Thanksgiving is a time for Thankfulness!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Today I wanted to say a few of the things I am thankful for(in no order of course):

1. My husband Jess. I love you!
2. Mitch. I love that he likes to make me laugh, and play games.
   
3. Lindsey. I love that she has a cute sense of humor. She gets jokes all the time.
4. Alyssa. I love that she wants to be big. She told me she wants to learn to babysit so she can go babysit her friends :)
5. My parents. They are really supportive of me.
6. My sisters(this includes my sisters-in-law). They are my best friends.
7. My brothers. They are good big brothers, and funny.
8. Jess's dad and Cindy. They are great people, and very kind.
9. Jess's mom. I love her a lot and miss her often.
10. My nieces, and nephews. They are all very adorable.
11. My brothers-in-law. They are all very cool.
12. My home. I am thankful I can fix it up too!
13. My friends. I can always count on them.
14. My clothing. I am thankful to be going down in sizes too!
15. My calling. I LOVE Young Women's and I have the best calling(secretary)! I will be sad when we are done.
16. The gospel. I am thankful that I know that families are forever, and that Jesus died for me!
17. Tithing. It has blessed us a ton this year!
18. The Prophet. How cool is it that we have a living prophet!
19. Laughter.
20. Good music.
21. Good food.
22. Modern conveniences. I have a washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher! How easy do we have it?!
23. Beautiful things.
24. A nice bed.
25. Cute shoes.
26. Heat.
27. My phone. I love to keep in touch with the sisters, my parents and friends!
28. That my kids can help me clean.
29. Date night. I Love going out with Jess. He is the funniest, kindest, guy. My best friend, and we always have fun!
30. My health. Thank heavens my back is doing better, and I am feeling so much better!
31. That I have EVERYTHING I need. I don't get everything I want but I have so much!
32. I get to go somewhere warm this Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

*32 things for my 32 years on earth :)

Love Your Body 5K with the sisters!

Katie, me, Suzanne, and Darci

Yesterday, Suzanne, Darci, Katie and I did a 5K at Sugarhouse Park. I have wanted to do 5K's and 10K's, half, and maybe even someday a whole marathon for a long time, but...never have. Well, obviously I am not in the best shape of my life, or even close to it, so it was the Perfect time right?! Well...I walked it, but I did it. It is a little jump start to some of the things I want to do in my life, and we had a great time! Suzanne, and Darci(my two younger sisters) ran and did a great job. Katie(my SIL who is a sister to me) was kind enough to walk with me. She kept me marching up those killer hills and helped me reach both of the goals I set for myself. I am so glad that Sue invited me to do this 5K with her, and I am glad that I got to do it with some of my sisters! This is just the beginning for me!

I'm in mourning.... Her Hair is Gone

ALYSSA'S HAIR is GONE!!

I came home from Girl's Camp, and when Alyssa came home from Grandma and Grandpa's house, I found out she had given herself a little haircut. I gave her a big hug and then it felt like slow motion sinking in, that she no longer had her Beautiful, long naturally curly hair. After I cried a little, I had Jess call the cute girl that cuts her hair to see if we could get her in. No luck... it was July 3rd! She was going to on the 4th, but she ended up having stuff she had to do. So....I trimmed it up. Basically, it looks the same as when Alyssa did it. I just trimmed it up.

Oh well! She is still dang cute, and now her Sassy Hair matches her Sassy Personality!

It is way easy to do, but I miss that hair!

I'm thankful for my Mom today...

She has done so many things for me; especially in the last few years. She has taken care of me and my family numerous times as I have been recovering from back issues. She is a great example of charity. I hope I can return the favor and serve her and others. She is an awesome grandma. My kids love having her around and all of the fun that comes with her. She taught me about being a Mother and I am so grateful that I get to be a stay-at-home home. I know it is a huge blessing, and one that she didn't always get to have, but she made the best of it. She has shown me, that life is not always perfect, but we make the best of it. It is imperative to keep going forward and progressing. That is happiness. She is such a great Mother and I love her so much and I hope she knows how important she is to me. She is beautiful on the inside and out.
Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Help me find some balance :)

I need some balance in my life. I really do. There are SO Many things, worthwhile things even, that I need to be doing, but I can't find the time to do them. I get stuck in a rut, and it is Hard for me to climb on out. So for awhile, I can be really good at making great dinners, and then that kind of slacks a little, and then reading scriptures and prayers, and then its spending time with my kids, or getting to the temple and dates with Jess, then, I can blog really well for a few weeks ;), and then I put that on the back burner and I am good at cleaning and then spending time doing something else for awhile. WHY?! I don't know, but I know that I want/need more balance in my life. I have big changes going on right now, and I have a lot to be thankful for. I want to be able to do some of the things I think are important all in the same day ;) So....how do YOU have balance?

