Countdown to Christmas

Tomorrow is the first day of December and therefore the first day of Christmas in our household.

My mother created a countdown to Christmas that is as old as I am. Each day of the month corresponds with a letter of the alphabet that corresponds with a song, scripture, story and activity which were written on tiny color-coded cards. My mother tucked each little card in a handmade felt advent calendar that hung on our wall.

I have since acquired my own advent calendar and the tradition continues. Furthermore, there is a present now that my mother has prepared to go with each day as well. Each Sunday, Christmas elves deliver the presents to our home for the upcoming week. While this may seem a little over-the-top, most gifts are spiritual in nature. The whole concept was really created to do something daily to remind us all the reason for the season.

I have loved this activity so much, that I would like to share daily the scriptures, songs and activities with all of you. If you can't handle the suspense, click here to get the complete write up.

I also hope to continue my thankful mindset and write something I love about Christmas each day. Please share your thoughts, activities, traditions that make this season a merry one.

May we be some of the first to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Thankful Thanksgiving

It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving for us. Much to be thankful for . . . a night away with people I love, an unexpected gift from the Nike store, swimming outside in November, a vacuum that is finally fixed, finding Christmas music Joey is actually excited to listen to . . .

We are quite blessed. We have friends, family, the gospel and much to be grateful for. Much love to you on this thankful day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful in Pictures

A few things I am thankful for this morning:

Owen sleeping through the night. Wahoo!

Have you heard about this? Oprah is giving away free MP3's of her favorite Christmas songs. First Snapfish, now this?! Some might disagree, but I can't get enough Christmas music. Owen thinks any songs with jingle bells in it is a "fun song."

Reading an article daily from this has made me a more thankful person.

A few days away with my family? Perfect. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving FHE

Thankful for Blankets and Warmth

I found this picture and couldn't help but smile. Owen was about 9 months old. Owen obviously loves blankets. Blankets for forts, blankets to hide under, and his favorite blue blanket to sleep with.

Joey shared this story with me Sunday night and I felt humbled.

When Joey was living in Boston at age 12, he and his father became familiar with a homeless woman who slept in a certain spot every night. Being the compassionate soul Joey is, he strapped on his rollerblades and took a nice blanket of his own and gave it to the woman.

Joey said that later on, when is brother Ben was visiting Boston, he came across a woman who had cocooned herself in a blanket and gone to sleep. Ben noticed her because of the blanket that looked vaguely familiar to him. It was later confirmed, that yes in fact that was the woman they had befriended and the blanket Joey had given her. It was now serving a much greater purpose.

How lucky I am to have a closet full of warm clothes, stacks of blankets in the hall closet and a roof over my head. I have never felt so grateful or privileged to have the material comforts I currently have. I hope to do a better job this winter of finding those with less and helping in some way.

Serious Case of the Sniffles

It happened again. Joey working on the computer heard sniffles coming from the other room, only to find his wife in tears, again, while watching tv. (This is probably a behavior I should give up.) Through tears and a fair amount of harassment by my husband, I explained that a woman who has basically converted her home to a soup kitchen/hair salon/quilt factory for those in need was surprised to find she would receive a home makeover.

Then, yesterday morning, I heard the song Joy to the World and the tears would not stop! I kept thinking to myself: "It really is joyous! What a blessing! Do people know how incredible this is? Shout it from the rooftops."

I'm getting teary-eyed right now.

This is just getting ridiculous.

Joking aside, I've found that as I've really tried to appreciate all I have, I have become a lot more grateful, humble and just plain pleased with life.

I am now thoroughly convinced that President Hinckley was correct when he said that gratitude is one of the "Ten Virtues that will heal our hearts and homes."

One Healthy Boy

Today, I took O for his well-child check up. Many things to be thankful for:

• An incredible doctor who spent 45 minutes with me and his laptop.
• A little boy who is finally gaining weight! 20th percentile - wahoo!
• No tears during the shots (from me or Owen). He was extremely curious and said "Owie" but not one tear was shed.
• Feeling good about my little guys development and ok about my ability to parent as I walked out the door.
  

It couldn't have gone better. Thankful for that.

