27 Things I am Grateful for...

I thought I would do a Gratitude post in honor of Thanksgiving which is around the corner. I couldn't think of a number for how many I should do, so I picked 27...the number of years I have lived on this Earth :)

1. My Faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: I am so grateful to be fully active in our church. I was inactive for several years during late high school and college but always knew that some day I would return. Now that I have, I never want to leave again. There is not a doubt in my mind that this church is true.


2. My Husband: Whether I'm moody or stressed out he knows how to deal with me. He helps out around the house whether it is laundry or couponing with me.


3. My Daughter: Although she was quite horrid in the early months and is still pretty high maintenance, she has turned into a fun-loving, energetic, silly little girl.


4. My Family: They've made me who I am today and will always be there for me when I need them.


5. Friends: Whether I've had them since high school or only a couple years I am grateful to have them in my life.


6. This Country: I am very grateful to live in a country where we have the freedoms that we have...even if some people may be trying to diminish some of those freedoms...


7. The Internet: That may sound shallow, but I cannot imagine life without it now. I use it for everything!


8. Good Food: I LOVE to eat and will try most anything unless it has chocolate in it :)


9. We FINALLY finished reading the Old Testament: We are trying to make it through the entire quad (Old Testament, New Testament, BofM, D&C, Pearl of Great Price) from front to back. We started about 2 1/2 years ago and FINALLY finished the OT. Although we do use the Institute study manual as we go along, so that takes extra time.


10. Yard Sales: Yes I love them and about 90% of Kaitlyn's belongings come from them.


11. Good In-laws: From my sibling-in-laws to my in-laws they are all nothing but nice to me.


12. Our Home: Althought I do wish we didn't rush into buying it, I am happy we are stuck with a house that at least is large enough to grow into.


13. DVR: We hate watching live TV now. We love our favorite shows, but love to be able to watch them on our own time and fast forward through all the commercials.


14. The Temple: We have had the opportunity to start going a lot more often and are very grateful for that.


15. Dave Ramsey: We started his program in February of this year and I am now happy to say that we are completely out of debt as of today (besides our mortgage of course.)


16. Our Jobs: Even though I don't plan on keeping mine for too much longer, I am grateful for how things have worked out to allow me to still be at home with Kaitlyn.


17. Electricity


18. Sleep: Something I don't get enough of anymore.


19. Warm Weather


20. Cars


21. Cell Phones


22. Baby Monitors


23. Vacations: Mostly cruises. We LOVE them. We actually wish we were on that cruise that got stranded so that we would have received a full refund, plus a free cruise voucher!


24. Good Books


25. Coupons: We definitely couldn't live on our grocery budget of $140 without them!


26. Cats


27. 8:00: That is Kaitlyn's bedtime. Yes, yes we love spending time with her, but we don't get upset when 8:00 rolls around :)

Bahamas Cruise 2010

So we are back from our cruise! It was a lot of fun. I was mainly nervous about leaving Kaitlyn but she did great! My mom said she barely fussed at all and stayed on her schedule with no problems! So that was a huge relief. If only she would behave for other sitters as well! We left out of Charleston which was nice rather than driving all the way to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Justin's brother Jason and his wife Angie went along with us so it was nice to have another couple to hang out with at the dinners and stuff. Here are a few pics of our trip!

Our boat

Our first porthole room. We have always had interiors, but we got a porthole for the same price...not the same as a window, but still nice! And it had a lot of extra space you could put stuff by the window.

One of the formal nights

Nassau, Bahamas

We decided to go to Atlantis while we were in Nassau. It was amazing! So beautiful. I am happy to say that I have been there...even if I didn't get to stay there! We decided to do their water park/aquarium/ beaches excurision. It was fun, but DEFINITELY not worth the money. Everything at Atlantis was SO expensive.

One of the waterslides that goes through a shark tank

Freeport, Bahamas

Since there is not much to do in Freeport we decided to go snorkeling. We found a really affordable place online before we left that picks you up and takes you to their private beach with a little restaurant and everything. They rent out their snorkeling gear or you can go kayaking, etc. We planned on going snorkeling and I started...but there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE. They weren't the really dangerous stinging kind but I didn't care. I wanted out of that water! So I swam all the way back to shore and they let me go out in a one man kayak instead. Justin and Jason and Angie went out anyways and several people including Justin got stung. He claims it only hurt for about 5 minutes though. Whatev. Not me!

KEY WEST:

We didn't do any shore excursions this day so we just walked around. We walked down to the Southernmost Point of the USA...only 90 miles from Cuba!

We decided to go to the Ernest Hemmingway house. It was interesting. I loved it b/c of all of the cats! Apparently Ernest LOVED cats and had tons of them...there was even a cat cemetary on the property. He was known for having 6-toed cats and their decendants still live there!
Me with one of the cats

Halloween Weekend 2010

We had a very busy Halloween weekend, but it was a lot of fun too! Friday night we had our Church Halloween Festival. I made Justin dress up and he hated it :) But I thought it was fun! We dressed up as Hansel and Gretal, but just looked like cheesy German people. Kaitlyn dressed up in a clown outfit I had gotten last year at Walmart for 90% off but it fit perfectly and was SO cute. The church had a "trunk or treat" where the kids went around the parking lot collecting candy. There was also a potluck dinner which is my favorite. I don't know why but I just LOVE potlucks. I love to sample a little bit of this and that from all kinds of people. Justin HATES them though and usually just starves. Here are some pics from the party:

Saturday Morning we headed out to use our Carowinds season passes one last time. We met up with our friends Mark and Ashley and just hung out in the kiddie section this time. Kaitlyn rode her first 'scary' ride...The hot air balloons! Those things were really intense! I was suprised that was a ride she was allowed to go on!

Carowinds had a kiddie Halloween section that was cute and they had lots of games and activities but she was still too young for most of them.

We decided to bring the wagon so that Kaitlyn and Briggs could ride together. I think they had fun. Kaitlyn LOVES wagon rides. She can be having a screaming fit and you put her in the wagon and everything is cured.

Saturday night Justin and I attended the wedding Kaiser and Miquel...one of my good friends from HS. It was at the Ritz Carlton uptown and really nice. My mom came over and watched Kaitlyn and we enjoyed a night out. Miquel looked beautiful as usual!

Sunday (Halloween): We went to church that morning and then came home and relaxed. We weren't planning on going trick or treating since she is so young still and it just looks like we want the candy, but we ended up running out of candy for the neighborhood trick or treaters! They came in swarms...literally like 10+ at a time. Eventually I just stood outside not even bothering to go back inside since I would keep getting up every minute. So after we ran out we decided we would go "collect" more candy! haha. So we dressed Kaitlyn up and went out. She loved getting candy. We let her have one candy bar and she tore threw it with her teeth and just smashed her face into it to get all of the candy out! Gross...since I hate chocolate. I guess she doesn't take after me.