Happy Thanksgiving!

This week I continue to be grateful for so many things in my life.

18. The Church and the Gospel. We are enjoying our new ward and getting to know the people in our new area. I love that we can go anywhere in the world and it is all the same.

19. I'm grateful for the Atonement. Without it, I would be lost.

20. I'm grateful for Date Nights. This week, date night was seriously needed and we had a wonderful time at dinner together.

21. I'm grateful for my sweet Brooklyn. She makes me smile and laugh everyday. She is my cutie.

22. I'm grateful for my Zelda. She is growing up WAY to fast, but I am enjoying everyday with her. She is growing and learning everyday and is doing a new thing everyday lately. Today, (the 23rd) she started to sing some of the "We Are Young" song by Fun. Brooklyn knows almost all words to this song, so Zelda hears it a lot. My children are both geniuses.

23. I'm grateful for my hard working husband Ryan. This week, we painted the girls bathroom, and ryan had to scrub the walls down with deglosser because the previous owners put some old, cheap paint that was peeling off. So it all had to come off before we painted on top of it. He worked so long and hard to get it finished for me to paint that night. Almost every week since we have gotten the house, on his days off, we work on the house, so lots of times, he doesn't get a big break. He is so wonderful to be supportive of me and my visions for our house and constantly wanting to work on it. Thank you my love.

Gratitude....

I am behind. Lately my free time is very far and few between, which I love. So my gratitude posts come every few days or so.

....9. I'm grateful to live by my parents. The girls adore them and love seeing them and being with them. Tonight, I dropped them off to spend the night at their house so Ryan and I could go out an a late date night after he was done with work. We went to Cheesecake Factory and then saw the new James Bond. And the next morning, we didn't have to wake up to screaming children!  I am so grateful that I have someone I can trust and know that my kids will get the love that we give them. I love you mom and dad. I cherish every moment we have with you.

10. I'm grateful for good health insurance. No reason at all. I went to the Dr yesterday, and I'm just grateful that I have great health care.

11. I am grateful for my eagerness and willingness to do projects on my house. Today, Ryan and I woke up and we worked on our garage all day. We cleared everything out, washed down the walls and floor, and then painted everything from head to toe. We painted all the walls (a very pretty violets gray), painted the 2 sets of cabinets (a bright white), and then I painted/epoxy-ied the garage concrete floor (a slate gray). Done, finished, and looking beautiful... and all done in one day! I really am enjoying all these projects on our home. They do take a lot of time and effort, but I love the feeling that it is OUR house and I don't EVER have to change it again if I don't want to!

12. I am grateful for the Hazardous Waste disposal. A weird thing to be grateful you think, right? But, oh how wrong you are! This wonderful disposal place is my happy place! When we started escrow on our house, a friend told me about the Hazardous Waste Disposal and how people bring their unused paint, household products, spray paint, wood stain, etc. Anything really you can think of, you can bring it there. But you can also pick up 5 items a week of these things people bring in! So, our garage project we did today... cost us $ZERO DOLLARS! Yes... $0! I had to buy NOTHING! AMAZING!

13. I'm grateful to live here in Orange County. We went to a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Newport Beach tonight. On the drive there, I asked Ryan what the temperature was.... 76 degrees. I love it. I love that I can go to a tree lighting ceremony and have it be 76 degrees. Hey, to all you who have big houses in a colder part of the US, I'm enjoying my time here. :)

14. I'm grateful for Disneyland. I almost want to just say, "enough said" with this one, because if you read this blog, you know how grateful we are for Disney. But I just want to say it again.  We went on the 14th, and I loved it. Big surprise. The girls saw Santa and there was no one in line. We went and just enjoyed all the Christmas decorations.

15. I'm grateful for the temple. I was able to go on the morning of the 15th while Ryan stayed home with the girls. I went to the 7:00am session and it was amazing. I haven't been in I think over a year, and I know that is terrible. I want to go more often and will be making it my goal this next year. But I loved the feeling I had that morning and for the rest of the day. It is such a wonderful blessing to have a temple so close and to have the chance to go.

