Day 17

I am thankful that we are able to provide enough food every day for both us and our children. I can't imagine what it's like to know that you do not have enough money to be able to feed your own kids. I love that the schools have created programs to help these children and know that they are able to get at least two meals a day. I know schools I went to were even able to provide these services on Saturday's. Anytime I get the opportunity to donate to the food bank I take it. I want not only the children but the adults to be able to go to bed with a full stomach. I try very hard not to waste food cause I know somewhere out there someone is going to be on an empty stomach and it makes me sad. Hopefully one day everyone will have enough to eat.

Day 16

I am thankful that I was able to get pregnant and have a baby. I know a lot of woman struggle with this and I am grateful that I was not one of them. I have both family and friends who have struggled to have kids and some that were never able to. I know what a huge blessing Chloe has been for us and I know that for some people it's just not able to happen. It makes me sad especially with all the bad parents out their so I am very thankful for our kids.

Day 15

I am so thankful for running power. There are so many people in other countries who do not get to walk in to a house and have the basics of being able to turn on a light or tv. Let alone a furnance or air conditioner that without power would not run,. When Matt was in Afghanistan he slept in a mud hut sometimes and I think we take such simple things at least to us they are simple for granted. I am so thankful that I never have to worry about my kids being to cold or hot and I know that they have so many options just because of all the power we have.

Day 14

I am so thankful for technology. Technology is such a wonderful thing it makes my life not only easier but a lot more fun. When Matt was in Iraq he was able to email me and this would not have been possible without technology. We are able to skype with Jazmine and Kaylee which is always so much fun and when we go on vacation the road trips and airplane rides are a lot better with the kindles, ipods and movies. I believe there is to much of a good thing I think sometimes technology sometimes takes away that important face to face and phone to phone interaction that we need with each other so there is a happy balance but I do love my technology.

Day 13

I am so thankful for the rain. I love when it rains. Living here in California we almost never get rain anymore and it makes me so sad. Rain I think is just soothing and peaceful. I love a good thunder storm along with the rain. Not only is it soothing but it provides us such a useful resource. Matt always says I should live in Seattle since it rains so much their and I would love that.

Day 12

I am so thankful for my mom and dad. I have great parents who have done so much for me through the years. I know not a lot of people are fortunate to have two parents who love them but I do. I am so grateful that my parents marriage has made it 38 years and counting. It seems like such a simple thing but if you don't have to go through it then you don't realize what a wonderful thing this is. With Matt only getting his other two children a handful of times throughout the year I know how hard it is for both him and his kids. I'm so grateful that I never had to go through that. With the amazing example my parents provided I know that Matt and I will have a lasting marriage and that our children will be blessed with both of their parents in their home. My parents also provided not only the basic needs but they were able to give us more then that with the vacations and extras we had. I know how hard they worked and I appreciate all the sacrifices they made for me.

Day 11

I am so thankful for my education. I had the opportunity to not only finish a high school degree but to be able to go to college and graduate with a degree there. I really believe that knowledge is such an important thing in life and without it we can't make the world a better place. I love that Matt is also working on finishing up his bachelor's degree and hope that since we place such importance on bettering yourself that our kids will see our examples and choose to take this route themselves.

Day 10

I am so thankful for the house we live in. When we first moved here we were living in a trailer and although it's not something you think would be fun it really wasn't that bad. However it did get cramped towards the end and with us having Chloe we needed more space. We were so blessed to have found this great little home. It's 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom and it's perfect for us right now. We live right down the street from a park with a splash pad in it and it's right next to the library so it makes it very convenient. I guess the only bad thing was because we have this nice big yard that's fenced in Matt decided that was the perfect place to keep a dog which was not my ideal but I must admit Chloe loves her dog.

