Thankful Thursday: Whew!

I decided that I need to be more grateful for the little things... so I'm going to do a Thankful Thursday post every week. This week I'm just thankful that LAST week is over. It was crazy! I do have so much to be thankful for, and that is one reason I've decided to do this. But, seriously, we were REALLY RELIEVED to get the past week and a half overwith. THANKFUL!!! Wow! Life has been crazy at the Stafford house. Let's see... what have we been up to? I'll give you a little taste of the insanity that was our last week or so. Valentine's Day came and went of course. Jared and I made a pact not to get eachother anything, but guess who is the only one who REALLY kept their end of the deal? That would be me! I got him NOTHIN'! What did he get me? Well, a dozen roses... (that's a given, he says), a bag of my favorite: RED VINES (yum... my good eating habits went out the window. I think I ate most of them the first day) and a small box of chocolates (those were to share with everyone, he said). He was really sweet. I AM THANKFUL FOR HIM! Here is a recap of our week. (Along with what I decided to be thankful for each day. Hopefully I won't ever post an entire week's worth again. Way too much!)


SATURDAY: We actually had our Vday date on Saturday night. We went to a BYU Basketball game, and out for dinner. (Forgot the camera :( ) So this day I was thankful for dates with my sweetheart!

SUNDAY: On the REAL Valentines Day, Jared made Sunday dinner, which consisted of Chicken Courdon Bleu (YUM!!) rice pilaf, and broccoli. I did contribute to the meal by making heart shaped rolls. We had raspberry sherbet for dessert. It was a great, relaxing Vday. This day I was thankful for yummy food and relaxation.

MONDAY: We went to the zoo on President's Day. It was cold and rainy, but we had a great time. It was fun to see monkeys and giraffes up close in their buildings, and some of the other animals up and active that are usually lazy and sleepy during the warm days of summer. Even the cheetah was up walking around right by the fence. The kids had a great time. I didn't take a camera. It would have just gotten wet anyway ;) Then we got back to our normal, busy life...
Thankful for warm clothes and smiling kids.

TUESDAY: ...however, Tuesday I thought it was Monday, Wednesday I kept thinking was Tuesday. My week was all kinds of messed up! I had a photoshoot with a cute girl who just got baptized (in her white dress - pics on my photo blog). That was fun. Also, on Tuesdays Eryn stays after school for play practice, and I have piano lessons. Laundry was piling up to monstrous proportions, and no matter how much I felt like I was doing, it looked as though I was doing NOTHING. I ran a million errands, and just felt exhausted by the end of the day. I'm thankful for a forgiving and understanding family. Even when they have no clean underwear!

WEDNESDAY: I started tending my cute little neice again after a few weeks off. She has started crawling, and I forgot what it was like to have a crawler! Time to re-baby-proof! Then that afternoon I had to quickly get busy sewing Eryn's costume for "Fiddler on the Roof" since she needed to take it to school by the NEXT DAY!! We had borrowed a skirt from a girl in the ward, but decided it wasn't going to work. Good thing Walmart had some cute floral fabric so I could make her one! Then I made her an apron out of an extra bedsheet, and found her the perfect blouse at D.I. Whew! Did I take any pictures of it before it got sent to school? Nope. Right as I sewed the final stitch, Kaitlyn and I headed out the door to Relief Society. They invited the Activity Day girls to learn to quilt and do a little embroidery. It was fun, but the whole time I was thinking about all I needed to still do at home. I had left the house looking like a bomb had gone off. I'm thankful to be able to do things with and for my kids.

THURSDAY: Had to cancel today's piano kids, because MY kids had SEPs (parent-teacher conferences). They got out early, but Eryn had to stay and practice for Fiddler. I had to get her costume to her. Of course the rest of us went home for lunch, and I tried to get a few things done around the house before we had to head back up to the school. All the kids are doing great! I had to wait forever to see a couple of Eryn's teachers, so we barely made it home in time for dinner and then sent Eryn and Jared off to a Stake Youth activity to kick off Youth Conference. (Yes, Youth Conference in February!) I'm thankful for great kids who love school.

FRIDAY: Jared subbed for a teacher at Willowcreek Middle School, and I tried to do a little cleaning. I felt like I'd never catch back up! Then as soon as he got home, he was packing up to leave for Youth Conference. They went up to Heber Valley Camp (just overnight). He took lots of pictures, and it looked like they had a ton of fun in the snow and cold. Friday night, I went to a Girl Scout Dinner. Kaitlyn's troop put it on for their parents. I felt bad that Jared couldn't be there, but the food was great. After that, I took the boys over to spend the night at my Mom and Dad's house (whom I'm SO thankful for). Because...

SATURDAY: We had to get up SUPER early, drop Kaitlyn off at her friend's house (before 8. It's also her Basketball coach... they would make sure she got to her game) and head over to UVU for Eryn's Ballroom Competition. She did great. I loved watching all the kids dance. Her little team won a bronze ribbon. She didn't get any individual awards, but that's okay. She still did awesome. Kaitlyn had a basketball game, but we had to miss it. We picked up the boys, picked up Kaitlyn and finally headed home! We had only been there a few minutes when Jared arrived home from Youth Conference. That night, Eryn had to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting the next day, and I had to prepare Sharing Time for primary. Holy cow! I just needed Sunday to come and get overwith! I was just thankful to still be somewhat sane at this point!

SUNDAY: Church at 8:30! My mom came to hear Eryn's talk. She did awesome. She spoke on Tithing. Thankfully my sharing time went well, and then we were home. Whew!! We had a nice, relaxing afternoon (all except for a little drama when Hayden got hit in the nose with a wooden board, which caused a really nasty bloody nose - it's still swollen!), then Jared and Eryn and I went to a fireside to kind of cap off Youth Conference. It was really nice. Oh, the relief of having this hectic week overwith! And to top it all off, Bryson lost two teeth over the course of this week... the poor Toothfairy. She has a hard enough time remembering to come for ONE tooth, but then you add another one? She came late for the second tooth. We were just glad she showed up, since her track record isn't exactly stellar. I'm thankful for the joy of a 6 year old who finds that dollar in his toothbox! And thankful that the bloody nose wasn't serious!

MONDAY: Well... as we all know, life really doesn't EVER slow down. We were given that sweet reminder at 2 a.m. Monday morning, as I was awakend by the sound of splashing water. WAIT! As I really woke up, I realized that it was not splashing water, but a kid throwing up in the hall. "Someone's throwing up!" I said. "It's me!" said a little voice that I recognized as Hayden's. Poor kid! Jared got him in the shower, and I cleaned up. We made him a little bed on our floor, and tried to get back to sleep. I think I finally drifted off around 4. Only to have to get up at 6. Just when I thought the craziness was over for a few days... oh well.
He felt better during the day on Monday, but Monday night he was at it again. Boy, am I thankful for carpet steam cleaners!

And just for fun, here is an example of the Valentines we did this year for the kids to take to school. Kaitlyn was the only one left with an extra, but the boys took some with suckers, too. Their pictures were of them holding a big red heart, and the sucker was off to the side where the writing was. I thought they turned out pretty cute, but I really loved what we did with Kaitlyn's with her HOLDING the sucker.

Then with the Valentine's pictures I took of all the kids, I had these cute little 3X3 accordian albums made for the Grandparents. They turned out really cool. These look SO much better in real life!