Thankful Thought #5

I am so grateful for my LOGAN!

I have been blessed with such a wonderful son.  He's not perfect, but as far as teenage boys go, we hit the jackpot.  I often have people come up to me at church or school events and tell me what an awesome kid Logan is.  I just smile and tell them, "I know-I don't know how I got this lucky!"

Here are just a few fun facts about our favorite boy:

• He is pretty darn smart!
• A few months ago he passed up his dad in height.  He's 6'1 and just keeps growing and growing.
• When I ask him to do a job, he jumps right up to do it!
• He still LOVES the outdoors and camping.  He'd sleep outside, under the stars, every night if I'd let him!  
• If he's not outside running, camping, or playing basketball-chances are you'll find him reading.
• Next month he'll get his driver's permit!
• He is a whiz at remembering historical facts, especially if it has to do with early American history.
• I pretty sure Davy Crockett is still his idol!

He has gotten pretty involved with extra curricular activities at school this year! 
He is the Freshman Vice-President, was on the cross-country team, just competed in a debate/speech competition (where he was a finalist), and tomorrow, he has basketball tryouts.

I'm going a little crazy driving him every where, but it makes my heart so happy to know he's making awesome memories and enjoying his high school years.
And to tell the truth, when he gets his license next year, I know I'll miss picking him up and hearing all about his day.

The last few years Logan started running.  He is crazy about it!
He made the Varsity Cross Country Team and just ran in the state finals.
He came in 20th!  He was the fastest Freshman in the 2A division and he is the 12th fastest Freshman in the State! 

If you're wondering why he's holding his shoe. . . he lost it during his first mile and ran the last two miles with ONE shoe!  He still beat his record and the goal he had set for himself.  His time was 17:53.7 (that's a 5:57 minute/mile).

I can't wait to see what he does next year with both shoes on! 

I love how big his smile is on that picture! Instead of being upset about losing his shoe, he just laughed about it and was excited he ran his personal best.

 

A few weeks ago we went to his Cross Country Awards Banquet.  The team members voted Logan MVP of the year!  Everyone kept telling me how awesome he was as part of the team. 



 



Although I'm sure Logan would love to have had a brother to hang around with, he is starting to enjoy  his sisters a little bit more :)

Teaching the girls some basketball moves!

  This summer at Bear Lake, it was Logan and 9 girls!  Poor guy!

But he made the best of it.   He spent A LOT of time helping his sisters and cousins build sandcastles!

That's just a little bit about my Logan. 
I am truly blessed to be this boy's mom.
Love you buddy boy!

Thankful Thought #4

Today I'm thankful for my little half dozen!

Life with these six isn't always a walk in the park, but I'm so glad I get to call them mine.

We didn't do a lot together as a family this summer, but we did spend a week up at Bear Lake with my sister and her family.
So glad I took the picture of them all with their boards. It's one of my favorites.

Thankful Thought #3

Today I'm Thankful for the DVD player in the car.
Without it, our car rides are a lot like this:

But when the DVD player is on,
It's a whole lot of this:

Thankful Thought #2 . . .





Today I'm grateful for Surprises of Service.

After my class, I came home and found this.

 

My sweet little Maddie had raked all the leaves into piles and was putting them into bags.

No one asked her to.  She just wanted to help me out.

I love that girl I tell you!

 

Having your child do something without being asked is the best!

 

It was a pretty big job and she still had several piles to go, so I sent the rest of the crew outside to help.   



And the most awesome thing?  They all went straight to work-without arguing!  

It's the little things that make me happy! 

Grateful for . . .

Looks like there's nothing like a little gratitude to get me back to blogging.  A few years back I blogged about what I was thankful for throughout the month of November.  It was fun to do and it helped me focus more on the spirit of the holiday.  Guess what?!  Turns out my kids liked it too.    They keep asking me if I'm ever going to blog again.  Blogging is a great way to record our everyday happenings, so here I go!  (Again!)

Today I Am Thankful For. . . That Feeling You Have, the day after Halloween, when E V E R Y T H I N G (costumes, make-up, pumpkin carving, class parties, candy buying, trick or treating, etc. . .) is over.

 

 I think for the entire duration of my life, November 1st will ALWAYS be the day I give thanks that Halloween is over.  Don't believe me?  Just look at my post from two years ago.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not anti-Halloween. 
I'm anti-all the work that goes into making Halloween, well Halloween.

For me (the mom) getting things together for the spookiest night of the year takes a lot of time and effort.

But I do it to create memories.
Like this.

 

 

This year I had Maddie and Logan help Lexi and Chloe with their carvings.
Megan was at the Junior High Halloween Stomp,  Otherwise I would have had Janie and her team up.
I don't think Janie minded too much.  She did the entire carving herself!

And I do it so the junior high and high school kids can see Mr. Norris decked out as Voldemort.

Here he is with the Elder Wand (appropriately fashioned from our tree in the back).  

 

 

Who knew Voldemort drove a mini van?!

 

 

I do it because I love taking my kids pictures in the fall leaves.

 

 I think they secretly like it too!

I do it because after all the stress and craziness, I get those smiles. 
And it's worth it in the end.

Happy (day after!) Halloween!!

Our Getaway-Down in Dixie

A few weeks ago we took off for a few days.
Down to Southern Utah.

We've started a  little tradition over here.
For the past four years we've tried to head down to Tuacahn in Saint George.
We aim for June, so it's not too hot.
And this year our timing was great!
We had THE BEST weather!

This year our little family split up and hit different plays.
The first night, Jared took Logan and Chloe to see Aladdin.  

I was SUPER excited for Chloe.  She had never been with us before and I just knew she was going to LOVE the show.  

I-WAS-WRONG.  Jared said she liked her frozen lemonade and I was pretty sure she might fall asleep (she did), but I thought for sure she would love seeing Jasmine!

All week I kept telling her she was going to see the real Jasmine,  but during the show she told Jared that this wasn't the real Jasmine.  The real Jasmine was on TV!

The next morning I asked her what her favorite part was.  "Um... nothing."  Oh well.  What did I expect from a sassy four year old!
Post note:  Chloe just saw this post and started telling me about how much she LOVED the show! And that her favorite part was when Aladdin and Jasmine met.  Go figure.  I guess she just needed a few weeks to let it really sink in about how much she did love it.

The next day I took the three older girls to Hairspray!
THEY of course loved it!  So did I.
My older sister and her three oldest girls came with us too!
SO much fun.  

Vacations are always funner when cousins come along.
Especially the shopping!
We had to snap a quick picture at the outlet mall.

When we weren't shopping, at plays, or eating.  We were swimming!

   

And when the kids weren't shopping, at a play, eating, or swimming they were here.

Since we don't have TV at home, the kids were glued to it.

Seriously, I don't know what the kids loved most:  

All the fun things we did or the fact that they were able to watch 'Good Luck Charlie Season 3!'

We had such a fabulous time.
Lots of fun memories made.
It was just what we needed.
Time away does wonders for the soul!!