Count my many blessings. Name them one by one.

Today was a bit stressful so I'm going to follow some good advice and start listing things I am grateful for today....
I am grateful for our second car that we just got today. My sister-in-law sold it to us. This car is going to make it possible for me to get to work in the fall and I will be the master of my time. :)

I am grateful for businesses like Barnes & Noble who recognize that teachers use a lot of their own money to buy supplies for their classrooms and so they offer a discount for us. With my gift-card I was able to buy a few new books for my classroom!
I am grateful for a wonderful daughter who loves to help out around the house. She is going to be a wonderful mommy someday.

Monkey's Native American project

 I am grateful for this guy who is willing to take time out of his long day to register the car, let me go for a long walk and scrub my floor. I'm so lucky he is mine.

Us at the Cheesecake factory at City Creek

 I am grateful for that spunky, artistic 6 year old who marches to the beat of her own drum. Sometimes her quiet stubbornness drives me crazy, but I love that she is her own individual.

Girls at the zoo

I am also grateful for my sweet, silly, tender 3 year old. I love that she loves to cuddle and give me kisses. She is learning so much so quickly. I am grateful that she is doing really well with her potty training. Just in time for daycare to start. Hooray!
I am also grateful for a good job as much as I am stressing out about it right now and a good support system.
I am grateful for family that is close by and the opportunity I have to spend time with them.

Bryan as the evil Chauvelin and Kelsey as the beautiful Marguerite in the Scarlet Pimpernel

I really am blessed.

Summary of our summer

An overview of our summer so far.

Monkey got her PhD at the end of her 3rd grade year!

Bug did a great job and looked beautiful at her Kindergarten Program. We loved her teacher!

Monkey made a fire for their indoor campout.

Sleeping in their "tent".

Selling Lemonade!

Wishing Andrea Farewell for 18 months.

Meeting up with far-away friends.

Free concerts in the park.

Celebrated our Nation's holiday with a children's parade, good food, movies and fireworks

At the zoo we found a monkey...

And a Boo!

We had a Thacker Reunion where we went to Welfare Square....

And a local splash pad. We love being with cousins.

We went camping with my family.

And we hiked to Donut Falls. My girls are still talking about the trip!

We have had a great summer! It's so nice to have a long break to spend with my family.

Christmas and New Years

I know another graduation picture. But I somehow missed this one and wanted it on my blog.

 After graduation, the Christmas festivities came quickly. It was so fun to watch my girls do gingerbread kids. This was Bug's first time and she seemed to love being up there singing with her sister.

It was Monkey's second year and she had a beautiful solo. I love listening to my girls sing.

Putting up the tree is always fun. I love having all the lights turned off except for the Christmas tree lights and being able to ponder about the purpose of the season.

My mom took everyone that could come to see the Zoo Lights. It was pretty neat. Most of the animals were sleeping and my favorite was the big tiger asleep on it's back, pressing his paws against the window. It was incredible to be so close to such a massive beast.

It was a cold night. This is Boo inside a snack bar under the heater waiting for hot chocolate and churros.

 

We were troopers and had a lot of fun.

Two monkeys.

I love this shot of Bug with her hat over her face to keep herself warm. :)

 

Christmas was wonderful. Monkey wanted books and a watch. Bug wanted bugs, a microscope, and make-up. Boo wanted a pillow pet. She also lovvvves her talking Elmo.

New years brought around the traditional Eggs Benedict cooked by my one and only Grandpa "O".  I love it when he cooks.

I know 2012 will bring exciting new adventures to us this year.

Some catch up

Boo with aunt Grace on her 2nd birthday

I've been so busy trying to graduate and then with my new job, it's been a while since I've been able to do much of anything else. So here I am trying to catch up.
In October Boo turned two. She has been so much fun. Her words and comprehension have increased dramatically. The terrible two's didn't hit until a few weeks ago. Generally she is a pleasant little girl.
I got to take pictures of my sister as she got ready for the dance, and I had a big birthday.

Lou is so grown up, it makes me feel ancient.

Halloween was so fun this year. The girls chose simple costumes with Bug wanting to be a cowgirl, Monkey a cat and Boo a flower. Boo started to really catch on to the trick or treating this year and it was so fun to watch her try to keep up with her sisters as they went door to door.

November brought around my cousin's baptism and my friend's daughter's baptism. They are really close in age to Monkey and it was fun to see Monkey get so excited about her own baptism coming around the corner.

Holidays brought Christmas parties and my graduation. I made my girls costumes for our family nativity and thought they turned out ok for the amount of time I had to do them in. Boo was a sheep, Bug a cow and Monkey was a shepherd. It was so fun to be with family.

Boo and my sweet sister Max

Right before graduation, a windstorm with 100 mile winds hit our area. It turned the power off and there was a lot of damage done to property. It took out our fence and ripped our big pine tree out of the ground. Luckily the tree fell perfectly without damaging the house or our car. Now we have a big hole in the ground until our landlords decide to fill it up.

I graduated December 9th. I decided to walk and I was so glad I did. It felt so good to celebrate the hardest thing I have done up to this point. Monkey and Michelangelo came along with my parents, mother-in-law, grandparents, and sweet sister-in-law.

We celebrated later with everyone else. I hope my girls remember that their momma worked hard for her dreams and accomplished her goal, and that they will do the same with their own dreams and goals. I sure love my family and I couldn't have done it without them, especially my wonderful Michelangelo. Thanks sweetheart. I love you!

Yeah for Utah!

 On the 22nd and the 23rd we celebrated this great state we live in. The actual day was Monday, but we did most of our celebrating the weekend leading up to Monday.
I love my hometown parade. It's the biggest one in the area next to Salt Lake but it still has that hometown feel to it. My parents stake created a float for the parades so we went with my inlaws to see it in the pre-parade show. My mother in law helped with the flowers and my father in law helped with the penguins.

Every year we go to the cemetery to watch the fireworks. This year they did not dissappoint.

 The next day we went to the park for the fair. We met up with both sides of the family and had a lot of fun. Monkey was too big to go on the swings so Bug had to go by herself. It was kind of a sad moment for me. My girls are growing up. They did go on the inflatable obstacle course together. We tried to no avail to get Boo to go on the swings with her cousin G. My niece was sure cute on the swings. Luigi and Tyler attempted the rock wall and there was yummy fair food for all. Afterwards we crashed.  It was a great weekend!

My cute Dad always serving

Happy Birthday Utah!