I'm thankful for....

I am so thankful for so many things in my life! I just wanted to express my gratitude so that on the days that I am selfish and forget all that I have, I can remember that I truly am blessed!

First and foremost and I am thankful for my family!

I am thankful that I have the most WONDERFUL husband! He is just a loving and hardworking man. He does everything he can to make me happy. He is a great daddy and so strong. He is one of the smartest people I know and has taught me so much. I am grateful for Paul.

I am so blessed to have the three most amazing children! I am so grateful for each of their individual personalities and all that they bring into my life. Each one of them have such unique personalites and each one of them are just a JOY in my life! I am grateful for Kelsi, Carson and Jaedyn.

I am also so blessed with THE BEST parents anyone could ever ask for!! My parents are such a great example to me and I am so thankful that they raised me, loved me and have ALWAYS been there for me!! I am grateful for Mom & Dad.

In addition to my parents I am so grateful for my brothers, sister, their spouses and their children. It has been so much fun seeing my brothers and sister grow up and raise their own families. I have such fond memories of growing up with my brothers and sister (ok, yes, there are some not so fond memories too). But overall I am so glad to have had such a great childhood experience with them. Each one of them are so special to me in their own way and I am so lucky to have them all so close by and such a big part of my life. I am grateful for The "Swanson's".

I am also grateful to have Paul's family in my life. Mary and Fred are such great In-laws - I couldn't have asked for a better Mother and Father in-law. They are are great examples of love to me. They always do such much for Paul and I. I know I don't tell them enough - but I love them so much!! I am grateful for Mary and Fred.

I am also thankful for Paul's brothers, sister, their spouses and children! If it weren't for them Paul and I wouldn't be together. They are always so great to include us in things and always to be there for us. It is so nice to have so much family!! I am grateful for The "Evans'".

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and for the greatest example of love: My Savior. It is such a comfort to know that there is a grand plan, and even though life is hard - Jesus Christ is there to ease my burdens, lighten my load and help me through it all. I am grateful to have the gospel in my life, to be blessed to serve in callings and to have such a wonderful ward family. I am grateful for God, The Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost.

Lastly, I am so thankful for my home, food, transportation, that Paul has a job, and that I am so blessed to live in this country. These past two years have been tough economically, politically, socially, enviromentally for everyone - but we have been blessed to have some stability and to have never known what it is like to go hungry, sleep out in the cold, or to have to rely on the kindness of others to get by. I really am one lucky lady - I have so much to be thankful for, and need to remember that - even when it feels like things aren't going my way. 

Gobble till ya Wobble!

This Thanksgiving was such a wonderful holiday! I am so grateful for my family and for all the loving people I have in my life. Thanksgiving started early this year, because Paul asked me what I wanted for Christmas about a month ago - and I told him that this year for Christmas I just wanted to have some Happy Holiday memories. (Since some of our Holidays have been less than...uh... happy). So he decided that he was going to start with Thanksgiving and give me two Happy Holidays!!! He suggested that we stay out at my Mom's house the night before Thanksgiving so that I could get up and help my mom with all the cooking. This idea THRILLED me!! I miss my parents so much and was SO EXCITED to get to stay out at their house with them. (I was also excited because it reminded me of when I was a little girl. I would always go stay over at my Grandma Lundeen or Grandma Swanson's house - depending on whose year it was - the night before to spend time with them and to help them get everything ready for the Thanksgiving dinner.) The night was great! I helped my Mom make the pies, we ate pizza, and just sat around and talked. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep - Carson and Jaedyn don't do very well when they aren't in their own beds - but it was still fun!! We got up Thanksgiving morning, made breakfast casserole & sweet rolls. Paul was such a sweetheart and totally took care of the kids so that I could help my mom by making rolls, green bean casserole, setting up tables and chairs, setting the table and getting everything ready for the big meal. We had such a wonderful and yummy dinner and it was so fun to get to have most of my family around. I even had my Dad take our family picture- since we were all cleaned up. I just LOVE my Christmas present Paul - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Gingerbread Festival

