Attitude of Gratitude: New Neighbor-Friends

So, I have a friend who is doing 40 days of gratitude on her blog. She challenged her readers to do something along those same lines and I thought it would be a great thing to join in. Now, I'm not so fantastic at updating very often so I don't know that I'll make the 40 days in a row goal but I'm definitely going to try to make it a habit- at least when the boys go to bed early enough.

Today I'm grateful for new neighbor-friends!

Whenever you move somewhere new there is always that apprehension of meeting new people. As we prepared to move here I pictured myself snowed in with my two boys at home while Jason worked 26 hours a day. The boys would be watching hours of TV while I gained 30 pounds eating bon bons out of depression and loneliness.

Happily, I don't see that happening any time soon. We have been SO lucky I can't even express. Not only is there a really awesome group of gals in my ward but I've even been able to become friends with a few of my neighbors. To make things even better, there's plenty of kids around that are just Zach's age. They all get along so well and I can tell that Zach is just having the time of his life. We have a little girl who lives right behind us so all we have to do is open the gate and it's play time! There's also a little boy next door and a few down the street as well.

This is a picture of Zach with the brother and sister who live just down the street. We went to the zoo a little while back and they had a blast running... just running! from place to place.

The other night we had them over for dinner (their dad was out of town and Jason was working). It was going to be just us, 2 moms and 4 kids. 2 on 2... that's an alright number. THEN the neighbor behind me called needing a quick babysitter so she sent her daughter over as well, that put us at five. That's right FIVE kids, 2 adults, 1 house. It was madness, but in a good way. The kids basically just ran around the island in my kitchen and down the hall and back about thirty times until they were ready to pass out. They were giggling and squealing the whole way while Kyle hopped excitedly in his bouncer. He couldn't get enough of all the action.

Yes, my house was a mad house but the kids were having so much fun I would do it again in an instant. And ya know, considering how close everybody is, it really could happen again any time. That's the best part!