Gratitude

Dr. Richard D. Grant said something profound: "The opposite of
depression isn't 'Yippee!' The opposite of depression is gratitude."

This quote really made me stop and think about what I was grateful for.
I think this is a good month and a good week to reflect on our
blessings. So in a very random order here are some things that I am
thankful for. What are you thankful for?

My health, my husband, my children, giggles, sunlight sparkling on the
snow, weekends, the gospel, our Savior, Jesus Christ, America, a vehicle
to drive, legs to walk, air to breathe, a good job, the ability to help
someone else, family, friends, hugs, a baby in the bathtub, a doggy
smile, sunshine rays, starlight, that my brother is coming home from
Iraq for Thanksgiving, cookies and brownies, movies, the internet,
imaginary friends or blogs who have touched my heart, nieces and
nephews, letters, Netflix, back rubs, smiles, lunch with friends,
raindrops, the color purple, my wonderful grandmother, empathy, stories
from grandpa, the grandparents of my children who think they are as
wonderful as I think they are, giggling sunbeams, words of wisdom from a
four year old, doctors who answer questions, the internet... the list
could go on.

We downloaded pictures last night of things that we were thankful for as
a family. Jaydee came up with a few that surprised me "the moon" and
"cheese". She enjoyed picking out the pictures. This was her picture
of the moon: http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/~idh/apod/ap020316.html

May we all see our blessings through the eyes of a child.

Eat at Chili's

My brother is on leave for Thanksgiving, he has been serving in Iraq.  My family went out to eat at Chili's after picking Van up from the airport.  The manager came out and shook Van's hand and gave him a free meal. 
I am thankful for our soldiers, may they all come home safe. 

What are you Thankful for?

Bran Muffins

I have been asked for this recipe so I will share it. Jaydee struggled to stay regular so this was the doctors recommendation along with a small box of raisins every day.  The muffins are actually really good.  You can

 

BRAN MUFFINS

 

Pour 2 cups boiling water over 2 cups Nabisco Bran Buds.  Set aside to cool

Mix 2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup margarine

1 quart buttermilk

4 eggs

Add to bran/water mix.

Add 5 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking soda

 

Mix. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes in muffin tins.  Store remaining batter in fridge for up to 6 weeks.  
1/4 cup in each muffin tin.

Live while you have the chance.

I received this email yesterday… I really enjoyed some of the thoughts.  One of my favorite thoughts is that life is living and enjoying the little things.  Another friend emailed me almost the same thought last night.  I guess I needed the reminder that I need to enjoy each day and live my life to the fullest.  So I thought I would share this thought.  This is from MondayMorningMemo of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads. 

So after you read, please share your thoughts and ideas on what are the little things we need to enjoy in our lives each day?  

 

 

My Holiday Gift to You... For Real

Tom Hennen has a line in his poem, The Life of a Day, that says,

“We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, ‘no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for,’ and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real.”

That line is a little bit frightening because you read it and realize you’re guilty. You’ve been waiting for that day when your life will start “for real.”

The trouble with life is that it’s just so daily.

I share this with you because I’ve been thinking about my two grandfathers who are dead and my father who is likewise and I’ve come to the obvious conclusion:

Live while you have the chance.

“Papa was a rolling stone. Wherever he laid his hat was his home…”
- The Temptations, 1971

In the final moments of his life, my father scribbled a note for me to find. In barely legible pencil he scrawled, “All the little things in life add up to your life. If you don't get it right then nothing else matters. It gets lonely in the promised land by yourself.”

My Dad died lonely, I think, because he never made deep commitments. My father’s confession of his loneliness makes me sad, but his scribbled note tells me he wanted me to learn from his mistake.

I meet a lot of people who sigh deeply and say they’re looking for their passion, something to set their souls on fire and send beams of light shining out through their eyes.

But the people with light shining from their eyes know this:

Passion does not produce commitment.
Commitment produces passion.

Solomon, that wise king, spent years of his life searching for passion. In chapter 9 of the chronicle of that search, the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”

People read that and think Solomon is saying, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die," but that's not it at all. He's saying, "Throw your whole heart into whatever you do. Live while you have the chance."

This is my Holiday gift to you,
I hope you will receive it:

Find something that needs to be done
and throw yourself headlong into it.

Let today
be the day
your life begins
for real.

