My Thankful November

The last 3 years, during the month of November, I have posted something I am thankful daily. I have had this list on the sidebar until the month is over. Here  and here are my lists from the last two years.
Much of the posts are the same every year. But it really does help me recognize all I am blessed with when I make these lists! This last month our truck broke down and needed a new transmission, my vacuum broke, V.'s closet door broke and we can't find a part for it, a bookcase fell apart, and the list seems to go on. But we have also realized the last couple of weeks just how blessed we are! We are all safe, healthy and warm and have food in our cupboards. I thank my Heavenly Father for all He has given me. And I am so thankful for all me blessings!
I Give Thanks for~
Day 1} I am Thankful for the example of others. Today I helped a friend, with her sons, who is in a wheelchair and has been through so much in the last 2 years. Talking with her was very spiritually uplifting.When life's trials happen, you can choose to become bitter or choose to have faith in the Lord. She has chosen to have faith. She is a wonderful example to me!
Day 2} I'm Thankful for friends who help me understand how to use my computer!
Day 3} I'm Thankful that V. is old enough to help with housework. And does it well enough that I don't have to redo it after her! {for the most part I don't have to redo it} And she helps with a smiling attitude and talks my ear off while helping me!
Day 4} I'm Thankful for my daughter who, while driving with me in the dark and blowing snow where I can barely see anything and just want to cry because I HATE driving in the dark and the snow and am scared, decides to bear her testimony to me. Such a sweet reminder that the Lord is always with me and is aware of my needs, and fears. I need not be afraid with Him by my side.
Day 5} I'm Thankful for a husband who drives me to town because it's snowing and I HATE driving in the snow!{See Day 4}.
Day 6} I am Thankful for a husband and daughter who helped me deep clean the house this weekend without complaint! I think a good 'Spring' cleaning should be done in the Fall as well, now our house is spic and span for the Holidays!!!
Day 7} I am so Thankful for our Home. It keeps us warm and safe from the cold winter!
Day 8} I am Thankful that we can buy our daughter a warm, thick winter coat, nice snow boots, and gloves and a warm winter hat. It is starting to be sooo cold here! But I'm glad to know when she goes outside for recess she is warm and dry!
Day 9} Today I am Thankful for who ever invented the crock-pot. And I'm Thankful I have a crock-pot! It's going to be a busy afternoon but it's a wonderful feeling knowing that we will have a really nice, hot, homemade meal tonight because I can put it in the crock-pot now!
Day 10} I'm Thankful for Relief Society nights. And the women who put in all the hard work to make them happen! I enjoyed a nice evening visiting, eating, learning about pie making, and see different gift ideas. A very pleasant evening indeed!
Day 11} Today is Veterans Day. I am Thankful for all the men and women who have served our country. We have many family members who have served. And my younger brother is currently serving in the army now. Thanks to everyone who have kept my family and my country safe!
Day 12} I am Thankful for the unconditional love of my daughter. She loves me on my bad days and good days. There is nothing that is sweeter to me than when she puts her arms around me, gives me a kiss and tells me she loves me!
Day 13} I am Thankful for music! I'm grateful I have a somewhat decent voice and could sing in the Stake Choir today at Stake Conference. Our last song I felt the spirit so strongly! It was a beautiful Conference and I'm grateful I could be a part of it!
Day 14} I am so Thankful Steve has a job. A job that enables me to stay at home with V. With today's economy, we are so very blessed to have what we do!
Day 15} I'm Thankful for a little daughter to call my own! I love getting her up in the morning, making her breakfast, doing her hair, getting her all bundled up and driving her to school. And I'm so glad that she still gives me a hug and a kiss when I drop her off!
Day 16} I am so Thankful for my Savior. I know He loves me. And I am so Grateful that He atoned for my sins so I can be forgiven of my sins and live with my family forever!
Day 17} I am Thankful that I am able to be involved in my daughter's school. I am Thankful that I can help in her classroom every week.
Day 18} I am Thankful for the opportunity we had to take Steve's mom and go as a family to watch our High School Football win State!It was a fun evening!
Day 19}I am Thankful for electricity. We went without power for about 3 1/2 hours this afternoon. I was so grateful when it came back on! The house was starting to get cold!
Day 20}I am so, so Thankful for my Heavenly Father. I am grateful he planned a way for us to come home to Him! I am grateful to know of His love for me!
Day 21}I am Thankful for my warm, soft bed to snuggle in and get a good nights sleep!
Day 22}I am Thankful for our car! Steve's truck broke down, but we are blessed to have another vehicle!
Day23}I am Thankful that all three of us are healthy and safe. Steve has a co-worker who was in a car accident with his family. The children are fine, but he and his wife are in serious condition. I hope and pray that they will be alright! It seems like we've had some bad luck lately, but at least we have each other and our health!
Day24}I am so Thankful for all our family members! 'Friends may come and go. But Family is Forever!'
Day25} I am Thankful that Steve has been able to spend the last couple of days with us as a family!
Day26} I'm Thankful that Steve's brother and family were able to come down and spend some time with this weekend. V. loves her cousins!
Day27} We are so grateful for a wonderful neighbor who noticed Steve's truck missing and came over and handed him the keys to his Cadillac and told Steve he could use it until our truck was fixed. Now V. and I don't have to get up at 5 in the morning to drive him to the bus stop! Such wonderful neighbors!
Day 28}I am Thankful for the opportunity to see a friend and her kids before she left for Boise for a few weeks. V. and I had so much fun with Stephanie and her boys!
Day 29}I am Thankful for Relief Society and Visiting Teaching. I get to know the sisters in the ward so much better thru visiting with them. And I learn much wisdom from them during these visits!
Day 30} I am so Thankful for all the many blessings the Lord has given me and my family! We are truly blessed!

