Pregnancy Journal (Week 28)

Our little princess is getting bigger and bigger. I can now push on my growing belly and feel little body parts like a head, rear, elbows and knees. It makes this baby so much more real. Yesterday started my 3rd Trimester!! 12 weeks to go!

Today I started going through some of the little girl clothes we’ve been given. So fun!! So many cute dresses, pink, and flowers! Our laundry is going to look so much more colorful! Right now it’s all blue. Can’t wait to add some pink!

On Monday I go to the doctor for my glucose test. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll pass. To have to be on a diet while pregnant would totally cramp my style!

I decided on a name. It’s actually the name that Darrin has wanted for the past several months, but when I told him I was ready to commit, he got all wishy washy on me. I’m hoping we can decide soon cause I’d really like to start calling her by her name!

This conference weekend has me reflecting on how this girl came to be. Last summer/fall I spent many hours contemplating and praying to know whether our family was complete or not. With everything that we’d been through, I wasn’t sure I could emotionally handle much more. I was leaning toward the idea that maybe my mission in life was not to be a mother to lots of children, but that maybe Heavenly Father had something else in mind for me. I had just about gotten used to the idea that my days of little kids were over and was almost excited for the next phase in life. Hours before the last conference in October I said a prayer in my heart and asked my Heavenly Father if that was the right choice or not. I prayed that something in General Conference would stick out to me and help me know what to do. In the afternoon session Neil L. Andersen’s whole talk was on bearing and having children in today’s world where other things are of a higher priority to many people. He quoted someone that said, “It [having children] is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.” As soon as I heard that, I knew it was my answer.

I needed to try again.

That talk was given on Oct. 1^st. I found out I was pregnant on October 17^th. Any of you that know anything about having a baby, know that it didn’t take long. I was amazed and in awe at how fast it happened. It’s never happened that fast for us. It was another witness to me that we did the right thing. We, of course, didn’t know the outcome and were scared about how things would turn out. But we had peace knowing that we were doing what our Heavenly Father wanted.

Much to our delight things have gone well. Heavenly Father has blessed us. It’s not over, but regardless of what happens peace will be in my heart.

We have living prophets on the earth today, and Heavenly Father is very aware of each of us.

And this is something I know.

March 24, 2012

On March 24 Josh was baptized and confirmed a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

(Sunday, March 11 with Bishop Nelson after Bishop’s interview)

We sent this invitation to the kids in his primary class, other friends, family, teachers, etc…

Josh’s baptism day was a beautiful spring day.  At the beginning of the service Pres. Gale had the kids stand up, turn around, and look at all the people that would give up a sunny afternoon in Oregon to witness their baptism.  They are special kids!

We sang “I Love to Look for Rainbows” for the opening song.  And Grandma Morris gave the opening prayer, and Grandpa Morris gave a talk on Baptism.

Then Josh was baptized.  It was a very special.

After Josh got dressed, he, his brothers and two cousins sang “Scripture Power.”

Then there was a talk on the Holy Ghost and then Josh received the Holy Ghost. 

It is sorta surreal to see your own child get baptized.  I feel like we’ve entered a new whole phase of parenting.  And I love it!  It’s exciting to watch him grow up, make his own choices, and want to follow the Savior.

After the baptism we celebrated at home with family.  We had Lasagna with ice cream sundaes for dessert! 

Thanks for everyone who supported Josh that day!  We had lots of family missing, and we truly missed them that day.

Mt. Hood

Last Wednesday my parents and a couple of my sibs came into town.  We headed up to Mt. Hood to spend a couple days in the snow!  The drive there was kinda stressful because it was snowing, but we made it!  We got there and Luke played in the snow while everyone else rented their ski gear. 

After dinner Darrin, Nathan, and Kristin went over to SkiBowl to night ski.

The rest of us stay at the house and played games and ate brownies!

Thursday morning Darrin and the kids, Grandpa, Nathan, and Kristin went up to Timberline Lodge to ski. 

We hired a ski instructor in our ward to teach the kids how to ski.  Josh got the hang of it pretty quick.  Andrew had harder time, but still had fun…I think.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL on the mountain which is rare. 

They got back to the house around 5 and were starving for food!!  After we filled up on soup, we went hot tubbing!  So weird to be swimming with snow on the ground!  Andrew and Luke loved getting big snowballs and watching them melt in the hot tub.

The next day we got up and checked out of the house and drove over to Summit to snow tube and play in the snow.

What a fun trip!  Once we got home we relaxed for awhile and then went to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner!

Josh’s 8th Birthday

Yesterday was Josh’s 8th b-day!! 

He started out the day with presents and chocolate waffles.

He got an art kit, a couple drawing books, new scriptures, scout stuff, Legos, and the rookie perplexus ball.

At 1pm we had 7 of Josh’s friends over for a SCIENCE party!!

We made lab coats and had goggles for everyone.

The first activity was an engineering one.  Who can build the tallest standing tower with marshmallows and toothpicks?

Then we made root beer!  The kids LOVED the dry ice!  It was a big hit!

Next we made bubble gum.

Lava bottles were up next!  This was Josh’s favorite experiment!

Then we made slime!

Presents and cake were next!

After cake, we herded the crazies outside to make snow and have the grand finale of Mentos rockets!

It was a great party!  Thanks to everyone who came and for the presents!

After some recovery from the party, we headed to Chang’s Mongolian Grill for Josh’s birthday dinner.

Josh started to feel yucky when we got home, and this morning woke up with a high fever, sore throat, and cough.  Now Andrew has a fever too.  As long as we get all the sick out of our system by the middle of the week when our family comes and the baptism festivities begin, we will be just fine!

Happy Birthday Josh!