So much to be grateful for!

Though I didn't jump on the Facebook or Instagram gratitude post band wagon this year, I have been feeling so grateful for the many blessings I enjoy on a daily basis!  I am so blessed and there is so much to be thankful for!

One night during dinner, we came up with a list of 100 things we were grateful for.  The kids thought at first that sounded like a lot and we'd never come up with that many things, but as we got going, it got easier and came up with many different things.  Emma was our scribe.  Here's our list (spelling has been changed a little for ease of reading):

Family, Lucy, Mom, Dad, Cal, Emma, Coverton, food, pizza, tacos, bread, peanut butter, water, home, car, money, muffins, cups, bodies, books, scriptures, TV, phones, Skype, internet, air, Spring, seasons, holidays, teachers, Hello Kitty backpack, Holy Ghost, wood, raisins, Airplanes, dad's work, stickers, animals, firemen and women, soldiers, fruits and vegetables,heaters, lights, air conditioner, blender, chocolate, oven, sun, moon, stars, planets, horses, church, temple, prophet, ancestors, closets, school, teeth, pictures, curtains, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, chairs, bed, tables, gas, flowers, trees, nature, animals, games, bacon, FHE, toys, computers, microwave, shoes, church, magazines, America, the Creation, sports, time, roads.

For FHE one night, we also did a Gratitude list from A to Z.  We wrote one (or two or three) things we were grateful for under each letter.  It was fun hearing what the kids came up with.  Here's another one Emma made at school.

In my prayers lately, I've been thinking a lot and expressing thanks for the so very many blessings I have.  I really am SO blessed beyond measure to have what I do and I've been praying to help me to see the blessings I normally wouldn't recognize and express my gratitude for.  This has been an eye opening experience.  We made it a goal as a family to ask for help in seeing our blessings.  Cal has really been sticking with this also and has prayed for some of the sweetest things.  My favorite was "We're grateful we have plates to put food on and faces to put smiles on!".  His prayers are so sincere and sweet and he's always thankful for something different!

We headed down to Utah the day before Thanksgiving to spend it with family and friends.  It was so nice to be with everyone!

Thanksgiving was a special day!  Not only was it Thanksgiving, it was Callahan's 5th birthday, that little turkey!  We love the sweet, daring, tender hearted, energetic little boy he is!  He loved being in the spotlight, and kept saying about everything "It's my birthday...", meaning he got to be in charge or something?!  Well, one thing he wasn't in charge of was what we ate for lunch and dinner.  Turkey it was!  We had his birthday party the day after, so see the post to follow after this one.

Thanksgiving morning, we had a lazy morning and woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, took baths and got ready for the day.  Then we headed to Aunt Lois and Uncle Keith's home for Thanksgiving lunch.  Almost everyone was there (we missed Adam & Meghan's fam, Aunt Suz, and Kaisha) and it was so good to see everyone.  Love that crazy Stoddard side of the fam!  The kids had fun eating, playing outside and inside with Amber and Morgan and Kyle, playing Guesstures with Grandma.  It was a beautiful, sunny day! Coverton was a with everyone on is first Thanksgiving and I think he made his rounds, if you know what I mean!  He wore his hat and booties that Grandma Di crocheted for him.  To make Callahan's birthday a little more exciting, when we had pie and ice-cream, we put a candle in Cal's and had everyone sing to him.  He also enjoyed all of the birthday wishes and attention.

Happy birthday, sweet Cal!

Aunt Lois, our hostess with the mostest and her twin, Emma!

Covey's first Thanksgiving!  So grateful this little guy is in our lives!  Hat and booties courtesy of Grandma Di.

