Grateful

Today I am grateful for...

*Technology! It connects me to the people I love :)

*FAMILY far and near

*Fantastic Roommates

*Good friends that are always there when I need them...whether it's to fix my car, listen to me, or just enjoy life with me!

*A great ward!

*Prayer, the scriptures, and Latter-day revelation that invite the Holy Spirit and bring peace. Here's my recent fav:

*My best friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is as real to me as all of you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (or as we say in my family, Happy Thanksgibbons!)

Thanksgiving Part II

To start off the holiday, Annie and I ran a 5k in Draper!

 in the car before the race...

Mandy and Chantelle joined us!

AFTER the race! excited about Annie's first 5k!!

Then off to the Glenns' for wonderful food and fun company :) here we are with Grandma Glenn!

And more of the group! (missing a lot...)

Annie and I then went over to say hi to the Stonemans! They fed us wonderful pie and we had fun visiting and joining in a Christmas sing-a-long with the whole group! Highlights:
*the grandsons getting super excited when they heard annie and I were there! Then some confusion...turned out they heard "a lizard is here!" Turns out cousin Liz is NOT as exciting as a real lizard.
*Calvin's dance during the group's rendition of "Feliz Navidad"
*Gunther requesting an encore of "Feliz Navidad"
*Little Kayla correcting Uncle Augie's confusion with the page numbers again and again
*Playing football with Grahamburger :)

OTHER WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
-> Fun shopping day getting Josh's Christmas package all put together with Annie.  Now today we'll get it shipped off to Mexico!
-> A fun visit with Michelle! (and a repeat of our favorite past time: singing at the piano! it'd been way too long!)
-> Michelle and I headed over to Lori's house for a visit with the whole Riches family! love that house. intense mario kart tourney.  reminiscing. teasing kristin. the usual.
-> movie marathons with annie! holiday inn, random chick flicks on TV while waiting for our jello creation to set up, anne of green gables AND anne of avonlea (the gilbert version...where you skip any part without gilbert in it), and the music man!

Annie and I were so grateful to our extended family for making us feel so welcome! We missed mom and dad in Russia, the Bosters in Texas, the Shawcrofts in Colorado, and Josh in Mexcio...but we are certainly grateful for skype this year!! technology is a great blessing in my life as my family is scattered around the world.  I'm also very grateful for my dear sister Annie holding down fort here in the family home so I have a place to come home to :)

More than anything, I am thankful for the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for His ability to do it, His willingness to do it, and His love for each of us that motivated Him to do it.  I am grateful that it makes it possible for me to enjoy peace, healing, and progression. I'm grateful He never gives up on me :) He is my truest friend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

happy thanksgibbons! :)

so abby and ryan are headed to colorado for thanksgiving...so we decided to have our thanksgibbons feast on saturday before they left. this was our first time without mama to be the master chef! in annie's words, "not bad for some snot-nosed kids!"

Annie: Turkey and Rolls

Abby: Pumpkin Pie and Gravy

Liz: Mashed Potatoes and Corn

Ryan: Turkey Carving (by the way...check out that smolder)

Group Effort: Stuffing 

our spread!

Then...keeping with gibbons tradition, we opened up the Christmas season with WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

WELCOME CHRISTMAS TIME!!

  

getting excited for . . .

THANKSGIVING!!! 

i'm getting excited already :) is it weird that i've been listening to josh groban's song "thankful" on repeat for the past 45 min?  if you haven't heard it, look it up. amazing.

my life as a runner . . .

Let's be honest, I haven't always been a runner. In fact, the first time I really ran consistently was with my dear friend Diane. She and I (then Sister Bush and Sister Gibbons) started running together on the mission with the Glacier Park ward cheering us on :)

After running 4 miles with Sister Moulton and Sister Allen on preparation day!

After we got home, we ran our first 5k together on Thanksgiving!

Next stop, HALF MARATHON!!

April 16, 2011

I paid today, so I guess I better really do it now :) I've still got a long way to go, but I started training this week and I'm feeling great! I figure if my pops can run like 50 marathons, I should be able to do a half right? He's my inspiration, and Diane is the perfect person to do it with. LOVE YOU BOTH!

THANKSGIVING!!

I had an amazing thanksgiving! We just had a quiet shindig at home, but the whole fam was there! It was especially fun since the Bosters have recently moved to Idaho. (we miss you guys!) They showed up a day early and surprised us all which was fun. What more could you want in a weekend? family, good food, JAMES, and lots of christmas movies :) As Gibbons family tradition has it, we always watch "White Christmas" Thanksgiving night to open up the Christmas season. I never let myself get TOO excited about Christmas until we watch it. I also got to see Michelle and meet her fiancee! Even though she whooped us in power scrabble, I'm not still bitter. Too bad I got sick too though :( my cough makes me sounds like an old man who has smoked his whole life. But I guess there could be worse things huh?

Here are a few pics of the weekend including some from our family photo shoot! I don't have it with me, but I will soon post PROOF that me and my momma went shopping at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving . . . something I didn't think would ever happen. It's kind of a goofy story since we didn't buy anything, we just needed the security tag removed from a shirt we bought on Wednesday so I could wear it in the family pics. We DID get free snow globes though, so that combined with the memories made it well worth it hehe :) a picture to come of our 4 am loveliness!

Getting the food ready! Dad's apron is the best: "Grill a Judge"


Some quality play time with the boy, gives me a good excuse to do the things i secretly want to do anyway, like put baskets on top of my head :)

THE FAM!

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!" haha White Christmas reference . . .

our little josh is all grown up now!


the sibs complete with jonathan!

my parents looking "young, modern, and popular" ;) but seriously! what a handsome couple!!

Well those pictures mostly sum up what I am thankful for this thanksgiving, the wonderful people in my life, especially my family! The past few weeks I've reflected a lot about the people that mean a lot to me and how much joy I get from my relationships with them.