Roy H. Williams

"May you live all the days of your life."
- Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels

Christmas Gift Advice: Little ones? Pennie and I got one of these for our grandson and he loves it, loves it, loves it.

 

Halloween Pix

Flower Princess

my reluctant bumble bee

me & the kiddos.... don't you love the green face. I wore it all day!

the Lego costume I made for my niece.
The gang going to the carnival.
My little clown

Jaydee's prayer

One of my grandma's chicks died. We need to pray for her.

Prayer:
Please bless Grandma not to be sad because one of her baby chickens died.

I love that girl!

October News

October update.... enjoy but this is more of a journal for me.

Hyrum has reached one of my favorite stages. He does something new
and then he claps for himself. Light on, clap, light off, clap. Eats
his food, claps or signs more. :) He is picking up some sign, mainly
more, but occasionally he signs drink and milk. He waves good bye, is
learning to give high fives. He loves milk, but is losing interest in
his pacifier. So we will probably hide all the binkys soon. He got 6
new teeth in...or should I say trying to come in still, which has not
been fun. Hyrum will cuddle but only when he first wakes up in the
morning and when he is really sleepy. Other wise he is too busy
climbing on tables, opening the blinds, climbing over the baby gate,
or playing in the toilet. He holds his own with his Holyoak cousins,
that may be because he out weighs almost all of them. The Flake
cousins all think he is so cute, Hyrum is going to miss his buddy
Devin. Hyrum was a bumble bee for the Halloween carnival. He did NOT
like his costume and ran down the hallway to head butt me to try to
get it off. He did like the carnival once we gave him a sucker and
took the hat off. He also loved the snowcones... For Halloween we
tried a bit warmer costume but he didn't enjoy the hat on that at all.
He wanted to stop after each house and eat the candy immediately.

Jaydee couldn't make up her mind for Halloween...a princess, a
carebear, a cat, a witch, a pirate, Cat in the Hat, or a clown. So we
ended up being a princess for the carnival and a clown for Halloween.
She is doing great in preschool, she has learned her letters and
sounds. She is still full of words of wisdom. Sam said something
about getting bigger. Jaydee said when I get big as mommy. "What if
you get bigger than mommy?" "I can't get bigger than mommy!" My
personal favorite was when I pointed out the neighbor boy "There is
Brek" No his name is "Brekenkie" We usually say oh look there is
Brek and Kai (his older brother). I guess Jaydee thought it was one
long name.

Halloween was a fun month long celebration: we made a giant
jackolantern for our window, carved pumpkins, had dinner in a pumpkin,
made pumpkin cookies, went to the pumpkin patch, carved real
jackolanterns, went to the carnival, dressed up for Halloween, had a
party on Halloween day (30 people). We even made pumpkin french
toast. So yes we love pumpkin and yes we love the fun Halloween! I
had a fun birthday... thanks for dinner Mom Flake! And as for Sam he
is an excellent jack-o-lantern carver, trick or treater (even if he is
a bum and won't dress up), and all in all a great dad.

A fun card

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Halloween

I love Halloween.
I love to decorate for it.
I love to dress up for it.
I love to carve pumpkins, eat pumpkins.
I even made the cutest Lego costume for my niece. I'll have to get a picture of it after I spray paint it. Needless to say it is a great way to use some left over formula cans!

Jaydee is a princess, my sister in law Marcia helped make the costume. We did tutus out of tool fabric. Jaydee looked so cute. I used a hand me down bee costume for Hyrum. It is so stinkin cute, so he hates hit. When we first tried it on, he ran down the hallway and would head butt me. The costume has a hat and that was what he really disliked. However at the carnival he LOVED the suckers and snow cones so he didn't mind the costume at all. I will post some pictures shortly.

Preschool Show & Tell

I love National Geographics. When preschool's Show & Tell sneaks up on you and your little girl wants to talk about her toy whale. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Orca gives you all the fun quick facts you need. And YouTube is great for fun silly videos.... So I through some pictures and facts and made a quick presentation. The kids and teachers were impressed.

Exercise

I have been debating starting a more serious exercise or dieting routine. Then I found this blog:
http://alittlebitofkooky.blogspot.com/2009/09/sqwudgilicious-advice.html

Seriously you will crack up at the pictures. So should I follow her tips...