Day 9

I am so thankful for friends. I have tons of great friends both here and in Utah. When we moved Matt was leaving for Afghanistan and so having some friends here was really important to me. I will say I have found some of the sweetest friends around. I love that Matt and I also have the "couple friends" it's great to be able to go out together with another couple and enjoy sharing fun times with them. Leaving friends in Utah was a really hard thing for me and I still have a lot of friends their that I keep in contact with and when we do go home I get to see them. I wish we were able to see them more often but I enjoy even the little bit of time I get with them. Friends to me are a wonderful gift and I can't say enough for how thankful I am for them.

Day 8

I am very thankful for my extended family. I have great family in my life. My parents have always been there for me and are always willing to step up and help us out with anything. Luckily for me all of my siblings are like this too. I have some wonderful in laws as well. But I don't just limit my family to that. I also have wonderful aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. It's so great to be able to chill with family and laugh at all of the things we remember. Even one of my best friends is now a cousin thanks to us marrying cousins. I love all the time we get to be together and I wish I could spend more time with them. Until we moved away I think we took for granted being able to get together anytime but I still love and appreciate all of them even if I don't get to see them as often as I would like.

Day 7

I am so thankful to be able to stay at home with my children. Yes I work but I work from home. This means Chloe does not have to attend daycare and this is a huge blessing to me. My boss is very flexible with my schedule so I only work part time days from home and then a couple of days a week I go into the office for full days. With my schedule I get so much playtime with her and if I need some extra time off it's never a problem. I know eventually I will stay at home full time and I will be so excited for this so that I can attend the kids after school activities, new sports and be able to help out in their classrooms too. For me I have always wanted this and I think these are the times and moments you can never get back. I don't want to sacrifice and not be able to afford to do things with them either so I am very thankful that I have the opportunity for both because of Matt's job.

Day 6

I am so thankful for the right to vote. I know that men and women died to give us these rights and I do not think we should take them for granted. Whether the person you want wins or loses we each have the right to vote and say this is who I want. I hope that not matter who is elected we are able to get some good done not just for one party but for our country cause in the end we should all be able to have a better life.

Day 5

I am so thankful that we have great jobs. Matt and I made the decision to move to California for a better job opportunity and it has been the best decision for us. I know that without these jobs we wouldn't be able to afford even half of what we are able to do. This year we have taken vacations to San Francisco, Hawaii, Utah and South Bend plus we did some fun stuff this summer here in California. I appreciate the opportunities our jobs bless us with and am so thankful for them especially with the economy we are in and some people not even able to find a job.

Day 4

I am very thankful for my husband Matt. He is such a wonderful husband and father. We have been together for over 7 years now and it still feels like we just met yesterday. We have so much fun together and always seem to be on the same wave length. He is so wonderful and sweet to me I can't imagine life without him. I love that we can still laugh and joke around with each other. We are always laughing. No matter what we do whether it's stay at home, go out to dinner, or on vacation together we just love being with each other. He is my best friend and soul mate and I love having that bond with him.

Day 3

I am thankful for being in a country that offers us so many freedoms. Along with this I am so thankful for the men and women who serve in the military for us. Matt was in the Marine Corps for 10 years and I have gone through two war deployments with him not to mention all the other trainings and meetings. I appreciate him and all he did not just for me and our kids but for our country and everyone in it. I am thankful not only to ones currently serving but those in the past that made our country what it is today. I know not everyone comes home I watched it first hand with some of the men that left with Matt and how hard it was for those families so I will not take for granted those that choose to sacrifice for me.

Day 2

I am so thankful that Me, Matt, and our kids are all healthy. I don't think you appreciate how wonderful it is to be healthy until you are usually sick. For most people though they get sick for 1 day and then take some medicine and feel better. But there are a lot of people who have diseases that they fight every day and sometimes they are cured and sometimes they are not. Having both Matt's uncle and my cousin pass away at such an early age for cancer and diabetes it makes you appreciate not having to go through this yourself. All 3 of our girls have never had any major problems and I hope this will continue as well as Matt and I.

Day 1

I love the month of November. I think it brings people to the thought of being thankful for what they have in life. I decided this month I want to name something I am grateful for each day of the month of November. I know that I have more in life then most people so I want to share how thankful I am for everything.

