The Thankful Tree

As is probably normal with any move, Jon and I have done a little too much complaining about our new lot in life here in North Carolina. It isn't that we don't like it here-- it's just hard to bounce back from TWO cross-country moves in about a year, deal with not knowing where anything is or who anyone is, and figure out WHY it's so much more dang expensive to live in the middle-of-nowhere-North-Carolina than it was in Las Vegas. I decided for our FHE lesson this week we needed to start a "Thankful Tree," to help us refocus on all the many blessings we DO have (and still have) despite feeling a little alone lately. I recently read a thought that asked how we'd feel if we suddenly woke up one morning and found only the things we'd thanked Heavenly Father for the night before... So I started by telling the story of Jesus and the 10 Lepers and the importance of GRATITUDE-- and how Thanksgiving is such a special holiday. It's squished in between the ones about GETTING candy and GETTING presents; instead we get to celebrate all that we're THANKFUL for.

I challenged everyone to think of one thing they were thankful for every day, and before I knew it all of the leaves I cut out were gone and placed on the tree! Lucy especially thought really hard about what she was thankful for. Here are some of the things we came up with:
*Jesus
*Heavenly Father
*The Holy Ghost
*Mom, Dad, Lucy, and Zach
*Grandmas and Grandpas
*Aunts and Uncles and Cousins
*Church
*The Prophet
*Missionaries
*Scriptures
*Our House
*Our Car
*Friends
*Mountains
*Medicine and Doctors
*Food and Water
*Animals
*Toys
*Trees and Plants
*Rain and Snow
*Choo-choos
*Babies
*Mac and Cheese
*The Sun
*Books
*Money
*Clothes and Shoes
*Exercise
*Our Bodies
*Sense of sight, smell, hearing, and touch

And Lucy keeps coming up with more, so I'm going to have to cut out more leaves. This month we're really going to try to focus on counting our blessings, and how grateful we are to our Heavenly Father for all that He's blessed us with!!

Halloween Haunts

Well, Halloween has come and gone and November it is... Christmas is right around the corner, but not before I recap the last of our Halloween fun!!

Monday evening dawned rainy and COLD-- which was in stark contrast to the beautiful Indian summer we had heretofore been enjoying. Around 6 p.m. we bundled the kiddos up against the nasty cold and decided to try out our neighborhood first (not knowing if it would be a good trick-or-treating locale or not with all the old folks we share the street with) and it was a GHOST TOWN. There were NO trick or treaters other than our own kids, but just about everyone seemed to be home and were ecstatic to have cute little kids come trick-or-treating, so they got triple goodies. Jackpot!

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you view trick-or-treating), the houses here are divided by HUGE amounts of yard-- like an acre per lot, so it was SO much walking between houses we got tuckered out after about 30 minutes. But with all the Trunk or Treat candy they made out like bandits as usual.

The next morning Lucy's preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch, which seemed odd on two accounts, a) it was after Halloween, and b) IT WAS AFTER HALLOWEEN-- and who's kids AREN'T overtired, over-sugared, and over-stimulated?!? But who am I to question the Baptists... Anyway, this is Lucy and her new friend Brooke Lynne (who looks as though she was also in a candy-coma and NOT happy that morning). After a few weeks of passing at preschool pick up/drop off, I finally got the courage up to talk to Brooke Lynne's mom about maybe getting together for a play date-- and hooray!! Our first new friends here. Laree (Brooke Lynne's mom) has Hudson (next picture) who is Zach's age, and is due literally any day with identical twin boys. Her husband is in the army special forces at Fort Bragg, and is being deployed for 6 months in January-- leaving her with 2 month old twins and a 2 and 4 year old, so they may be moving home with Grandma during that time and we are SO sad (but can't say I blame her).

Zach's playmate, Hudson, is left of Brooke Lynne, and is only about 3 months younger than Zach. It is so nice for Zach to finally have a buddy of his own instead of always tagging along after Lucy and her girly-girl friends!!

They picked pumpkins, rode on a hayride, and observed the farm animals. Zach particularly liked the pigs.

Luce showing her class how a hay jump is really done (the first kid fell headfirst in the hay). Achoo!!

Enjoying the fresh creamery ice cream with Brooke Lynne!

Zach absolutely LOVED being one of the bunch-- he followed the class around like he belonged in it. Scary to think he'll be in preschool himself next year! It was a fun (though slightly hectic) way to spend our after-Halloween morning.