All the rest

And here we are at the end of November...I'm not even close to being finished with all the things I'm thankful for! November is far too short a month. I know it'd be impossible to come up with an all-inclusive list...but here's a (not so) little synopsis to finish up today:

I am thankful for...

*my parents, bio & steps alike...I'm lucky to have so many good people in my life.
*my grandparents...just have my one lovely Grandma & one step Grandmother left here with us. Miss the others dearly.
*my ancestors...all the best people who ever lived, of course : )
*my siblings, bio & steps alike again...you're all the best and I love you guys!
*my cousins, aunts & uncles...ditto above. : )
*my friends from all over the place...I was always so shy as a kid that I'm amazed I ever even had any friends (seriously, in grades K-4, I wouldn't even talk to anyone!)...somehow I made friends anyway and you all mean the world to me. I'd name you each one by one but we'd be here all night...you know who you are and I love you!
And as a tangent to that, I was thinking about what my favorite vacation is...and to me, the best vacation is one in which I can travel to places where I can visit people I love. Give me a choice between Hawaii alone and Virginia seeing old friends and VA wins hands down.
*my author...Michele, you've given me the opportunity I'd always dreamed of, several times over now--thank you!
*my publisher too! Nothing cooler than seeing my name & art on store shelves, online & in catalogs!
*my professors, instructors, teachers...BYU & all 10 of the schools leading up to it! And libraries!
*my country--I love the USA! I am thankful for this beautiful world!
*my freedom--not just the freedoms we have here, but also the freedom to travel and experience other places around the world...you come back that much more appreciative of the freedoms we do have.
*my faith--I have a testimony of the gospel and it is my rock and anchor in this crazy world. I am thankful for President Monson, our living prophet, and the general authorities...I am thankful for Joseph Smith who restored this glorious gospel...I am thankful for the Book of Mormon & the Bible too. I am thankful for gift of personal revelation so that I might have my own personal witness as to the truth of these things.
*my Savior--and I am so grateful for this holiday season into which we are heading in which we reflect on the glorious birth and life of Jesus Christ. And really, I could write about this all night too...

And so much, much more. Isn't it crazy how once you start to practice gratitude, it snowballs and you can hardly think straight there's so much to be grateful for...

This was fun to do all month. Hope I didn't bore you. : )

Now on to December and Christmas & New Year's, yippee!

George

I am thankful for my George!

Marriage sure is hard sometimes. It isn't happily ever after--well, I think it will be eventually in the big picture--but as a day to day thing, there are plenty of ups and downs.

But when we have those down times, I just think back to the days when he & I were dating and I fall in love with him all over again. Dating him was like a real life fairytale. : )

Haha...2 things stand out at me when I look at this photo: 1) that is not a flattering angle of my rear end...it looks enormous! and 2) George kinda resembles Ted of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

This was our first little home & this pic was taken when we were moving into it just a day before our wedding!

What a handsome groom!

And George, in the days before I knew him...what a stud. : D 

He kinda resembles Tom Cruise in this one, teehee. (I should clarify--Tom Cruise back when he was not so weird and still cool.)

Aside from his stunning good looks, there are many, many things I love about my George. He works hard and doesn't always get the credit he deserves for what he's done but will always do his best work anyway. He's so talented with everything from athletics to music to art to you-name-it. He is creative and handy--he's done so much around our house & I'm so thankful he's willing to use his valuable spare time to install a toilet or tile the backsplash or whatever! He's a great dad and a wonderful example to our 5 boys. I will say that he is not always the easiest person to live with simply because he has high expectations of all of us--so he makes me a better person for it, and for that I am grateful. But best of all, he loves me, in spite of all my own personal flaws and failings. I'm so thankful he chose me (out of the myriad of girls he dated at BYU! He seriously dated half the girls on campus & we bumped into them all the time!) and I'm thankful I married him...and he's mine forever. : ) I'm thankful for eternal marriage too.

I love you, my George!

Christopher

I am thankful for my Christopher.

My middle child...poor guy really is stuck right in the middle. He is so full of personality...he definitely doesn't go unnoticed. He is so proud of himself--a little too proud at times. In most cases though, he is just as great as he thinks he is. : )

He's a tough kid. He looked tough from the moment he was born with his little balled up fists and his steely-eyed stare. In fact, about 95% of the time, when there's an argument happening between any of the boys, he's one of them. But he's a real sweetheart too...he's affectionately known as Bub, and try as he might to drop that nickname, everyone who loves him (and there are many) will always call him Bub.

I do love my little Bub. : )

Home again!

I'm so thankful to be home!