Day 1

I am so thankful for God to everything he provides to me. I know that's saying a lot but without him I wouldn't have anything. I am also so thankful that both Matt and I know and love God and that we try to maintain a good relationship with him and try to teach this to our kids. Even though we both have different religions it's nice to know we have the same things in common and can support each other with this.

Family Picnic

I took Chloe to the family picnic day that Matt's work put on. The picnic was held at the park right down from our street so it was really convenient for me I just put Chloe in the stroller and walked on down. Matt wasn't able to go because he had to work maybe for the next one.

His work did a great job with the picnic. They served us lunch which included hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and several other dishes and sides including more desserts then even Chloe could eat. What I loved too was they had individually wrapped the hot dogs and hamburgers so that no flies could get on the them and then they had covered the rest with those cute netted covers. This is important to me cause I cannot stand to go to a picnic and then see all of these flies all over the food it just grosses me out weird I know but that's how I am. They had plenty of games for the children like a potato sack race, hula hoop contest, water balloon fight and more. Plus the park had a water splash pad for the kids to run around and get wet in and they rented a big water slide for the kids.

Chloe loved running around with all of the kids she couldn't really participate in the games she tried to twirl the hula hoop but had more fun just running with it then anything . They had prizes for all of the kids once the games were over with and Chloe picked out her own prize. She walked up grabbed the big 64 pack of crayons and then ran off with them giggling the whole time it was adorable. They also gave me a coloring book to go with her crayons. They had a lot of great prizes to choose from so it was really nice.

Before they did the water balloon fight Chloe loved going over and pulling out the balloons and then just carrying them around. She did really well with them too she only bit one and it got a little hole in it so it was spraying her which didn't bother her so she just kept on playing. I also got her face painted which she wasn't a big fan of cause she didn't like sitting still but it went pretty quickly and the butterfly was really cute. Unfortunatly I forgot to take a picture of it.

Even though she wasn't big enough for the water slide she loved running over to the bottom of it waiting for one of the other kids to come down because once they hit the pool of water it would splash up and hit her so she would wait till it was hitting her then turn and run hilarious to watch her turn and take off. She played around in the splash pad too and had many treats. Over all it was a great day and we had lots of fun. I'm excited for when they throw the next one so I can take her back.

Chloe playing with the water balloons

 She thought these were awesome

 Spraying herself in the face

 More water in the face

Running towards the water slide

 Waiting for someone to splash her

 Running away

 Playing in the splash pad

Not a great picture but you can see her butterfly a little

 Eating some food

 Trying to get the diet coke

Little Acrobat

Wednesday Chloe was laying on the floor and a Huggies commercial came on that showed babies crawling on top of boxes and other things well I guess she decides if they can do it so can I cause right after she watched the commercial she went over to her walker and climbed up on top of it. This is the first time she has ever crawled on top of anything. Usually she will stand on the bottom of her walker and she has laid underneath it but she has never climbed up on it.

This morning I guess she decided why just limit myself to the walker cause she sees the chair out and proceeds to climb up it and then on to the top of the table. It's so hard cause it's really cute to see her stand up on top of things and love it with this huge grin on her face but of course I don't want her falling off of things and getting hurt. So far she hasn't gotten hurt but I guess we will see what's in store for my little acrobat.

Climbing up her walker

Deciding the chair is her next climbing post

 She makes it to the top

 Looking around like I'm not doing anything

 Then she proceeds to climb on the table

 See that big old grin

Back to standing on top of her walker

Dozer

Matt decided to get Chloe a surprise present for her 1st birthday. The surprise you ask a rottweiler puppy. He drove up to San Diego today while I was at work and when I got home this is what I came home to. Matt has wanted a rottweiler since our husky Kota died a few years ago but I told him not till we got settled down again. He told me he figured it was better to ask forgiveness on this one then permission which is why we now own a dog.

Chloe is in love with this puppy she wants him to play with her which right now he is smaller then her but that won't last long. They are very cute together so as you can see we have added a new member to our family little Dozer.

