Grateful list

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and of course I have been thinking about the things that I am grateful for right now. And I am not going to let myself feel guilty for not writing every single thing that I am grateful for. I want to be specific to right now, the things I am especially grateful for right now.

• for our home - lately I have been looking at all the negative things about our house and focusing on all the things that need to be done rather than see it for what it is - a really great house with a big yard for my kids to play in
• Josephs naps - I love that he will willingly come come to take a nap if I mention the books we will read first. He loves reading books and I think he has such a great vocabulary (for his age) because of it. Also its a great time to get stuff done so when he is awake we can have more fun together.
• bedtime routines  - because of the routines we have gotten ourselves in a long time ago we make sure we always to the most important things together as a family (scriptures, prayers, stories, brush teeth, hugs, and kisses). 
• all the things we do routinely in our life (church, FHE, dinner time, birthdays, family Sunday dinners, holidays, etc.) I see the blessings that come from them and I love them.
• Russ - always Russ
• people who seek truth and live it when they learn it and inspire me to do the same
• my body - oh how I love my body
• sleep - a little too much
• food - mmmm food
• my kids school - I love it. I love that they only have school 3 days a week. And it isn't even because when they are home we are blissfully and happily crafting and stuff like that. They just have more time to do things like read, play, and do chores. And I am amazed at how much time (and emotion) is saved when we don't have to get up, get ready, get lunches, and make it to school on time.
• liberty and freedom - Gracie memorized the Title of Liberty at school and recited it for her whole class at school. I love the Title of Liberty 
• my calling in church - it has blessed me in more ways than I can count
• the Holy Ghost - I have learned how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and I am always grateful for it.
• Russ' job - the last year has been amazing having him home more
• my blog - I made a book out of the year 2011 of my blog and I love it. I love my children flipping through it. I am pretty dang proud of myself for keeping a journal for more than 6 consecutive years. That is a big deal for me

Okay I could go on and on but I will stop there. Some many things to be thankful for.

Baptism day

This day. Oh this day. How did it come so fast? How is he old enough to be baptized? How am I old enough to have a son who is old enough to be baptized?

So many emotions accompanied the arrival of this day. But I will share my feelings in a later post. For now I will just journal the day. Russ and I spent a lot of time cleaning our house and getting it ready since it had been a crazy few days before this. We were running late and Russ took William to the church early and I walked in just in time to go sit on the stand and lead the opening song. I didn't even get a picture of the boys in their white jumpsuits:( Oh well, it is a day I will remember forever. We sang I Am Trying to Be Like Jesus for the opening song. And I didn't cry. All the kids that were getting baptized got up and sang I Am A Child of God and I cried a little. William would look out into the audience and every time he saw someone he knew he would timidly wave at them. And he did that a lot of times because there were a lot of people there to see him. Everything was lovely and perfect about the baptism until it was time for him to change clothes and apparently I was supposed to come up with some kind of program after that and I didn't realize that. Luckily Anna and Marie got up and sang Baptism for us and some friends played the piano. After it was over everyone came to our house for dinner and we had a lovely evening. I was grateful for all the family and friends that came to support him. 

Special thanks to Connie for helping me throw together the mantle as a surprise for William. We literally did that in 2 minutes.

I am so proud to call this amazing boy my son.

The next day (party day)

The next morning he woke up first thing and was shooting his bow and arrow.

 And he got pretty good! He also lost an arrow in those bushes that we still can't find.

 His party was that evening and was planned that day:) I had another idea for his birthday this year for going up to the mountains and exploring for awhile but it just wasn't going to work out time wise so we decided to set up and tent have a fire and watch a movie outside.

 We had s'mores and hot dogs and a cake made of donuts (there was no way I was making a cake that day). I also put out a veggie tray before the rest of the food and the kids scarfed it down while playing.

 Russ roasted the hot dogs.

 I am sad these pictures are so blurry, Joseph was so excited to help carry the cake.

 He got some really fun things...

Then we ended the night watching Jumungi in the tent with blankets and pillows. That night Russ, William, and Gracie slept in the tent and Joseph and I slept inside. They stayed out there all night. It was just like camping:)

Birthday boy

On Williams birthday we decided to get him his free meal at Joe's Farm Grill.

Connie met us out there and got him this Batman toy.

And we gave him a journal and a spider-man wed shooter. It shot silly string for a while and then when that runs out there is a water bottle they can shoot.

Then we went home and Grandma Huston met us there to give him her gifts, which were a boy scout hat and a scripture case. 

Then he got to open the thing he wanted the most. His bow and arrow (along with a quiver) from Connie. He had to go outside to find the bow and the hay bale that my mom also got him. It's his target. 

He was pretty excited. 

Halloween night

This past month being so busy meant that I sort of neglected Halloween. William wanted to be a zombie so all I did was cut up and dirty some old clothes and put makeup on him. Gracie wanted to be a witch and I was able to make her a witched skirt to wear with her leotard about a week before Halloween and I made her broom from sticks from our yard that night. I wan't positive what I would do with Joseph. He said, "byack (black) witch too!" so I asked him if he wanted to be a green leprechain and he said yes. Whew, so he wore Williams costume from when he was two.

 Russ came home from work late that night and I burned the chili for the trunk or treat but other than that it went well. I barely remembered to take a picture of my ghouls before 

 Me with a couple of my Young Women Jen and Renee. You can't really tell in this picture but Renee has a humongous wig on.

I loved seeing this little witch running around all night. She looked so cute.

 When I showed her this picture she said, "there is a heart on my back!"

This little guy was so good about wearing his costume. He loved it.

After we got home Grandma and Grandpa Christensen came over to see the kids costumes and give William some birthday gifts. They gave him a special white towel with his name on it for his baptism and 8 dollars! They also gave him some spider man stuff and he loved it. He went to bed a happy kid. 

pumpkin patch 2012

Since Russ doesn't work on Mondays and since our week was only going to get crazier and Halloween would be over before we knew it I talked him into going to the pumpkin patch. It was very last minute but was so fun.

I can't remember if Gracie called this her cowgirl pose, but it was cracking me up.

This bounce pillow thing they had there was so much fun for everyone. Including me. I want one in our back yard.

Joseph liked the pig until it came to close.

Everyone loved the donkey and Russ left feeling like he wants a farm. He would be such a good farmer.

William could do the kid one and was pretty proud of himself.

I didn't get any pictures of the pedal cars but William really loved those. They are a lot of fun.

So grateful for the little things in life, like getting to spend the morning with my family at the pumpkin patch.