Thankful

Oh Thanksgiving. What a wonderful time of year!! We are nearing Christmas and it just brings happiness to my home. The holidays start with Halloween and then continue with fun, food, friends and family. So this season we have to take a minute a truly be grateful....(even for those things I would hate to say outloud).

I am thankful for my heavenly father and lord in savior. He brings all the blessings to my life that I could not live without.

I am thankful for parents who at one time loved each other enough to bring me into this world.

I am thankful for my children and the joy they bring to my heart. They have been sent especially for me.

I am thankful for a King size bed. On lonely nights I have enough to spread out and roll over without falling off the bed. On nights where the kids have nightmares or feel especially loving I am glad that I have the room to share with them.

I am thankful to have a home with a roof, running water and electricity. So many people this time of year do without so many things. And just having the comforts of home to go to makes this time of year less stressful.

I am thankful for my job. I complain on a daily but without my job I don't know where we would be. I have a wonderful boss and for the most part I work with truly good hearted people.

I am thankful for my many freedoms. We have soliders overseas fighting for our freedoms everyday and because of that they give up the time that they could be spending with their families and friends.

I am thankful for my immediate family. Although far from us they are still near and dear to our hearts. WE MISS YOU ALL!!

I am thankful for my friends who inspire me everyday. I have been so blessed to meet so many wonderful people in my short time on this earth. Some I don't see all that often but they are in my heart this holiday season.

I am thankful for my pets. Boo, Goblin, Pumpkin and Salt. You make life comical. It helps not take anything to seriously. Nothing like a bite on the toe when you are trying to have a serious discussion on the telephone.

I am thankful for my craft talents. This time of year can be stressful but this time of year I enjoy spending time making cards and completing our family album. That time is reserved just for me and is truly an escape.

I am thankful for my extended family and the kids' dad who love us unconditionnally and find time to spend with us.

So many more things that I am truly thankful for. My education, our librarians who keep us stocked with good reading materials and dvd entertainment, my health and my children's health. Our lives have been truly blessed. Although I wish I could add a couple more dollars to my bank account I wouldn't change anything about it so far.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

My little Super Heroes!

I am sure every mother in this world no matter if they are able to raise their own children or if they are with them every single day say that they are proud. I don’t think there is a word strong enough to describe how I truly feel about my kids. Everyday I am surprised how lucky I got. I see so many children who disrespect their parents or who act up and give their parents such heartache. I don’t have to worry about that. Of course there are times when they test my patience or they have a bad day of listening but all in all on any given day I go to bed proud of the people they have become. Each of them is giving, kind, funny, spiritual and well mannered. If something were to happen to me today I know that I would not have to worry about if they became good people. I am sure that’s what my mom thought of me and my brother and sister. She left this earth all to early but her work was done one this earth. She raised some pretty darn good kids and they in turn have raised awesome children as well. How lucky can one person get! Blessed, truly blessed!

I Love Fall!!!

So we are definitely into fall and I am completely excited. Carmel apples, pumpkins and falling leaves. What more could you ask for. This weekend, the kids and I took a trip down to Denver and hung out with our family and my friend Heather and her son Gabriel. It really worked out because I ended up keeping my niece Lilly and her and Katie had a blast hanging together for 2 straight days. They have really missed each other. Our first trip Saturday was to the Four Mile Historic Museum for their Great Pumpkin Harvest. Oh there was plenty to do for sure.

First we stopped at the school houses and we saw 3 women in there making lace and brading rugs. Which was really neat and I think I want to learn how to do the rug braiding. It was so neat.

Outside the school house there was a tent set up where we learned about Honeybees and how bees makes the honey. It was so incredibly interesting.

Then we went over to the chicken coupes where this man had burned these cookies and he threw them to the chickens. And he said the chickens had been waiting all day for him to burn these cookies. Now we stood there and watched these chickens and none of them were interested in these cookies...especially burnt cookies. Me and my friend Heather got a kick out of that. Our next stop was the old fashion cellar. This is where the pioneers would put their food storage. They would hang meat and put all their canned goods in there.

To the side of the cellar was a "panning station" where the kids could pan for gold. This probably took the most time. All of the kids were interested in playing in the water and coming with the pieces of gold and rocks.

