The best Thanksgiving so far

I have SO many wonderful blessings to be grateful for.  So many.  I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.  Ours was the best.

We had an amazing weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the extra 2 days off of work.  We slept somewhere different every night and had so much fun with both of our families.

Wednesday night--slept in Centerville with my family.  Spent the morning making the Thanksgiving feast and then eating it up.  Then we went and saw Tangled, which was really cute.

Thursday night--headed up to Marcus's family cabin up in Kamas.  It was freezing up there but we had a great time spending time with family, relaxing, and sledding.

Friday night--drove all the way to Logan.  We slept at my sister's house and watched football.  Strange for us girls, but we enjoyed it. 

Saturday--We got up and headed to Preston to cut down our Christmas trees!  More on this to come.

We got home late Saturday night and we were happy to be home.  We had a super busy but amazing weekend and feel so blessed.  We are so grateful for our families and how close we are to them (both close in distance and close in relationships). 

And the speaker at church used this quote on Sunday and I just love it.  

"How can we cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude? President Joseph F. Smith, sixth President of the Church, provided an answer. Said he: “The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.” He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man."  President Thomas S. Monson

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Marcus!  I love you with all of my heart.  I don't know what I would do without you.

And for those of you who can believe this, guess what Marcus requested for his birthday dinner?  Kraft Mac & Cheese.  Seriously. 

Baby Girl Stokes is Here!

And she is such a doll!  Oh my gosh, she is the most precious little tiny baby I have ever seen.  I just love her so much already and am so glad we got to go see her last night!  She is yet to be named, but I'm sure Katie and Nate will come up with something adorable.  Yay for another darling baby in the family!

Post Edit:  She has a name!  Stella Kate Stokes.  A beautiful name for a beautiful baby!

Give Thanks

This entire last week I have been sick.  That means that all I have managed to do is get myself to work and then crash afterwards.  And my weekend?  The whole thing was spent in bed.  We had plans to hang out with friends, go to an ultimate tournament, and enjoy every second of our free time, but sadly I wasn't able to do any of it.  And that made me really ornery.  And kind of depressed.

And today, even though I still woke up with a sore throat and a headache, I am feeling quite a bit better.  So I will be thankful for that.  I realized how sad that in the middle of November, the month to count my blessings and be grateful for everything I have, I was feeling so ungrateful.  So I am doing my Thanksgiving post early.

I am grateful for so many things.  First of all, I am so very grateful for my wonderful husband.  He is there for me no matter how crazy I am, and I just don't know what I would do without him.

 I am grateful for my sisters and my mom.  I am so lucky to have them in my lives and to be so close to them.  I am grateful for their support.  We have so much fun together and I know that I am lucky to have them.

I am grateful that both Marcus and I have jobs.  I know I complain a lot about my job, and that I am not actually doing what I want to be doing, but I am grateful to have a job right now, and to have a great boss and a good work environment.  

I am grateful for wonderful in-laws.  I feel so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family.  Marcus's parents and siblings are so amazing and I constantly am blessed to be around them.  I am so grateful for all of their love and constant support. 

 I am grateful for our beautiful house that we have, the wonderful neighborhood and ward that it is in, and all of the friends I have made here.

I am grateful for my Heavenly Father, and for the knowledge I have that he is there for me.  I am grateful that I am able to communicate with him through prayer and be comforted in all things.

And I am grateful for this holiday season.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are such a fun time but also a time to remember what is really so important in life. 

Eight is Great

Look how cute this family is.  My cute nephew Jackson was baptized on Saturday.  We spent the weekend in Logan to be there to celebrate and we had such a great time.  I love my family and I love these cute kids.  It was one last weekend with perfect fall weather and we fully enjoyed it.    And, my sister is 9 months pregnant and ready to have her fourth baby any day now.  I can't wait!

Too cute!

Did you Vote?

Pretty much every election year it happens the same way.  I see all of the signs, billboards, and commercials for all of the candidates running for office.  Certain names stick out to me, because they are catchy names.  Like Beau Babka, or Philpot.  But then I realize that it is November 1st, the night before Election Day, and I don't know who I'm supposed to vote for.  So then I think, maybe I just won't vote? 

Deep down I just know that isn't an option.  I am going to vote.  I really do think it is important to vote and wish that more people did.  But now I just wish I knew more about it.  As soon as I start reading about the candidates I usually get frustrated because it seems like all of them are promising good things.  So then I wonder should I just go and vote straight-party?  I read the Constitutional Amendments and really wonder what the difference is.  And the problem is that I don't know, but I want to know.  

Also this year I had someone tell me exactly how to vote.  Which was helpful, since I didn't know, and I respect this person's opinion, but at the same time, it bothered me.  Why should I vote exactly the way someone tells me to?  Somehow that didn't sit right with me because I wanted to be able to form my own opinions.

So many of the people I talked to this year about it said that they weren't voting because they didn't know enough about it and so they wouldn't be making an educated vote.  And I don't know why this bothered me more this year than it has before.  Maybe I am growing up a little bit?  I just realized that I want to care, and I want to know.  This is where I live and where I am going to raise my kids someday.  So while I did my best to quickly form opinions and go out and vote, next time around I am going to be more aware of what is going on, the candidates, and the issues.  Anybody with me on any of this?

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween.  We had a low key Halloween this year with no dressing up involved and it was actually a lot of fun.

A spider & A Unicorn

Do you know us well enough to know which one of us carved which pumpkin?