I am thankful for...

Hi everyone. The past couple weeks have just flown by. Where has the time gone? Since I didn't take the time to write on Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a minute and tell of the things I am most thankful for.

• I am thankful for my husband. He is fun and sweet and is always very patient with me and my "ideas". I am thankful that he is such a good example to me and our children. I am thankful for our temple marriage and for the knowledge that we have that we can be together forever as a family. Tim means the world to me. I love him so much.
• I am thankful for my children. They are miracles in my life. They truly are. It's amazing to think back to before Ashlyn was born and how we thought we might not ever be able to have children. And now we have five wonderful and beautiful children.
• I am thankful for my extended family. My parents. Tim's parents. My sisters and families. All of our family. We all go through challenging times, but I am thankful that there is love and forgiveness and wonderful memories. I love my family.
• I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to know that I am a child of God and that I have a purpose here on this earth. I am thankful for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• I am thankful for my friends. Old and new. I am blessed to have many talented and great friends, who are so supportive and super fun!
• I am thankful for the neighborhood I live in. What a blessing it has been to be able to build our house here. It's amazing how everything just fell into place. We love it here. The kids love it here. I love living right by the school. I love that the kids have "constant" friends to play with. I love my new neighbors. What else can I say!

We had a great time on Thanksgiving. We had my parents and Razi over for dinner and I was able to cook the dinner. We had turkey, shoofnoodles (family recipe), stuffing, rolls, vegetable tray and salad. My mom brought cranberry salad - so yummy. And of course, we ate pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream. And pineapple pie (mostly for my dad)! It was a good day.

Earlier in the week Corissa taught a Family Home Evening lesson on being thankful. Everyone in our family was asked to write the things they are thankful for on some cute little leaves to hang on a tree. Here are their responses:

Tim - My family, my job

me - Family, gospel

Ashlyn - Family, friends, activities that pass the time (art, gym, outdoors, movies, books)

Corissa - Family, friends

Michael - Sports, nature

Bobby - Football, bikes

Joey - Books, Jesus

We are glad that we had this time to truly reflect on all the things we are grateful for.