On the twelth day of Christmas

I am thankful for
1. Good friends
2.Grandma Tinka
3.Grandpa Ralph
4.Alicia
5.Ralph
6.Wendie
7.Sister in-laws and brother in-laws (John, Bill, Kristina)
8.Nephews/Cousins (Dylan, Tasman, Benjamin)
9.Pat
10.Breanna
11.Connor
12.Hillary

Merry Christmas Everyone.

On the eleventh day of Christmas

The eleventh day is written by my dad Ralph:

On the eleventh day of Christmas Ralph is thankful for:

1. That we have only four year terms in this country.

2. Family visiting

3. Gasoline at less than 3 dollars a gallon

4. Federal pay raises and federal retirement plans

5. Diet coke with lime

6. That the Smithsonians are free

7. Warm weather and no snow

8. Grandchildren

9. Diet Mountain Dew

10. Mickie D's

11. Thomas the Train

On the tenth day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas I was just too busy having family fun to blog. Sorry.

On the ninth day of Christmas

(today's thankful list is done by my sister Alicia)

On the ninth day of Christmas Alicia is thankful for:

1. Barack Obama

2. Christmas in Virginia when most of Fort Wayne, Indiana is without power and has been for 3 1/2 days.

3. My sister Heather (whose blog I read every day)

4. Tasman getting to spend Christmas with his cousins

5. Tasman's cousins who are being very understanding about him telling them repeatedly not to touch him.

6. Air mattresses

7. Christmas cookies

8. Husbands that participate willingly in family activites.

9.Christmas with and about family.....

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

On the Eighth Day of Christmas I am thankful for



1. Grocery stores that are close to your house.

2. Wrapping paper with lines on the back so you cut straight.

3. Reclining chairs so you don't have to sleep on the floor.

4. Washers and Dryers in your house.

5. Tylenol.

6. Grandpa's who are "playish". (A term created by Connor)

7. Nap time.

8. Bed time.

On the Sixth day of Christmas

On the Sixth day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. Good kids on airplanes.

2. Carts and people movers at the airport.

3. Delta's flight tracker. We were able to watch the progression of our flight on a map. Connor chose that over movies or cartoons.

4. Diet Coke.

5. A daughter who did her homework on the plane. Good job Bre.

6. Kyle. He is Hillary's new friend. And a good source of entertainment on the last leg of our journey.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

On the Seventh Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. Diet Coke
2. Slurpees.
3. Coke.
4. Coke.
5. Coke.
6. Coke.
7. Coke. (yes it keeps my husband pleasant)

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

On the Fifth Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. That our government makes it safe to fly.

2. Portable DVD players and MP3 players.

3. Fruit roll-ups.

4. A good friend who is willing to drive us to the airport. Yea Mary!

5. That today is finally the day we are going and Hillary can quit bugging me about getting on a plane and going to Grandma's.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

On the Fourth Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. The fact that some of my kids are old enough to pack for themselves.

2. Lists.

3. That my Dad taught me how to pack and how to tape a box

4. Spreadsheets with columns for my clothing choices.

Fiesta Ware

***edit***I just realized this was my 100th post. Quite a milestone for me and all things said and done - not a post I'm really excited to have as my 100th. Oh well. Heres to 100 more.*****

Check this site out and enter to win some dishes!

On the Third day of Christmas

On the Third day of Christmas I am thankful for


1. My job. I like what I do and they pay me to do it.


2. The fact that I work well under pressure.


3. Frozen lasagna. It's good and easy to make and my kids love it.

On the Second Day of Christmas

On the Second Day of Christmas I am thankful for:


1. The fact that Hillary does not scream and cry when she sees Santa.

2. Cute little babies. I visited my friend Mindy today who just had her first baby. He was SOOOO cute. Just a perfect little round face, sooooo sweet and already a good sleeper. Didn't peep once while I was there holding him. Welcome to the world Bradley!

On the First Day of Christmas

On the First Day of Christmas I am thankful for:


1. Being able to celebrate the holidays with my family. But mostly that my Mom is still around to celebrate with us.

new look

We didn't get our Christmas decorations out this year. We'll be at Grandma's house for Christmas and they have saved an entire tree for my kids to decorate so don't feel bad for them. But I realized this morning that I COULD decorate my blog. Way easier to put up and take down :) Hope you like it.

She ROCKS our world

Isn't she CUTE!!!

Ho Ho Ho

We had our family Christmas party on Saturday. We were lucky enough to be visited by Santa. They kids had a great time and all enjoyed sitting on his lap. Well almost all of them did....

Tis the Season...

It's that time of year when I panic that I haven't bought enough presents for my kids. I think a lot of us are that way. Especially this year when many budgets are tighter than ever. Then I go to the store and see the giving tree and remember that there have been years where I've been on that tree and was eternally thankful that someone decided to donate. So I pull off ornaments for each of my kids and take them shopping so some little boy will have a better Christmas. I urge everyone to remember what the season is really about. Remember to give as much as you get. Let your kids see that while you don't have a lot there are people who have way less. And remember that sometimes the best gift you can give is joy. Then watch this video and smile. I did.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

YUMMY!

The day before Thanksgiving the little grocery store in Springville has a moonlight madness sale. We've gone for a couple years now to get great prices like 44 cent frozen vegetables, 50cent cream cheese, 99cent Lays potato chips and 45cent lunch meat. However I think I'm safe in saying that EVERYONE in Springville also goes as well as everyone in 3 surrounding cities. So we go a half hour early and park 2 blocks away and stand in line for an hour all to get a great deal. Plus it's fun. They do tons of samples and have people handing out tons of candy all over the store. And I love to support my local grocery store. Yea Reams!! This year they were doing lots of trivia contests - one every 5 or 10 minutes. I happen to be just finished checking out when they did one so I was right there. The question was "When did Reams first open?" Well right on the wall above my head is the giant 3 foot tall Reams logo that includes the words "Since 1945". So I yelled out the answer and won this GREAT basket. So if you're in Springville, shop at Reams. Plus they have the BEST produce in Utah County and great prices.

TWILIGHT - no spoilers involved

We went and saw it. And when I say we-I mean me and Breanna. Bre refused to read the books because she is anti-love story. So I was way surprised when she begged to see the movie. But can I just say....

WE LOVED IT!!!!

Despite all the bad things people told us about it we both loved it. One who'd read the books and one who hadn't. Bre liked it so much she asked to buy it when it came out on DVD.

So just to touch on all the bad stuff I heard. One thing that made me really love the books was the way she is able to make you live in the story with her descriptions. Obviously all that can not translate into a 2 hour movie. I thought the liberties they took in the movie to get from point A to point B more quickly were pretty good. And the characters were pretty close to what I had pictured in my mind. I didn't think the acting was too bad either. Of course I'm no critic - but all things considered I was not disappointed like other people were. I can't wait for the next movie to come out and we will buy it on DVD. So go see it despite what you've heard.