am grateful for MY HOUSE. Even though there's a lot of remodeling and projects to be done, I still love it. It gives me shelter and all my basic needs. It's also too big for our family so we can always invite friends and family over for a good time.
I am grateful for MY SISTER. She has always been there for me through rain or shine. She's very knowledgeable and I'm glad that she is willing to teach me all that she knows. She also loves to serve others! I don't know what I would've done without her this summer. She truly is the greatest sister! Thanks Tink for all your love and laughs!
I am so grateful for MY SON COOPER! He is a joy to have in my life. He is cute, chubby, giggly, cuddly, fun, happy, silly, chill, sleeps through the night, and is overall a very good baby. I can't believe how fast he is growing and I look forward to being his mom for the rest of forever. I love you little Cooper!
For some odd reason I'm not feeling emotionally ready for the holidays yet. So to help me get into the holiday spirit, for each of the twelve days before Thanksgiving, I've decided to post about something I'm grateful for.
The first day of Thanksgiving...
I am grateful for MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND STEVE. He is kind, loving, easy going, funny, tall, charming, handsome, strong, smart, friendly, he loves to learn, he loves to rebuild and fix things on cars and around the house, he's a hard worker, a great father, a worthy priesthood holder, and my best friend. I love him truly and am so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed the Universe to bring us together. I love you Stephen! You are my true prince charming in shining armor.
So I've decided that I don't like daylight savings. We should just pick one time and stick with it. If I had to choose, I'd keep it so it stays dark in the morning and light at night. It's so dumb that it gets dark at 5:00. It makes it seem later than it really is. And the sun always makes me wake up earlier than I want to. It also throws off Cooper's sleeping schedule. Errr ;-[ But I guess that's just the way it is! :-)
So I found a coupon for an air duct cleaning company to come clean an unlimited number of vents for $65. I thought it seemed like a good deal so I had them come clean ours. After the fact, I now know it wasn't worth the whole $65. Maybe more like $30. The guy who came had a thick accent and it was hard for me to understand him, he wasn't very friendly, all he did was use an air gun to blow everything down the vents into the filter, (which Steve could've done himself), he left piles of dirt around some of the vents, and I'm pretty sure he used our toilet downstairs without asking and left the toilet seat up. What a ripoff. I guess life is full of learning events. :-)
Cooper had his 4 month shots on Thursday. One oral and three in his thighs. He was a tough boy and only cried for about 20 min. But he's definitely fussier than usual and got a little fever. Poor little guy. So daddy decided to give him a special treat that night for being such a good boy. Cooper just loves playing with his daddy. I hope you enjoy...
(Sorry it's such bad quality. I had to reduce the size to make it small enough to download. But you get the gist of it. :-) If you look closely you'll see his band aids on his thighs.)
So Steve likes to feed Cooper foods he shouldn't be feeding him yet. But I guess that's what dads are for right? :-)
Here's a video of Steve feeding Cooper a salt and vinegar chip when we went to visit him at work. I love the look on Cooper's face at the end of the video...
Steve feeding Cooper a fruit loop...
And here is Steve feeding Cooper his first piece of Halloween candy-a lemon flavored tootsie roll...
I just love watching Cooper's reactions.
So I babysat Colin for a few hours today. I had two 4 month old babies to care for at the same time. I wasn't quite sure how it'd work out. But it wasn't bad at all! I even was able to use my motherly multi-tasking skills to feed both of them at the same time. Colin was lying on the floor next to me and I was holding his bottle with my right hand while Cooper sat in my lap and I held his bottle with my left hand. Imagine that! I wish Steve would've been here to take a picture of it. But in all odds-if Steve was here, I probably wouldn't have fed them both. Steve would of fed Cooper while I fed Colin. I'm sure if I really had twins though (which Steve really wants) it'd be quite different then just the few hours I had with the two today.
So about a month ago I lost my keys. I retraced by steps and looked all over the house, in clothes pockets, and I even called the stores I had visited that day. Still no keys... Which was not too much of a loss considering we had spares that I could use. But finally last week I decided it was officially time to find them! I started by looking in every pocket of all the jackets and coats in our hall closet. And sure enough-there they were inside the jacket pocket I was wearing that day I lost them. (You'd think I would've already looked there) :-) It's funny how things happen sometimes.
On the note of loosing things-it's usually Steve that looses everything. Within the year he's lost his favorite pajama pants, his army pants, wedding ring, wallet, and i-pod. Sadly, we've only been able to find his wallet. (AFTER we had called all the card companies and paid to get new ID's.) He's even been asking me where his homework assignments are. Maybe-and hopefully-his wedding ring will turn up one of these days. What a silly boy! :-)
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