{thanksgiving FHE}

Last Monday night we had an FHE lesson about being grateful and learning to count our many blessings. A friend of mine had the idea to let her little ones, mom and dad too, make turkey's and write the things they are grateful for on the feathers. We decided to do the same! After they were done we decided it would be a good reminder to hang them up for the Thanksgiving holiday. (mom's turkey is awaiting another sheet of paper) Aside from the obvious gratitude for family, friends & blessings some of the fun things we were grateful for were Dad: Milk & Oreos, Mom: her truck, Wyatt: racing games, James: Mickey Mouse!

It was a fun family activity that not only reminded us of the many blessing in our lives such as the gospel, scriptures, work, and family but also taught us to be grateful for the temporal things we have that others may not. Each of us are blessed in many ways, it's remembering those blessings on a regular basis that makes them valuable to us!

For those friends and family that don't know about FHE, it is a night set aside in our church for parents to sit down with their children to teach them valuable lessons that will help them to grow spiritually and to build strength and unity as a family!

{tyler's birthday}

"In everything you do celebrate you!!
{the birthday boy! 11-2-10}

Last year with a new baby and all parental birthdays were kind of set aside so when Tyler's birthday popped up on the calendar this year I wanted to do something special! Thanks to an old friend that is like family to Micky Mouse I was able to arrange a mom and dad only day at Disneyland! I got the kids all packed the night before for the babysitter and made sure everything was ready. It was a complete surprise from getting him the day off work all the way to a blind folded drive! I even got the lady where you pay for parking in on it. As I was driving up I held my finger to my mouth as to mimic telling her Sssshhh and pointed at Tyler laying back with a blind fold on. When I reached her it was all I could do not to laugh at what she said, "Welcome to Del Taco may i take you're order" haha I'm sure Tyler was thinking we didn't really take this long of a drive just for Del Taco but he was good about it! Finally we parked I opened the door stood him up and took of the blind fold! He was completely surprised! I wish I had a picture of the look on his face! He was a kid in a candy store who just spotted a brand new chocolate bar! It was too perfect! I hate to toot my own horn but I think I more than made up for the lack of birthday last year =)

{a new trick}

In the words of the great and famous Starship
"Nothings gonna stop us now!"

{Noddy}

When I was younger my wonderful Auntie in Canada would sen me all kinds of fun interesting things. One of the things i treasure most was the collection of Noddy books she sent. I have never seen them in a book store so I don't know that any of you have heard of them but they are wonderful little stories! I have happy memories of finishing a book and just waiting for the next one to come! This morning while I was picking up the house I walked into the living room and saw this:
It warmed my heart brought back happy thoughts and started my day off just perfectly!! I hope someday they look back and smile with cherished childhood memories of their Noddy experience.

Thank you Aunt Cory for being a part of so many happy memories!

{Service yeilds smiles}

This year Disney hosted an awesome program called Give A Day Get A Day! You sign up for a service project with your family, complete that project then everyone who participated got a free pass into Disneyland! This last summer our little family participated by gathering baby supplies for a program that gives pregnant women and new mothers things they might not otherwise have in exchange for taking a parenting class! We asked around friends and family, let people at church know and in the end we dropped off 2 trucks FULL of stuff including a crib, baby swings, clothes and so much more!! I even had a stranger at a thrift store donate $10 dollars when he over heard that I was there trying to buy a few things for cheap to add to the truck full!

It was so amazing to see my oldest son willingly help carry in not only the stuff we brought but to help a few others who were there donating as well! All in all, it was a very satisfying experience! I think that even with out the incentive of a free day at Disneyland, it is a service we hope to do fir that woman's program once a year by continuing to donate a truck full every summer! I do hope all of you will keep us in mind as you have children that grow out of toys, clothes or anything else!

With that being said here's a few pictures of our "Get A Day" at Disneyland! It was James first trip and I must say...he is certainly as big of a Disney fan as his mother!! Go Mickey!!

The typical Disneyland Family picture!

Minnie was the first to greet us as we walked in!

We tried to get a family picture but James was such a gentleman, he kept pulling on Minnie to kiss her nose!!

James was overly excited to see Mickey! He ran right up there! Of course when the camera snaps the picture he's not smiling but you can imagine his contagious grin from ear to ear!

We brought Grandma along with us so she could see Mickey before she moved to Texas

This is what a 14 month old looks like after having been so startled the whole boat heard him make a woooooah noise! After the initial shock he LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean!

Oh and the second we turned him loose he was on the run! "Mom I think I see Mickey!! Run!!"

Wyatt and I had fun spinning the Tea cups round and round! Grandma and Dad sat this one out.

Wyatt at Toontown

This kid could hardly contain the excitement of all the animals we found on the Jungle Cruise!

Wyatt and Grandma trying not to get too sticky under Pooh's honey pots!

And one last special hug just for dad! I had to yell across the street to tell Pluto "I have a big kid that wants just one more picture please!!" He giggled and gladly came right over! It made Tyler's day!

Well that's the end of our super fun day! These boys were not ready to say goodbye to Mickey Mouse and his friends at all but we packed up, waved goodbye and said...
"See ya real soon!"

Oh and I must share that James, my 1 year old son, was this wide eyed awake at 12 midnight when the park finally kicked us out and had been all day long with nothing more than a quick half hour cat nap! Talk about a true Disney fan!!