Sweet and Simple

So thankful for the following conversations heard in my house this week:

Sammie (sitting next to Owen on the couch): "Christmas is a time when we celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus. It is just wonderful. Santa also comes. He only brings toys if you have been good. Can you be good Owen?" Owen: "Uh huh!" (In a very sweet and extremely optimistic tone) I can be a good boy!" That girl is a forty-year-old woman trapped inside a four-year-old's body.



Earlier this week, Owen and I were watching It's a Big, Big World on PBS and Owen quietly approached the tv with outstretched hands and said, "Hold you," to Snook the sloth. He started to get tears in his eyes and repeated himself. I questioned what was wrong and it became clear he was hearbroken Snook wouldn't hold and hug him. Valuable teaching moment about the realities of the tv.




Joey chuckling to himself after I recanted the previous story said, "I always wanted to be friends with the Mrs. Buttersworth lady. I really liked her . . .and Snuggles the bear . . . and the Pilsbury dough boy.

Most thankful of all

Today, words can not express how thankful I am the Utes won! I think anyone who knows my family and wishes me well would agree. Coming from a family that has all graduated from the team down south, even my parents were hoping for an outcome that would bring happiness to my home.

The Utes prevailed!

Joey has been anticipating this day for weeks. He has even been working on a song, quite different from last year's rap to the tune of Ice, Ice, Baby. This is much more emotional.

Here are things heard in my house this week:

• "Shell, I just had a horrible dream . . . the Utes were losing . . . I don't know what to do."
• "You have know idea what it is like to live with such anxt."
• "Take that shirt off right now (it was teal). I am not leaving this house until you change."

My sister said it just right, "The anticipation for Joey is greater than little kids on Christmas." To which Joey replied, "Of course it is. Do you have any idea how important this is?"

All joking aside, it was a great game, full of hope, fun and a lot of laughter. I am just glad we won.

Cheesy Movies

On Sunday, Joey came home from meetings following church and found me in bed, with the covers pulled up around my face, trying to hide my red, blotchy skin. Immediately he said, "Oh no, what's wrong?"

I sheepishly pulled the covers up even higher and said, "nothing . . ."

At this point he was really concerned.

I confided that I had just finished watching a movie and was sobbing uncontrollably. This is where the story gets really bad. "Which one?" he questioned.

This one:


I think I had him laughing for five minutes strait. I tried to explain, "the little boy got lost . . . the whole family rallied to find him . . .they all have idiosyncrasies but that is what makes a family a family . . . " and so on, but there was really no convincing him.

And then there was today. I had the tv on while I was finishing projects and O was napping. I don't know how I landed on ABC Family again, but I was suddenly caught up in this movie:
I couldn't turn it off even though I knew better because I was soooo stressed out by the injustices occurring in the movie. I think that is the one thing that affects me more than anything else in this world. Injustice. Oh, I was close to a panic attack.

Good news. It all worked out, just like most teen/family movies do.

So, today I'm grateful for lame movies and a husband who loves me in spite of the fact that I watch them and get really stressed out when I do.

One Week to Go

I am actually thankful for Ultimate Frisbee. Yes, that might seem strange, and no this is not Joey writing this post. He talked me into playing league again this Fall and we hauled Owen to our games, letting him play with the dogs tied to the fences and dig in the dirt. It was quite a sight. It was a nice FHE activity, until the first snow in October. Needless to say, our team "Animal" did quite well and placed second in the final tournament.

Consequently, we each won $5 to Coldstone and the women on the team (there were only two of us) also receive $10 to Rumbi because we played two full games back to back each night for the eight weeks of League without subs.
Tonight, we used our $ and enjoyed a treat to Coldstone. Not nearly as good as Nielsen's or Dairy Queen, but when I am not thankful for ice cream? I guess I should really thank my husband for making me play Ultimate.

Wednesday

Practice makes perfect. I am thankful for that principle for two reasons today:

1. Owen doesn't eat, well to be honest, he does, but about as much as his dad. He doesn't sit still, well as long as we're being honest, he sits still about as well as his dad. So, dinner time isn't what I would call Owen's best moment of the day. He's more of a scavenger, if we were to use labels. Any way, to get on with the story . . . we've started putting a timer on and he has to sit in his seat until it goes off. We started at 5 minutes and have worked up to about 10. Miracle of miracles, he sat at the table for both lunch and dinner today for over 10 minutes. And he ate! He'll be packin' on the pounds in no time. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
2. I would not say that I was a perfect piano student as a child by any means. I wasn't. But, I am grateful for this talent I was given that has blessed my life. I wish I was practicing more now, but unfortunately, my only piano time is sitting next to one of my students. Nonetheless, I am continually grateful for talents and how they've blessed my life. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be "Practice, Practice, Practice."
   

