Thanksgiving

Okay, so after my talk on Sunday (about Thanksgiving), I am trying to work harder on being thankful for all things. I am even trying to learn to be thankful for the trials that I have had in my life!! I am so thankful for the knowledge that the scriptures give us about how our Heavenly Father is mindful of us, and that He won't give us anymore than we can handle!

I am super excited about this Thanksgiving! We will be having most of Mike's family here, plus my "little" brother and his sweet wife! The last time that I've had Thanksgiving with any member of my family was twenty years ago. I am saddened to think that it has truly been this long since I have celebrated a holiday with a member of my family. I just hope that this will be the first of many times that my brother and I will get together!!

I would love to say that our lives have slowed down now that marching band season is over...but, I'm afraid that we are all still very busy! I loved being able to watch Tosha and Zac perform with the Westlake band. It was a sad night, a couple of weeks ago, when I realized that this performance was Natosha's last as a high school marching band student! On this same day, though, we found out that Natosha had been accepted to USU!! Yay!! My little girl is growing up (sniff, sniff)!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you will take the time to see all of the wonderful blessings that you have in your life!

Blessings

This week, I have been given many opportunities to reflect upon all that I have been blessed with in my life. A lot of these reflections have come as I've been counting to 10 in order to calm down!! Joseph has hit the terrible two's, 5 months too early! He is really good at throwing temper tantrums, and I have a fat lip to prove it!



I have a wonderful family! I have four beautiful children, and an amazingly supportive husband! This week, I finally received an e-mail from my mother, after having no communication with her for over two years. I am hoping that this e-mail will spur more interaction between the two of us. I have a great father that I am learning more about all of the time! I also have four sisters and two brothers, that I am trying to develop better relationships with! Not to mention, my "second family", that has been great to be a part of for almost 20 years! 

I am honored to have some amazing friends that are there for me. Some of these sweet people I have known since high school. Thanks to modern technology, I have been able to reconnect with them, and to learn what is happening in their lives. There are some friends that I have, regardless of the distance, that I know are there for me any time, and that they care about me (and I care about them!).

I'm also thankful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that this gospel is true, and that no matter where we live, the same principles are being taught. It is also great to be a part of a ward family!

Applesauce

Okay, so I don't know what came over me today!! I went totally domestic and made applesauce!! I had seen it done before by my friend Mary Anne, but I had never been brave enough to try! So, I had a lot of apples that needed to have something done with them, and I decided to see what kind of a mess I could make!! I think that I had 24 apples and it made 3 1/2 pints of applesauce! It wasn't hard to make at all! The worst part was the peeling and seeding of the apples! I think I am going to check and see if I can get more apples and jars and make another batch or two! It tastes so delicious (if I do say so myself!!)!!

Now, what can I do with 6 large oranges????

Autumn

I love the changing of the seasons!! We have had a really long summer, so it is exciting to have the temperatures cool off and to feel the "crispness' in the air! It is also helping me to realize that our wardrobe from Mississippi is not going to make it for the Utah winters! Mike and I still have a lot of sweaters and sweatshirts, but the kids have mostly short-sleeved t-shirts! Time to go shopping!! =)

I think I finally have the house mostly unpacked. There are still a few boxes that need to have the contents find a home, but we are mostly there! I am super excited! I was about to think that it was never going to happen!! Now, I just need to clean walls, hang pictures, reorganize my kitchen, plus everything else that normally has to be accomplished! I might get a day off by 2011! Haha! I love staying busy!

I was super excited to see a couple of my "Mississippi" friends on Friday. We went to Cafe Rio (which is yummy!!), and had a great visit!! One of my friends lives in West Jordan, but my other friend still lives in the Brandon, MS, area. It was so much fun! Hopefully, we will be able to do this again!

Okay, so here are a few more pictures that have been taken over the year.

One of my friends from when I was in high school. We worked together at Pizza Hut! It was so great to see her and her son  after 17 years!

Joseph loved bouncing on the trampoline! I think all of the girls had fun making him laugh!

Katie loves taking pictures of Joseph and herself! At least she's smiling!! =)

I think Zac had more fun playing with the toys than Joseph did!

Katie, Tosha, and Jenny! What a lovely trio!

Joseph and Ashley! Joseph had all of his cousins wrapped around his little finger!

Some photos

At the Liberty Jail

Joseph loved getting into the cooler! 

 

 Joseph was just learning how to walk before we left for our vacation!

Mount Rushmore

I'm glad that Mike had Joseph on his back!!!

Motivated

Okay, so after listening to all of the "blog" talk last night, I figured that I had better update my site!!

Things have definitely changed since the last time that I updated the "Chronicles"!! We are now living in Eagle Mountain, Utah! We moved out here in September.

It is amazing how Heavenly Father works! Mike and I have both known for a while that we were going to be moving from Mississippi, but we had no idea where we would wind up. Utah was not a place that we had even considered. I had even accepted that we might be moving back to Wisconsin (the winters are too brutal for me!!)! When our family headed west for a family reunion in June, Mike and I both felt like we were supposed to move back to Utah. I hadn't felt that way for over 8 years! I never wanted to move back to Utah! I loved where we were, and I felt that my kids were thriving. But there was an undeniable feeling, that came over me when we entered the Brigham City area, that we were supposed to be in Utah. Mike had been having the same feelings since his last business trip to SLC (which was the only the week before we left on our trip).

After we got back from our vacation, Mike had to go to Madison, WI, for a meeting, and then things started falling into place for us to move. Even though, initially, it was going to be a move to Arizona, things were heading towards a move out west. By the middle of July, it was determined that we were moving to Utah. Then it was a mad rush trying to get the house ready to put on the market, finding a house in Utah, and then moving out here. Thankfully, the kids only missed out on a couple of days of school in Utah. They had already started school in MS, since we weren't sure exactly when we would be moving to Utah.

We are loving the Eagle Mountain area! Our ward is amazing, and the kids are transitioning well to their new schools (with only one exception-and I'm going to attribute that to being a young teenager!). The only thing that we are really trying to get used to is that we can't just make a quick trip to Wal-mart or to the convenience store!!

I am going to try to be more diligent with updating my blog. I had forgotten how much fun it is to do these "journal" entries!! Pictures will also be included, showing what we've done over the past year!