A couple weekends ago, it was one of those day. You know .... one of the days where you feel like if you spend another minute in your house you will go crazy. So, Paul asked me what I wanted to do to get out of the house. I wasn't sure what to do, and besides it was snowing. I thought how dumb I was and should probably just tough it out and finish cleaning out the storage room and the garage. Well, my husband being the sweetie that he is, got on the internet and googled things to do in Utah. He stumbled upon the Gingerbread Festival down at Thanksgiving Point. Perfect. Something to do AWAY from the house. So we bundled the kids up and braved the snow to go see some gingerbread houses. It was SO MUCH fun!!! For the price of your admission you got to see all the houses that had been donated by local school classes, boyscout & girlscout troops and other groups. You also got a cookie to decorate, a cup of hot chocolate, free Amber alert ID cards for your kids, face painting, stories by Mrs. Claus, a candy cane and some musical entertainment. The deal with the gingerbread house festival is that groups all over the Salt Lake Valley donate houses for people to bid on, and all the proceeds go to the PTA (a worthy cause I might add). Since Paul and I were new to this whole thing, we didn't really decide to bid on a house until the very end, which by then we had both chosen our favorites (which of course weren't the same). Well, once again Paul proved to be much sweeter than I am, and he let me bid on the house I wanted. The next Monday I got a call that we had won the house!! We had to drive back down there Monday night between 8:00-10:00pm to pick it up, but I was pretty excited. I had to put the house up high for now, because Carson kept asking why we couldn't eat it. I hope that it makes it past Christmas. This was a really fun event, and I will definately be looking forward to this again next year!

I'm pretty sure Carson overdid it with the decorating!!

Jaedyn just wanted to eat the frosting!

Kelsi and Paul were both very intent on getting their cookies just right.

Pretty amazing what you can do with some gingerbread and a little frosting!

This is the house I wanted (and of course being a spoiled brat, this is the one we got).

This is the house Paul really wanted - I did really like the lights on this house, but not enough to change my mind about the other house!

Veteran's Day

It is the time of year that we reflect and really think about those things we are thankful for. This past Wednesday -Veteran's Day - really gave me a chance to think about how grateful I am to live in this country and how grateful I am for the men and women who serve our country - putting themselves in harms way, being away from their families and making this a safe, free place for the rest of us.  Paul was the one that really headed up our Veteran's Day festivities. He took the day off work so that we could go over to the West Jordan park where they have a Veteran's Memorial. They started the day with a really cute parade! There weren't very many people there and we got to be really close to the people in the parade. There were Police Officers, Military members, City Royalty, bands and even a float or two. Since the parade happened to be on Wednesday - which is the day Carson has preschool, Brynne decided to bring all the kids over to the parade. It was really fun for them, and hopefully gave them some idea of those people that help make them safe and keep this country a great place to live. The kids were so cute when the flags when by, they put their hands over their hearts to the best of their abilites and waved their little arms to the people in the parade. They also scored on candy!

After the parade the City had a small memorial to remember the veterans. It was a very nice ceremony and I was really glad that we went. I have always been impressed that Paul was in the Navy, and even though I was never a "military wife", I still feel proud to say that my husband served his country. We truly live in the best country on the earth - we are so lucky to be able to enjoy so many blessings and freedoms. It is such a comfort to know that there are people out there looking out for us and trying to help the rest of the world enjoy some of what we have. A BIG Thankyou to all those that serve our community, our state and especially our country - THANK YOU!!!

Can you say "Competative?"

Last night was our Ward's Family PineWood Derby! It was a lot of fun, and two of our cars made it into the final four...this was not quite what Paul was hoping for, but I think it was great! Paul spent the 3 days prior to the PineWood derby making sure our family had a good showing in the race! We took on making four cars - One for Paul, one for Me, one for Carson and one for Kelsi and Jaedyn to share.
We started out by defining our car's shape, then painting the cars. We also got to name our cars: Pauls car was named "Blue", my car was name "Its a girl thing", Carson of course had to paint his car orange and name it "Lightning" and Kelsi & Jaedyn named their car "Jadie Bug-ie"- it was decorated like a lady bug with anntena and all. It was so funny how each of our personalities came out in our cars!

After we got the cars painted, then Paul's competative side came out! He spent hours polishing the axels for the wheels...using three different grits of sandpaper and three different polishing chemicals. Paul then precisely weighted the cars using some bullets and even had to buy a scale to make sure he was under 5 ounces. He was so determined to beat out the competition, he even came home during his lunch hour the day of the race to make sure the cars were ready to go. He had heard from one of his co-workers that the more miles you put on your car before the race, the better it will do - so he rigged up a system to have the cars race on the treadmill to put some miles on them.

This was a really fun family project - we will have to start thinking ahead to next year because we know Shari Ott will be ready for us!