Thankful Tuesday

I am thankful for the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon floating through my apartment. The pumpkin cookies I just made replaced the apples that went missing last week. Both, in my opinion, define Fall.

I got the recipe from a friend, Liz, but have posted my modified (ie more unhealthy but oh so delicious) version:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp each cloves, nutmeg and ginger
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (semisweet and milk chocolate work, or why not do both?!)

Cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and pumpkin and beat until smooth. Sift dry ingredients together and then mix with wet ingredients until incorporated. Fold in chips. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Soft, cake like cookies.

For more fun, drizzle cream cheese frosting on top:
3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Beat together and drizzle over cooled cookies.

If you really want to be thankful for pumpkin desserts, try this or this.

O is Thankful

What O would say if he was typing today's thankful list:

• I love that my mom gets up with me in the middle of the night, tickles my head and wipes my tears.
  
• I love that I get to watch shows like Little Einstein's, Curious George or Clifford in the morning while my mom feeds me breakfast.
  
• I'm also thankful that my ear infection is finally starting to drain and that I actually want to eat breakfast.
  
• I think my mom is happy too that I'm not crying 24/7 and whining really badly.
  
• I'm thankful my mom takes me out to the playground and helps me find friends to play with. She takes me to the mailroom, lets me climb on rocks, throw sand, and chase soccer balls I throw down the hill.
  
• I'm thankful I take long naps when I'm not sick. My mom is really happy when I wake up from three hour naps; I'm not sure why.
  
• I'm thankful I got to play at my Grandma's school today. She teaches kindergarten and her classroom is heaven on earth. I really like to see the faces she makes when I dump out all the buckets of toys, eat the glue or color on the board with permanent markers.
  
• I'm thankful my mom lets me have treats. I could eat Reese's Peanut Butter cups all day long. Today I got two! I must be a very good boy.
• I'm thankful that my daddy tickles my back and plays Lego's with me. He must love me lots.
• I'm thankful my mom sings me songs when she puts me to bed. She has the best voice in the whole world : )
  

Gork

The character with Joey is my brother-in-law Sam. Or, Chancelor Gorkin as Joey would call him. He is humorous, and his sense of humor reminds me a lot of my brother.

In some ways, he is responsible for Joey and I falling in love . . .

When Joey returned from his mission, he bore his testimony in church. I mentioned to my mother that I thought he did a great job. We made some cookies and dropped them off at his house, leaving them with his mother, later that day.

That evening, as Joey walked into the kitchen he found the plate of cookies with a post-it note attached that said, "I love you." A little jittery, Joey called out, "Who are these from?!"

From the other room his mother replied, "Shellie."

Joey stood there, scratching his head, heart racing. A little forward don't you think?

To make a long story short, Sam, had written the note and fed his little head with ideas about me.

Regardless of how we fell in love, we did, for which I am forever grateful.

Sam, you are a good friend, brother-in-law, and have a good sense of humor. Happy Birthday!

Sunday Evenings

I love Sunday evenings. Family. Friends. A nice meal. A chance to chat. All the kids playing. The chaos of it all. A time of connection. A time of love. Thankful for all of that.

Oh, yeah, I like pumpkin bread too. A nice compliment to a lovely evening.

Two Things

I am thankful for days away. Days where I can be Shellie, not someone who is worried they packed enough diapers, snacks or change of clothes. I am grateful for a husband who supported my while I was away, a little boy who loved me when I returned and the people in my life I spent the day with.

I am also thankful for good health. Don't get me wrong, we have our fare share of coughs and colds in our household and even though I have a two-year-old, I still don't know what it means to get a full night's sleep, but we rarely have to visit the doctor and have no condition that costs us loads of money, headaches or stress. We've never had a hospital stay more than a day and I am lucky enough to spend my days chasing my two boys. I am grateful I have an able body I can use to do most of the things I desire. We really are quite blessed.