Our little girl turns six!

This year's V.'s birthday week was kinda crazy! She was sick on her birthday and I kept her home from school the following day which was the day she was going to bring cupcakes to school. She was kinda bummed she missed that.

 I hadn't been feeling well that week either. To make a long story short, I had a tetanus/pertussis booster earlier in the week. My arm got infected. I was miserable, in pain, and miserable for a few days! And I had no energy. I made no homemade anything this week for her birthday. I felt like I kinda dropped the ball on things, but oh well! You do the best you can, right?

We started a new tradition this year. When V. woke up on her birthday there were 6 balloons{one for each year she is} waiting for her. In each balloon was a dollar bill. I think we'll do this every year until she gets too old and we can't afford it!:)
{ She still hasn't popped the balloons to get her money out. She likes the balloons too much!}
My brother and his family came to town for a couple of days and V. did enjoy playing with them. Luckily I was feeling somewhat better by the time they got here and my awesome sis-in-law helped me make a few Christmas gifts.

Then V. had a choir concert on Friday night. I'll post about that later.

On to the birthday photos!

 I accidentally up loaded these photos in reverse order.
So we'll start with the end of V.'s birthday and work our way to the beginning!

Last year, we let V. invite friends to her birthday because she usually didn't have a whole lot of cousins show up. But this year, we were expecting a good amount of cousins, so we told her no friends. She was fine with that! She loves her cousins!

The day of her party 3 of her cousins ended up not coming because of being sick. :(

Thank goodness my brother from Utah was up with his 3 kids!{4 if you count the baby}

If they hadn't come up, we would have had no cousins, no other kids for V. to play with.

This is a photo pf her with 2 of her cousins. These girls are 6,7,and 9 years old. So they all get along great! 

 This was right after she blew out her candles and her cousins are shooing the smoke away!

 I was going to make a cake myself. I had bought the princess toppers and everything. But this week was crazy!  And with all the normal stuff going on, I just didn't care to make the cake myself anymore. So I took the toppers to Ridley's and asked them  to make a cake and use my toppers. They did a good job and V. loved her princess cake!

 Opening up gifts. She got some really nice gifts from everyone!