16. I'm grateful for Julie. This is my friend who suggested this thankful blog idea, and I am loving it. This week she said she was grateful for me on one of her days, and I was so touched and teared up a little. And it made me think that I, too, am so grateful for her as well. We can just talk and laugh and our girls just love each other so much as well. We will just sit and laugh at them sometimes and I think in my mind how thankful I am that our girls were close in age and that their friendship brought our friendship together. Julie is one that made me feel like I had a true friend here when we moved back to Irvine. Julie, you are the writer out of the 2 of us, and you put together words in your blog everything I feel towards you and more. Thanks. :)

17. I'm grateful for Souplantation. I went with the girls this afternoon because I had a free coupon. I love going to it because I don't have to say no to Brooklyn and I can let them have whatever they want.

Feeling grateful #7 and 8...

Gratitude for today and yesterday....

.... 7. I am grateful for Park Days, which I continue to go to my old ward's park day (as in 2 wards ago!) because I made such wonderful friends in that ward because of Park Day. Every Wednesday and Friday I meet up at a different park and I get to converse and chat with my girlfriends. Park day is the way I made friends in that ward, and without it, I definitly wouldn't be close to all these women.  Brooklyn's BFF Sunny is usually there, and her mom, Julie is one of my best friends also. I love having the chance to talk with her and feel like I'm getting my fill on "Adult Conversation" instead of just always talking to a 3 year old and a 1 year old.

....8. I am grateful for Eternal Families. Today is the birthday of my late sweet, wonderful, amazing, unforgettable cousin David James Kenney. 11 months ago, he was driving to work and was hit in his stopped car by another car going 60+ mph. He passed away the next day.  He was 32, and left behind a sweet wife and 2 sweet little children, ages 5 and 3. Like I said before in one of my other "gratefuls", my extended family is close. We were all in a state of shock and couldn't believe what had happened to our cousin who was always there for all of us, David. So today, on his 33rd birthday, and the day before his 11 month passing away mark, I am grateful for my eternal family. It was the only thing that helped us all get through this event and continues to remind us that we will be with our sweet David again. If you want to read a blog that his immediate family has started in honor of him, where we have started to have acts of service in honor of David, you can find it here. I love you David. And I love all of you cousins. Families can be together forever.

I love you David. Until we meet again...

Grateful #5 and 6

Missed yesterday.

5. I am grateful for extended family that I am and always will be close to. My extended family is so close. I know who my 3rd and 4th and even some of my 5th cousins are.  On sunday and Yesterday, some of my many cousins were here visiting from Utah. I am grateful for the relationships that I have with each and everyone of my wonderful cousins. I love living in a place that people like to visit. :)

6. I am grateful for this country and for freedom and the right to vote. I loved walking around the corner to our polling place to drop off our ballots. I had so much pride taking our girls with us and teaching them about the importance of voting and for the wonderful opportunity we have to vote.

Month of Gratitude

I love this time of year. The holidays, starting with Halloween and going to the end of the year, are my favorite. I especially love Thanksgiving and feeling like Fall. This year, on Halloween, I was feeling tired, and was thinking I wasn't even going to go out with my girls trick or treating. Ryan was working, and I had already taken the girls to 2 trunk or treats and 2 other Halloween parties. For the first time in my life, I was ready for Halloween to be done, and move onto the next holiday. In the month of November, my friend Julie does a month of gratitude. She posts on her blog daily of things she is grateful for. After telling her on Halloween about my feelings, she urged me to join along and do it as well, as she said it really helps you think of your blessings and the things in life that are wonderful and great. I decided that I wanted to do it as well. I am a little late, so today, you will get 4 things.

1. I am grateful for my beautiful new home! We have spent basically every weekend of time the past 2 months since moving in making things our own by painting, decorating, etc, and we have so much love and pride in our work. This also makes me grateful for the things that I learned in College about interior decorating and such. I have realized that I have a gift of decorating and knowing what looks good in our home. I like feeling such pride of ownership and making our home feel beautiful and a place of peace and love.

2. I am grateful for technology. I love the ease of connecting with people, keeping records (ie, the blog), and entertainment. Computers, smart phones, tvs, it really is wonderful.

