I am Thankful...

I don't like it when I have to use the excuse of Thanksgiving to give thanks and remember all that I have to be so grateful for.  I hope I can live like that every day and I feel for the most part I do but I guess Thanksgiving gives me the chance to share some of the things I am grateful for with others here on our blog, as well as record for memory sake how we spent our Thanksgiving.  

First of all, I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father.  Without him, I know I would have none of the other blessings in my life. I am grateful for the knowledge I have of Him and my Savior Jesus Christ.

This year we continued our tradition of having Thankful Tom Turkey join us and we helped add to his tail feathers every night before prayer some of the things we are grateful for.  I loved seeing what the kids wrote down.  The first night, Addie put that she was thankful for bulldozers and paved roads because where would we be without them.  You know, that is something I had never thought of before and she is completely right.  So many things that we don't normally think about but take for granted.

I am also so grateful for family.  Not only the family I have now but also the family I grew up in and the family I married into.  Family is what makes me smile and do the things I do.  I am so in love with my family.  Speaking of family, check out Jarom and how big he is getting.  It makes me smile and breaks my heart all at once.  Oh I love that boy.  

 He is now crawling, standing holding onto things and has 2 teeth.  What a big kid.  I can't believe it has already been 8 months.

 SERIOUSLY!  Is he not the cutest thing?

 I am thankful for this wonderful man in my life.  A man who treats me better than I ever dreamed and is my best bud ever.  How in the world did I score such a great catch?  On of the many things I love about him is his love of cooking.  We enjoy cooking together and I enjoy watching him get giddy about food and how to prepare it.

 I still have never prepared a turkey.  He has done it every year and they are always AMAZING!

 So then I let him go play with his friends :-).  Every year he plays turkey bowl and every year he moans for days afterward about how soar he is.  Ha! love it.

 I snapped this picture Thanksgiving morning.  I love how Avonlea is just chilling in her car-seat which is randomly in our kitchen, as she eats raisins and wears he bunny ears.  The simple pleasures.

 I am also so grateful for friends.  Thanksgiving is a hard time of year for me to be away from family because that is the time of some of our favorite family traditions.  It makes it a lot easier to be away when we have such wonderful friends to share Thanksgiving with.  This is our 3rd year of hosting Thanksgiving at our house and we love getting together and enjoying company and...

 wonderful food.  Seriously SO yummy!

  great friends

 Nate and Misty, which our kids now call Uncle Nate and Aunt Misty.  They really are family to us

 Me and my man

 and then there is the PIE FEST!! Oh yum

And what would Thanksgiving be without a rousing game of Whah. Love it!

 This year, we decided to just get a live tree from the store but still wanted to give the kids the experience of "tree hunting" so Ammon went and set it by a bunch of other trees around Village Green and then we went "hunting".  Addie was so concerned that we were going to get in trouble from Village Green for cutting down one of the tree's.  What a coincidence that the only one that would fit in our house was already cut down and just leaning against one of the other trees.  They had fun, even though I didn't have cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa waiting for us when we were done like my mom always did.  Oh well.

 I love that they love to decorate for Christmas just like I did when I was their age.  They just had to sleep by the Christmas tree that first night. 

 Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner and did a pig dinner.  They were great sports and it was really fun watching the kids get into it too.

Before

 After

 Avonlea was really getting into it.

 We have been doing a Memory Advent calendar where each day we do something to create a special memory.  So far we have made Christmas Tree ornaments, secret elves day, shopped for presents for siblings and tonight was family movie night.  We watched Polar Express and the kids strung cranberries and popcorn to hang on the Christmas tree.  It was so fun.  Avonlea really got into the movie this year and it was so cute to see.  I love making these memories.  I am so grateful for life.