happy thanksgiving!

Last year, Grammy Eccles made Harper and Hunter a Thanksgiving calendar, where each day was a new lesson about gratitude.  This year, we were so excited to receive a new set of lessons for our gratitude countdown.  Once again, it has brought the spirit of Thanksgiving into our home and into our hearts.  Hunter and especially Harper look forward to doing "a gratitude" each day, and it has been so special to spend time together as a family remembering all the things, little and big, that we have to be grateful for.  To name a few…

1.) We are thankful for our teeth - Check out Harper's new toothbrush!  Grammy Eccles gave Harper and Hunter $1 per pound of Halloween candy that they gave away, and that money was to be used for a gratitude project later in the month (stay tuned for #9).  We decided to send some treats to our friend who is a missionary in Mexico.
2.) We are thankful for day and night - We learn from the scriptures how God divided the day from the night, and Daddy helped Harper with an activity matching daytime activities and nighttime activities.
3.) We are thankful for our cousins - Harper and Hunter made cards to send to some of their cousins.
4.) We are thankful for our kitchen - We used our kitchen tools and a special recipe to make treats for our neighbors upstairs!  Delivering them was the best part for Harper; she loves our neighbors so much.

5.) We are thankful for our books - Grammy Eccles sent some fun books about fall for us to read together.
6.) We are thankful for our neighbors - Harper made a card to take to our special neighbors upstairs. She would bring them a card everyday if she could!
7.) We are thankful for our Daddy - Harper and Hunter made special notes for Daddy telling him why they are thankful for him and hid them under his pillow to surprise him!  Then Harper ran to Daddy and said, "Daddy, we hid a surprise for you under your pillow!"
8.) We are thankful for our house - We worked together to pick up Harper and Hunter's room.  Grammy Eccles gave Harper and Hunter $5 for this project, to be used for our next gratitude project.  Hunter was more interested in looking at the books than putting them away, but we did our best.

9.) We are thankful for our toys - Using the money that Harper and Hunter earned from their Halloween candy and cleaning their room, plus a Target gift card from Grammy Eccles, we went shopping to purchase toys for some friends who don't have as much as we do.  We selected names from The Home For Little Wanderer's Christmas wish drive, and we spent time shopping for the items on these little friends' wish lists.  We picked a little girl the same age as Harper who asked for a baby doll stroller and a little boy the same age as Hunter who wanted a potty and a drum set.  Picking out toys for these friends was a tender reminder of all that we have in our lives, so many blessings that we are grateful for. 
10.) We are thankful for our brothers - Harper just loves her little brother, Hunter, and she has loved thinking about her big brother, Rex, up in heaven too.  What a blessing it is to have siblings that we love and have fun with.  Harper is a great big sister to Hunter and gives him so much love everyday.
11.) We are thankful for aunts and uncles - Harper and Hunter drew special cards to send to one of their aunts and one of their uncles.
12.) We are thankful for our moms - Harper and Hunter made me a special Thanksgiving necklace that even had a turkey bead on it! Harper also wrote me a special note that she hid in my purse so that I discovered it at work the next day!  This time, she kept it a secret.  It made me smile to learn the reasons Harper feels grateful for her mommy.  My heart is full with gratitude for my amazing family.

13.) We are thankful for our family - Grammy Eccles treated us to a new game, Barrel of Monkeys, that we learned to play together as a family.  Family game nights are so fun!
14.) We are thankful for turkey - Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be complete without turkey!  Grammy Eccles sent us supplies to make a craft turkey.  We love doing Thanksgiving crafts.
15.) We are thankful for our eyes - We thought about all of the things we like to see with our eyes and the things we would miss seeing if we didn't have the gift of sight.  Then we got to use our eyes to watch a movie together as a family.  Can you guess what we watched?  That's right, Frozen!  And we had popcorn too. Yum.
16.) We are thankful for nature - We love spending time outdoors, especially at the park.  Not a day goes by that Harper doesn't ask to go to the park down to the street from our house.  Fortunately, the weather has been so great that we have been able to play at the park a lot lately, sometimes even without our coats on.  We hope this lasts forever.

17.) We are grateful for technology - We use technology all the time, like our iPhone that allowed us to take pictures of our daily gratitude activities.
18.) We are grateful for our Heavenly Father - He has blessed us with everything.  Harper knelt down and said a special prayer to express her gratitude for the things in her life that Heavenly father has blessed her with.  What a tender moment.
19.) We are grateful for grandparents - Harper and Hunter made thank you cards and sent them to each of their grandparents.
20.) We are thankful for Thanksgiving - We can't wait for our Thanksgiving feast and for the chance to be together with some of our family and friends.  Grammy Eccles sent supplies for Harper to make us placemats to use.
21.) We are grateful for our hands - Grammy Eccles sent some special window markers, and Daddy helped Harper and Hunter make handprint turkeys on the window to decorate for Thanksgiving.

22.) We are grateful for apples - Today we learned fun facts about apples.  Did you know that apples can float in water because 25% of their volume is air?  Neat, huh? At the grocery store, Harper and Hunter got to sample some different types of apples-- delicious!
23.) We are grateful for our car - We decided to take care of our car with a trip to the carwash.  It was quite an adventure; Harper and Hunter weren't sure what to make of it as we went through… But our car looked great when we were done!

24.) We are thankful for friends - We read a story that Grammy Eccles sent about friendship.  Our friends are so special to us. Harper and Hunter picked a few special friends to make Thanksgiving cards for.  We even got to have a special dinner date at Shake Shack with two of our best friends, Carder and Brenn, who love Shake Shack as much as we do!
25.) We are thankful for water - We learned about the different kinds of reasons, physical and spiritual, that water is important.  Grammy Eccles sent us some magic powder to add to our water bottles to make plain water turn to raspberry lemonade--magical and tasty!  
26.) We are thankful for food - Food is an important part of the Thanksgiving feast and also a way to keep our bodies healthy and help us grow strong.  Grammy Eccles sent Harper and Hunter some new foods to try--yum!

We are so thankful to Grammy Eccles for making this month such a special celebration of gratitude.  Thanksgiving is so much more meaningful after having the chance to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for, which is even more than the 27 things we learned about this month.  We are rich with blessings.  We celebrated Thanksgiving out at Mimi's house this year with A LOT of friends and family, almost 30 people total.  It was a crazy, fun day.  The fried turkey that Dallin made was a special highlight of the day, and we were grateful to him for venturing out into the cold snow to make it.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our family and friends who have made this year so special.  Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.