We had such a great time in UT--definitely one of our best Thanksgivings ever. We were sad to leave but it is always so great to be home.

The trees have been busy dropping leaves while we were gone! Guess what we'll be doing tomorrow?! : )

Zachary

Having too much fun & forgetting my posts. : )

I didn't finish the boys either...so:

I am thankful for my Zachary!

Sweet little fellow...with those beautiful blue eyes! He's a little gift from God and I'm so happy he's in our family!

Crochet!

I am thankful for teachers of all kinds!

Today, I visited Wendy S (to differentiate from Wendy B), who taught me how to crochet! She's so talented & a great teacher too! She made this cute bunny-eared hat for Betsy, who's staying there with Katie for a few days.

Massage

I am thankful for massages. : )

I love a good massage! But I didn't get one tonight. Each of the boys got one of Papu's special alcohol massages before bed tonight. They love massages too.

Veggie Thanksgiving

Grr! I'm having problems with this phone to blog business. I sent this yesterday but it didn't post and it's still not posting from the phone...thank you Jenny for the use of your computer!

I am thankful for my wonderful in-laws!

I am so blessed and lucky to have married into this lovely family. They really are the best and I love them all so much.

We had a veggie Thanksgiving for my niece Karlie, who is a vegetarian and also will not be here for the real Thanksgiving. The meal was really yummy--the roasted butternut squash was definitely my favorite, yummmmmm!

Cute Karlie, a freshman at UVU, is in the lower left corner.

Utah!

I am thankful today that we made it to UT safely! It was a little scary through the Blue Mountains but otherwise it was nice & dry.

My bro-in-law took us to the BYU game tonight! We got there at halftime & watched BYU dominate NMSU 42-7!

It was pretty cold out but it was worth it for that fun win!

Test?!

Try 3...

Aaron

I am thankful for my Aaron!

Aaron is my gentleman. He is the one who always remembers to hold doors open...he's been bringing me flowers since he was big enough to pick them & toddle them over to me...he's very sensitive and picks up on things the other boys don't at times. He's super super creative--and surprises me regularly with the things he does (remember singing in his school program? performing his poem-dance in front of his class last year? and more...) He's very responsible--since kindergarten, he is always the first one up, dressed & ready for school and church every day, even before me most days!

Aaron sometimes is a mystery to me... I feel like I understand Anthony really well--and we do have a lot in common simply because we are both firstborns--but sometimes I just do not "get" Aaron. And I think maybe some of that is because of Anthony--as in gymnastics, Aaron has been in Anthony's shadow for the last couple years. Even as a tiny little guy, kids would come knock on our door & Aaron would answer. The kids would ask if Anthony could play, but never acknowledge Aaron...it so broke my heart. And even now Aaron's not really close to any one particular friend (--except Anthony...the 2 of them have always been best buddies.)

But this year I think Aaron has new surprises in store... He's on a separate level team from Anthony in gymnastics, and Anthony's at a different school...so he's finally in his own limelight and I can't wait to see what he does with it!

I love my Aaron so much!

*So I'm not sure how I'm going to keep this up over the next little while...we've got adventures going on around Thanksgiving & I think I know how to do it via my phone, but we'll see how that goes.*

Benno

I'm jumping around between the boys--the order does not indicate anything about whom I like best, I love them equally, of course! : )

I just had these pics ready next so...

I am thankful for my Benno!

As you know if you've been following this blog for the last year...Benno has been a source of some trouble...it's taken him a little while to grow out of his 3ness (and he had the 3s pretty bad as you may recall) but he's mostly over it, hooray!

Lately he has been super super helpful--just today, I spotted the street sweeper in the neighborhood, which could only mean one thing: the leaf truck was finally coming to suck up all our leaves. I'd just raked them all on Tuesday...then a storm hit yesterday which dumped a whole new batch of leaves everywhere...so I was hurriedly trying to rake up the new leaves before the leaf truck showed up, and who was out there helping me with that burdensome task (if it's bad raking leaves...it's triple bad when those same leaves are WET!)?? None other than Benno, who did it willingly & cheerfully!

And then the leaf truck came while I was trying to get the last of the leaves out to the curb...phew!

 He loves to write & draw too...and he often sits quietly working on some little project he's been inspired by--he once sat and cut up numbers from a newspaper to glue to paper after he saw Christopher do the same thing for homework. 

Oh yeah, he is my one singer. Only Benno will hum to himself...I catch Benno singing his Primary songs...he even was doing little singing exercises they taught in Primary and that really made me laugh ("oo-ee-oo-ee--ah--ah--ah!") None of my other boys just sing like that.

