Attitude of Gratitude.

Morgan and I have been trying to hold Family Home Evening on Monday nights the past few weeks, and so far we are really enjoying it! I'm in charge of planning FHE on Mondays and Morgan is in charge of planning a date night...usually on Friday nights. Since we've started doing this we've really felt happier and closer as a couple...who knew! ;) Tonight we talked about gratitude (original I know...but Thanksgiving is the perfect time to talk about it). We read a talk by President Thomas S. Monson that he gave during this past general conference entitled, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." (Read it HERE) He talked about so many wonderful things and made several fabulous points...but I think my favorite quote was this:

"A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that hey bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort - at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don't get around to it. Someone has said that "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

I loved that! To wrap up or conversation on gratitude, Morgan and I each wrote down 5 things we are grateful for. Here are a few of the things we wrote:

Morgan:
"I'm grateful for an ugly car that has always been reliable."
"I'm grateful for good friends that are unselfish."
"I'm grateful for the Savior and his atonement for me."

Cate:
"I'm grateful for my awesome husband who cleans the house so when I get home I don't have to stress."
"I'm grateful for Christmas music because it makes me happy and excited for the holidays."
"I'm grateful for texting so I can keep in touch with friends and family."

A few other things I'm grateful for...in picture form! These were taken over the past year:

The temple:

Beautiful U-T-A-H:

Wildflowers: