Daily Gratitude

So I have been a bit of a slacker with my daily posting. But hey, I'm on vacation! But I really wanted to say that I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mother.

As many of you know we lost our little boy Corwin about 12 years ago and I have had 3 other late term miscarriages. For a while I wasn't sure if we would have more children after Alli. But we have been blessed beyond our dreams. Cord & I have 5 amazing children who we love more and more each day.

So on Thanksgiving I am expressing my gratitude for the joy my children bring me. (oh & stay tuned -- I'm sure there will be posts about how these 5 blessed children are driving me nuts!)

Daily Gratitude -- Catch up

Sunday:

Being Busy

I have been so busy I just haven't had time to blog -- believe it or not that is something I am grateful for. I like this quote. It reminds me that even when I want to pull my hair out because I have so many things to do I need to be grateful that I have something to do!

"Thank God--every morning when you get up--that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never know."
~ Charles Kingsley ~

Saturday:

Safe Travel

We made it to California safe and sound -- Even if there was a lot o sound in the car we did enjoy our travel and are happy to be here!

Friday:

Going for it!

I am so grateful for a daughter who is willing to "go for it". Alli has only been playing basketball for 2 years -- and that is just city league ball for 2 months a year. This year she decided she was going to try out for the school team and she made it! They had their first game on Thursday and unfortunately they lost by one point in overtime.

Thursday:

Quilt Group

I loving having a creative outlet and quilting has given me hours of creativity. I love to look at the fabric and decided what will look best in a project. I love to scour over quilt patterns and books trying to decide what I want to make next. So you can imagine how fun it is to be around women who feel the same. And these are all women I just recently met. We have a great time showing off projects and teaching each other what we know.


Wednesday:

I'm not too old

I am grateful that I am not too old to go to the midnight movie with my teenager! But boy am I tired! We both liked Twilight btw.

Daily Gratitude

Online Bill Pay

Not only do I save paper, I save a lot of time!
Who isn't grateful for more time?

Daily Gratitude

Farm School

I am so grateful for preschool! Will & Barry attend the funnest school and they love it. And I love that I can have some one-on-one time with which ever son is home while the other is at school. Today I am especially grateful for teacher Lynda.

I brought Will to school this afternoon (12:30). Now Will likes to be independent and doesn't like me to walk him to the door. So I dropped him of & watched him run up the walk. Well, about 1:00 I was talking to Cord on the phone and he reminded me that today was Barry's day at school not Will!

Why am I so forgetful? Cord so lovingly said "Come on Heidi we've been doing this since September." So I threw Barry in the car and went back to preschool. Lynda just laughed and said I wasn't the first one to get the days mixed up. And as an added bonus she just had Will stay today too! So I have a few hours kids free to get something done...like blogging! :)

Daily Gratitude

Seasons

For all the complaining I do about the snow in February you would think I hate snow. But I do love living in a place with four seasons. It is nice to have the time of the year marked with budding leaves or beautiful flowers, colored mountains or a snow covered lawn. I do especially love fall and like my kids I hope for snow on Christmas eve!

Daily Gratitude

Book Club

I love going to book club each month. It is so fun to hang out with my really good friends and eat really good food and discuss really good (or bad) books. As a mom I need social time away from the kids and the duties of home, and when that social time includes intelligent discussion it's even better. I look really look forward to our meetings each month and hope we keep going for years to come. Check out our book club blog here

Daily Gratitude

Friday:

Our Laptop

Yesterday the laptop was on the fritz so I wasn't able to post but thanks to Cord it is working again! Being just a day with out it was hard -- so today I am grateful for the ability to post!

Thursday:

Lunch

Every afternoon I make the boys lunch and then take one of them to preschool. Then while which ever son is home watches a little tube I eat lunch (yesterday it was ham & swiss on rye). I have to say that it is one of my favorite times of day. It is quiet and I usually read a magazine and relax. With all that I have to do on a daily basis it's nice to know I have some time for me.

Daily Gratitude

Mimi -- Cord's grandma

Keith & Gwen Udall -- Cord's grandparents

Dan & Helen Canning -- my grandparents

My Grandma K

My parents with me & two of my four brothers

Old Photographs

I am so very grateful for the magic of photography. I love looking at old pictures of my parents and grandparents. It is so great that moments of the past have been captured for the coming generations to enjoy.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I saw this on Brenda's blog and thought I'd try it. I'm not sure what to think of the results. It's funny to think I am Elizabeth Bennett one minute and Esme the next. BTW Alli and I have tickets to see the movie at midnight opening day. Fun! Fun!

Daily Gratitude

Little fingers and little toes

Soon these little hands and little feet will grow. They wont draw on my walls anymore or hold my face the way they do now. I am so glad that for a few more years I have little fingers and little toes to hold on to.

Daily Gratitude

Fabric

I love to sew and quilt and I just love fabric. I love to look at it and dream of what I can create. I love the colors and patterns -- it just makes me happy. I can't tell you how much I enjoy going to the quilt shop and looking at fabric -- OK and buying fabric. I even receive a few fabric catalogs that I pour over. I am so grateful that Cord puts up with all the money I spend on fabric!

Daily Gratitude

Saturday:

The library

I love going to the library and checking out books. I especially love taking my kids there. They have such a great time pouring over the shelves discovering new treasures. Here is a sampling of what I have checked out now. I am especially grateful that we are going to get a new library! The bond passed!


Sunday:

Prophets

I love the lesson manual we are using in R.S. (church) this year. We are studying the teachings of Joseph Smith. I especially enjoyed the lesson discussing the letters Joseph wrote to his family. I loved taking a glimpse into his personal life and witnessing how much he loved Emma and children. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“My dear Emma, I very well know your toils and sympathize with you. If God will spare my life once more to have the privilege of taking care of you, I will ease your care and endeavor to comfort your heart. I want you to take the best care of the family you can."

“My dear Emma, I think of you and the children continually. … I want to see little Frederick, Joseph, Julia, and Alexander, Johanna [an orphan who was living with the Smiths], and old Major [the family dog]. And as to yourself, if you want to know how much I want to see you, examine your feelings, how much you want to see me, and judge for yourself. I would gladly walk from here to you barefoot and bareheaded and half-naked to see you and think it great pleasure, and never count it toil."

Weekend Fun

Thursday afternoon I was just sitting around minding my own business when the phone rang...it was Karen (your very interested in this story huh?) Karen had an extra ticket to the play Dancing at Lughnasa at BYU and invited me to go along. Of course I accepted and we had a great time. Thanks Karen! For those of you who can't make it to BYU you should rent the movie. I really liked it too. I think I saw it in St. Johns with the Udall girls?


Friday afternoon the kids and I headed up to Sandy to celebrate the birthday of my nephew Makai & niece Ame. We met all the cousins at Classic Skate and the partying began. Here Ame is enjoying some root beer with Nina while Shayla adores her beautiful Max.


Lindy being the ever impressive mom brought veggies and dip to supplement the pizza. Here she is with Emily and her daughter.

Lily and Satchel

Happy Birthday Kids!

Here the kids are singing happy birthday. You may think that these pictures are pretty blurry. But it is just the fog from the fog machine. I had forgotten all about the smell of a fog machine. It's been a while since my single clubbing days!

Daily Gratitude

Family

Both the family I was born into and the family I married into are amazing. I am lucky enough to have great relationships with both. I love my parents are am so grateful for the tremendous love and support they have given to me. I hope someday I can be as good as they are. I am also grateful to Cord's parents who raised such a caring son. I am lucky to have married into a family where I feel so comfortable and loved.

Daily Gratitude

Today I got a great idea from Design Mom. Each day in November you are to take a picture of something you are grateful for. I think it's a great way to look at the things around me and appreciate them. There is so much in my life to be grateful for --I should probably do this for more than a month. So to catch up -- since today is the sixth -- here are six things I am grateful for.

