Gratitude

I think most of us will find that it is easier to find things to complain about than it is to find things to be thankful for. With all the economic troubles going on in the world right now I think it is even easier to complain. I must say that I have so many things to be thankful for and I don't think that I focus on those positive things enough so I am going to list some of the things that I am thankful for...

• I am extremely thankful that my husband has a job and that he makes enough money for me to stay home with our kids. I may complain a lot about the hours but I am extremely thankful we still have a job and that they have give us some new opportunities that make the future a little brighter.
• I am really glad that we have our own house. We moved 4 times in the first 3 1/2 years that we lived here and that was really hard on all of us. I love that we don't have to move as much anymore and we can have painted walls (with NO flat paint)!!
• I am thankful that I have a husband who loves me and supports me and our kids.
• I am thankful for my three beautiful children. I love them more than anything and I know that they love me too.
• I am very blessed to have so many friends in Las Vegas. I don't how I would have survived it here without my friends.
• I am especially thankful for my friend Maggie who is always there for me and has helped me out so many times!
• I am thankful for all the losers in our weight loss group! I am also proud that I have been able to lose 11 pounds in the last 6 weeks.
• I am thankful that Brandon and Lynne trust us enough to let us watch Aaron. Some days are hard but we LOVE to have Aaron come over. He is such a cute little boy and the girls and Josh absolutely adore him.
• I am also thankful for the extra money it has given us to help us get through some hard months. We wouldn't have had Christmas last year without that money.
• I am thankful for family that supports us and loves us even though we are far apart. I know that we can always call on any of them for support.
• I am thankful my children have uncles and aunts that are good examples for them and that take the time for them. They LOVE all their aunts and uncles and miss them when we are not with them.

I know that there are many other things that I am thankful for but I am not going to go into the small things. Jeff and I feel so blessed right now. We are trying our best to help others out when we can. I remember feeling very selfish and frustrated with Jeff and Christmas for trying to do some Christmas things for our friends that had lost their job. I didn't understand how he was trying to do all this when we hardly had any money ourselves. Then it hit me that at least we did have some money to make things magical for our children and we could afford to help someone else make Christmas magical for their kids. I really hope that I can keep trying to focus on all that is good with our lives instead of focusing on what is wrong.

Josh's 4th Tooth

Josh has not been sleeping lately and I think the cause has been discovered. I found a new tooth last night. Josh now has three on the bottom and one on the top. The one on the top is new and it is really red all around the tooth. It looks like it hurts so I am hoping that is the reason he hasn't been sleeping. He did let me sleep longer than an hour or two last night...I think I got 5 hours of continuous sleep. It was nice!!

Dr. Andrea

My Dad took a big spill in his race on Saturday and is scraped up pretty bad from his knees to his toes. When I told the girls that Grandpa crashed on his bike and got hurt Andrea was very insistent that she needed to go to Grandpa's house. She keeps telling me she needs to go to Grandpa's to take care of him and be his doctor. Plus, then she says Grandpa can make her pancakes every morning! My kids LOVE Grandpa Fred's pancakes...they really are the best.
Grandpa better get ready because Dr Andrea is coming to take care of him!!!

Our Trip to Utah

We just returned from a week long adventure in Utah! We LOVE to go to Utah and HATE coming back to Vegas after our trips. It makes us all really homesick when we leave Utah...one day we won't have to leave (hopefully)!! My sisters and I have been planning this trip for a couple months so it was lots of fun to finally be together. The kids all had so much fun with each other. We had the occasional fights but they played really good together. We had a really busy week but it was lots of fun. Here are a couple highlights from our trip:

Thursday we went to the local children's museum. It was CRAZY!! It was really crowded and Sammy and Andrea were a little cranky. They really liked doing the different things at the museum but it was really stressful for me because they kept crying!!

This is the life-size horse they had at the museum. I think this is the only kind of horse my kids will ever get on!!

All the kids loved the blocks!!

Andrea, Sammy, and Isaac playing a big xylophone.

The highlight of the week happened on Monday when my mom took all eight grandkids to Build-a-Bear. They LOVED it!! It was so much fun to watch them all pick out animals and clothes. Sammy and McKinley picked a pink unicorn (Michelle and I tried to talk them out of it but they both really loved the unicorn), Andrea got a spotted leopard (she thinks it is a cat), Josh got a monkey, Isaac got a panda, Joey got a dog, and Denali and Anna got lambs. The kids have all played with their animals all week so it was good for them to have similar toys they could play with together! I had my camera with me the whole time but totally spaced getting any pictures until we left!!

Outside Build-a-Bear with the animals!

Here is a picture of all eight grandkids. In the last year we have gone from 5 to 8!! It is fun to have kids all the same ages. They love to play together. We really wished that we lived closer so we could play more. Andrea loved being with Grandpa this trip! She is excited to go back in July and stay at his house so we can actually see him this time. We stayed at my sister Heather's house and the girls loved being with Isaac and Joey. It was fun to spend a little more time with Heather and her kids this time.

I was a little worried during this trip about my weight loss. I didn't exercise the whole week we were gone because I had a hard time getting all three kids to bed every night and was exhausted the whole time. I weighed myself when we got home and it looks like I stayed about the same. I think this is amazing considering I ate a pound of licorice on the way home to try to stay awake!! I am really looking forward to a good night's rest in my own bed tonight!

I must say that I have a love-hate relationship with Utah. I love going and hate leaving! I love being able to spend time with my sisters and parents and I love trying to catch up with my friends up there. I never feel like I have enough time. I miss my parents so much that I want to spend all my time with them. I really hope and pray that we can figure things out and are able to move to Utah in the next year or two. I love my friends here but I am ready to move back home to Utah.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Andrea is officially 3 today!! She is still my little girl even though she has grown so much in the last year. She will even tell you now that she is getting big. Andrea has always been small. She started that way (18 in and 7 lb) and has been slow in her growth. We were really excited when she got on the charts to track her percentiles in growth!! I love Andrea and love her calm, quiet personality.

Andrea at age 3!
Andrea at her 2nd Birthday Party.

Andrea when she turned 1.

Andrea at 1 on her favorite present...the Dora couch!

Our little Andrea almost 3 weeks old.

Andrea had to have the lights on her when she was born because of jaundice. This is how she sat for a week or so while we worked it all out of her system! It was not fun to have a baby plugged into the wall all the time with that thing wrapped around her middle.

WE LOVE YOU ANDREA!!