Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2012!! It has been a wonderful year. We have had ups and downs and frustrations and many joys. I am so thankful for so many things this Christmas day. I am grateful that we are all healthy and happy. That was a tough feat this year. Everyone has been sick over the past 3 weeks and I am grateful that come Christmas day, we are all feeling better. I am grateful for sweet, smiling kids who believe with all their hearts in Santa and Tim (the elf) and the "magic" of Christmas. It makes the holidays so much more fun. I love seeing life through their eyes. I am grateful that we have the means to make Christmas special for each of the kids. Hearing Sabrina declare that it is the best day of her life is amazing! I am grateful for Jared and the jobs that he works so hard at to support us. I am grateful that I can stay home to raise our children. I am grateful for wonderful parents that constantly teach me and give me advice and are without fail there for me and my family. I love spending time with them. I am grateful for the family I grew up in and for the in laws and cousins and I love to watch my kids with their cousins. I am grateful that we all make a special effort to stay close and get the cousins together as much as possible. I am grateful for wonderful friends that fill my daily life with much laughter, love and fun! I am so blessed to have each and every one of them in my life. Most of all, I am grateful for my Savior. The life that He led, the way in which He led it and the example of how to lead my life is priceless to me. I pray that I can show Him more each day that I am becoming like Him and getting to know Him better. I cannot begin to comprehend the depth and power of His love for me as He suffered and sacrificed and died for me. Knowing that He knows that pains, heartache and feelings I have is comforting and reassuring! I am blessed to learn of Him each day.

Good Health

Today, I am surrounded by my very sick family. I mean everyone but me is sick. Gavin started coughing on Tuesday and then got a fever on Thursday and Friday and still has a slight (99.2)one today. He is still coughing and probably will be for a couple of weeks. Sabrina woke up at 4 am on Friday morning with a fever and had a fever of 103.2 most of yesterday and is still at least a 102 today. Jared has a fever of 101 and so does Caleb. Caleb says it hurts his chest a lot when he coughs. Like sharp shooting pains. That does not sound good at all. We don't get sick all that often in our family. That is something I am VERY grateful for. I know that we are truly blessed to be generally healthy in our family. I have a lot of friends and some family who seem to catch everything that is going around and I am grateful that that is not us. I don't know how we got so lucky. The other thing is that I can not remember a time when pretty much everyone is sick at the exact same time. This is very strange in our house. Even Tim the Elf is down with the flu today! :) So, today I express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for a family that is healthy most of the time. When you are sick, you really appreciate all the other times you are not sick. I am sad to day that as I sit here typing this, I can feel it coming on in my head too - so I am sure I am next!