After that, it was off to the Ryerses for Thanksgiving dinner.  We helped get ready a little bit.  We all got there and then sat down at the table, that's the one day of the year that no one is sitting eating on the couch.  It was nice!  We enjoyed each others company, I love the Ryerses and am so glad I chose to become one.   Sue was saying that on average, Americans consume 3,000 calories for a Thanksgiving meal.  If that's true, did I consume 6,000?  He he!  I'm sure it wasn't that much.  I went light at each place and tried a little bit of everything at both places.  We did just start the Ryerse Biggest Looser competition with Dave's family...the first week, Dave and I lost, but Thanksgiving week, we both gained thanks to not exercising and eating more than we should.  After that, the kids all played and ran around.  It's so fun seeing them together!  We watched some TV and visited.  We watched the Piano Guys special, and the girls danced the whole time.  They sure are BFFs if there ever were any!  It was so cute.  I didn't take many pictures because we left my camera at Lois and Keith's house.  :(  We had a good time though.  And I didn't get any pictures of the boys...they are like blurs when they're together!  :)

The day after Thanksgiving, we met up with the Millers for lunch at Chic-fil-A, yum!  It was so good to see them, we miss them!  All of our kids are growing up too fast!  The yougins had a blast playing together, and the adults all enjoyed catching up.

Also that weekend, Jerry & Stacy invited us to go to a Peter Brienholdt and Mindy Gledhill concert.  It was the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit!  The music was beautiful and uplifting and it was so fun to be together!  :)

Our home, home on the range

"...Where the deer and the antelope play". And they really do!  The deer and antelope are all over here. But that's outside of our home on the range.  Some have asked to see pictures of our house we bought here.  So now that things are kind of in order, I snapped a couple of pictures.  So come on in to see a sneak peek! 

The kids watching the deer across the street.  Each time we see them, they're fascinated!

The kids Pooh themed room.  It's the deco they've had since Cal was born.  So we need some bedroom makeovers for sure.  The boys are going to have a fire fighter bedroom and the girls are going for coral and turquoise and forest animals theme.  It should be fun  There are two bedrooms downstairs, but as of right now, no one is brave enough to go downstairs, and all of the kids wanted to share a room.  So that's what they're doing.  Soon though, we'll have either the boys or girls go downstairs, or Dave & I.  

This is our kitchen, which I love!  Lots of counter space, and the appliances are so nice!

The dining room.  I am really liking the color Dave picked out and painted it.  Now we just have to paint the bedrooms and all of the trim white!

Here's our front room.  As you can see, we have some of our fall decorations out, and not all of our pictures hung up yet.

The master bedroom.  We are also going to get new bedding and decor for our room soon.   I've had this since I moved away to go to college, my mom made the quilt!  And I love it, but it's getting ripped up from the kids.  So I think we're going for a grey and blue themed room.  

The upstairs bathroom.

Our downstairs living room.  We decided since we're in WY, might as well go for a cowboy inspired room.  Yeehaw!  It's probably my favorite room.

Our new LG washer and dryer!  We just got them recently, and are so glad to have a w/d again! And these ones are swanky.  You name it, they can do it.  I still haven't finished reading the users manuals for them yet, they're like text books!  It was kind of tricky to go to the laundromat once a week and do all of our laundry at once.  It makes me grateful for modern appliances, which I take for granted more than I should.   I also love the folding counter above them, it makes it nice to fold laundry.  Thanks, hon!

Downstairs bathroom.  We installed this pinecone hand towel holder, toilet paper holder, and towel rack that we ordered.  I think they're super cute!  We have been working on improvements already and can't wait to keep going and making this house ours.

I didn't bother taking pictures of the craft/office/workout room or what has become the toy fortress downstairs because they're very much works in progress.  But we're excited to be here and feel so very blessed to have what we do.  "Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day!"

It's always fun when Grandma & Grandpa come

We had our first real visitors, besides those who graciously came to help us move in.  The Stoddard Grandparents came for Veteran's Day weekend, and boy did we have a good time!

They came bearing fun crafts for the kids to do and yummy snacks to share.  First, we showed them around the house, now that it's kind of put together!  :)  Then we spent the afternoon talking and doing the crafts that they brought for the kids and some we had at home as well.  And lots of playing with Grandma and Granpda.  I think it's so tender to watch them play together and see the love they have for each other.  That night, we had some dinner, and then did our Friday night movie.  We watched Madagascar 3 ("afro circus afro circus afro polka dot polka dot polka dot...") which is a cute, funny show.  We also made some tasty Reeses Popcorn.

Crafting time!  Emma made this tissue paper flower with Grandma, Cal made a balloon sports, and Lucy made paper plate animals.  