Halloween 2009

Yes, I admit, I've been very bad at posting! Well, the wait is over....here is the post for my favorite holiday - HALLOWEEN!!  Kelsi was inspired by the "dead zombies" at the Thriller show we went to, so that was what she was. And this year I let Carson decide what he wanted to be for Halloween.  Carson had in his mind that he wanted to be a Ghost. I decided I wanted to do something really girly for Jaedyn's costume - so I made her a fairy.
Kelsi pretty much had in her mind what she wanted to do for her costume, so I took her to the D.I. (the BEST place to get costumes) and she found a jumper, shirt and shoes to transform into a bloody, dirty mess. The whole family got involved in Kelsi's costume - I helped cut holes in the costume, and Paul and Kelsi took some fake blood and red paint to it. It was really a scary costume!!  I am unfortunately a very bad mom and didn't get a picture of Kelsi in her full costume, but I did get a picture of her with some of her make-up on.

I was trying to find a ghost costume for Carson, but there wasn't much at the store. So I decided to search the internet for ideas. There isn't really too many creative ways to make a ghost costume. "Get a sheet, put it over your head, cut holes out for the eyes" was all the information I could get from the internet. So, I decided to come up with my own idea. I got some fabric, laid Carson on the floor, traced his body and then sewed together what ended up looking like an angel dress.  Let me tell you, Carson was NOT impressed. In fact, when Paul came home and asked Carson if he liked his costume he promptly and firmly said "NO". So, I guess that meant I was back to the drawing board. I went and got some more fabric, and then used an old cape I had as a pattern. I made two capes and sewed them together. Then I made a piece for his head with a hole cut out (since Carson does not like things on his face). I painted a ghost face on the head piece so that the costume did not look like a get-up from some horrible group with an initialed name. I then stuffed the head with batting so that it would stand  up. Carson seemed to be much happier with those results.
In my internet research I did find some cute websites on how to transform your little girl into a fairy by making some wings and a tutu - I followed their instructions and had a really cute costume for Jaedyn in about 20 minutes! I was really excited about how Jaedyn's costume turned out, and it was even better when I tried it on her she twirled around and looked just like I had imagined!!

October was a pretty fun month, and it made it so much fun because Carson started to understand what Halloween was and that on Halloween night he was going to get to go around the neighborhood and collect candy. It was also fun because Jaedyn is really starting to talk and say words, and anytime she would see anything Halloween related she would say "scary" - it was so cute!!

The Monday before Halloween our ward had a playgroup for the kids. They had cookies to decorate, games to play and a cute spot set up to take the kids' pictures.

Then the day before Halloween I took the kids over to Swipeclock to do some trick-or-treating, and then over to Ultradent with Aunt Michelle to do some more trick-or-treating. The kids ended up with quite a bit of candy. The day of Halloween Paul and I were going to try to take the kids down to the Gallivan Center for their fesitivies, but in an effort to reduce the stress in our lives we decided just to attend to making the chili, cleaning the house and getting ready for the Halloween party we were hosting.  Everyone arrived to our house on Halloween night and we had some cute costumes! Ever since I can remember my dad has come up with the most clever costumes, and this year he didn't disappoint - he was a China Man - he used some clothes that he bought at a little store on one of his business trips. Paul dressed up as a Jester and was so cute handing out candy to the kids while I took our little ones out trick-or-treating. Paul would answer the door and say 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN...HAHAHAHAHA!". The other kids were dressed up as: Tavin - Batman, Daxton - Leopoard, Gracie - Snow White, Olivia - Garden Gnome, Morgan - Cinderella, Tanner - Thomas the Train, Dustin - Prince Charming, Katelyn - Hannah Montana, Kara - Princess, and Valentina - Fairy! Everyone looked great and it was so much fun to have everyone over. It was so fun to take the kids out trick-or-treating, Carson was so excited and would run from door to door. He would get up on the porches and stand right in front of the door so it was difficult for the people to get their doors open. This only caused one minor problem when Carson got knocked off the porch at one of the neighbors, but he didn't let that stop him from having fun. He was so excited and really "got it" this year!

Kelsi is of course to the stage where she wanted to go trick-or-treating with her friends. It is sad to see her growing up, but I am so happy she is such a good girl. The night before Halloween Kelsi had her first dance at school - she was so cute about going. Then she got invited over to her friend Tylor's house for a party. It was her first boy-girl Halloween party! Too fun!

I sure do love Halloween - I only wish I would have taken more pictures!!