The out skirts of the museum was TeePee's set up for the kids to look in. One TeePee had a couple inside and they told stories of the Native Americans and showed us tools that they would use made out of things from the land. That was my favorite part. We sat in there for a long time asking questions. And everyone was interested so it was really neat.

Next we played with the sticks and round wooden wheels and Stilts.

Then we headed over to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. We will definitely come back next year. What a fun day!

Minute to Win IT

September 25th we celebrated Kenyon’s 8th birthday party in the park at Lake Loveland. He had several friends attend. His guests included kids he knows from school, the boys and girls club, daycare ands family. I planned 17 games inspired from the NBC game show Minute to win it but we were only able to fit in a total of 6. The kids really had a good time. The games included:
(Bottoms Up!) Where the kids had to knock over empty cans using a yo-yo.
(Breakfast Scramble) The kids had to assemble the front of a cereal box that has been cut into 16 even pieces.
(Bucket Head) The kids had to catch 3 balls in a bucket on top of their head.
(Defying Gravity) Where they had a partner and each kid had a balloon. They had to throw the balloon to each other and keep the balloon off the ground for a minute.
(Extreme Hanky Panky) I split the kids into groups and they had to remove all the tissues from a tissue box one at a time. This was by far the funniest. The kids seemed so panic’d and were out of control ripping the tissues out of the box. It was hilarious.
(Rapid Fire) The kids had to shoot rubber bands to knock down a stack of cans. This by far was the hardest game. We did not even have one winner. Many of the kids did not know how to shoot the rubber bands so it was tough.

These were a good filler for the time. I think we will plan a party next summer with many of the other games. What a good time!

Happy Birthday ‘lil man!!!

Kenyon’s official birthday is today. 8 years old….boy where did the time go. The tike has grown into quite the little man. I made him a birthday badge to wear to school today. He was so proud. He has been spoiled thus far and received a Nintendo DS from his Grandmother and Dad. I of course will take him to dinner tonight for his birthday. (The place where they give sundae’s FREE on your birthday J) Gosh I hopefully have another 60 of these birthdays with him. This is the one day that he is happy alllllll day!

Mom’s Night Out

I attended my first “Stamp Camp” on Friday, September 10th. My co-worker, Heather, and I went to a Stamp Camp at a Stampin’ Up Consultants house in Fort Collins. We made a total of 5 cards.

The first card was a template card.

The second card was done using the Faux alligator technique. It took probably the most time but was my favorite to make. I learned how to emboss and I think I am addicted now.

The third card was a Masculine card that can be given to a father or male friend.

The last 2 cards were both Fall cards.

The whole process took 3 hours. We are going to go to another Stamp Camp on October 22nd. Hopefully miss Katelyn can go with us.

The Hayden Corn Pickers

The Greeley Stake in the LDS Church has a farm in Eastern Greeley. The Church posted a bulletin that you could go out to the farm and pick some sweet corn from the corn fields out there. A Sister from the Church sent me directions on how to get out to the farm and unfortunately we got lost several times. We finally stopped and asked a sweet lady at 7-11 and she put us on the right track. And just when we thought we had passed it we found it. My friend Hollie and her daughter Danielle joined us. We got out the cars and stepped into the corn fields. It was eerie. The wind was blowing around us and most of the corn had been picked through. The first couple ears of corn we picked were not very good. The deeper we got into the corn field the better the result. We got some really fat ears of corn. Looking back I bet all together we picked about 200-300 ears of corn. We stayed for about an hour and half. Hollie filled up about 6 bags of corn, I filled up a huge tub of corn, Katelyn filled up a bag for a co-worker and Kayne filled up another bag for a co-worker. After digging through bugs and tearing at the tall stalks we were tuckered out. We found our way out of the tall stalks of corn and at the road we had to sit and shuck the corn. Make sure we had some good pieces of corn and get rid of any remaining bugs…ewwww. We had lunch at Burger King and headed home for a nap. Kenyon and I washed the corn in a nice bath of water. Katelyn tore the aluminum. We wrapped the aluminum and placed the wrapped corns in plastic bags to freeze. We decided we will make this into a tradition. Next year we are going to collect much more :)