Birds at the Park

 I'm grateful for the birds at the park. Each time we go to the park, my kids think it's hilarious to chase our little feathered friends. This particular evening, we had arrived home from our trip for a short hour and then had to leave so the realtor could show our home to a potential buyer. So we grabbed dinner on the go and then enjoyed some time at the park. We were NOT expecting to see something as amazing as we did, however. One family, as was their tradition, dropped several dozen hard boiled Easter eggs down the hill, and the birds came zooming in FAST and in BIG numbers. It was soooo cool to watch! There were at least 100 seagulls devouring the eggs. So then my kids took advantage of all the birds around and chased them, giggling like crazy, till it was finally time to head home for bed. What a fun memory for our family.

What are YOU grateful for?

Reunion with Diamond

I'm grateful for our reunion with Diamond after being in Idaho for a week. Everyone in our family, especially the baby, was thrilled to see our kitty cat once again.  Can you believe sweet Diamond lets this little girl hold her like this? Yep, everyday I see this happen, whenever there's a reunion between these two. It makes me laugh every time. hehe 

What are YOU grateful for?

Idaho

I'm grateful for the great state of Idaho. Since I was a little girl, our family trips to Idaho were the highlight of my year.  The rich, green fields that the farmers work hard to care for are some of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen. I remember traveling to Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, and Howe to see my wonderful grandparents and the coolest cousins ever. As we would drive, I loved just staring out the window, mesmerized by fields like the one above. 

                 

Of course, every time we cross that border from Utah to Idaho and back home again, as tradition, we honk the horn and cheer.  Cheesy, I know, but it makes the drive more fun and is something we all look forward to. :)

What are YOU grateful for?

Tinkerbell Twins

I'm grateful for the Tinkerbell twins. Since my daughter had a Tinkerbell nightgown, Darcy's daughter was thrilled to receive one for Easter so they could be twins. When Darcy and I first met, our girls were just tiny babies and got mistaken for sisters whenever they were together. There was a time when I babysat while Darcy worked as an awesome Dietician during the day, and it was so fun taking these two girls out in public because people always asked me if they were twins or at least sisters. Both girls love hearing that now that they're older since they're such good buddies. 

What are YOU grateful for?

Easter Feast

I'm grateful for our Easter feast with the Lauti's.  We all worked hard to prepare this delicious spread, especially Darcy, and it was all soooo yummy! Sitting down to an extra special dinner like this made me think of one of my favorite scriptures found in Alma 32:3 that encourages us to truly FEAST upon the words of Christ. We are not to just sample the scriptures, but devour and enjoy the scriptures just as we would an Easter feast. I love that principle.

What are YOU grateful for?

Rexburg Temple

I'm grateful for the Rexburg, Idaho Temple, where my kids impersonated the angel Moroni sounding his trumpet, not to mention the fun they had rolling down the hill nearby with their friends. But mostly I'm grateful for the time Wade and I spent there reflecting on some major decisions that were coming up. Thanks Darcy for watching our kiddos so we could have a sweet experience in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I love to see the temple. :)

What are YOU grateful for?

Daddy-Daughter Relationship

I'm grateful for this daddy-daughter relationship. Wade can always make her laugh, and THAT makes me happy.

What are YOU grateful for?

Maughan Cousins

I'm grateful for our Maughan cousins! Most of the time we go to Idaho, we try to stop and see our cousins from either the Callister, Maughan, or Reed side of the family.  We have pretty amazing cousins, and Ucon has some of our favorite ones! Thanks for putting Wade to work Tyrell and Dallas. He felt like quite the stud carrying those stones for the front porch! haha I love this photo! Rose and Cecilia are always fun to chat with while the guys find some project to do. :)

 And of course the kids all had a blast together playing in the dirt.

What are YOU grateful for?

Money Coach

I'm grateful for my favorite Money Coach, Wade Reed.  Okay, okay, so I may be biased since I'm his wife, but he's a natural teacher who people just feel comfortable around.

                
 He did a stellar job teaching the kids at Live BIG Jr last weekend about the flow of money and how they can create more money for themselves.

 They all received their own 1 million dollar bill to take home and put on their vision boards. That made them excited. I want one for myself, too!

What are YOU grateful for?