These particular pics come from a friend whose party he missed! This is one of Benno's favorite friends & they were in a playgroup together last year. We were so sad when we realized he was going to miss the birthday party...and then he & his mom showed up with this sweet little favor from the party!

What a great friend & his awesome mom!

And Benno loves capes. He dresses up daily--some days he's a superhero, others he's Harry Potter.

I can't imagine our family without Benno! He is such a character and we love him dearly!

Anthony

A few months ago this wonderful boy turned 11.

(I can't believe he'll be 12 next!!! Big milestone! The countdown is on.)

I am thankful for my Anthony!

There are so many good things I could say about Anthony that it's overwhelming. Sure, he has some drawbacks just like everyone else...but on the whole, this is one pretty amazing boy and I think he has great things ahead of him if he keeps it up!

I feel blessed in every way possible that I can be his mother.

On his birthday, he invited a few friends over & following birthday festivities at the house, George took them to Malibu Raceway for some go-karting fun. (And I apologize to any of his friends who might happen to see this--he would have invited everyone if he could. We limited him to 2 and ended up doing 3 because the third friend was there when the other 2 got the invites.)

Leaves

I am thankful that leaves change color!

Check out these couple of shots I snapped with my phone while I was out and about these last couple weeks.

The colors are simply amazing. Everywhere I go these last few weeks, I've been oohing and ahhing and loving every moment. The colors are even a bit late this year--seems like by this time usually most of the leaves are gone...but they're still here and I'm not complaining! Someday I intend to get back to New England in the fall...as lovely as these colors are, they don't compare with the peak colors of New England!

Incidentally, both of these pics were taken at libraries--different ones--but the library is another thing I am thankful for and you'll find me there several times a week. What a blessing libraries are! 

Did you know Ben Franklin established the first subscription library in the US? 

I love that man for so many reasons.

Surrey on the Waterfront

On that same day we were at Oaks Park, on our way back home we were passing through Portland and decided on a whim to go for a surrey ride on the Waterfront.

I had heard years ago someone describe each decade of your life and how you kinda discover yourself and mature through those decades...and I've seen how true that is already! In my 30s I am realizing that I have definite likes and dislikes and I feel fine about those, whereas in my 20s I might feel ashamed or apologetic or not know where I stand about something...  Well anyway, all of this rambling gets to my point that I don't like the city. If I have a choice between a date night in the city and anywhere else, I will choose anywhere else. It just makes me anxious and tense walking around a city, much to George's disappointment since he really loves the city... Portland is not such a bad city though...especially now that they finally cleaned out the Occupiers....but that's a story for another day.

Oh yeah, back to the Waterfront. Our joy of surrey rides vastly outweighs my distaste for the city, and it was a way beautiful day for it!

I am thankful for surrey rides with my family in beautiful Portland.

I love my masculine family!

The waterfront ride is really fun to do, whether you rent a surrey or bring your own bikes--you cross a couple bridges while circling the Willamette River on each side. I especially love this part which takes you right down to the water level.

Beautiful bridges in Portland!

  

Anthony makes me laugh with that sneaky silly grin!

And I do help pedal too...George accuses me of just sitting there being a photojournalist!

Portland really is a beautiful city!

  

All 5 boys in front!

This is the route we took (mostly--we bypassed the bridge to swing by OMSI too)...there were some others that looked really fun that we'll go back & try another day.

Crossing the Hawthorne Bridge is a little more nerve-wracking than the Steel Bridge.

This might sound really weird to say...but if I were an 11 year old girl, I would totally have a crush on my Anthony. Any of my boys, really...of course, they all look like their dad so that's probably a good reason why I think they're all so handsome. : )

The people in this boat waved at us. Beautiful day, beautiful city!

Back to normal

I got zero feedback about the change to the blog (hello? anybody out there?)...but I decided I missed the old format so it's back.

Carry on.

Great coaches

I am thankful for great coaches.

You all know we are heavily invested and involved in gymnastics. There are so many reasons that I love gymnastics beyond the physical part of it--my boys learn so many great lessons in making and achieving goals, good sportsmanship, the value of hard work, courtesy, good discipline, etc, etc, etc. And we have our wonderful coaches to thank for a lot of that. My boys are in the gym for a combined total of 30 hours a week (31 if you count Benno) so these men spend a pretty significant amount of time with them.

I am so thankful for the good men that they are and the things they teach my boys.

Back in August, the annual team party was held at Oaks Amusement Park, and they held a brief award ceremony prior to playing in the park.

