Today I gave
myself a time out. I realized it wasn’t
fair to give my son time out for something that I had just done earlier in the
day. His face was surprised as he
watched me set the timer. He was curious
to see if I would follow the same rules: no toys, no talking, and staying on the
chair for the entire time.
I looked out
the window at the trees covered in snow as I sat in my chair. We had our first big snowstorm this last
weekend and it really dumped a lot of snow.
Several trees were knocked over at a local park, and one of ours even
had an entire branch break off. The
storm was over now, however, and the sun was shining and the sky was blue; when
just yesterday the sky was covered with what seemed like clouds everywhere you
looked, even blocking the view of the enormous mountains to the east. The thought struck me that I – and all of us –
we are like these trees. Life has its fair share of trials and
hardships, frustrations, and disappointments that continually dump on us, “filling
our branches” until we no longer think we can endure the weight. Our view may be blocked by the “clouds” that
surround us and things may look like they will never get better, and some of
our branches may break off, but just like the tree still standing in my backyard,
we can endure it if we wait for the sun to come out to melt away the snow and
lighten our load. No matter what our
burdens or challenges are, the key is to turn to Jesus Christ, the son of God,
and let him lighten our load. He is
always there to help us, but we have to turn to him. He will always help us. Without this
knowledge I don’t think I could make it through a single day. I have many weaknesses and life frustrations
that if I didn’t have a testimony of
the Savior and his atonement, I would easily give up and say, “Why try?” I am thankful for my testimony.
As I sat there in time out, my son ran in to
double check that I was fulfilling my time and he called out “I love you!”, as he
ran back into the other room to continue his play. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, loves and forgives
us just as quickly as a little child. I
glanced one more time out the window as my timer went off. The sun seemed to shine brighter, and big clumps
of snow fell from off the leaves and branches…..I felt lighter already.
Aubrey Summer Niven
I'm just about ready to be checked out of the hospital, but couldn't wait to post the arrival of our sweet girl, Aubrey Summer Niven. I'll blog more in detail later, but in brief she was born on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 12:50. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 19 inches long.
I was grateful today for the chance to take the Sacrament at the hospital, (and this might be the only hospital that does that), but I appreciated this quote the couple gave me by President Boyd K. Packer,
"Children are the past, the present, and the future all blended into one. They are consummately precious. Every time a child is born, the world is renewed in innocence."
Here's Aubrey.....
I was grateful today for the chance to take the Sacrament at the hospital, (and this might be the only hospital that does that), but I appreciated this quote the couple gave me by President Boyd K. Packer,
"Children are the past, the present, and the future all blended into one. They are consummately precious. Every time a child is born, the world is renewed in innocence."
Here's Aubrey.....
Okay baby......I'm ready!
I am 39 weeks pregnant today and I'm having a hard time waiting for this little girl's arrival! Both my boys were two weeks early, so I kind of assumed that would be the case for this one. Although I'm anxious, I'm very thankful she's taking her time so that she can grow and develop as much as she needs to and hopefully not have any complications! Here's a recap of my pregnancy.......
Here's the ultrasound where we found out I'm having a girl!
I took weekly pictures to add to my BabyBump app on my phone, but I guess it doesn't help that I'm wearing something different each time!
22 weeks pregnant
24 weeks pregnant
25 weeks pregnant
26 weeks pregnant
28 weeks pregnant
29 weeks pregnant
30 weeks pregnant
31 weeks pregnant
33 weeks pregnant
34 weeks pregnant
35 weeks pregnant and different hair
36 weeks pregnant
37 weeks pregnant
38 weeks pregnant
And TODAY 39 weeks pregnant!
I made a goal to catch up on my blog before having my baby girl, and as of today I am all caught up! Hurray! So thank you for waiting little girl, you can come any time now! :)
Park fun!
Here's a few fun parks we've been to lately; one in Spanish Fork and one in Saratoga Springs.
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| Ethan made it to the top! |
Labor Day Ice Blocking
For Labor Day we went ice blocking at Rock Canyon Park......well, I just watched since I'm almost 9 months pregnant, but the boys went with Peter, Jessica, Peter's brother, Daniel, and Daniel's roommate, Trent. They had a fun time!
And it was so hot the boys enjoyed eating their ice after!
All Caught Up......or so I thought!