This was before the party. V and Steve had run to pick up the pizza, and the cake. When they came back to the park V. came running to me with these balloons! I told Steve I wasn't planning on doing balloons, I wanted to keep things simple. He said,"It's a birthday party! There has to be balloons! I got one for each kid that will be here." That was very sweet of him! And V and her cousins loved the balloons!

 My parents weren't going to make it to her party, so they took us out to eat earlier in the week. They let her pick the place and she picked Pizza Hut. We had alot of fun with them and it was nice to have a quiet dinner with just them and us!

I can't believe our little girl is 6, in Kindergarten, and just growing up so fast! We love her to pieces! She has been such a blessing in my life!

Pumpkin picking

Every year we go to a Pumpkin Patch the first week in October to get pumpkins.

This year we went a little bit later, but still had fun!

We took V.'s cousin with us and went to a U-Pick Farm just a couple miles up the road from us.

This girls had fun running through the pumpkin patch and looking at all the pumpkins!

Our weekend in Jackson and Yellowstone

This last weekend we went on a trip to see the beautiful Fall colors and some animals in Jackson.

This year was way different than our trip last year. We only went one week later than we did last year, but it was way colder!

We also drove thru the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

It was V.'s first time to either of these Parks!

{These photos aren't really in any order}

  We saw a few elk.

We saw a ton of bison/buffalo. There was a whole herd that was walking right by us and then crossed the road. They stopped traffic of course while they were crossing. V. thought it was pretty cool!  Though some of the people were so stupid and getting too close for pictures. Do they not realize that within 30 seconds an animal can decide to charge you and you won't have time to get out of the way?

V.'s first time seeing Old Faithful.

She was way impressed!

  Old Faithful.
                                                   
  Family photo at Old Faithful.

Shortly after we got into Yellowstone, there was a grizzly bear walking along the side of the road about 10-15 yards from us. I've never seen a bear outside of the zoo before!

  Family photo at Lewis Falls. V. was in a grouchy mood.

     Beautiful Fall colors!

In the Grand Teton National Park. The top of the Tetons were covered in some low laying clouds.

We ran into some friends at Jackson. They offered to take our photo for us. But again, V, was grouchy because of .....a hurt finger?

  Snow along with the Fall colors!

   At Palisades.

   Such a cutie!

  Some more Fall colors....

And some more snow....

All in all it was a very fun weekend and we loved the scenery, the animals, and yes, even the snow!

This day in History,2009

My darling preschooler just flooded the bathroom! She said she was giving her toys a 'bath' in the sink. But she forgot to turn off the water when she left the room. *sigh* The joys of parenthood!

September.2009

Christ is in my Heart

In the car today V. was asking me questions about Heaven, who do we know that's there, who loves us from there, etc. She then asked if I remember what Jesus looks like. I told her that I don't remember, but I think about Him often. She then said," I remember what He looks like. I see Him with my heart all the time. He's always in my heart." What a precious thing to hear my daughter say!

First day of School!!

August 25th was V.'s first day of school! She has started Kindergarten*sniff* My baby is growing up!

Here she is all ready to go to school~

Headin' out the door~

I made her stop outside to get a photo~

At the front door of her new School~

In the classroom~

Hanging up her backpack~

Looking for her cubby~

There it is. Clear down at the bottom~

Her teacher putting name tags on all the kiddos~

At her desk~

One happy little girl!

Back 2 School Mini Photo Shoot

On Aug. 22nd, V. and I had fun taking some Back2School photos.

We got some casual photos amd some dressed up photos.

V.'s personality really comes through in these!

This day in History 2010 on facebook~

A conversation I had with V. in the car one day~

V.~ " Mom, I'm super V! Who are you?"
 Me~"I'm.....Super mom!"
V.~"Oh! What are your powers?"
Me~"I can make dirty laundry disappear and turn into clean laundry. I can make the grass turn green. I can kiss a boo-boo and it gets all better. I can make all the dirt in the house disappear. I can make yummy treats!".
V.~ ".....oh.....But can you kill the bad guys and fly and be really strong?"
Me~"uh.....sure! I can do all that too!



V. and I about this time,2010