Parenting

The Lord’s desire for us as parents is that we keep His commandments. He has said: “Teach your children light and truth, according to the commandments. … Set in order your own house. … See that you] are more diligent and concerned at home.”

I want to remind all of us today that no family has reached perfection. All families are subject to the conditions of mortality. All of us are given the gift of agency—to choose for ourselves and to learn from the consequences of our choices.

Each family has its own special circumstances. But the gospel of Jesus Christ addresses every challenge—which is why we must teach it to our children.

Sometimes as parents we feel we have failed when our children make mistakes or stray. Parents are never failures when they do their best to love, teach, pray, and care for their children. Their faith, prayers, and efforts will be consecrated to the good of their children.

-Elder Robert D. Hales-

Daily Fun!

With all the snow on the ground, who could resist.
We got all dressed up in our snowsuits and headed out.

It was a blast!

We had dinner with the Fifes and hung out with steph while my parents were at meetings. Josh is so cute in his 'Cars' pjs. He loves smiling for the camera.

A New Year! 2008

Wow, we are into 08! I am so excited for this year, there is so much to look forward to and so many things happening.
When I woke up this morning to clean the Bank I found there was 6 inches of snow that had fallen overnight. I love waking up to find the trees covered in snow - it makes all the difference during the winter season. As I cleaned and then afterward went grocery shopping i was reflecting on the past year and things to come in the new year.

I love this time of year, its like a new start to begin new goals and plan new and exciting family events. Birthdays, Holidays, Anniversarys, Vacations, Weddings all happening yet again...
April comes our 4th Year Anniversary and Marcus and Nichole are getting married.
You've got to love springtime when all the flowers begin to bloom, i've planted over 50 tulips, daffodils and other flowers that i am excited to see bloom. Summer is just so fun and we will be working on putting grass in our back yard. Hopefully there will be many of boating trips. Yay!
Come August my brother Scott will be returning from his mission in Leeds, England. We are so excited to see him again and especially spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with him. I seriously can't believe it's been nearly two years.

Aaron is doing great at his job and continues to amaze us all. His boss and other co-workers have told me numerous times how they love Aaron and how he is such a hard worker.
Joshua is growing and learning so fast, yesturday he said "I Love You" for the first time and the last two nights he has gone into his room at bedtime and fell asleep on his own listening to his primary lullaby c.d. Its amazing how one day can make all the difference.
We just need to focus on comunicating with our little ones in the right way so that they understand us rather than be full of confusion and upset.

Sunday Dinner With Marc, Tara & Their Cute Kids!

Snow Snow Snow....

Oh we love the snow!!! Josh was so excited when we went to grandma and grandpa's saturday morning and they had lots of snow. After their ward party we put him in his new snowsuit, gloves and boots and he went out to play. He was so cute and hardly had control of himself in the snow. Then he started teasing Jenny by throwing snow balls and she would chase them but 'obviously' not find anything :) He finally came in when his hands were like ice... It was the cutest thing.

Onto December

Sunday Jess, Ben & Jack came around for dinner. Jack looked so cute in his green top with his bright blue eyes. Josh always finds Jack so fascinating.
While they were here Jess practiced doing bandage wraps on our feet and ankles and then she wrapped Josh' head. Then Suxo-Sanchez family came around and we played a really fun game. I won - yet again.. twice in a row and got to sign the box. LOL We tried taking joshs day nap away to see if he would go to bed earlier but that was a huge mistake. As of the last month or two if Joshua doesn't get enough sleep he wakes up in the middle of the night with these 'night terrors'. They are horrible, because he is not fully awake and screams and screams. We have been instructed not to talk to him or try to restrain him as it could wake him up and cause bigger problems. We are to just let him cry it out and be there to make sure he doesn't get out of bed and run into anything or fall downstairs. But taking the nap away was not a good idea. He had the worst night terror 2 hours after falling asleep (he fell asleep at 6:30). Since then we have adjusted his schedule a bit and its great! We just can't let him sleep longer than 1 hour in the day.
Whew, other than that things are great! The other pics are of Josh and daddy in their matching vests and having their daily 'wrestle match'.

30th November 2007

My aunt cousin and her baby (Gayle, Misty & Alicia) came to stay friday and saturday night as they were in salt lake for a funeral. On friday my parents came down and they gave aaron some birthday gifts and we ate the 'special' cake I made. I could not believe how long and thick Alicia's hair was, its so cute! One of the pictures is of Alicia and her uncle Dutch.

Aaron's Birthday 29th November

Aaron had a great birthday and was spoiled with wonderful gifts.
He had to work early that morning so we did gifts as soon as he got home from work. In the evening he had some friends around for 'game time'. He still can't believe he is now 26, he continually says "man im just getting too old". On the other hand, josh loved helping daddy open his gifts...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Off To Phoenix - 15 Nov 07

Well here we are at the airport on thrusday waiting for our flight. Josh loved being there and couldn't take his eyes off the airplanes.
He went potty right before the flight and held it until we got off, he did such a good job!

While we were on the plane he loved looking out the window with Steph and had so much to say.
When we arrived in Phoenix we caught a shuttle that took us to the car rental station. There we saw this lime green car and Josh would not take his eyes off it. He got so excited and was shouting with joy "car car car" "wow car"... Unfortunatly that wasn't the car we got, ours was still really cool though.

Croup!

We found out today that josh has croup. Croup is a swelling of the voice box (larynx) and windpipe (trachea). The doctor gave him a steroid shot that is supposed to help bring the swelling down and is supposed to help it go away quicker.
So far its not been a fun process but we are making it and josh is doing really well.
Night times are the worst and he has a hard time sleeping but he is still doing excellent with potty training. Even though he feels horrible, he will still go in the toilet and is still wearing his 'big boy pants'.
Lets hope he gets better soon! We leave for Phoenix Thursday.

New Week

Well sunday was a hard day for our little family. Joshua woke up at 2 am with a fever of 102. I couldn't get his fever to break all day and he was so miserable. He tried so hard to have a 'normal' day trying to make me laugh and play with his toys but at the same time not understanding what was wrong. Aaron was also sick with a stomach bug of some sort.
It was a long and weary day but we made it through it and today is a much better day! Josh is still doing so great with potty training and Aaron is feeling more up to speed.

We are onto another eventful week as Josh and I head off to Phoenix thursday! YAY!

Nearly There...

Well for the title of this post... I have been working with Josh on potty training for three weeks now and we are so close to calling it official. He has made it three days now without any accidents and just yesturday he began telling me when he needed to go. He says 'got to go' or 'poo poo'. It is so cute.

I cannot believe how fast he is growing. He so much fun and his vocabulary continues to grow every day. He LOVES cars. Literally, cars the movie, outside driving down the street, anything that immitates a car.

The Two New Temples Going Up

New Daybreak Temple

New Draper Temple