~Thankful Weekend~ POW 50

*for Jeri who loves to find hearts

This weekend really was wonderful.

Our little family did so much and yet it was still relaxing.

I have so much to be thankful for.

Right now my heart is full of love.

Love for my husband who loves me back.

Love for my Savior who has suffered so much on my behalf.

Love for my little girls whose tackle me with kisses.

Love for our families all doing so well.

Love for our new friends and so much Love for our old ones.

Love for left overs.

Love for special dates.

Love for vintage Christmas lights that we added to the tree.

Love for a rejuvenation for a better, healthier, life.

Love for a beautiful new home in the spring.

Love for medicine and technology that fixed my Love.

Love for starting new traditions and continuing new ones.

Love for finally finding a decent cupcake in this joint.

Love for a darling wonderful babysitter and her minor obsession with Justin Bieber.

Love for Preschool moms who are helping teach my daughter.

Love for a baby who spent her first day in nursery without crying.

Love for a little primary class who are so smart and so good.

Love for tiny ballet companies and their family friendly nutcracker performances.

Love for a new day to start fresh from.

Love for Prayer and the comfort it brings.

That is a lot of love.

I am a lucky girl.

~Thankful Thoughts~ 20 POW

Roaring Fire

Marshmallows

Symphony Chocolate bar

Graham Cracker

Christmas music

Happy Kids

Manly Husband who makes fire.

I am grateful for Mondays.

~Thankful Thoughts~ 19

I am thankful that even though I forgot my the SD card for my camera, my phone was cool enough to record this.

I give you a snip-it of Jocelyn's first Dance Recital.

Click on the YouTube link to catch the rest of the performance and look at the videos uploaded by Rijalyn.

Afterwards we celebrated with new friends from dance class at Off the Waffle with a BMB waffle that pretty much knocked my socks off. I smell a tradition coming on.

~Thankful Thoughts~

I have not forgotten you. I have simply been pondering my blessings and why I am blogging them. It is hard for me to be so open and honest with the blogesphere but I then I remember that I am doing this for my children to read some day and for our family and dear friends that are states away. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in trying to be cool and hip and write about interesting trends and so I felt like my thankful thoughts were starting to sound forced and not from the heart. I needed a few days to feel grateful for the real things in my life and not just the little things that make me happy. Not to say a few more won't pop up, I mean come on, I haven't mentioned chocolate yet. But really I need to just be me and write from my grateful, loving heart.

Today I am Thankful for my Family.

My sweet, wonderful, rambunctious eternal family.

~Thankful~ Day 14 photo of the week

I am thankful for this little face.

Looking up at me for guidance, love, help, food, tickle bees, story time. I love it. I also love that she got my eyes.

I am so grateful I get to be her mom.

~Thankful~ Day 13 part 2

Post 13 was a lie...

sort of..

I am grateful for mustaches and they do rock, but that's not what I was thankful for yesterday.

I was thankful for this restaurant.

It was fabulous. Garlic fries were out of this world. (though I might be tasting garlic for a week. My apologies to everyone I speak with face to face)

But they had a kid area. In the corner of this grown up pub-type restaurant they had built two little half walls and filled it with toys. Best dinning experience with kids ever!

I have no photographic evidence. Too busy eating and playing.

We will most defiantly be eating there again.

~Thankful~ Day 13

I am thankful for mustaches because well, they rock

the end.

~Thankful~ Day 12

I am thankful my girl LOVE each other.

I mean really love each other. They play well together, they are constantly hugging each other to the ground. Their eyes light up when they see each other. They truly are best friends. I am going to do everything I can to encourage them to stay that way. To avoid competition between them, teach them to support each other and be excited for each others successes and comfort each other in hard times. And to sit back and enjoy the ride. We will see see how high school goes.

~Thankful~ Day 11

Today was an easy one. At 3:30 in the morning I was grateful for this.

You don't want to know and I don't want to tell you. But after living in FSH for four years where the closest laundry was a around the block I am thankful to live in an apartment where the washer and dryer are located in the hallway.

~Thankful~ Day 10

Today I am thankful for bridges.

There are dozens of beautiful bridges out here because of all the rivers. Each one is so interesting and architectural. It's one of my favorites things out here.

