Gratitude a day #19

Today I am so thankful for places to eat out! Silly i know, but really the LAST thing I wanted to do tonight was cook dinner. After the dentist and feeling very pregnant all day, I just wanted to call in the towel. Thankfully my hubby loves me and gets it, and we all went out for a very yummy dinner at Robintions. A place that makes our whole family happy with dishes we all want! :) Plus, there was NO cleaning up. WIN WIN!

Gratitude a day #18

Today I am grateful for NAPS!!! I love a good ol nap! The best part about Sunday is taking a nap with the fam! I know I need to get as many as I can before our little man makes it here! :) I am sure he wont feel the same as me when it comes it naps! :)

Gratitude a day #17

Today I am grateful for date days! My good friend and old roommate was in town and we decided to get together at City Creek. She has an adorable little girl Abby's age. I decided to just bring Abby with me and leave Jackie with Derek so they could have some good time together. Abby was SO excited for our date. She wanted to get all dressed up and looked adorable. :) 

We had SUCH a fun day together! She loved playing with her new little friend, and I had a blast seeing my old friend. After we were all done Abby told me she did not want to go home yet. She needed more mommy time. I could not say NO to that! So we went shopping and walked around the mall more. We talked and walked hand in hand. It was so nice to get to see her outside of her sister, and spend a lot of time together just the 2 of us. 

When we got home the day only continued to be more perfect as we spent time together as a family laughing and playing. :) 

Gratitude a day #15

Today I am grateful for cellphone cameras! I have a horrible time remembering where I park in parking garages! Seriously I am the type who would walk around lost for hours. When Derek is not with me I am always scared I am going to forget where I parked. So I always snap a picture of where I park. Makes my life MUCH easier! :) So if you look through my camera you will find lots of pictures like this.

Gratitude a day #14

Today I am glad for my daddy bringing us some dinner so I do not have to cook! My dad loves to stop by when he is in the area, and usually always has left over food from a lunch in. My girls love to see him and I LOVE not having to cook!
Plus I get to see my dad who I love more than anything! I am so grateful for such a caring dad who loves my girls like his own kids. He would do anything for them, and as soon as they see him all they want to do to is cuddle and play. If there is an owie or a problem they just want their grandpa!
I am forever grateful for the example of Love and kindness, and dedication to the gospel my dad shows me.  I hope when I grow up I can be like him ;)

Gratitude a day #13

Today I do not know how to put into a simple I am grateful for. So here it goes. I used to be annoyed and frustrated that we do not own a home, we have debt, we have lots of bills and not a lot of money, ect. It can get stressful! Lately that stress has started to die down, and I have not been near as worried lately. Last night the girls and I were having a dance party in their room. They got up on their bed, and had their legs in the air and were laughing and giggling. I could not help but realize how lucky I am. Our home has love. There is so much love and happiness in our home. Nothing much more matters than that.
I am so glad I am a mom. I am so glad I get to have Jackie and Abby in our lives. I can not wait to bring our little Brigham into our home. I have learned that things do not matter. We have a roof over our head, food, and heat. We will be just fine because our home is full of love. I can not express my happiness and gratefulness for that. I am glad we did not wait to have kids until things became perfect. Things and time are never perfect. I know we will have a house someday. Our debt is going down, so one day we will have less money going to pay those bills. For now, I am just happy and grateful that I have my little family of four. Soon to become a BIG family of five. With the Gospel and each other we will always be happy and make it.

Gratitude a day #12

Today I am grateful for snuggles and cuddles! Today is my day off.  I have spent it loving on my cute girls and getting lots of snuggles! I love that they want to feel my tummy and talk to baby brother. I will take all the cuddles and snuggles I can get! :) Being a mom is pretty awesome.

Gratitude a day #11

Today I am grateful for date nights with the hubby! We had a chance to go to the BYU game last night just the 2 of us. It was a blast! Even if we froze in 27 degree weather. It is nice when you get more than a 2 hours a way from your kids. I am so glad that we have family close by that watches our kids for us and to know they are safe and happy while we are gone. Even better we got to watch our cougars dominate another team ;). I sure love my hubby, and I enjoy when I get to be the only one holding his hand!

Gratitude a day #10

Today I am so grateful for SNOW and kid to kid! My girls were SO excited today when they saw the snow. The first words out of their mouths were lets build a snow man! We did not have any snow gloves for them, and I did not want to go out and buy expensive new ones. SO one trip to kid to kid, and $5 later, 2 pairs of gloves and a hat!

We got all bundled up and made our way out. A nice fresh 6 inches of snow all to play in. We had a blast! We made a snow man, a snow fort, and started a snow ball fight with Derek as soon as he got home. The girls thought that was the best part! Throwing things at parents and NOT getting in trouble is way to much fun!

I love fun family activities, and snow gives us lots! Here is to more snow, and more fun!

