The Day My Life Changed

Matt and I were married on December 30, 2006. My life definitely changed for the better that day but that’s not the day I’m talking about.

We decided we wanted to have a baby a little sooner than we thought we would. I got pregnant and had a miscarriage in February 2008. It was another year and 8 months before we found out I was pregnant with Brennen and he was born on June 15, 2010. That is the day I became a mother, the day my life changed forever!

The first couple months were HARD. He wouldn’t eat well or sleep well and we both cried a LOT. I was so focused on wanting to be a mother that I never really thought about the sacrifices that go with it. I almost felt like Heavenly Father only gave me a baby because I wouldn’t stop bothering Him about it, and that maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a mom.

But then there were those moments when he’d fall asleep on my chest and I would just close my eyes and tearfully whisper a prayer of gratitude for my precious baby boy.

And then things got WAY better as we all adjusted to our new lives. And I tell you what, this little boy has brought me more joy than I could have possibly imagined.

And he turned three on Saturday. THREE!
I could never list all of the wonderful things about my Brennen but I’ll say a few things.
-He spoke very early and has always been very easy to understand. We can carry on long conversations with him.
-He loves dinosaurs and watching Handy Manny.
-He also is starting to like sports and likes to throw balls around with us and practice t-ball and play football.
-He is SO smart and funny. He has always said the funniest things. I wish I would have written them all down.
-He is so sweet, too. He gives me kisses on the cheek and tells me he loves me. If I cry he gets upset and does anything he can to comfort me. I try not to cry at all around him (even happy tears) because he gets so concerned. :)
-He LOVES having me read him stories and is starting to be able to sound out words since he knows all the letter names and sounds. (the basic sounds anyway). :)
-He fights with his brother but is also very protective of him.
-He has a great imagination and loves to play.
-He’s not a picky eater at all (except he hates mashed potatoes), he just doesn’t want to sit down to eat but once he does he’ll eat anything we give him.

I could go on and on but I’ll just put up pictures of his birthday. We went to the dinosaur museum on campus, played a lot outside, and had his requested dinosaur cake (that I can up with! The cake was just a simple cake, I just decorated it all cute and it was WAY easy) and ice cream with Matt’s family. He got a lot of good loot! Probably more than Christmas…

Like Heaven

Sometimes life on earth can seem like heaven.

For me it has felt that way for over a week. Last Saturday was just a perfect day.
No one was impatient or unkind.
No one got angry or snapped at anyone.
And if I started to have negative thoughts or feel irritated I just told myself, “No, don’t do it. Don’t ruin this day.” And it worked.
I had my piano recital and the kids all did such a great job and I was SO proud of all of them!
Then our little family spent the day outside planting a garden and just enjoying the nice weather. We took a walk up to campus and the boys played so happily together. Nothing spectacular happened, it was just a perfect day and I felt happy and I felt even more love for Matt and the boys.

Me with all of my students.

The boys “helping” Matt with the garden.

And it has been that way ever since! With only one or two exceptions, no one has lost their temper. No one has been stressed. Brennen has even been much more obedient (or perhaps I’ve just been more patient). And I continue to tell myself not to ruin such great days and it keeps working.

During the week I spent a lot of time outside with the boys and we had fun playing when we were inside. There’s been some construction right outside our house and Dean will NOT stay away from it. I only take him out when they’re done working because of it. He loves to walk around independently. We also went to a little kid fishing pond here in town and Brennen helped each of us catch a fish.

The best part happened last night. We decided to go up to Curt Gowdy State Park. We went on a hike that we’d gone on a few times before, 2 miles one way. We put Dean in the back pack and Brennen in the stroller until the road got a little too rough for it. Then he either walked or rode on Matt’s shoulders. (a side note: I realized I’m in pretty good shape! I carried my 25 pound toddler in the back pack most of the way up and half the way back and it wasn’t very hard! And if you know my husband you know that he hikes quickly. It is not a leisurely stroll). :)

There are only a couple other places in the world where I feel more at peace and feel God’s love for me more than I do on a nice night out doors in the beautiful world we have. We were walking around the lake and the water was SO clear and the weather was just perfect. There was just a happy air around us and I thought to myself, “This must be what heaven is like.” What could be better than being in beautiful surroundings with the people you love most in the world.

It’s hard to describe but I just feel so thankful for the wonderful week we’ve had. I know that life is not always perfect and that we all make mistakes and things are just going to go wrong sometimes. But I also know that we can control our happiness no matter what our circumstances are. We can choose to be positive. We can choose to love ourselves and others around us. We can choose to be happy and focus on those things that matter most.