I am Thankful

Last Sunday we had some really good talks about Gratitude. It was such a great way to start off my week because I have really been thinking about all of the wonderful things that I have in my life that I am thankful for.

I found this quote online from our dear Prophet, President Monson. “The United States Post Office dead-letter department receives annually thousands and thousands of children’s pre-Christmas letters addressed to Santa Claus asking for things. After it was all over one year, a single, solitary letter thanking Santa Claus was received. Could this be one of the problems of this troubled world; that people think only of getting—not giving? Of receiving—and not even expressing their gratitude for that which they do receive?”

As a mother, I have learned that it is so important to teach your children an Attitude of Gratitude. With the Christmas Season upon us I have heard more, "I wants" then I think I have ever heard from my children. I have to shut off the television during the day so that I do not hear the "I wants" due to every commercial that they watch. I want them to understand all of the wonderful things that they have in life, not all of the things that they may want.

Here are a couple of the things that I am so thankful for (in no particular order).

My Calling - I absolutely love working with the Primary Children in our ward. They teach me so much every day that I am with them. They are like little sponges so eager to learn. I love the wonderful women that I am able to serve with. They are women of compassion, charity and love. They are such wonderful examples to me.

My Ward - I do not think that I have ever loved a ward as much as I love the one that we live in right now. Yes, it may be the loudest ward, but everyone is so nice and I truly feel like they are all family. I think that a ward is made by the attitude of the Bishop and ours is so caring and loving.

My Parents - I can not even begin to list all of the reasons why I am thankful for my parents. They have taught me the fundamentals in life not by word, but by example. They taught me how to be a better Mother, Sister, Friend and Wife. I loved to walk by my parents room and see my Mother on her knees in prayer. I do not believe she has missed a day of praying to our Heavenly Father. My father is an excellent journal writer. I have no idea how many he has, but he has a TON. I am sad to say that I received my first journal when I was 8 and I still have that same journal that I am working on. I need to be better and follow my parents example. My Father honors his priesthood and has given me many wonderful and spiritual blessings which I am so thankful for. My parents have always been great examples of temple attendance. Growing up the closest temple was three hours away and they would faithfully go and not complain. They understood the importance of it and taught us as children. I am so thankful for great parents and for all of the things that they have done for me.

My Brothers and Sisters - These guys keep me on my toes. I can truly say that I talk to most of my brothers and sisters on a weekly basis. They are my best friends and I am so thankful for that. Each one of them have made me a better person.

My Friends - Where would I be without friends? I have friends that I have known since I was 8 and I have friends that I have not had very long, but I treasure the times that we share together whether it be on the phone, by catching up on blogs or in person. I think that the most important thing about a friend is the capability to listen. A true friend tries to bring you up at all times and I truly have some dear eternal friends.

Our Company - Mitchell has NEVER gone a day without work. He, at times, is so booked that he does not know what to do. I am thankful for the knowledge Mitchell has learned and the patience that I have had to learn. (I am still working on that though).

My Girls - My children are priceless. Each day brings a new adventure. As they each grow older their personalities are shining. On numerous occasions people tell me what great girls I have and I have to say that I do have a good group of girls. Don't get me wrong, there are times that I think that I will rip my hair out, but the good outweighs the bad. They are so much fun and I love each of them!

My Husband - Eleven years ago I found the love of my life. He is truly my best friend and has so many wonderful qualities. He is very handy. He can fix anything! He is always the first one to say, "I'm Sorry." He is an excellent father. My girls like to ask him homework questions because I get frustrated really easily. He is extremely smart and creative. He has a sensitive side and I absolutely love that. He reminds my family that we need to have scripture study. He honors his Priesthood. He is a great boss. His employees respect him and trust him. His clients also trust him and that is how we have been so successful. He knows how to talk to frustrated clients and calm them down. I think that my favorite thing about him is his wit. He is very funny and he is getting funnier. I am so thankful for a loving and caring husband that honors me and lets me stay home with my children. He works so hard to care for us and that makes me forever thankful.

There is a saying that I read the other day that states, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life." Isn't that true?!?

Mr. Nobody Did It

When I was younger my father was, and still is, a fanatic of the remote control. He has a special spot for the remote and that is where it always belongs. One day the remote was no where to be found. He kept saying, "Mr Nobody did it." He was sure that one of us took it and put it somewhere. One day, about a month later, he was looking through his briefcase and low and behold there was that coveted remote. Yeah, Mr Nobody did it huh?!? :)

Well, Mr Nobody certainly has taken all of the bowls out of our house. I do not mean the big salad bowls, I am talking cereal bowls. I used to have like 20 different ones ranging from pretty glass to ugly plastic to a Shrek bowl, which happens to be a favorite because it holds quite a lot of cereal. Well, they are no where to be found. I can not figure it out. It is like a bowl fairy came into our house during the night and made way with all of our cereal bowls.

So, if you see this bowl fairy, please ask him to bring them back!!! I will trade him for all of my miscellaneous cups I have lying around.

My Special Gift

My daughter Ashley was given the assignment in her class to write a speech. The topic is, "What gift could I give to someone else." She thought about this topic long and hard and then told me that she wants to give the gift of LOVE. I then helped her type out her speech, but she wrote it all by herself.