Gratitude a day #9

Today I am so happy and grateful for a car port! When I saw the snow today and wanted to cry thinking about the ice and snow awaiting my windshield, but nope my car was nice and clean and clear! I am thinking winter will be MUCH nicer with one! :D:D:D 

Gratitude a day #7

Today I am SUPER grateful for Jackie's School. We talked and debated a lot on what school to send her to. Finally we decided a charter school would be best. I am SO glad we made that choice! She loves her school and is learning SO much! She learned to read so quickly, loves all her teachers, loves her friends, and is getting smarter every day! I love that she comes home with stories of Christopher Columbus, the  names of trees, and what tribes of Indians she is learning about!
It is really fun to watch the world open up to her as she learns and grows.

Gratitude a day #6

Today, is short and sweet! I am grateful and happy for my right to vote! We had to drive down to Provo, but really that is not too much to do to add my voice to who  want to lead our nation. :) 
I know a lot goes into protecting our freedoms.  I am so thankful we have willing Men and Women who chose to put their life's on the line for us. 

Gratitude a day #5

Today I am grateful for modern technology! I had my 20 week Ultrasound today. It is very nice to be able to get my baby boy all checked out before he is born to make sure he is as healthy as can be told. :) I am glad to report he got a clean bill of health. It did take an hour and a half, and 2 ultra sound techs and a radiologist to come to this conclusion though. I guess I have a very active boy. The techs and the radiologist were SHOCKED at how much he moved. All three made the comment that they have never seen a more active baby in utero. Guessing he is going to be a fun one! :) On the plus side, I got to see him for 1.5 hours. My girls were not as excited as I was to be there that long though! :) But yes, I am glad we know can tell genders, see if there are health concerns,  and can see so much of our little ones before they come out! 

Gratitude a day #4

Today I am VERY grateful for Daylight savings. I LOVE fall back. It is so wonderful to get an extra hour of sleep! I am also super grateful for 2 little girls who were troopers staying up an hour later, so they would still wake up at their normal time. This pregnant mama needed an extra hour of sleep today! What did you do with your extra hour?

Gratitude a day #3

Today I am thankful for temples. I love my little family so much! I would hate to think that we would no longer be together after death. It is such a blessing to me to know that they are mine forever. I am so glad that I meet a man with the same goal to get married in the temple and to live a life that will keep those covenants in our life's.  Our world has became a very scary and wicked place. Raising kids right now makes me realize how important it is to teach them young about the blessings of the temple and show them how to act to go there someday. I know I do not go enough, but each and every time  go to the temple I feel so at peace and everything in the world just seems right. I love knowing that when our little boy is born he will already be part of our eternal family. :)

Gratitude a day #2

Today I am forever grateful for my love of cooking. I LOVE to cook! It is something that relaxes me and makes me happy! The super plus side is I get to make food my family enjoys! :)

I have always liked to cook. I helped my mom cook a lot growing up. It was not until I was married, I really fell in love with cooking. I found it so exciting to see my husband get all excited and ask for 2nd and 3rds. I learned how to tell whats food needed by smell, and what just a pinch of more spice would do to the flavor combo. I love searching pintrest for new recipes, reading over them, and the comments to see what changes I will make to the recipe (because I for the life of me can not follow a recipe ;))
I am such a dork. Every time I try a new recipe I get all excited and nervous about how my family will react and how they will like it. The good news is my family is sweet and always loves everything. Every meal they girls say k on three thank you mama. Then they count to 3 and yell thank you mommy! It is the sweetest thing and I love it.
So there you go. I am glad for my love of cooking...might be a weird thing, but I really am. Last night I made a big Mexican meal (recipes here) and just thought...wow this is fun!

Gratitude day #1

Nothing like a REALLY REALLY long lack of blogging to jump straight in and agree to try to do 30 days straight right? I am sure through them you will get an update. Plus I am sure if you do read this you also read Facebook and know the basics!

So for today I am going to go with this little man growing inside of me! I am very excited to add to our family in just 19 weeks! And to add a boy as well! I am very excited to learn how to be a mom to boys, and to see what changes I will have to make. We will see how switching from man to man defense to zone goes...

This pregnancy took us a lot longer than our others to get. I think we both took advantage of the ease we had with our first 2. Going through a miscarriage and 6 months of trying after really has made me so much more grateful for every discomfort that has come this time around! (and there has been lots of extra fun ones this time!)

He has been a little mover! I started feeling him about 13 weeks. Now he just goes nuts when ever I am holding still. He LOVES to kick my in the bladder. Guess he is getting in his soccer practice!

We have been talking a lot about names, and think we have decided on Brigham Kirk Stell. Hopefully that helps explain the B in the pumpkin ;). The girls really wanted him to have his own. :) (also I do reserve the right to change his name haha ;))

Jackie and Abby are so excited to have another baby. They both were hoping for a girl though! When the ultrasound tech told us it was going to be a boy, Abby looked up at her and told her she was wrong she KNEW it was a baby sister. haha! They are both coming to terms with the idea of a brother though. After all Jackie said they need someone to play robber when they play cops and robbers!

Derek is really excited to have a boy! After all the pink and princess in our home, I cant say I don't blame him! Lets just hope he likes hockey....and BYU! :)

So there you go blogging world. I am not dead. I am very much alive and growing a human.