Coach Nick, who coached both Anthony & Aaron last year had some nice things to say about each of them. He is Anthony's coach this year & he's pretty tough but he's a good guy.

Anthony earned an award from his teammates, who voted him the Most Valuable Teammate.

Coach Leonard coaches the optionals boys (levels 8-10) but he was Anthony's teacher way back as a tiny 6 year old...he is definitely suited to teaching the older boys--he was pretty tough on those little 6 year olds, but they all learned to do headstands & hold it for 30 seconds! That was such a great learning opportunity for Anthony back then. We would talk about how hard Leonard made him work but then say, "Look at all the things you're learning because you're working so hard!" In spite of his toughness, Leonard's a lot of fun & we always hear him laughing around the gym while he's working those optionals.

Coach Brad has coached my boys in all different levels--he's filled in when we were short coaches too. He's such a great guy--he has 4 daughters, a couple of which are also at the gym on the girls team. He reminds me of my dad sometimes and even flies airplanes like him too!

And Coach Kalani is brand-new this year. He's coaching Aaron & Christopher and I'm already so impressed by what I see with him. He comes from Hawaii and that alone makes him a pretty cool guy!

There is one more coach not pictured--Coach Isaac is a new coach this year too...and we already really like Isaac. He was a level 10 gymnast here when Anthony was a 4. We always loved watching him practice at the gym...we couldn't be more excited that he's coaching now! 

And we had another coach who left over the summer--Walker was so great with the boys. He was softspoken and sweet with them. We were really sad to see him go.

After the awards were over, everyone split to go play in the park. Anthony & Aaron went off with their friends, which on one hand made me a little sad...but on the other hand, visiting an amusement park with 3 kids is much easier than with 5! So we had fun too until we all met up again later.

It was such a hot day! (After all my complaining about the cool summer--of course the one day of the summer when we were going to be outside all day, it was 95 degrees! And I know you Arizona people will scoff at that...) : P

So after we met up with the boys again, George took them to do another ride...I was all too happy to sit this one out. I can not handle the carnival rides that spin you in circles...I get sick to my stomach.

And George and the boys all felt a little woozy getting off this one, ha!

Fun day at Oaks Park.

And we are so blessed to be a part of this gymnastics team with these fantastic coaches!

Tri-cities, WA

Oh boy, am I tired... Spent this entire day bringing order to 3 bedrooms....and one of those took more time than the other 2 put together (and mine wasn't the "one"!)

So instead of taking the time to neatly collage these photos, I'm just throwing them all out here.

Way back in early August, George was out of town for the 2nd week in a row, so I packed up the boys and we headed to Tri-cities, WA, to visit my friend & BYU roommate Marcia.

I am thankful for cars, gas, and roads that give me the freedom to go!

To know Marcia is to love Marcia. She was the 2nd person I met at BYU, right after I met my roommate Maria, also a very lovable person & one of my other favorites!

So Marcia's little brother was getting married the weekend after our visit and Marcia told me the great long saga of her dress for the wedding...it's quite entertaining--ask Marcia about it yourself if you're interested. After hearing the great saga, I insisted that Marcia model the dress for me and here are some of my favorite shots:

Don't you agree with me that Marcia actually makes that dress look good?!? It looked so homely on the hanger...but on Marcia, it's not so bad after all. : ) 

After the modeling session ended, we took the kids to play at a nearby splashpad.

This was a treat for us--at the time, back at home it was still struggling to feel like summer (it was something like 65 the day before we left! August, I tell you! Frustrating!)

Christopher kept spinning around here doing karate-like moves...it was pretty cute to watch.

Most of the kids ended up on the playground beside the pad.

This is one of the things about Marcia that I love--who else would put this up on their sliding glass door? I think it's hilarious! Her house if full of happy little surprises like this.

The boys camped out with the video games.

I can never get enough of this little face...especially those BLUE eyes!

Marcia made us some fabulously delicious spaghetti sauce before we had to hit the road.

Zac gave it his full approval!

Then it was time to go... I asked Anthony to get a shot of the 2 of us together...but we had problems.

First, the sun was in our eyes:

We bent down into the shade of the van but that was a little awkward--and this was with the flash since then we were in this deep dark shadow against the bright background... And Zac was insisting on something too.

Finally we stood at a different angle...but now the photo's out of focus. Oh well, we tried!

Looks like we wore the boys clean out...this was the drive home again. (Eastern Oregon is SO different from western OR...look how flat and empty and desert-y it is!)

Zac & Anthony were wide awake though and they kept me company for the 3-1/2 hour drive home.

It was a really great trip. I'm so happy Marcia lives as close as she does. She's one of my bestest friends!