3. I am grateful for working out and the ability to work out. I started running again about a month and a half ago, and I have really loved it. Yesterday, on the 3rd, I ran my first 10k. This is the longest I have ever ran at one time in my life. It was hard, and I'm so sore and my knees ache bad today because I ran so hard, but I am so proud of myself that I did it. Which brings me to my next gratefulness....

4. I am grateful for my friends. Especially these 2 girls:

This is Karina and Sarah, 2 of my best girlfriends from high school. Actually, there were 4 of us that started as friends in middle school. We have been friends for over 14 years, so basically, we now have known each other more than we have not... does that make sense? (meaning we have known each other for 14 years, and not known each other for 12). There were 4 of us that were just always together. We had a reunion this weekend. We haven't been all 4 of us together for 3 years, but Karina (in the middle) made it possible. She flew down to Irvine from Utah and we had a girls weekend. I was running this 10k before we had these plans, and I asked if any of them wanted to run with me, and these 2 girls did the race with me. They are amazingly fast, and I ran my heart out to keep up with them. They came back for me 2 times during the race, which I'm also grateful for, and I finished the race in record time! 1:07:45! My personal record. And I really couldn't have done it without these girls. I ran a 5k two weeks ago by myself, and I missed having someone there to do it with. This race was amazing. As I crossed the finish line with these 2 ladies, my eyes welled up with tears as I was so emotional with accomplishing this goal and also with the love these 2 girls have for me and running this together. I love you girls.

Thanks you Dad! (Kitchen Remodel)

This month Tiffany and I took on the very big project of remodeling our kitchen.  We knew before we moved in that we wanted to remodel the kitchen and that it would be a lot of work but I didn't realized just how much.  I have a lot of people to thank for all the help to complete this job but I wanted to throw out a special thanks to my Dad.

Growing up I participated in many different home improvement projects where I learned many of the skills that I used on this project.  I just wanted to list a few to give you an idea of how much I learned from him:

• Demolition
• Drywall Repair
• Electrical (outlets)
• Plumbing (valves, faucet, sink drain)
• Tile installation (Tile thin-set, grout, caulk)
• Appliance removal/installation

• ALSO: I have made excellent use of the nuts/bolts/washers/etc collection that he bestowed upon me before his exile to the desert.  So thanks for that to.

So thank you Dad for all the knowledge that you have passed down to me.  I wouldn't have been able to do all of this without you.  Below you will see a before, during, and after picture of our lovely kitchen.

I also want to give a special thanks to Jen and John for providing the many houses to practice on before working on my own.  Also, a thanks to my Father-in-law the general contractor for providing many tips tricks and equipment.  And thanks for all the free tutorials internet!

Before

During

After

Zoomers Petting Zoo 7/20

Back in July, the girls and I went to a petting zoo with my friend Julie and her kids (Sunny's mom). I don't really do the petting when it comes to animals. And I guess neither does Brooklyn. She pet a FEW bunnies and ginnie pigs, but that was it. She was not having any of the other ones (despite saying she wanted to, but then chickened out).

See Brooklyn and Sunny on the upper left? Both sitting on top of the bench, feet up, just looking at the bunnies. Yes... at one point, I was right up there with them, with my feet on top of the bench as well.

They began to get a little more adventurous, and they fed them carrot sticks.

Julie is WAY more adventurous than me. She was petting and touching all the animals. I THINK I touched a bunny? (BTW, isn't Julie the cutest pregnant lady ever? I love her cute tummy in that picture. Baby Valentine has since joined the Hughes family.)

Here is Brooklyn feeding more bunnies, and Sunny picking one up. And then Zelda had no fear, and picked up a ginnie pig by its hair... and proceeded to pull its hair out. She liked the bunnies.

We were there for a very cool reptile show. And by very cool, I mean lots of scary, ebie geebie things that give me the creeps. Tarantulas, Boa Constructors, frogs, lizards, turtles, just things that make me shudder. Brooklyn kept asking me to help her hold one and I would say, "Um... Zerah, will you help Brooklyn hold one?" Brooklyn would put her hand out, and then just as Zerah would drop a reptile into her hand, she would pull her hand back, sending the reptile right down. Poor girl... I know I didn't help her fear at all. :)

They had a little train that came with the Groupon we bought.

