Today I am one Thankful Turkey

I just love this time of year.

This morning, as I woke up, I decided to lay in bed for a good 20 minutes

 just to think about all the things I am grateful for in my life. 

I'll tell you what--- I am one blessed girl.

There is oh-so much in my life that I have to be grateful for. 

The Gospel.

My marriage.

My parents.

Carley.

Caitlyn.

Cade.

Trials.

Smiles.

Modern Medicine.

My missionary memories.

My calling.

Friends.

My wonderful job. 

The prophet. 

Nieces & Nephews.

Lady.

Brett's sweet family. 

The Book of Mormon.

My health.

The temple.

...and the list exceeds just those few things.

To be honest, it's pretty overwhelming to think about all the blessings in my life. 

Recently, at work, we had a discussion and training on gratitude.

Side note: Have I ever mentioned how awesome my job is?

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be able to work 

at such an awesome organization that is invested in developing servant leadership.

I feel like I have grown so much in the past two years and I attribute

a lot of that growth to Vivint and the people I have had the opportunity to work with.

Anyways, so we had a training about 2 weeks ago on the power of gratitude.

We discussed and learned how as we recognize and show gratitude in our lives it changes us.

It strengthens our character.

It makes us feel more joy and happiness in our lives.

I must admit, I love the recent trend on facebook, blogs, and twitter 

where people post what they are grateful for each day of the month of November. 

It's really neat to be able to read all the things people come up with. 

As I have read the different posts (and listened to my training class)

it made me realize that in my busy life, 

I often don't slow down to take the time to think about all the things that I have.

I truly do have so many blessings in my life 

and I want to do a better job of recognizing them on a regular basis.

I was challenged to start keeping a gratitude journal.

Something to write in on a weekly basis and list out the things I am grateful for.

Brett and I decided that we wanted to start this tradition on a family.

Each Sunday night, we plan on sitting down as a family to write in our "Gratitudes".

We decided to make these journals really special.

I went out and purchased these matching journals.

I found this awesome quote about gratitude from Elder Wirthlin 

that I re-created and stuck down in the front of each of our journals.

Sitting down and writing in our "gratitudes" has really been a treat.

It's been fun to talk about and discuss the things we see in our lives as blessings.

I can honestly say that as we have documented our personal blessings,

we have found more happiness. 

Our testimonies have grown.

We have found more humility and gratitude.

Today and everyday I have so much to be grateful for. 

I am glad for this season to be able to re-focus myself and remember it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Love, the Aitkens