Thankful 4

There are four fabulous things I am particularly thankful for today:

1. The sunshine. Went for a run in the sun, played on the playground in the sun, talked to friends in the sun . . . could really go on all day. Love the sun.


2. These Cadbury chocolates are now available for Christmas. I really shouldn't be so thankful for these. Love/hate relationship.


3. Monthly trips to Costco sponsored by my mother. Yes, that's right - she buys each of her children a cart full of groceries once a month. Bulk raspberries, edamame, milk, books, videos, you name it. Thank you mom. 4. As if Costco wasn't enough, she then takes us all to Paradise where we meet my father for dinner. Yumm-o tomato soup, chocolate chip cookies, and a little boy who actually sits long enough to eat his dinner. Thankful in deed.

Start the Countdown

It is exactly two weeks away from Thanksgiving. It is also about two weeks since we have had 70 degree weather, sunshine and warmth. Somehow, my good mood seemed to have disappeared with the heat.

I have seen, in countless magazines, articles dedicated to giving thanks, living a life of gratitude and serving with a smile.

In an attempt to lift my spirits and to appreciate the abundant blessings in my life, I will be counting down the many things I am thankful for each day until Thanksgiving.

First and foremost, I am thankful for the gospel.

I am thankful I have been blessed to have guidance and council that better helps me live my life each day.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name. - Psalm 92:1

How magnificently we are blessed! How thankful we ought to be! Cultivate the spirit of thanksgiving in your lives. Make it of the very nature of your lives. It will impart an added dimension to your character that will give depth and strength. . . Let a spirit of thanksgiving guide and bless your days and nights. - President Gordon B. Hinckley

It is to that end, that I hope to change my mood, and live a more grateful life. Here's to the countdown to Thanksgiving!

Shocking

Or not so . . . sadly. Saw this on some friend's blogs and loved it. Fun, and let's be honest, what's not to love about the 80's? I look pretty amazing with crimped hair.

You Belong in 1989

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

X-ray vision

I Voted

I voted today. Did you?

I hauled 60+ lbs. of two-tear-old boys down to my voting center . . . in the rain . . . and snow . . . and wind . . . and cold.

They were very good once the candy and stickers were handed out.

I was very meticulous afterall because there were requests to use the potty one minute after I began.

Regardless, there is something to be said of voting and taking ownership in this country in which I live.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has come and gone. So has most of Owen's candy. He went to four houses total. He was noted by a passerby as being "very quick" as he was running from his momma. Quick to run away, but not quick to get candy. We visited all of the in-laws and a friend. That's it.

Finally, he could wear his costume with a purpose (other than swimming or playing in the dirt).

And of course, Joey dressed up. He spend a decent amount of time perfecting the skeleton look. More importantly, he didn't make anyone cry this year (I don't think).

Oh, have a mentioned Owen likes Reese's Peanut Butter cups? Case in point:

Hiking Buddy

No one in their right mind would publish a photo of themself like this. In my defense, we had just climbed Mt. Olympus, quickly I might add, early in the morning, and I am tired.

Trell, far left, is what I would consider, one of the best hiking buddies in the world. He is articulate (necessary for long hours climbing), filled with life experiences, bright, determined, and encouraging.

Several years ago, he started doing "a peek-a-week" during the summer. We traveled throughout the Wasatch range, doing various "peeks" each weekend. The first, was Mt. Olympus. He and I found our way to the front of the pack, set a rather fast pace, and encouraged each other on. We climbed hard and fast.

Somehow, throughout the various hikes, I found my pace next to his and felt I gained a hiking companion, but more importantly a friend. There is something to be said about the respect you gain for someone when you are doing something difficult.

Trell is sharp, hard-working, and generous with his praise. I am grateful to count him as a friend and family member. Happy Birthday.

Jenny

Jenny is witty, strong, patient, and generous.

She is a fighter.

She is gracious.

She has a heart of gold.

If you are in need, she willingly gives. I don't mean something that you would find at the DI, but rather the best of the best.

She is a great example to the Wilson household. We love you Jenny! Happy 40-something. It looks good on you.

* Here's Jenny with her beautiful family on the lake she is named after. Something about the Wilson's and the Tetons . . . Mt. Owen is far behind her.