Live BIG Jr 3

 

I'm grateful for Live BIG Jr 3, yet another opportunity to teach, train, and empower youth to recognize their amazing potential!

Gerald and I are a great team creating and promoting such a cool event, and it was awesome to see our spouses, Jana and Wade, using their gifts to train during the breakout sessions as well. 

 For the first time, my oldest kids attended this unique Hero Training Camp since we've extended the age to kids 6-16 years old. As you can see from my son's expression, they had a blast!

Can you feel the positive energy from these kids who know WHO they are?  I love it! I can't wait for our next special 2-day camps in June and again in August. Wahoo!

What are YOU grateful for?

Root Beer Floats

I'm grateful for root beer floats, especially when cheese experts (Tillamook) produce the ice-cream. Who knew Tillamook also made ice-cream? Not us! We were so surprised. Weird. It still made delicious floats AND gave us something to laugh about.

What are YOU grateful for?

Baby Pretzels

 I'm grateful for baby pretzels.  It's great entertainment, I tell you what.  We were all like, "What the heck is she doing" when my baby kept folding her body in half and showing off her pretzel moves.

Pretty stinkin cute, right? She's so goofy. That's why I love her.

What are YOU grateful for?

Floor Puzzles

I'm grateful for floor puzzles. They keep kids happily engaged for what seems like hours AND they help kids develop patience when toddlers (like my 19 month old) are walking all over them messing up the pieces constantly.  Don't ask me why my son is cheesing it up in this pic. Funny dude.

PS) I told Darcy I really may have 2 weeks of gratitude posts JUST around our vacation with them. Can you believe there's still more to come?

What are YOU grateful for?

Good Influence on the Twins

 I'm grateful for my good influence on the twins.  They are so stinkin cute, I just love them. While we were in town, they were distracted during meal times by the coolness of the Reed Fam (that's us), that they weren't eating their food as well. So I thought of a fun idea to take a picture of them when they'd eat a bite of food and then show it to them. It worked like a charm. They were so motivated to eat their food! It also helped that Darcy cooked delicious goodness like the homemade pizza shown here. How could they refuse that for too long? 

 PS) I love that they're both still in their pajamas at lunch time. Can you tell we all relaxed a TON while we were there?  Who wants to get dressed when there's fun to be had?  Good times. :)

What are YOU grateful for?

An Excuse to Cuddle at Night

I'm grateful for an excuse to cuddle at night extra close when you share a TWIN SIZE bed with your sweetheart.  My little girl's demonstrating how cozy this bed is. Can you believe Wade and I slept on this bed together for 5 nights? Darcy was kind and put it in the play room, knowing it would be more comfortable for me than sleeping on the floor 6 months pregnant. I told Wade I didn't mind if he shared with me, half joking, but really, we slept fine since we were so exhausted every night on our trip from partying it up with our good friends. :) 

What are YOU grateful for?

Rummikub

 I'm grateful for Rummikub, one of my favorite games ever! I was a super big nerd and set up my row like this so I could get rid of ALL my tiles faster when Wade and Darcy got up to make no-bake cookies. :) hehe Hey you snooze, you lose guys...you weren't around to stop my wicked cool moves.

What are YOU grateful for?

Jello

I'm grateful for jello. It's squishy and sweet and makes kids happy, especially when it's formed into jello eggs. Darcy, you're pretty much awesome sauce for cooking and preparing yummy food ALL weekend long lady! Love you! 

 

 What are YOU grateful for?

Bug Hunting

I'm grateful when these two explorers along with the rest of the neighborhood kids went bug hunting. It kept them all happily entertained for hours, and they had quite the collection to show off when they were done.

What are YOU grateful for?

Lauti's Culdesac

 I'm grateful for the Lauti's culdesac that provided a quiet, safe place for all of our kids to ride bikes non-stop for our 5-day visit.  Living on a busier street in Salt Lake, my kids aren't allowed to ride bikes near or on our street so they thought this culdesac was HEAVEN!

my son showing off his cool tricks on this little pink bike...haha

What are YOU grateful for?

Sunday Best

 I'm grateful for my kids in their Sunday best on Easter morning. They were just glowing! The girls were thrilled to have matching dresses, and I was just grateful Darcy had an extra shirt my son could wear to church since we forgot his white shirt. Oops!

