Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! As my niece Amy said in her cousins newspaper "The Whiting Word," Thanksgiving is about food and family -- so true. I am so excited to be with my little family this Thanksgiving -- and anybody else who wants to hop in their car and drive out here is welcome! James is sure to make another delicious turkey this year! Thanksgiving is so good. This is our gratitude chain that we started a few Family Home Evenings ago. Each link says something that one of us is thankful for. Micah made most of them and they include things like "air," "the milky way," etc. But at least it got him thinking about the many blessings that he has. It runs through the living room & dining room. During Thanksgiving dinner we plan to take it down and read all of the things we're thankful for.

So, for my final Countdown to Thanksgiving post: Today I am thankful for...

1. Ricks College & the opportunity I had to attend there. I often joke with James that Ricks was the "best two years of my life." :) I had such wonderful roommates who are forever friends, and what a perfect college experience I had there! I LOVED IT!

2. BYU and my experience there. I met James there, that's a huge deal! Micah loves BYU and that makes me happy. Maybe he'll get to go there someday? He has excellent grades and test scores, so there's always a chance! I am grateful to both mine and James' parents who made it financially possible for me to finish my education, even with Cameron being born during my senior year and Micah on the way. How blessed we are that I am able to finish my college education! I will forever be grateful.

3. being a mother. I am thankful for pee on the carpet and cheerios stuck in my hair because it means there's a baby in the house. I am thankful for a floor so completely covered in clothes, barbies, hair bows, shoes, and dolls that you can't see the carpet at all because it means there are girls in the house. I am thankful for yellow-stained bathroom floors and cars on the stairs and muddy shoes because it means there are boys in the house. I love, love, LOVE being a mother. Someone once told me that I couldn't love several children as much as I could love one child that I could give my whole heart to. That was a ridiculous statement, of course, because I love all of my children with my whole heart. I have always wanted to be a mother and I will forever be grateful for the children I have been able to bear naturally and for those that have joined our family through adoption & the blessings of the temple.


4. the father that James is. No one in the world spends more time with their children and enjoys the time more than James does. Rather than going biking with his buddies, he'd rather be building snow bikes with his kids. Rather than pursuing time-consuming, and in the end, meaningless, career goals, he would rather be playing soccer with his kids. Lizzie is such a Daddy's Girl and I'm glad. I love how she loves her daddy. If James puts her in his car and then I climb in, she starts to cry and waves her arms for me to get out. She wants to be ALONE with Daddy! No Mommy allowed! I love it, though. I love how, despite my being at the boys' basketball games, the first thing Ian wants me to do when he makes a basket is call Dad and tell him to come watch him play. There is no substitute for a daddy in the home.

5. Rhodes rolls. Countless times over the years I have attempted to make home-made rolls and it has always ended in disaster. I love other peoples' homemade rolls, but have never been happy with the hockey pucks, rocks, or other inedible creations that I have served the innocent bystanders that I call my family. At our tri-state stake conference, President Monson's daughter spoke to us about "the real thing," real home-made rolls. Well, I'm sure her homemade rolls taste excellent, but this Thanksgiving my family will be very grateful that I am going to make some very tasty, delicious, light and fluffy Rhodes rolls!

6. music. I love music so much. I have always had music in my life and I always will. I don't listen to music on the radio very often (I'm more apt to listen to NPR when I'm running errands in the car) so I usually hear new songs I like when people ask me to make movies for them. The song that I chose to play first on my blog is one that Chad & Chalice picked out for their movie and I love it. I also love the songs that y'all play on your blogs and oftentimes it's the first time I've heard the songs when I open up your blogs and hear the music playing. I love that my mom paid for piano, violin, and voice lessons as I was growing up. I love that we make our family cd's and it's soooo fun to listen to our earlier ones and hear how the kids sounded way back when. Often they will hear a song that they sang years ago and they'll ask me who is singing because they don't recognize their own voice! Last night my friend Wendy had given me tickets to see the Lander Concert Series welcoming "I Love a Piano," a collection of Gershwin numbers. I took Rebecca with me. She enjoyed the first half and then was dancing in the aisles during intermission. Then she was restless and whiney during the second half, so I didn't get to enjoy the 2nd half as much. But I loved it. There was piano, singing, and dancing - it was so fun. And it gave me an idea for another genre of cd to add to my list... The kids have been asking to do another Disney cd sometime, but I'm afraid that just got pushed lower on the list... Music is so good for the soul.

7. creating movies. I have heard it said that you should figure out what you love and then figure out how to get paid to do it. I am grateful for my ability to put movies together & make a little extra money while still being home with the kids. I love the creative process and I love learning about peoples' families - I feel like I'm part of their family by the time I'm finished, even though I've usually not met most of them. Kristi has hired me to do so many projects that I'm practically another sister in the Harmon household. I am in the process of making a movie for her right now of all of hers and her siblings' baby photos and that has been so fun. I love lullabyes. That's what our family cd is this season. Lullabyes.

8. diapers. Can you even imagine?!?

9. crocs. Mine are so comfortable!

10. cameras. How would I live without mine?

I could go on and on and on. I'm thankful for soccer, ritz crackers, that gas prices have finally gone down below $2/gallon here, etc. etc. etc. Life is good. We are very blessed. Happy Thanksgiving!!!