Belated Thankfuls

My friend Tiff posted things she was thankful for and tis the season to be thankful so I just wanted to post a few things that I'm thankful for:

- Sam: My wonderful, wonderful husband. He puts up with all of my insanity and immaturity. He is my world. He really is my best friend and the love of my life. I love that we can talk about anything and everything and at the same time we're perfectly fine with being quiet too. He is my support and I wouldn't be where I am today without him.

- Family: I am so very grateful for my family and my new family (aka in-laws). My family is amazing and has grown so close in these last few years and I couldn't love them more. They've always been there for me even when I didn't think I needed them. I love the great relationships I've gained with my mom and sisters. We're best buds now. I love my brothers too. :) My in-laws are just wonderful. They've taken me in as one of their own. I love all the new older siblings I have since I've been an oldest child all my life. Loves to all my family, immediate and extended!

- Friends: I really am thankful for my friends. They listen to me vent and complain all the time and we have great talks too. I've made some wonderful friends in Cedar since I moved up here. Girl talk always brightens my day. :)

- Gospel: I'm SO very thankful for the gospel. I love the peace it gives me as well as the strength and motivation to do better. Knowing families are forever is a wonderful thing. I'm also very grateful for the atonement and the huge part it has played in my life.

- Sam's Job: I am grateful that Sam has job and that we are able to pay all of our bills. Having any job in this economy is a tremendous blessing and I'm glad he's found a job that he loves so much and that it provides for all our needs and wants.

- Holidays: Lastly, I'm thankful for the time of year between Oct 31st and Jan 1st. This holiday season brightens my spirit and makes me nostalgic and warm and fuzzy. Snow is not my favorite thing but celebrating such a wonderful time of year and all the many blessings we've been given is always the best part of my year. :)

Till next time,
Whit

Pie's Bitter Enemy written by Sam

The best thing about this time of year is by far the pie. It is officially the beginning of pie season. The season in which our sweet tooth, salt tooth, and any other type of tooth is satisfied with all varieties of food, but my most valued tooth is by far my pie tooth. I am from a family steeped in the tradition of pies. Most memories of my past birthdays include me blowing the candles out of my birthday pie. Now don't get me wrong, cake is great I love cake but pie just does it more for me. On thanksgiving we hurry through the boring turkey, potatoes, yams, and stuffing so that we can enjoy the real reason for thanksgiving. That is, the variety of pies to choose from. Each year my mom and each of my sisters brings 2-4 pies each. . . I have 5 sisters. Las year we had something like 15 pies between 12 adults or so. It's the best!

But as you surely noticed from the title of this post, pie has a mortal enemy. I know what you're thinking: cake. You would be incorrect. Cake isn't the enemy of pie its more like that friend of yours that you like to have over sometimes because he is mostly fun and buys you candy and slurpies but still just kind of annoys you. So sometimes, maybe 1 out of 5 times he rings the doorbell you pretend you're asleep so you don't have to answer the door. You like him, but only when its convenient for you.

In fact pie's mortal enemy is not cake it is cinnamon. Never and I mean never have I bitten into a cinnamon peach, apple, cherry, or any potentially cinnamon-y pie and thought "Mmmm that is much better with cinnamon than without". No, not once, not ever. You may like cinnamon pies, good for you. It is just my personal opinion that they are better without that particular ingredient. Cinnamon has the same affect on me as do people with peircings or tattoos. I can honestly say Ive never seen a person with tattoo or peircings in which the person looked better with it than without. This is one instance in which less is more people!

But again allow me to explain, I will eat a cinnamon pie, and I will enjoy it. But mostly what I taste is it's potential to be an amazing pie. It reminds me of the time I was playing high school basketball and the coach told me that of all the players on the team I had the most potential. I'm sure the coach's thought process was like this: "that kid tries hard and he needs a compliment. But how can I say that of all the talent on the team, Sam has the least by a long shot without sounding mean? Wait, the 'potential' speech. That's it!" Sometimes I eat a piece of cinnamin peach pie and I just want to hold the little piece of pie in my hands, lightly stroke it's crumbly crust and and say "Aw, even with all the pressures around you, you still have the courage to be you. You are so brave! You just keep trying and maybe someday you can actually have something to be proud of."

Come to think of it, my coach gave me that same speech as well.

Halloween 2009

We had a great Halloween this year even though we couldn't go down to St. George to take my two youngest siblings trick or treating. I was a nudist on strike and Sam dressed up as the hottest Chuck Norris I've ever seen. :) We went to a Halloween party at a friends house and Sam's costume won second place in the costume contest. I was a runner up. After that Scott and Lexy came over to our house and we all played Rock Band on our Wii. Super fun. :) We only had three trick or treaters and two of them were planned so we had a lot of Halloween candy to eat. Scott and Lexy helped us with that though. We carved pumpkins with them a few weeks earlier and it was a blast. Sadly ours were killed by massive amounts of mold only a few days later but they looked awesome while they lasted. Enjoy the pics!

My pumpkin is the first pic and Sam's is the second. In other news, we're hopefully getting new couches soon! Sam's brother said he's pick up some couches we were interested in that we found on KSL. Hopefully all goes well. :)