 The Easter bunny set a picture of Christ at the top of their baskets, and the first thing one of Darcy's twins said was, "Look, my present is Jesus!"  Out of the mouth of babes, my friends...wow! What a sweet boy.

Just like past years, the Easter bunny still only puts 3 small candies in each egg so it seems like a bountiful basket without as much sugar! Some of the other eggs have coins instead of candy, too. He/She's a tricky bunny, I tell you. The bubbles were also a hit, of course.

 The most excitement, however, was over this little purple ball that bounces AND lights up. It does NOT get any better than that! haha  ALL the kids were playing with it throughout the day. After getting dressed and putting Easter baskets up high, it was really special to attend church with the Lauti's and focus on the true reason for our celebration.

What are YOU grateful for?

Easter Egg Hunt

I'm grateful for our Easter Egg Hunt with the Lauti's. It was freezing cold, snowy, and windy on Friday when we were going to have it that we were joking that we should have believed the weather report and had it Thursday when it was warm and sunny. Idaho weather is so crazy sometimes!  Fortunately, Saturday, even though there was still snow on the ground, it was a warm day again, so were able to have our hunt then. In fact, the bright, colorful eggs looked extra pretty tossed in that fresh, white snow.

Afterwards, we read a Junie B Jones book about the Easter bunny while the kids devoured the candy...with some help from the moms and dads. ;)

What are YOU grateful for?

Dye Easter Eggs

I'm grateful we could dye Easter eggs with some of our best friends, the Lauti's, when we stayed with them for 5 days in Rexburg, Idaho this last week.  Being a homeschool family, we knew we could take our spring break anytime, and since it was their spring break and we had a cousin's wedding to attend as well, it was the perfect time. You will be seeing our crazy adventures in the next several posts, so get ready. :) We sure had fun!

 The baby went diving for her egg each time with her little hand rather than the spoon. Too cute.

 Best buddies

Here's the collection before they designed them with stickers and coloring.  What a sweet tradition!

What are YOU grateful for?

Easter Sunday

I'm grateful for this Easter Sunday and the opportunity we have to reflect on our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I took just a moment today and wrote my testimony on mormon.org to share with others. These were my thoughts: 

"In a dark, confusing world where character, integrity, and morals are often compromised, our Savior brings a message of clarity and direction, of peace and comfort, and of joy and gratitude. I personally have felt the mighty cleansing power of His atonement as I've brought my sins to Him and felt the miracle of forgiveness. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for being willing to give HIS son as a gift to live for us, die for us, and LIVE AGAIN. I know Christ lives and loves me, and I will always be grateful to HIM for that."

What are YOU grateful for?

Girl's Lunch & Shopping Trip

I'm grateful for our girl's lunch and shopping trip to celebrate my mom's birthday when she was in town.  We laughed so hard, enjoyed Olive Garden as usual (love their endless salad and soup), and shopped at JC Penny's to pick out a hot new spring look for my mama. Woo woo...she looked so amazing! After we bought her a couple outfits, I picked out a maternity shirt, necklace, and new earrings for me. I don't buy anything for myself that often, and it felt good to be prettied up. :)  The highlight of my day though was definitely seeing my mom all prettied up.  Spring shopping is the best!

What are YOU grateful for

Cousin Party

I'm grateful for the cousin party we had when my son turned 5.  My mom was in town all week babysitting my nieces while my brother and sister in law were away, so it was extra fun to have all the Lang cousins who live close with us AND my mom. Yay! We celebrated her birthday, too, that week, which I'll post tomorrow. It was SUCH a fun week spending time with my mom and sisters and watching the cousins play, especially at the birthday party.  My son was so excited for the Spiderman watch, Lightning McQueen race car set, dinosaur hot wheels track, Star Wars underwear, and Transformer toys (that helped decorate his chocolate cake, of course).  Thanks to everyone for the surprises!

My oldest kids even had a sleepover the night after the party with their cousins while Wade and I taught our Love & Logic parenting class.  It was supposed to just be a "late night" with cousins, but we had some parents stay later after our class with questions, and by the time I was ready to jump in the car and head to Draper to get my kids, my mom told me they were half asleep anyway.  They thought it was the best treat ever to sleepover and spend that additional time with cousins and Grandma Lang. :)

What are YOU grateful for?