Attitude of Gratitude

I absolutely love this time of year. We have left the scorching days of July and August. The pressure of Christmas time is still a few weeks away, and we get to look forward to a day of gratitude and food with our families and friends.

As a society we have set aside the fourth Thursday in November as an official day of thanks. But shouldn't every day be one that is full of thanks? I love how one of the consistent habits of happy or successful people is gratitude. It is not that these individuals do not have struggles. Of course they do. We all do at some point in our lives and on more than one occasion.

It is a wonderful time to be living on earth today. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right. As a family we wanted to make our November service themed around how grateful we are for the many things we have been blessed with.

We sat down as a family and discussed how we can lift ourselves, as well as others, when we cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. We then came to the understanding that if everyone in the world lived this way - the world would be a better place to live.

One of my (the mommy of the Super Heroes of Service) favorite hymn's drives this point. It says:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done...

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged; God is over all.

Count your many blessings; angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

As we reflected upon our lives as a family we uncovered many things we have to be grateful for.

And now onto the service:

Here is the supplies we needed: colored paper, brown paper bags, and peanuts.

We made the brown paper bags into a cute a colorful turkey.

Super Hero Roy wrote on each feather something he was grateful for.

He is thankful for: Jesus, Mom, Dad, Dallas & Dakota :)

Dakota and Dallas opened the brown paper turkey's and added peanuts to the bag. As you can see Roy is eating some peanuts in the background. It is hard work to be a Super Hero and we need to keep our strength up ;)

Here is what the finished product looks like:

The Super Hero mommy made the poem to go with it with the help of her trusty side kick - Photoshop.

In case you can't read it - this is what it says:

We are such Thankful Turkey's this year
That we thought we should spread
Some neighborhood cheer.

It seems we are so busy we can only say hi,
And before we know it the year has gone by.

We feel so blessed that you are our friend,
And hope our friendship will never end!

And now onto delivering the Turkey Treat:

Laughing ;)

Let's get going!

Ringing the doorbell at the first house we went to.

Now onto the next house

Hello :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."
- Melody Beattie

Reverse Trick or Treating

Halloween is all about “getting.” Getting a costume, getting some candy, getting a sugar buzz, getting a sugar low, getting sent to Time Out. :)

We decided that it’s time to turn the table around and make part of the holiday about giving. We will still do the usual running around town and begging for candy routine. But we decided that we wanted to also try something new this Halloween.

As many of you know, we recently moved back to our home in Las Vegas (we have been in Utah for 2 years). There have been a few new neighbors move in our neighborhood while we were away. We have been brainstorming ways to meet these new neighbors. Since Halloween is right around the corner, we decided to do a spin-off of the tradition and called it, “Reverse Trick-or-Treating.” 

First the Super Heroes mommy (a.k.a - me) made these cute poems with the help of photoshop.

Since making caramel apples is always on our families list of fall activities, we decided why not gather up all the supplies and give it as a gift! All we needed was some apples, a package of caramels, some Popsicle sticks and our caramel apple kits were ready to go.

The Super Heroes decorated paper bags to look spooky. Here they are coloring the bags:

Super Hero Dallas

Super Hero Dakota

Super Hero Roy

Here is the finished products:

We put the apples inside the brown paper bags.

Our whole family walked up and down the street, knocked on doors and introduced ourselves. Once the neighbors got past the fact that we were not trying to sell them something - but giving them candy instead – it started not only a conversation but a relationship.

We also took some to a few families in our Church who have small children. We hope they have as much fun as we had putting the Caramel Apple kits together.

Here is some pictures of us in action:

A Message from the Super Heroes of Service:
This Halloween season, take some time to get to know your neighbors. You’ll be glad you did! 

Send A Hug

One of the Super Heroes cousins has been in the hospital. She is still currently in the hospital - they are hoping that see with be able to go home on Wednesday, September 19th but they are still taking it day by day. She has been in the hospital - as of today over a week.

We wanted to go and visit her but since we live other a 1000 miles apart we had to think outside of the box. We brainstormed what we would like to have if we were in the hospital and we decided that a HUG is what we would want. 

Well since I (the mom) could not ship the Super Heroes though UPS or Fed Ex we decided to the do the next best thing. 

How?

Well we decided we would trace each Super Heroes outstretched arms to create a giant tangible "hug" that we could roll up and mail.

Here are some action shots:

The tracing:

Roy and Dakota

Dallas

Then we decorated them to look like the Super Heroes:

Last but not least the mom cut them out. Sorry no picture of her cutting them but here is a picture of the finished HUGS.

Super Hero Dakota

Super Hero Roy - he is holding the get well card we sent.

Super Hero Dallas

All Three HUGS side by side

The Super Heroes holding up the HUGS - sorry this is the best picture I could get because
they did not want to stand still :)

What do you think? Do the HUGS look like the Super Heroes?

We hope that this small act brightens our cousins day and that she realizes how loved she is. We wish her a speedy recovery and pray that she will be able to be released from the hospital soon.

Little Box of Sunshine

Since it is August and we do live in Vegas, the sun is always a factor. The mom of the Super Heroes aka. me :) has been trying to think of good services that we can do inside our home for the most part. We are melting here :) 

We decided that it would be a great time to spread a little sunshine and just maybe brighten up someones day. And Walla!!! 

Bring in the Little Box of Sunshine. (You gotta love pinterest - which is where I got the idea from)

We started by taking a box and spray painting it yellow. And as my mom (the Super Heroes Grandma) can attest to this was a job for the mommy. I know it would be anyways but I am going to take this opportunity to tell you all a story :)

Warning: Random story that doesn't have anything to do with our service project this month.

We were in Idaho last week visiting with family and attending the Little Buckaroo Rodeo - a cute rodeo for kids only. It is adorable. Anyways, my parents house is NOT kid proof and my 3 Super Heroes found some spray paint. Roy thought it was would so fun to spray paint his brothers red. Dakota got the most of the paint splatter and we are still scrubbing the paint off of his legs. Thank goodness I got there before any real damage could have been done. The boys were laughing so hard. They thought it was so fun. They couldn't understand why I was mad - makes me laugh now though :)

Anyways back to our service, here we are painting the boxes.

After they dried, we filled them with anything yellow.

Cute Dakota :)

Again :)

Here is what the boxes looked like (we made 2):

Next we printed out the card that I (the Super Heroes mommy) made with the help of my trusty side kick - Photoshop.

We added some cute sun clip art and placed the card in our boxes.

We ran out of spray paint. Oh well still turned out cute :)

Then we were off to deliver them.

Okay we have to be as quiet as Ninja's.

I know that the cards show the Super Heroes faces so it is not really a surprise who has given this service but we still ring the doorbell and run. They LOVE it!! It is their favorite services to do.

And now onto the next house:

Ring the Doorbell.

Run....


We hope that the wonderful people who received these Little Boxes of Sunshine LOVED them as much as we LOVED making them.

Hopefully we inspire a few people to get out there and spread a little SUNSHINE.