Thankful

We have a long list of things to be thankful for in this family. We are truly blessed with more than we deserve. This year, we are extra thankful for one special miracle in our lives:

Walt, we love you so much. We hope you'll always know how much you are wanted. We are infinitely grateful to be your parents. Being blessed with you has changed our lives, and even at 4am, we like it. You are worth it. Having you in our lives is nothing like we thought, hoped, prayed, and begged it to be. It is so much better
Love,
Mom and Dad

...In which I realize just how tired I really am

Some people react to immense stress, pressure and lack of sleep by having a meltdown. Some sob, some get angry, blaming other people. Some refuse to get out of bed for days on end. Some people  lose weight, gain weight, or have trouble sleeping. And some light their houses on fire.


Wait, people don't do that last one?




Oops.

Don't put recipe books on the empty stove when you are exhausted, so you accidentally turn on the wrong burner, and then leave to do something else while waiting for the water to boil. Lesson learned.



But, if you do, leave the mess. Open the windows and flip on the fan so the surprisingly copious amount of smoke can air out. Recognize that it's probably best if you don't cook at all in this state, and then go get pizza with your boys.

Sorry, bad cell phone photo - and, like I said, TIRED. :)

Make a mental note: burned plastic smells.

And then be glad that the previous tenants left a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. So glad it's Friday...

Thankful Leaves

Update: I now have a Silhouette file for this. If you'd like it, just use the "Contact Us" tab at the top of the blog to email me. :)

I have been having a bit of fun with Google Stats on the blog lately. It's so interesting to me to see where visitors come from. We try to be careful and not post too personal of information, so our blog is not currently private. I hope to keep it that way.

Interestingly, we get a lot of hits on 3 posts: Global Warming, McMurdo, and Walt's Blessing. The first two make sense, they are common enough search terms. But the third seemed weird. I did a little digging and found that people were getting to it by searching for images of blessing parties. Apparently they liked my setup. :)

This is NOT becoming some kind of craft blog, nor am I attempting to compete with those kind of forums (I only wish I had that kind of talent). But for those coming to my blog based on a photo of Walt's blessing day - hoping for some crafty inspiration or an easy tutorial and finding instead a simple family journal (I am really not that crafty), I wanted to share something we're doing this month. This isn't a new idea by any means, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted anywhere else online.

Beginning with our first November Family Home Evening, we set up our own "Thankful Tree." Each night at dinner, we all write down one thing we're thankful for that day on a leaf and add it to the string of twine I strung up in a cheery corner of my kitchen (obviously we have to help Walt out a little). This is made extra fun with bright, fall leaves to write on. Here is what ours looks like so far:

We did this activity along with the scripture Psalms 100 1-5.

Feel free to click on the photo to make it larger and then print it and cut out the leaves for the same idea. There are lots of different spins on how to do this floating around online, including taping the leaves to a paper tree, or hanging them from actual found branches. They all get the message across.  You could also laminate them to use over and over with dry erase markers, or use them for a matching game or fun bookmarks.

I quickly made up a page so that those of you with older children can color them in:

So there you go. Simple, brightly colored and varied leaves with no cheesy text on them. A little something from me to the world. Enjoy!

PS: If anyone is interested in Walt's blessing party details, or would like a template of the signs and invitation I used, leave a comment or email me. We can definitely talk.

Happy Halloween!

I am not a lover of Halloween. You don't get the day off, you don't get candy as a grown-up, dressing up is a lot of work, and I don't watch scary movies.

Nevertheless, I wanted to make Walt's first Halloween fun for him (or at least a good photo op).

First of all, I stayed up way too late making a fun Halloween breakfast:

 

"Monster Muffins" idea found here.

I really want to start some fun traditions with Walt - I may have gone a little overboard, but he was mildly fascinated with the muffins, and they were delicious, so Landon was happy.

My Mom is the super-mom of Halloween costumes. In her homemade repertoire: Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the East (yeah, the one with the house on top - I wish I had a picture!), a shadow, a flower, a black butterfly, Miss America, and my brother dressed as a little old lady are just a few that I remember off the top of my head. Someday I aspire to be that awesome. But this year, since we are so busy (see post here), we decided to buy one. Easy peasy. And it turned out adorable:

 

Cutest astronaut ever. And yep. We're the geekiest family in the world. It's OK, we know. Walt was fairly interested in the ward "trunk-or-treat" (which, on principle, I am generally opposed to, but in the case of my 5-month old, it worked out rather well).

 And he was definitely on board with the whole pumpkin carving thing...

All-in-all, it was quite a successful day. And, since we got to eat all of his candy at the end of it, I managed to enjoy it, too.

Happy Halloween!