My Thankful November

Day 1} I am so thankful for a husband who does so much for us, for me.
Day 2} I am Thankful V. has been out of school the last 2 days. I've enjoyed not having anything to do but sleep in, hang out and just being together!
Day 3} I am Thankful for a lovely daughter who has taught me every aspect there is to Motherhood.
Day 4} I am Thankful for the opportunity V. and I had to listen to a beautiful violinist last night.{ Jenny Oakes Baker} I'm grateful we had the means to attend, grateful we have the gift of hearing so we could enjoy the music, grateful for the gift of music, and grateful for a wonderful person who is a great example to my young daughter and young ladies everywhere!
Day 5}  I am Thankful for my crockpot. We had a busy evening but it was nice to come home to a yummy smelling home and a delicious hot meal!
Day 6} Today I am Thankful I have the right to vote! I love this country I live in!
Day 7} I am Thankful for the opportunity I had to go to the Temple today. And I'm Thankful we have one so close to us.
Day 8} I am Thankful for the wonderful sisters in my ward!
Day 9} I am Thankful for beautiful snow!
Day 10} Even though it was freezing cold, I am Thankful I had the health and ability to run a 10k this morning.
Day 11} I am so, so Thankful for Steve working hard to provide for us and enabling me to stay at home with V.
Day 12} I am Thankful for movie nights with my hubbie!
Day 13} I am Thankful that I can help in V's classroom every week. I absolutely love it!
Day 14} I am Thankful for the opportunity to serve others.
Day 15} I am Thankful that my daughter has a teacher who loves and cares for her. V. loves school and is just soaking it all up!
Day 16} I am Thankful for modern transportation.
Day 17} I am Thankful for wonderful extended family members!
Day 18} I am Thankful for gospel doctrine/teachings discussion moments with my little girl.
Day 19} I am Thankful for the beauty of Nature and the sound of rain!
Day 20} Today I am Thankful for a loving Father in Heaven who is always there, just a prayer away.
Day 21} I am Thankful for the love of my family.
Day 22} Today I am Thankful for all the many blessings in my life. I am honestly so blessed!
Day 23} I am Thankful I was able to take a little bit of time for myself today!
Day 24} I am Thankful we live close to my parents and could come over to help them put up Christmas!
Day 25} I am Thankful for the sweet innocence and simplicity of my daughter's faith in Heavenly Father.
Day 26} I am Thankful for whoever took the time to answer V.'s letter to Santa. They help make this time of year so magical!
Day 27} Have I already said this? I am so Thankful for the Plan of Salvation and the knowledge that families are forever. I LOVE my family and am Thankful we will be together always!
Day 28} I am Thankful for my wonderful parents!
Day 29} I am Thankful for the sound of laughter in my home!
Day 30} I am Thankful for the wonderful friends I have in my life!

Santa in the Summer

Our neighbor across the street is out mowing his lawn. He's a bigger guy. Since he retired, he's grown his beard out. His hair is white with a little gray.
He totally looks like Santa out there riding around on his lawn mower!

Can I go to Hogwarts?

V. just asked me when is she going to be a witch and go to school like Harry Potter?
Poor thing.
I wish I could go to Hogwarts too!

Like Mother like Daughter

While V. was in the tub the other day I overheard her singing "Deck the Halls".
Definitely my daughter!
{P.S. The other week I was listening to a teeny, tiny bit of Christmas music. But compared to most years, I'm not listening to it near as much!}

2 quick, cute things from this last week....

Monday~
I caught V wearing her witches hat, cape and riding the.......swiffer?
I guess even witches need to modernize!

Tuesday~
V. says to me in the car," Did you know I have a hundred hearts?"
I didn't know that.
"Yeah, they're all stacked together. That way I can give one to everyone!"

First Date

I met Steve on a blind date. The last blind date I swore I would ever do! I was tired of them! Turns out, it WAS the last blind date I would go on. I ended up marrying him!

He was visiting my ward for a friends baby blessing. He saw me, thought me cute. But figured I was out of his league or already taken. {both were not true}. He mentioned to his mom, "That girl up front is kinda cute". She agreed. She than called her husbands cousin who was in my ward and asked who I was, was I dating anyone, etc. This cousin then called me up to see if I was dating anyone and could she give my number to her cousins son? I asked about him. She told me about him. I then asked,"What's wrong with him?" {In my experience, when a guy is over 25 and still single, it's usually for a reason. He was 26} She said,"Nothing! He just hasn't met the right girl yet."
 Riiiiiiiight. Like I hadn't heard that line before!

I told her sure, give him my number. After a few weeks of not hearing anything, I forgot about him.

Turns out the reason he hadn't called was because he was pursuing another woman. Who turned out to be married. As soon as he found out, he quit talking to her and THEN decided to give me a call. {He's going to flip out if he ever finds out I posted online that he was pursuing a married woman.
 "I didn't know!" So he says.{*wink* wink*}

Anyway, he called me up and we set up a date. I was impressed with how easy it was to talk to him on the phone. {I'm not a phone person}

We went to the State Fair for our first date. We both didn't want the other to know we didn't like the scary rides. So, we went on ALL the scary rides. I screamed and laughed like a mad woman on most of them. We then got caught in a downpour.

We went back to his car where he gave me an extra sweater he had to dry off a little. Then off to dinner. On the way we talked. And we didn't talk. But there was no awkward silences. It was all very relaxed and peaceful.
We had dinner then he took me home.
I got home and looked in the mirror and saw that my hair had gone all frizzy weird from the rain. Great!Probably won't get a second date looking like this!

But we did have a second date a week later. After that, we saw each other or talked on the phone every day.

Yesterday was our 9 year wedding anniversary.