Pictures of Hyrum and some Jaydee pics too

My baby boy

Last night the funniest thing happened, my little boy was playing “tag” with Sam.  Sam had a box that Hyrum wanted to play with and Hyrum was chasing Sam through the house with it.  Sam would run around the island and stop and wait for Hyrum to catch up.  Hyrum would giggle and chase him again.  Well this went on for about 10 minutes and I decided to “Help” Hyrum;  I grabbed Sam and told Hyrum to get him.  (Now this is a long time game with Jaydee and she loves it.)  However Hyrum froze.  His poor little face got so confused he rolled his hands and looked from mommy to daddy and back again.  Sam & I just waited why he tried to figure out what was going on.  Finally he came and pushed on my leg so I would let Sam go and he could chase his daddy.  They did that for awhile then I picked him up and we chased Daddy together and tickled him when we caught him.  

I love watching children figure something out, when you change the “rules” of their game or when they learn that they push this button and something happens. Sometimes you can almost see the little wheels in their brain turning.  

Hyrum is walking now and into everything.  He hates to be blocked where he can’t leave a room and is pretty good at getting over/through/under most obstacles.  I had him locked in the family room the other day.  The kids were playing and I was reading.  Jaydee left and she left the door open, I watched as he walked over to the door and checked to see if I saw him.  Before he could get out the door, he began to giggle.  He was so tickled with himself that he could get out he giggled and went out the door and shut the door, then he really cracked up.  He loves to eat, there are only a few foods that he doesn’t like to eat.  He is also big enough that on play dates he takes food from the older kids.  He is a very happy baby and easy to love on.  He loves his bottle, but he is drinking milk from a sippy cup.  I am taking the bottle away on Saturday.  I am also debating on taking his pacifier away too.  He usually only uses it for sleeping, so he would probably be okay.  I am excited to let him dig into his cake.  I cannot believe that it has been almost a whole year since he was born.  

Yes, I know I should post pictures but I have not been very good at taking or unloading my camera lately.  

 

Leap Frog

 

 

 

I love the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, Jaydee has learned almost all her letter sounds from this video and she will now sing the alphabet song.  I have worked with her on learning her letters but I wasn't sure how to start teaching her their sounds until we got this video from netflix.  I love it! 

http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Frog-Letter-Factory/dp/B0000INU6S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250696759&sr=8-1

Pioneer Day

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Eating by Myself

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LOVES to feed himself. He loves to eat solid foods.

Jaydee's 4th birthday

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<<CIMG1450.JPG>> d <<CIMG1452.JPG>> 4! I can't believe how time flies!
It seems like just the other day we brough her home. She had a great
birthday party with friends and cousins. She got absolutely spoiled.
She slept all night in her new Dora tent and was dressed up as a
princess thanks to her new jewelry this morning. Of couse she has a new
favorite doll, books, several toys and a huge smile! She had a great
time.

Happy 4th of July

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I love the 4th of July!

We watched the parade which was fabulous, and collected way too much
candy! We had a BBQ (sorry no pictures) and then snuck over the Taylor
Rodeo. We had a big group and tons of fun! These are some of my
favorite Independence Day traditions. Hyrum crashed during the parade
and slept under the truck in the shade. It was a great time and fun to
introduce rodeos to our "city" friends who hadn't been before.

I just got a call

MOMMY, can I open this?  

What is it?

(prompted by daddy) a package from Grandma Cunningham…

I told her she could open the envelope and not the package…

 

Lots of noise and I want to see it followed by oohs and ahs then it is a little bit wet!  

 

Mommy it is a little bit wet.  

Mommy it is not hard! 

 

I can open it mommy? 

Is it your birthday?

Is it my birthday?

No tomorrow..

Is it tomorrow

(No you have to go to bed and then in the morning – Sam)

 

I love you Jaydee!

What is in there?

A present? I don’t know what is in there.  I don’t know it what is in there.  Mommy, it is my birthday I will see what is in it.  I don’t know what is in it.

I love you. 

Wait I need to say one more thing?  Can I open this when it is my birthday (card)

Yes.

YEAH!  

Bye Jaydee.

 

Construction

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<<CIMG1383.JPG>> He <<CIMG1386.JPG>> re <<CIMG1394.JPG>> are a few
construction pictures. We have enclosed the car port, and just knocked
out the wall. Eventually we will have one big family room and a dining
room.
Jaydee loved walking between the rooms.