I finally finished transferring all my iweb blog posts over to blogger, and I was so excited to be done.....until I realized my last post in iweb was Halloween 2011 and my next post on blogger was May 2012. :( I guess I'm still making progress, but now I need to try and catch up on the months I didn't blog.
Flashback of Ethan Age 3
On Sundays we often like to watch old video clips of the boys when they were younger, and we came across this funny clip of Ethan dancing to a song Bryan made up. This was five years ago when Ethan was three.
First day of School
Ethan started 2nd grade this year and Austin started Kindergarten, so they now are attending the same school! Because we are out of boundaries from the school, though, they can't ride the bus and I have to drive to the school three times each day, but they're worth it! :)
Near the end of the summer they started to fight more than normal and I was a little excited for school to start, but then when I took them the first day I got tears in my eyes. My babies are gone somewhere all day without me and growing up!
And the best feeling in the world........Austin running to me after school!
Baby Shower
My mom and sister had a baby shower for me! It was a lot of fun and I got so many cute things! Girls clothes are just adorable! I can't wait to dress our baby girl! :)
Here are a few pictures from the ones my cousin Jenisse took, (thanks Jenisse!)
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| Friends Jessica and Carlee |
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| Memory game.....I didn't do very well on this game! |
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| Jericka, Grandma Newman, Aunt Charisse |
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| Jamie's mother-in-law, Jill |
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| Quilt my Grandma Newman made |
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| Adorable shoes and outfit below that my mother-in-law and sister-in-law gave me, so cute! |
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| My mom made this adorable cake. She bought the chocolate cake from Costco and then put the blocks on top and decorated it with the pink. Super cute! |
Ethan's Baptism
Ethan was baptized on Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 9:00 at the Central Provo Stake Center. It was a very special day for us. There were stake baptisms being held so we all met in the chapel first and Jessica's husband, Peter, agreed to give the baptism talk for all the wards. He did a great job! He talked with the kids getting baptized before giving his talk and found out what their favorite gift was that they received for their 8th birthday, and then about the gift of being baptized a member of Christ's Church.
Our ward had two baptisms, Ethan and a new kid in the ward named Natanii. Natanii's mom and I wanted to do a musical number, so we have been practicing this last week. Jessica, Bryan, and Sherry (Natanii's mom) all sang while I played the piano. They sang "When I Am Baptized" and then for the closing song they sang, "Come Follow Me". They sounded great!
Bryan had the special privilege of baptizing and confirming Ethan and Natanii. Ethan has had a fear of water ever since I can remember. He loves playing in it, but if water touched his face or dripped down his face in the bath he DID NOT like it! I was so worried about this day for so long. Last year he finally agreed to do swimming lessons and that helped him warm up to the water more, but he still wouldn't go under all the way. This year we've had passes to Seven Peaks and so he's had a lot of time in the pool. We also went swimming a couple of times in Colorado at my sister's community pool and at my sister's in-laws up in Alpine. ONE WEEK before he was baptized we were at his cousin Layla's birthday party and he just decided on his own to go under the water! He did it several times! It was definitely an answer to our prayers. We are so proud of Ethan and the choice he made to be baptized and hope he remembers what a special day his baptism was and how he felt.
Here are some pictures of his special day.....
Our ward had two baptisms, Ethan and a new kid in the ward named Natanii. Natanii's mom and I wanted to do a musical number, so we have been practicing this last week. Jessica, Bryan, and Sherry (Natanii's mom) all sang while I played the piano. They sang "When I Am Baptized" and then for the closing song they sang, "Come Follow Me". They sounded great!
Bryan had the special privilege of baptizing and confirming Ethan and Natanii. Ethan has had a fear of water ever since I can remember. He loves playing in it, but if water touched his face or dripped down his face in the bath he DID NOT like it! I was so worried about this day for so long. Last year he finally agreed to do swimming lessons and that helped him warm up to the water more, but he still wouldn't go under all the way. This year we've had passes to Seven Peaks and so he's had a lot of time in the pool. We also went swimming a couple of times in Colorado at my sister's community pool and at my sister's in-laws up in Alpine. ONE WEEK before he was baptized we were at his cousin Layla's birthday party and he just decided on his own to go under the water! He did it several times! It was definitely an answer to our prayers. We are so proud of Ethan and the choice he made to be baptized and hope he remembers what a special day his baptism was and how he felt.
Here are some pictures of his special day.....
Ethan is also excited for Cub Scouts and went with Bryan to the scouting office to get his Wolf book and handkerchief slide thing. :)