Chloe trying to give him a toy

 Now Chloe is playing with the toy herself

 Eating her foot

 Playing together

Bad Day

I needed to go to the store today and get some stuff for dinner for tonight so I got Chloe all ready and we headed out the front door to go get in the car. I unlocked the car and get in the back seat so that I can buckle Chloe into her car seat. Now that I have changed to the next car seat it's in the middle so I sit in the seat next to her put her in and then buckle her up it's just easier this way. Anyways so I put her in the seat and since my car has the key less start on it I start the car so that the air will come on and start to cool the car off. I had put my purse in the front seat and the diaper bag on the floor so I finish getting Chloe in get out close her door and then go to get in so we can head to the store. Well this is when the problem hits cause oh no the car is completely locked. I am like what the hell just happened. I try again but oh no all 4 doors are locked and my car keys are sitting in the car on top of the middle console and don't forget my purse is in the front seat which has my cell phone in it.

After the 30 second shock of what I had just done wore off I went across the street to the neighbors to borrow a phone cause all I could think was I will have to call Matt so he can come home from work to unlock this car but he is pretty far away so my neighbor went ahead and called dispatch and the fire department shows up to my house so they can unlock my car to get Chloe out.

Now let me tell you this car was not easy to break into it took them like 20 minutes before they were able to unlock the car and because I didn't have my cell phone I couldn't look up a number to try calling Onstar to see if they could charge me a one time fee to unlock the doors. Luckily they were able to unlock the car and Chloe thought this was a big old game and was laughing and smiling the entire time she was in the car. Plus it was only a 70 degree day outside which meant it was a pretty cool day so she wasn't in the car overheating. The fire department told me if they had gotten there and it was a hot day they would have immediately had to break a window because Chloe was locked in but I was spared having to replace a window and I got my car unlocked.

You  might be wondering how I locked the car well I will explain. With the key less start what you have to do is hit the lock button twice then hit the start button for the car to start up. This is something we do all the time usually before we get in the car so once I do it I just unlock the car and then we go about the day but that was how I managed to lock the car in the first place.

Pretty much before, during and after it happened I just felt stupid that I had done this. Lesson for me never get out of the car without a window rolled down or car keys in the hand but very grateful it all turned out ok. (No pictures since my phone was locked in the car).

Easter Day

We only have Chloe for Easter this year so it was a pretty simple event. I bought some plastic eggs at the store and filled them with candy knowing of course that Matt and I would be the ones to eat the majority of it. While Matt was at work I filled each egg and then when he got home he went ahead and spread them out for Chloe to get.

First we let her open her Easter basket. She loved pulling everything out and wanted to eat the candy right away. Inside her basket I got her a chocolate covered bunny, a carrot shaped bag full of candy, a new dress, and a toy car. She pretty much pulled it all out and played with everything then she would switch back to something she had already taken out and then carry it around.

Then we took Chloe outside and Matt tried showing her that she just needed to pick up the eggs and put them in her basket. Chloe however was more interested in running around then collecting the eggs. She managed to pick up a few but once they were all in the basket then it became a game to her to throw them all out but it was just so cute that you had to laugh.

She had fun opening her basket and collecting some eggs and she loved pulling everything out of her basket so I was happy. I will be so excited for next year when she understands more of what's happening and can enjoy it a little more. Plus we will have Jazmine and Kaylee so it will be a lot busier for us.

Matt putting out the eggs

Still going at it

Oh so many eggs. And yes each one is filled with chocolate!

Chloe's Easter Basket

Taking everything out.

Notice how she pulled the candy out first ha ha.

Interested in the chocolate bunny

Dad shows her the new car

She is fascinated watching him push it around

On to the car for her

Oh let's not forget that orange carrot of candy again

She also loved her dress

Back to the bunny

And of course the car

I just love that little face

Daddy trying to help her with the eggs

Showing her to put it in the basket

Chloe running around

Playing with the eggs in her basket

I love the little fat chin in this picture

Happy just to be running outside