Thanksgiving 2007

It truly is a wonderful time in life to remember all of the amazing blessings at this holiday season. There really is something special about putting up the Christmas tree and listening to seasonal music. It's nice to reflect on why we celebrate this time of year and to focus on the real meaning of our Savior. We are grateful to share this with our children and others at this time. We are going to a baptism Sat. night for an amazing family that have just been introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ not even 3 weeks ago. We had them over for FHE on Mon. and had a great experience with them and getting to know of their pure love of Chrsit, simple faith of prayer and sincere guidance from our Heavenly Father. They have truly been directed to be placed in the exact path of where the missionaries met them 2 days in a row on opposite ends of the city. Stories like this make me ask how much of preparedness is coincidence?...Actually with anything in life. It sure is fun to be apart of special times like this where you know money cannot buy this kind of joy. After the big feast with our friends yesterday, we got a babysitter and were on our way to the outdoor shopping mall for "Midnight Maddness". Which we found out at 11:45pm that it was nothing like maddness---rather a nightmare. It was comically amuzing as we froze at the sight of all of the shoppers just preparing to get into the mall area. There were thousands upon thousands of cars lined up and eager to get the "deals" of the century. Needless to say, we drove on by and clocked the distance to each exit, north and south, of how many miles of double laned bummer to bummer cars there were to just get off the exit . 7 miles! We figured that even 2 hours of waiting to get off of the exit would be pushing it. I laugh thinking about how much sleep I got last night and am grateful to not be the one still waiting in line and cranky this morning. Money cannot buy the happiness I feel right now! The Gospel, great family, health, friends, food and a warm place to live is what I feel the greatess blessing and joys of life are all about! 'tis the season to remember the reason!'

I love to ride my Bicycle, I love to ride my bike

Saturday I spent a good portion of the morning fixing flat tires and problems on the bikes in the garage. Tate has been more daring with his ability to maneuver the many obstacles on the sidewalk, street, or anything in between to the point that I think he would try anything. When his bike is broken he takes off on Madison's pink lady bug bike.
I took the kids up to the middle school yesterday to ride around the track. It is the best training ground. Madison was excited as she got the feel for balance and steering even after a few not so graceful falls as her brother would cut in front of her and say, "do you want to race?" It was at that moment she would stop focusing and then jump or fall of her bike. By the end of our time at the track she was a natural. She can officially ride a two wheeler. She even drew a picture of what she had done when we got home.

Idaho

Idaho is a wonderful place to visit. Last weekend we made a last minute venture to Idaho Falls for Parker's baby blessing and his older brother Ryan's Baptism. I seem to forget how much fun it is to drive this distance until the kids start "asking are we there yet?!" We kept redbox in business the way there and back. We had a great time! The entire family showed up including Steve and Grandma Healy. Then we visited more friends and family in Twin Falls and in Nampa. Here are some great pictures of Wendy G. & Scott and the little Gardner boys Nathan and Kobe with Tate.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was full of surprises this year. I think the biggest surprise of all came in the form of kids hyped up on sugar combing the neighborhood in search of their next sugar rush. There were so many kids in the neighborhood, I thought that the local elementary and middle school dropped every student at the entrance of the subdivision and let them go to town (welcome to life in the suburbs). There is no comparison to the few visitors we received in Idaho. Our neighborhood was literally transformed into a haunted amusement park, equipped with spook ally's, lines, food, a live garage band, a people everywhere. It was good fun. The kids got their fill in a matter of minutes and since we put the candy away, I think they have forgotton that it even exists.