Being a mom of young children can be trying and tiring at times.  I have felt like that as of late.  When the day ends, I am pretty much exhausted.  So what does this have to do with loving Chris?  Well, let me tell you…Chris’ boss gave us tickets to the Utah Technical Council awards dinner.  No big deal right?  Wrong!  It was a semi-formal dinner that cost $400 a plate (so glad I didn’t have to pay for it!)  I was looking forward to a date with my husband and dressing up, even though I knew we would be with a bunch of “computer nerds.”  I found the perfect “little black dress” that makes me feel like a million bucks and was kind of excited for the event.  The day of, Chris shows up at 1:30 in the afternoon, puts Josey down for a nap, takes Spencer and tells me to take a nap.  I figured he was up to something, but I have learned you don’t ask twice when a nap is offered to you.  At 4:30 the babysitter showed up and our bags were packed as well as the kids bags.  He was whisking me away for an overnighter!  What a surprise!  We spent the night at The Anniversary Inn, had a lovely dinner (the food was yummy!)   It was so nice to just relax and not have to worry about my children (who spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and absolutely loved it!)  We were able to sleep in and I even got to take a bubble bath in the morning before we left…it was heavenly!  We then spent the afternoon at Cougar Stadium watching a BYU football game.  What fun! 

Chris is an amazing guy!  He makes me smile, tries my patience, loves me in spite of my craziness, is an awesome daddy, makes me crazy, is a hard worker, and a great provider!  I am so blessed and so grateful that he is mine and I love him passionately!  What can I say?  I am a lucky woman!!!!

Okay, so we go to a pumpkin patch every year to get our pumpkins.  It is a fun adventure tromping through the sunflowers and the withered vines to find the perfect pumpkins.  Well this year we went to the place we normally go to and they are no longer doing a pumpkin patch.  The second place we went didn’t have very many orange pumpkins out in the field (thanks to an early snow and teenagers smashing the majority of them).  They had a few bins of picked ones and so we went on the hunt to find our pumpkins.  Spencer went up to one and picked it up…it was about as big as he was…and said, “I’m pickin’ out a prizewinner!”  Chris and I looked at each other and said “what?”  He said it again and we were baffled where he learned it from.  Upon asking him he said, “Curious George!”  (You gotta love public television.)  He then told us he would help us pick out prizewinners too!  In the end I think we found some great pumpkins to carve for Halloween!

Okay, so I am guilty of getting in a rut and overlooking the little things that happen on a daily basis, getting bogged down in the mundane and forgetting to find the joyous things that happen to me every day.  So being reminded that I need to find Joy in living my life, I decided to take a moment and write down the things that I sometimes take for granted and find the JOY in my LIFE today!

1.  Chris kneeling with me for prayers before he left for work.  (I am glad that he is a great man.)

2.  Spencer snuggling with me under the covers with his cold feet on my legs after Chris left for work this morning.

3.  Having breakfast and Spencer telling me he doesn’t want toast and then wanting “two little triangles” from my toast.

4.  Watching Josey light up when I walked into her room this morning to get up.

5.  Sitting at Costco eating a churro and fruit smoothy and Spencer telling me he just loves his churro.  Also while we were there running into one of his preschool teachers and hearing that he is so good at preschool.  (He is so busy at home and so I naturally worry that he will be wild for his teachers.)

6.  Playing hopscotch with Spencer…he was sad that none of his friends could play with him and so I told him we would do something fun.  I haven’t played hopscotch in years!  He was hilarious to watch hop on one leg and just put both down when he was tired.

7.  Sitting down for 15 minutes to read my book (hoping it would be longer, but Josey woke up after a one hour nap cooing and giggling deciding she wanted to play!)

8.  Working togething harvesting our garden while Spencer helped pick a little and pushed Josey in the swing as high as he could.  She laughs the entire time she is swinging.

9.  After prayers saying, “One, Two, Three, Sure Love ya!” with our hands on top of each others and Spencer holding Josey’s in place so she can be a part of it too!

10.  Enjoying the quiet time after kids are in bed to decompress and reflect on the many blessings that I enjoy.  I am truly grateful for the reminders to find the Joys in the sometimes seemingly mundane things of running a house and a family!  My kids and my husband are my greatest blessings and bring me the greatest joys in life!

We decided to take a drive up the canyon while the weather was still good and the leaves were still in color.  We were so glad we did.  Our mountains here in Utah are so spectacular and are a witness to God’s handiwork!  He is truly amazing at the things he has created for our enjoyment and I marvel at the beauty around us!  The colors were breathtakingly beautiful and we had fun!  We packed a picnic dinner and drove up American Fork Canyon up to Granite Flats.  Spencer loved running over the bridge that covered the little creek.  It got chilly when the sun went down and when we got back in the car, Spencer told us he needed to drink some hot chocolate to make his body warm again.