My Special Gift
My name is Ashley Couch and this Christmas I want to give the best gift in the world, a gift of love to my Uncle Adam who is on a mission in Portugal. I will send him a letter telling him all of the special things that he has done for me. I want to send this to him because this will be his second Christmas away from home and he might feel lonely. I wish this will be a special gift for him. I hope it will make him feel really good inside and that would make me happy.

I am so proud of her. She could have chosen a gift that is commercial that you can buy in the store, but she chose to give a gift dear to her heart. Since Christmas is right around the corner, I will take her advice and try to think of all of the LOVE that I can share, or the service that I can give instead of all of the presents. I want to make sure that my children understand the true meaning of Christmas. I think that Ashley is getting it and that makes me happy!

From Our Family to Yours

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Supernanny to the Rescue

I absolutely love the show Supernanny. It has taught me so many things over the years. At times, my children have acted in the same ways as many of the kids on that show. The other day I was watching and there were kids that always raise havoc at the grocery store. Jo, the Supernanny, taught the Mom to make shopping fun with the kids by giving them their own shopping lists. The Mom was so amazed how well it worked.

I thought I would try this little bit of advice. I had a large grocery list and broke down a couple of groceries that I strategically planned that were all over the store. She had her own list, and I had mine.

Hailey absolutely loved it because she was able to be a big girl and show me where things were in the store. She usually asks for everything in sight and this kept her so preoccupied that she did not ask for a single thing. BIG PLUS! I will remember to do this the next time I go shopping with her.

Here is a good link that I found on http://www.supernanny.com/ that has good homework websites for kids.

No School = Fun

(This is a random video, but it was so funny that I had to post. It is really dark, but Teddy is biting on the back of Lindsay's sweater and would not let go.)

Today the girls did not have school due to Veterans Day. It was so nice to just relax and have fun playing together.

I had to run to a craft store and while we were there we found these fun wood with bamboo handled purses for the girls to paint. They are really cute and it was so fun to see how each girl would decorate them.

The Finished Product

We then sat down for a fun game of Mille Bornes.

Mitchell took half of the day off so he was even able to join us. I grew up playing this game and had to buy it for myself. After going to about six different stores, with no luck, I found it on Amazon.com.

What kind of card or board games do you like to play with your family?

Taking A Weekend Break

Lately, I can truly say that I have become addicted to blogging and to the internet. I have pushed my sweet Hailey to the side during the school day so that I can check out blogs, look up stuff for Primary, check out my facebook account or to do whatever on the computer. This is not on purpose, it just happened. Well, I am turning off my computer and I am going to play with a very sweet little 4 year old who needs her mother's attention.

So, heres to playing with bubbles, playing silly games over and over, dancing around the house, playing preschool, playing with playdough and just having a great time with my little sweetheart!!! Till next time, blogging world!

Ooh, Ooh, I Like That One...No That One

We have not had our family portrait taken in years, 7 to be exact, due to the fact that I am so picky with my picture. Well, this was going to be the year that I was determined to take family pictures. My friend, Jen, is a photographer (a good one in fact) and we went to a beautiful park and she worked her magic. It was so much fun and the girls actually cooperated and so did the weather. I am SO excited that I received my family pictures back today and I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE them. It is going to be so hard to choose what ones to frame, I might have to rotate them throughout the year.

Here are some of my absolutely favorite pics. (Believe me, there are 100 more to choose from that were just as good.) My new header picture was also taken that day and it has to be my all time favorite.

If any of you live in the Portland area and need a photographer, call Jen! She also took pictures of my brother, Jared's, family that are located on his blog. (The pictures are in the cube.)

Witches, Dead Brides and Princesses Oh MY!

Growing up Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. I always planned to go trick or treating really early and wanted to come home late so that I could get a ton of candy. My parents never made a rule as to how much candy I could eat in a day so I would stuff my mouth full until I could not take it any more. A couple of my favorite Halloween costumes have to be when I was a princess, 50's girl and a Can-Can Girl.

On Halloween, Hailey was Cinderella, Ashley was a Witch and Lindsay was a Dead Bride. We went to my sister's home and had a pizza party before we went trick or treating. My girls like to go in her neighborhood because they give out full size candy bars and goodie bags. They came home with a huge stash of candy that my husband and I have also enjoyed. :)

While trick or treating my niece, Rachel, was walking by a fire hydrant and Ashley told her to watch out for the dog pee that was on the hydrant. Rachel asked how she knew there was dog pee there and Ashley replied, "because that is what they are for." It was pretty funny.

We had a great night! Thanks Heather

Last night Mitchell and I went to an Adult only party. I have never bought myself a Halloween costume so I was excited to have an excuse to go shopping. Due to great sales I came home with two, a sorcorer and a Renaissance Queen. Mitchell was my handsome pirate.

(For some reason I look like Old Mother Hubbard in this costume, the picture is lousy!)

I knew with it being a couple party that there would be a lot of neat couple costumes. My favorite has to be Frankenstein and his wife. It was really really cute!

There was a couple of pirates, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb, Thing 1 & Thing 2, Ketchup and Mustard, I Dream of Jeannie and the Major, Morticia and Fester, Jack and Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas and many more. There was dancing, a lot of food, fun games, a loft where movies were being played and a haunted forest. The haunted forest was scary. It was really dark and you pretty much had no idea where you were going or what you were about to step on.

Here a guy is getting his leg cut off.

This monster falls down on you as you are walking by.

My favorite part was just being able to be alone with my husabnd. It is nice to have a fun date every now and then. Thanks Mitchell for letting me drag you there, you were a great sport.