I have more on this subject, but I want to hear your thoughts first. ALL of you! Even if you have never commented before! Loves ;)

Not--so--Sunny California

We are here in beautiful Southern California and the weather is not quite cooperating! Oh don't get me wrong, we are still having a Great little vacation, but it has been chilly this week here in Cali. We went to the beach in Malibu on Tuesday, and after a few hours, the clouds rolled in and we rolled out, and we haven't been able to get back to the beach since! We are so thankful to get to spend a little quality family time together, as we don't get to see much of Jess since he is in school. We are having a GREAT time and hoping that Vegas proves to be a little warmer when we are there over Easter weekend! We will post pics of our trip when we get home!

Update!

Okay...So it has been awhile. I don't know what happened. I just needed a little blogging break. I know, I should have told you before I left. I am here now! It seems like a lot of people have needed a break. So anywaysies...what have we been up to....
Jess-still working and going to school. He is super busy!
Me-boring you with this uninteresting post.
M-into basketball right now. Tonight at practice, he was totally showing off. He was so cute and so proud. He told me he is the best on his team! He has a good self-esteem!
L-into dance and being a major help to me. She does whatever I ask her to, and she even offered to scrub the kitchen floor for me! She knows how much I love a scrubbed floor!
A-dancing too, and keeping busy trying to be big. She asks me random things like " Why did Heavenly Father give us a tongue?" and today she asked me what fine means. Like "I am fine."

We are getting excited to have spring come. We went to Bear Lake a couple of weekends ago, just to get away. It was so fun. We stayed at some condo's and took our friends with us. That made us more antsy for nicer weather.

My mom came and stayed with us for a few days last week. It was fun to have her, and she helped me get some things organized. I don't think organizing ever ends. One day, that weekness of mine will become a strength. I Hope!

I promise I will be back soon with some more interesting posts, I think I am ready to blog again, and lets be honest, facebook has lost some of its "new and exciting" so now I will have more time!

Jess and Mitch just got their hair cut(It looks really good), anywaysies, Jess came home with some "product". On Sunday, as I was getting ready for church, I said, " Jess! now I can use some of your pomade!" (I am all out and I needed some). He turned to me and insistently said "What! I didn't get No pomade. I would NEVER get pomade. That is for girl's and I would never use it."Hmmm....okay. Well.....I like to be right, so I promptly got the pomade and showed him right on the tub where it said pomade. He rolled his eyes. I asked him if he didn't realize he was getting pomade, what did he think he was getting. He thought he was getting gel, because that is what the "smart" girl cutting his hair said. I asked him how much it was and he said it was like $15. OK. Seriously. He spent $15 on what he thought was gel! Boys I tell you.... And the funny thing is, I have been trying to get him to use pomade for years!

It's about time!

See how excited she is!

She is a big girl!

because....

She Potty-trained herself!!!

Ok...let me just admit it. 3 kids, and I have NO idea how to potty train. Why you might ask? Well, it
could be that I just have no patience, or it could be that I have naughty kids, but alas, I think it is that I just don't get it! I just am not good at potty training! Mitch and Lindsey were both over 3 when they finally made the switch. Let me just tell you. One day in the fall when they were 3, my neighbor Amy said to Lins "Lindsey, aren't you embarrassed that your Mom still has to change your diapers?" Lindsey kind of smiled and ran inside and wanted her big-girl unders on. NEVER had 1 accident...to this day! Well, Mitch took a few more months, but he Never had an accident either! They were totally ready and did it on their own. So...Now Lyss is Finally Potty-trained! Yay! She has been lf potty trained since about November. She decided that I didn't need to change her stinky diapers anymore and I never have. Then last week, we got home from Costco and her pants got wet from her pull-up, so she decided to start wearing her big-girl unders! She only had 2 accidents and one was at 5 in the morning. It has been about 10 days...so we made it! Yay for my big girl!

Our Holidays in Review

Mitch had fun with all his games.

All of us loved having Jess around.

We tried and failed to keep the mess contained.

Mitch loved his new "basketball warm-ups"!

Lindsey loved all the Barbie fun!

Grandma painted Alyssa's nails on Christmas.

We had a great Christmas and New Year as a family. For Christmas, we stayed here and did some of our own family traditions, and just had fun. The kids thought this was the best Christmas yet, and we thought so too! It gets funner and funner the older they are. Their favorite gifts this year: Mitch-video games; Lindsey-barbies...lots of barbies and a barbie townhouse; Alyssa-either her princess scooter or the Mr. potato head from Grandpa. She loves that potato head! All in all it was a great day. We went to Lehi to hang out with my family at Suzanne and Sterlings and have Christmas dinner. It was fun until the drive home on the ICY roads and blowing snow. Not so fun. The rest of the time, we have had kind of a staycation doing fun things with the kids. We went to Madagascar 2 with my brother Adam and his family on saturday the 27th. Great movie. We also took the the kids to see Bedtime Stories a couple of days ago. It was really cute. Alyssa didn't love it so much. It is more for older kids. Mitch especially liked it. Our nights(and I mean all night) were spent a few times playing cards and games with some of our good friends and our days were spent trying to recover from our nights:) and doing things together! We had a great New Year's with friends again doing the aforementioned up all night games. Thanks heavens for good friends and family. We are excited for the New Year and the possibilities that 2009 will bring!

Out with the old...

...the very nasty old. And in with the new!

What a great way to start out the new year!