Cord

I could gush on & on & on & on...well you get the point. Instead all I will say is that I love him more than I can say and for more reasons than I can write. "I love your guts!"

Blue sky on a cold fall day.

After several stormy days I can't tell you how happy I am to see sun and blue sky. If I go too long without sun I start to get a little down (why so I live here?) The blue sky and crisp air make me happy.

A warm fire

I can't tell you how nice it is to have a fire warming the house. The heat feels so different from the furnace. It is constant unlike the furnace that is controlled by a thermostat that has to go down before it comes on.

A neat wood pile

It won't always be this neat -- as the kids pull logs out of the middle -- but right now I think it's beautiful. And it saves us so much money. Each fall Cord takes his handy chain saw and cuts dead wood out of the forest and cuts & stacks it neatly for us -- a permit is only $25

Pumpkin desserts

This one is a recipe from Robyn. In October she posted one pumpkin recipe a day on her blog. It is as good as it looks!

New Slippers

One of my most favorite things in the world is a pair of new socks. These new slippers are right up there.

Random

Lindy tagged me to list "7 random things about me". I don't know if I can think of seven -- I'm kind of boring. Well...lets see...

1. Like you Lindy, I cannot sleep if anyone is touching me. If Cord's foot happens to stray to my side it is promptly swatted away. I also hate being hot while I sleep so I have fewer blankets on than Cord.

2. I watch too much T.V. I have far too many shows set to record on my DVR. I wont list all of them here but I will say that there are more than 12. My new favorite is Fringe

3. I love to eat popcorn. It is one of my most favorite things. Throw in some milk duds and I am in heaven.

4. I like to play the old 80's video game Centipede. Back in the day I could really kick butt! (do you remember that Heather?)

5. I like to play Final Fantasy (video game) on our PS2. I help the kids out when they get stuck.

6. I didn't get my drivers license until I was 20 -- long story

7. I liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
I like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.

How's that for random?

OK now it's your turn -- Shauna, Heather, Brenda & Karen -- Post it on your blog and then tag 4 more people.

Get Out & Vote!

I voted today -- I hope you will do the same!

A Long Hallloween Post

I have wanted to post about all our Halloween happenings but time slipped away from me this week. Mainly because we were gone the last two weekends and I have had so much to do -- mainly sewing some costumes. So I will attempt to sum up our fun.


We went to a local pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and you can imagine my horror when I discovered that I left my camera at home! What kind of a blogging mother am I? So here are some pictures from my cell phone -- not very good.




On Monday night we carved our pumpkins. I had the great pleasure of gutting 3 of them -- gotta love that pumpkin manicure -- so good for the skin.

The kids have so much fun doing this. Will & Barry squealed with delight when we lit our jack-o-lanterns. It was like we had never done it before. That is one really nice thing about having little kids. I love watching them get thrilled by or discovering fun things that I don't put much thought into anymore. They keep me aware of all the magic there is (that my jaded adult self tends to forget.)

Come on -- your are scared aren't you! Now on to the costumes...

Alli as Little Red Riding Hood. (She refused to hold a basket)

Lily seriously killed me as a "grandma" this year (no she isn't dressed up like you Grandma Mary or Grandma Risa :) Her personality is so spunky that she just made the perfect "old lady"

Luckily Cole wanted to be a revolutionary war soldier. We had most of the costume from when he was Thomas Paine -- we just added some blood. (Lily is his elderly mother welcoming her son home!) PS Lily's dress is a maternity shirt! And I thought we were done with those at our house.

Will REALLY wanted to be a knight. I could have made him the whole costume with chain mail fabric but it was $19 a yard and I just couldn't do it. But I did make the tunic and I wont tell you how much time I spent drawing that dragon on his shield and helmet.

Barry decided that he would be a dragon to fight Will's knight -- hey they are fighting all the time anyway. Why not?

So here is our cute dragon with paisley scales -- so fashionable!

We had a great Halloween. The kids got a ton of candy -- Alli had a fun time partying with her friends and Cord & I vegged on the couch and caught up on Masterpiece Theater. I hope all of you had a good one too!