Doing horsie rides and singing songs.

Grandpa's alter ego?  He was pretending to rock out, the kids were busting up laughing!

Saturday, we slept in, made some breakfast, cleaned up a bit, Grandma gave the kids piano lessons, I went to the store with my dad, we had lunch and then headed out to see the town.  Cal has always wanted his picture with this mural since we got here, so we got a picture with Grandpa.  It shows all four seasons in the painting, and I think it's fun Cal wanted this picture with Grandpa because it looks like a father or grandfather with their son/grandson on horses together riding off together.

We went to the Carbon County museum where we live. Growing up, we traveled a lot and did many road trips.  And along the way we'd visit pretty much every museum in the areas we would go, sometimes to our excitement and other times to our dismay.  So you know if there's a museum around my dad hasn't been there, he's going to want to go.  It turned out to be a very nice little museum.  They had a great children's section with many interactive games and activities which our kids enjoyed!  Also, in the main museum, they had special displays kids could touch, hands on activities and activities to do along the way.  So it was a hit!  We learned about the native Americans, the white settlers, and the developments and history of our county.  It was very interesting because my Uncle is related to a famous outlaw who was captured in Rawlins and a doctor took his body apart and examined it and made strange things out of his parts, like some shoes made out of his skin...ewww!  They wouldn't let us take pictures of any of that stuff because they considered them human remains.

After the museum fun, we drove to Saratoga Hot Springs to go take a dip in the mineral pools.  It felt so good and the kids loved swimming around!  My usually cracked and dry hands were great for days after going, and Cal's dry skin has been looking much better ever since.  I think we might need to venture up that way again soon!

This is a pretty sunset we saw coming out of the hot springs.  Who says Wyoming isn't pretty?  :)

When we got home, we had pulled pork waiting for us in the crock pot, and we hurried and whipped up some tater tots, baked beans, salad and pineapple to go with it.  It was nice to have 8 helping hands in the kitchen instead of just the usual 2!  Then, we played some games and the kids stayed with Grandpa and Grandma while Dave and I went on a date to Buck's, a sports bar in town to chat and eat some dessert.  We both got a dessert, but we should've just gotten one!  Check out this sizzling apple crisp, it was amazing!  And Dave's brownie was good too.  We shared and stuffed ourselves silly and got to talk without interruptions, which is always nice and hard to come by these days with four littles around!  :)

At Buck's, they had historical pictures, license plates, and memorabilia all over the walls.  We just happened to see a picture of Rex's ancestor, the famous outlaw.  And so we snapped a picture, since we couldn't at the museum.  We all agree, that with a beard, Rex and this dude might just look related!

Saturday night, my mom and I stayed up talking and downloading new apps on my moms new tablet.  Sunday morning, we woke up and played some more in our jammies, got ready for church and went to church.  Grandma put curls in the girls' hair.  They looked so cute!

After church when we were saying our goodbyes, Cal started crying.  He's such a tender boy!  And Lucy and Emma were sad too.  Emma kept crying out that night "I miss our family...waaaahhh!"  We had to keep remind them that we live a lot closer than we used to and get to see them again for Thanksgiving in a few weeks.  Our Grandparents on both sides are so special and we love them both so much!  Thanks for coming and hanging out, Grandma & Grandpa!  We love you!!  <3

I was reminded of the classic Primary song, and was singing it in my head but I was singing it a little differently:

"It's always fun when Grandma & Grandpa come, when Grandma & Grandpa come, hooray!  They always say the kindest things and in the kindest way!  They have a wrinkly, twinkly smile, they're happy all the day!  It's always fun for everyone when Grandma & Grandpa come!"

And I also love this quote by Rudy Giuliani about Grandparents:

"What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, cookies."  ~Rudolph Giuliani

Family Pictures

It's about time we got family pictures with the Stoddard side of the family.  The last time we did was right before Dave and I were engaged and we were going back and forth as to whether to include him or not since we weren't "official" yet.  That was a while ago!  But Amy's friend did them for us, I think they turned out beautifully!  It was so much fun getting all of the kids to smile and look at the same time, not!  But we survived! And I love these people.  :)