So yeah, a good first date!

Christmas!!!

We had a fun, busy Christmas season.

This year, I wanted to try really hard to teach V. about the importance of giving. We have a cute, little house advent thing that has drawers that pull out. Last year I tried putting scriptures for us to read in each drawer. But we also have a really good advent book that also has scriptures and it got a little confusing. So this year I thought we'd do random acts of kindness. In each drawer there was a slip of paper with an act of kindness V. could do. Some were small like do your chores without being asked, tell a family member you love them, be kind to another child at school, etc. Some were things we do every year anyway like give a gift to your school/piano/ballet teacher, take treats to nieghbors, etc. Some were fun like tape candy canes to atm's around town or tape quaters to vending machines. Some were a little bigger: bake and take goodies to the library staff, to the fire and police departments. And some required a money sacrifice from V. like buying a toy to donate to Toys for Tots and buying some canned food for the FoodBank. And yes, V. used her own money for those.They were all fun and V. couldn't wait each morning to open up a drawer and see what act of kindess she could do that day. We will definetly be doing this every year from now on! And I enjoyed doing it with her as well and giving to people all season long!

We had a family party at my parents.

 V. and her cousin loved watching the train go around and around grandma and grandpa's tree~

 My dad in the background, my brother, and my sister holding my niece. Isn't she a cutie? And V.~

 Steve and V. having fun!~

 Some family chaos. We had the kids put on the nativity. {Unfortunately I didn't have the camera ready for that.}  This photo is everyone getting ready for the white elephant gift exchange~

 My Dad and V. watching all the fun~

 I tried taking a couple of panoramic photos of everyone. But I still only got a few people in the photo and not everyone~

 Then we started fun Christmas time with Steve's family.
Here's a photo of V. and her cousin and her Aunt Randi making cookies~

 These two are so cute together. A regular little Thelma and Louise.~

 Our Christmas tree and village at home~

 V. in her Christmas pj's watching Santa's flight across the world. She couldn't wait for him to get to the United States!~

 Making chocolate milk with daddy for Santa~

 We got V. a bike for Christmas! We knew her reaction to it could go 2 ways~ She could be all excited or be like,"yay. I got a bike. whoop-dee-doo." Lucky for us, she was excited! First thing she did on Christmas morning was see the empty plate of cookies and empty glass. She knew Santa had been here! Then her eyes moved up into the living room and she exclaimed," A bike!" Went running into the living room to look at it, then saw her stocking from Santa on the couch. Here's a picture {blurry, sorry} of her bike~

 V. had seen this little doll at the local bazaar that she fell in love with. I told her to ask Santa for it. And every since our West Yellowstone trip here, she has been wanting a bison. I, again, told her to ask Santa for one.
Santa delivered  both and she was thrilled!~

 Christmas morning!~

A better photo of her bike~

Unwrapping gifts~

After we did our own Christmas we went to Steve's parents.
Again I tried to take a panoramic~

Steve's 96 year old Grandma opening up a gift~

Steve's Grandma and Dad~

Steve's mom made all the boys these hats with moustaches. We were all laughing so hard!
Steve is in the blue one. Don't they look like the Mario Brothers?~

A couple days after Christmas, Steve's sister Nona showed up with her two little boys. This was our first time meeting baby M. { I don't know what's up with Nona's face here}~

V. loved playing with her aunts~

Aunt Jo painted with the girls~

So there's a recap of our Christmas!

A fun, busy, family filled Holiday Season!

The North Pole Express

In December we did our annual North Pole Express trip. This year we invited Steve's nephew to go with us as well as my parents and me sister and her family. It was alot of fun!

Here's a picture of us waiting to board~

 V. and some of her cousins~

 Steve on the train and V. looking out the window. The scenery is always so beautiful!~

 Me on the train~

 V. and her cousin at the North Pole having fun while waiting to see Santa~

 Steve and I looking silly~

 V. and her cousins with Santa~

 My two cuties~

 Two weirdos~

 Santa and Mrs. Claus on the train ride home. They took time to visit with each child~

As always, this was a fun trip with lots of memories! We can't wait to go again next Christmas!

Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween holiday! It lasted the whole weekend!

We started the week before Halloween carving pumpkins.

 This picture is blurry, but you can see our three pumpkins.Steve's is the one with the spider, mine is the small one on the top step and V.'s is the 'scary' one on the second step.

All dressed up to go to the Halloween Carnival that the Snake River Education Foundation put on Halloween weekend. I made some treats for the bake shoppe but didn't get a picture of that. So anyway, on to V.'s fun evening!

 V. got her face painted and tinsel tied in her hair.

 She had a fun night playing games, seeing a magician and just having fun! There was also a raffle where I won a massage for me and a round of golf for Steve. There was also a 'guess-how-many-pieces-of-candy-in-the -jar-game where V. won a jar full of candy!

 Then on Halloween day at school. They had a Halloween Carnival, I had volunteered and so I was able to get a few pictures of V.
Here she was playing with some goop of some sort.

 Eating a donut off a string.

 Wrapping up her friend in toilet paper to look like a mummy.

 Then Halloween night we met V.'s cousin J. at the square for trunk-or-treating. In most areas that do trunk-or-treating it is a Church thing. Maybe a couple of wards together. Here though it is a community thing. So tons of people, tons of kids and tons of candy!!

 Steve snapped a picture of me handing out candy. {It was so cold and windy that night!}

 The two cute girls having fun! { V. has vampire teeth in her mouth}

 And here's our little princess. She was excited to be Snow White this year. She had a couple of other ideas for a few months. But then for about 6-7 weeks she said she wanted to be Snow White and didn't want anything else! Man, she is just growing up fast!