This was from our windy day at the light house just north of Florence.. Which now that I think about it I never really blogged about. Maybe tomorrow. ;) I really love this little coastal town, it reminds me of Morro Bay and Cambria in California. This bridge is off the 101 (which is weird because I grew up right off the 101 and this is the same 101 just 17 hours north). Anyway it is amazing and right next to the enchanting lighthouse with a adorable bed and breakfast. Which the professor and I could use a weekend away at. Babysitters anyone?

~Thankful~ Day 9

Today I am Thankful for silly contests and new perspectives.

This picture represents two things I vowed never to expose my children to, Chuck E. Cheese and Barney.

I failed. I'm glad I did.

Let me explain...

Our apartment complex had a little Halloween shindig two weeks ago and the girls and I went. Free food, pumpkin bowling, coloring contest. Good stuff.

The manager suggested we enter the girls in the coloring contest. I looked at their art, Brooke's was mostly colored by me apart from some awesome scribbles, and Jocelyn had drawn a spider on the back of hers.

"Sure"

Next day I get a phone call from the manger saying both girls had won in their age groups and their combined prizes totally $25 in Chuck E Cheese gift cards.

Oy.

Today was a hard day, Jocelyn got shots, I paid bills, Ben had PT, so Chuck E. Cheese sounded pretty good for dinner. I found a coupon online and we got dinner and 45 tokens making our out of pocket a grand total of $4.95.

It was amazing! We all had a blast. Especially Jocelyn, her favorite part was collecting all the tickets. Ben hit the jackpot and over a hundred tickets came rushing out of the machine. It was like Christmas.

As for Barney, they didn't ask and I didn't tell.

~Thankful~ Day 8

Today I am Thankful for Preschool

Jocelyn ready for school.

A few ladies in my ward and I have started a little co-op preschool for our girls. There are four mom and five girls ranging from 5 to 3. We meet Mondays and Wednesdays for two hours. Each mom has an emphasis (reading and writing, numbers and time, arts and crafts and science and weather) It is going really well and the girls love it. *guess which emphasis I have :)

~Thankful~ Day 6

Today was so good!

We cleaned the house.

It is so nice to have a clean house.

Went to the mall and window shopped for Christmas presents.

It was fun.

Tonight was the Adult Session of Stake Conference.

We actually went!

I am embarrassed to say that it was the first time since we had kids.

We LOVED it!

Just to sit and listen to the speakers with out chasing after little ones was such a treat.

Which brings me to what I am thankful for today.

The Temple.

Tonight everyone spoke about why the temple was important to them and it was fantastic. It reminded me of all the reasons I love the temple and why it is so important for us to go.

The Professor and I are recommitted to attend the temple regularly.

It is so important to everything. I look forward to the peace it will bring to our lives, and the service we will preform for our father in heaven.

~Thankful~ Day 5

Today I am thankful for my vintage baby clothes

This dress was bought my my grandparents in Austria for me when I was two. My mom (clever lady that she is) saved a few special pieces for me when I got older. I love dressing my girls up in my old clothes. It makes me feel so connected to them and to my female heritage.

Plus it makes for stellar Halloween costumes. I made the hat from felt and was greatly inspired by this tutorial.

PS

Katie, I can not thank you enough for selling me your glue-gun at a garage sale you had right before you had Cal. (I just bought new glue sticks for the first time last week)

PPS

Jocelyn fits in this dress to and they take turns wearing it to church. It really is the cutest thing, my little danish girls.

PPSS

This is the only picture I could get of her standing still and smiling, but I have loads of her running fast towards the street :)

~Thankful~ Day 4

Today I am grateful for bubble wrap.

It really never gets old.

~Thankful~ Day 3

Today I am thankful Authentic Liege Waffles

from Off the Waffle.

We have been there four times in the last six weeks and frankly I could eat one every day. In fact I am craving one now.

It by far the most amazing waffle of my existence.

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

Thankful For Day 2

Today I am Thankful for Sunlight.

I am starting miss it. It has been pretty gray the last few days and I miss the rainbows it makes on my walls, the way it warms my shoulders playing at the park. The warmth it brings to my pictures! But mostly I love on sunny days Jocelyn finds her shadow and dances with it.

Thankful For Day 1

Every day this month I will share something I am thankful for.

Today I am thankful for:

I have reconnected with so many old friends, cousins, roommates, aunts and uncles. My grandma is even on there. Now we share recipes and advice, talk about each others kids and laugh at old photos. I am grateful for a way to communicate with my family on small islands and stay part of their life. It's nice to know when someone is available to talk when we all have such different schedules.

If only it had spell check.