Thankful Tree

This year we started a new tradition for Thanksgiving. It is our Thankful Tree. Every night we each write one thing we are thankful for on a leaf and stick it to the tree. (I admit, I got the idea off of an acquaintances blog.) This may be my favorite tradition so far. I love seeing how excited the boys get to write on their leaf every night. Some of my favorite things they have written are...

Eli - prayers, the church, Mom, Dad, Isaac, Toys R Us, a bed
Isaac - Hair, fingers, the prophet, leaves, Mom, Dad, sticky stuff

There are a few leaves that we are EXTRA thankful for today...

A few days ago Eli was thankful for a house.

Chris's leaf from tonight (He's out of town so he tells me what he wants it to say and I do the rest. That's why it's in my handwriting.)

My leaf from tonight.

Last night we had a gas problem. Our gas meter broke and was shooting gas out. The house smelled of gas and we called Questar and they told us they were sending a technician to come and see what was going on but in the mean time we needed to leave the house without doing anything that could cause a spark. It was about 2:30 am so Eli and Isaac were wrapped up in blankets and brought out to the car. We drove down the street and hung out in the church parking lot. I admit that I was pretty much just waiting to hear the explosion and watching all of our possessions go up in flames while hoping that we were far enough away to not get hit by any of them.

We decided we needed to warn our neighbors since it was on their side of the house and they have little kids sleeping in the closest rooms. Luckily we have great neighbors who helped Ben turn the gas off (remember Chris, the emergency planning specialist, is out of town) and let us camp out in their extra bed room until the repair man got here and said it was safe to go back in the house. In the end we only lost about 2 hours of sleep and the use of a heater and water heater for about 10 hours. A price I will certainly pay over and over again to have my family safe and a house to live in.

So yes, today we are extremely grateful for a house, answered prayers and that our house didn't blow up. We are also grateful that Emilee and Ben are here since they are the ones who woke up and discovered the problem. I had no idea anything was happening and I fear it wouldn't have ended so well if I had been here alone with the boys.

At about 4 am when the excitement was all over I told the boys that it was time for us to go back to sleep. Isaac looked at me and said...

"Actually, I want to be awake."