Grateful and Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving

We just wrapped up our Thanksgiving feast, and it was a FEAST! (Anyone hungry, please come over to our house for leftovers!). I'm just feeling grateful today and wanted to let my family know how much I love all of you (those who are here in the UT, and those who are all over the US); I love you all so much.
What a great family we have and what wonderful friends we have; we are truly blessed. I'm so grateful for each of you who we can count on for just about anything, or as Mike Henry would say "there are friends, and then there are military friends"; we have some of the best "military friends" you could ever ask for and how lucky we are to have friends like this in our lives.
My Mom: I love her so much. I just wish we were closer. She’s such a kind, thoughtful, generous person and I love her so much for that.
My Dad: It took me moving out, getting married, and then a few years later before it really hit me how much I loved my dad for his adamant efforts to keep me out of harm’s way while I was growing up. I do love my dad so much and I’m grateful for him for so many reasons.
Jared’s mom and dad: They're great people and I’m grateful for their efforts and love toward our children.
I’m grateful for Todd and Wendy; they are the most honest, loyal, good-doing people I know and they treat my little boys like they are their own and that just means the world to us. Todd has worked with Jared for several years now and over the years you start to realize how valuable it is to be able to depend on someone and trust someone. That’s just priceless and Jared is very lucky to have such a great brother.
My two brother's and my sister; I have so many stories about my siblings and I just have to say that I couldn't be more proud of each of them, where they're at in life their accomplishments. I'm so grateful for my brothers and my sister and I love each of them so much.
My cousin, Tiffany: Tiffany is one-in-a-million. She’s the most friendly, selfless, caring, giving, and absolutely beautiful person I know. She can walk into a room of strangers and if you give her 10 minutes she’ll be friends with everyone in that room. I feel so very blessed that I was able to grow up with Tiffany and somehow we both ended up right here in UT just 15 minutes apart, our boys all just months apart (or weeks apart!) and she’s really like a sister to me. I’ve never known someone who’s been through so much, and still have so much left to give. She gives and gives. I’m so thankful for her, her example, her spirit, her love and friendship.
My grandparents: I'm SO lucky to have all 4 of my grandparents still alive and here with us. They've all taught me so much and I admire each of them for so many things.
We really missed having my G&G Burton here with us this Thanksgiving. My Grandma's cancer has been spreading throughout her body and we're just all praying for her but it's not looking pretty. I talked to my Grandpa Burton tonight and he's always in such good spirits, still cracks jokes about himself even in the midst of these trials.
I talked to my mom this morning and I'm just really missing her and my brothers and sister, all of my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, old friends, etc.
I love my family so much.

OK, on with the day! We had a houseful of our family and some of our close friends over for Thanksgiving and it was deeelicious! This year we had Uncle Wayne, Aunt Laurie, Tiffany, Coby and their kiddos, Sommer, Chase, Jared's folks, and the Henry's over for the big feast. I think we all made enough food to feed a small army and so there were casseroles and platters everywhere and it was all so good.



Like I said, how can you not just LOVE this girl? She's always making up these cute crafts for the kids and she makes everything so fun. After we ate we helped the kids make these cute little turkeys out of pinecones.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day!!!