A Moment of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is a great time to be grateful (of course, when isn't a good time to be grateful). This past weekend I had the chance to spend three hours on Saturday playing volleyball with our ward co-ed volleyball team. It has been years since I have played, but I love volleyball so I was thrilled. It was nice to find that I wasn't as rusty as I had thought I would be (I'm no Misty May-Treanor, but I do alright). It was fun to be in front of a speeding volleyball and be able to get it where it needed to go. It was a little bit embarrassing to serve underhand the whole time, but at least those serves went over the net. Our team ended up taking second place in the tournament and we all had a lot of fun. The next day, despite ugly bruises on my knees and forearms and some severely sore thighs, I made it around and even managed to have a good day. It reminded me how much I love this sport and how grateful I am for great games, wonderful people to play with, and a loving Heavenly Father who remembers who we are, even if a part of that identity is buried somewhere deep below the surface.


We have been trying to help the kids learn about Thanksgiving and the reason that we celebrate this time. It is a little bit hard (when there is already Christmas music and Christmas toy catalogs) to get them to focus on anything but the Santa holiday. However, we are doing our best. For family home evening we watched a show about William Bradford and Squanto and the first Thanksgiving. The kids were a little more interested in pretending to be Indians than really paying attention, but we gave it a go. Josh and I feel very blessed that these precious souls have been entrusted to us and we hope to do the best that we can to bless them and help them grow into the amazing people we see within them. I guess our Heavenly Father probably feels the same about all of us.


Bryce tells us he is most thankful for legos, his school teacher, and bionicles. Aubrey says she is thankful for clothes, food, and her family. Parker is thankful for the color red, pre-school, and ice-cream. Gavin is thankful for his primary teacher, Dino Rangers (like Power Rangers) and Ben Ten Alien Force. Logan is a little small to tell us what he is thankful for, but we know he loves his binki and blanket and anything small enough to put in his mouth. As a family, we have been very blessed. We have a beautiful home, wonderful friends and family, a job our dad loves, working vehicles and even an overly obnoxious dog. Most of all, we feel blessed to be able to be together as a family and to have a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us. We love you all.


Happy Thanksgiving!!