And Brooklyn's first horse ride! She loved it. Super cute.

Bach day 7/17

Beach day in July. We had a great afternoon and we were there for hours! I loved that we went lots this summer!

Zelda was 11 months old so I did a little photoshoot. Here is a little preview. My sweet little baby.

Brooklyn loving the beach. When did this baby grow up!?! She is going to be a heartbreaker, I can already tell. Look at that sunbather! Such a pro. And that hair? Oh my beautiful Brooklyn.

Had a great time!

Aquarium- 6/19

Aquarium time! Brooklyn and Zelda loved it! And Brooklyn actually touched some of the animals this time.

Upper left, Brooklyn touching the Moonbeam jellyfish.

And the stingray pond. Daddy and Brooklyn waiting for a ray to come up so they could touch.

Daddy found one, and Brooklyn finally touched one as well!!

Brooklyn found Dory. :)

We have loved our little trips to the Long Beach Aquarium.

7/23- Bowling Day

Summer family bowling time! Some of you might not know, my hubby is a bowler. He has his own ball, shoes, bag, everything. We went with Brooklyn and Zelda, and Brooklyn loved bowling!

The spectator crowd. She loved watching.

Ryan bowling.

Brooklyn bowling... she was in love.

Daddy helping her out.

And SO excited to see the pins down!

July 4th, 2012

We had a great 4th of July! Ryan got to get off of work a little early so he could come home for a July 4th BBQ dinner! Yummy steaks cooked by my dad are always a favorite. My friend Megan and her cute little boy, Bennett came over for the festivities.

Holidays meaning matching clothes and photoshoot time! I am in LOVE with these pictures of my 2 little girls!

And Zelda LOVES the rocks in my parents backyard. She was always crawling right over to them and I was always fishing them out of her mouth.

We finished off the 4th of July with fireworks in Woodbridge with Brooklyn. My parents wanted to stay home and we got to put Zelda down to bed and just take Brooklyn out.

July Randoms

July random happenings included....

Looking through over 50 model homes for decoration ideas for our new house...

With fun photoshoots in the houses...

Sunny came to play not only once....

...but twice! Brooklyn was loving it! These girls are truely best friends.

And then the Dittbrenner cousins coming to play for a week, which both Zelda and Brooklyn were thrilled to have them!

We've got trouble...

I found her like this after I was cleaning upstairs. I think she was there for a good 10 minutes. Haha. my zelda.

Heard tonight...

Me: Oh, prayer time brooklyn. You say it.
Brooklyn: wait , get on your knees or you don't love God.

Gosh, I lovw thay girl.

Heaven

Being treated like a queen on maui today. Sprained my ankle on a hike in hana yesterday, so ryan treated me to a rented cabana on the beach. Im pretty lucky.

Beach Day 4/17/12

We had our first official beach day (of the Pacific Ocean) of the summer back in April. It was a perfect day for the beach... not to hot, not to cold. I like when the beach isn't too hot. I don't like being sweaty and sandy and salty. I like a cool breeze.



We flew Brooklyn's kite for the first time. She got it for Christmas. Haha.




Zelda and I had a great time relaxing on the blanket under the umbrella eating goldfish. She spilled them and was loving all of them in her lap.




Poor Brooklyn. She got the stomach flu a few days before this, and we thought she was over it this morning, so we went to the beach. Well, in the car on the way to the beach, she threw up one last time. That didn't stop us though. We continued on. But poor little girl didn't want to do much. She just wanted to sit and eat a little. Ryan got the flu the next day, and he felt so bad that he made her do things at the beach because he felt so horrible. Zelda feel asleep in my arms and continued to sleep on the blanket under the umbrella. Babies have such great lives.




Ryan and Brooklyn making a sandcastle. Brooklyn just sat there by him.




I love these pictures.




Knocking down the sand castle. I love the picture of her mid jump.





Zelda eventually woke up from her nap, very happy and content.