Friends

I am so grateful for friends that feel like family. When we first moved to Texas, our nearest immediate family was 1,200 miles away. Even with that, we felt good about the move. We've made some of the most wonderful friends in the past 5 years and I am so grateful for them. Just tonight, some of them brought over lemon bars which was perfect because I was wanting something sweet to eat.

Aaron loves lemon bars and pretending his food is a train.

 

Found

 This one feels silly, but I am still feeling very grateful. For friends and family that haven't been to the South, fans are nearly a year round necessity both indoors and outdoors. We have a fan on our back porch and it has a remote control.

Naturally, Aaron decided he needed the remote and he would turn the light on and off as well as change the speed of the fan. He would frequently take it while he wandered around the yard. For months, Jonathan and I were consistent about where we put the remote. Then a few months ago, we couldn't find it anywhere. We looked in the usual places as well as the unusual. I figured Aaron just hid it very well. Unfortunately, it was missing for all of summer. Fortunately, the fan at least was on medium speed so we could get some relief.

Last Saturday at our outdoor ward party, I put on a jacket thinking I would need it. (I was wrong. I still can't figure out when I need an extra layer.) I put my hand in the pocket and I finally found the missing remote!

It may be small, but I am truly grateful that after all this time the remote is found. Now we can start really enjoying our porch. (Yes, the weather can be so mild that we can even have dinner on the porch in December in shorts. It's Texas. We don't let the calendar tell us what weather we're supposed to have.)

Chromecast

 I am grateful for finding ways to adapt my scripture and General Conference study. The vast majority of my day is breastfeeding Lucy and finding ways to connect with Aaron, so my personal study has taken a backseat. Thankfully, there are so many resources on YouTube! I've listened to President Nelson's talks from this last General Conference many times as well as my favorite podcast for Come Follow Me.

I choose what I want to study and cast it to the TV since Aaron likes to think my phone is actually for him. While I don't get as much out of studying this way as when I'm sitting down and reading, I'm still getting more each time I rewatch the same material. Something is so much better than nothing!

Día de los Muertos

 I am grateful for my ancestors and for a holiday that is dedicated to remembering them and their stories. While we don't go all in with Día de los Muertos, I do put up a few decorations and some of the pictures we have of our ancestors.

As the kids get older, I hope to do more both with the holiday and sharing more of the stories about the men and women they come from.

Beautiful Texas

 I am grateful for each season and the beauty we enjoy throughout each one here in Texas. (In all honesty, I didn't do much enjoying this summer since it was extra hot and I overheated easily since I was pregnant.)

I'm grateful for the somewhat cooler weather and beautiful pumpkins of fall.

I love the mild winter days that enables us to get out and see our cow friends.

I am so grateful for how beautiful all the wildflowers are each spring. It's like the earth is giving me a favorite birthday present every year!

This summer, I was extra grateful for the few summer storms that came. Aaron was grateful too!

Before we moved to Texas, I imagined it all looked like a dry desert like what you see in an old western movie. I'm grateful that I was wrong!

A Month of Gratitude

 It feels right to dust off the old blog for daily gratitude posts again. I don't remember what inspired me to start doing it about 10 years ago (Yeah I can't believe it either!) but I want to do it again after a hiatus of at least a couple of years. The basic premise is to find at least one thing to be grateful for each day rather than just waiting until Thanksgiving day to share what I'm grateful for. I invite you to join me in sharing the things you are grateful for.

This morning I am feeling grateful for prayer. I'm grateful to have it as a connection to heaven and a power that is greater than my own. Through prayer I receive inspiration for what I should be doing as well as taking time to give thanks to God for the various ways I see His hand in my life.

I figured you can't go wrong with a picture of my cute kids!

Nine Months of Aaron!

The past 9 months of Aaron have been simply the best! He keeps getting more fun and happier all the time!

Dusting Off The Cobwebs

 I looked at my last post here and was shocked to see that it was all the way back to November 2019. A lot has changed both in our lives and in the world. 

We finally used our cookie jar for cookies back in November 2019!

One reason why I stepped away from blogging was because I was trying to figure out how social media fits into my life. I'm still trying to figure it out, so we'll see how much I use this old blog. 

This is our family this past November.

For now, I plan on going back and recording what has happened since my last post since this is kind of a family journal. Those posts will be back dated so they are all in the correct order.

#3

Before January was over, we found out that we were pregnant once again. I start feeling symptoms more than a week before I can take a pregnancy test. I can't really describe the feeling, it's just different than how I normally feel though sometimes it's accompanied by some of the typical symptoms of increased sense of smell, fatigue, and queasy stomach. I started feeling symptoms in the middle of the month and had to wait well over a week before I took the test.

Early Sunday morning, I had a clearly positive pregnancy test. It was a relief to see the two lines, but it also came with some anxiety. I've been here before and I wasn't sure how long this baby was going to stick around. I called my Reproductive Endocrinologist for an appointment. (The previous summer I saw a Reproductive Endocrinologist because I thought I might have endometriosis. Even though it seemed like I had it from my symptoms, I had surgery just to find out nothing was wrong. After my post-op visit he said to call him after I had a positive pregnancy test.) Dr. M was happy to see us and together we saw our teeny tiny baby at 4 weeks 5 days.

Aaron is that tiny white blob in that dark blob in the middle of the picture. At that point he was too young to have a heartbeat, but it was clear that a baby was there. Again I immediately felt relief, but still that anxiety of how long was this baby really going to stay with us creeped in again.

After the ultrasound, I had my least favorite part. The blood draw! I had a hard time with it the previous summer in the lead up to my surgery and this time was no different. My veins are not the easiest to get and so it took four different sites to finally get the sample.

This is our first family picture as the three of us.

In spite of the anxiety I was feeling, I wanted to record as much as I could of this pregnancy. I don't have any pictures from my first pregnancy and I haven't made that mistake again.

Jonathan was very happy that tiny baby A wanted In N Out.

Instead of making this one huge post, I'm going to break it down into where it fits with other things that were going on in our lives.

Woogy!

One of my favorite traditions is taking pictures of my friend Liza and her cat Woogy for her Valentine's Day cards.

Woogy is a very silly cat, but also beautiful!

It's so fun catching up with Liza and wandering around our old neighborhood.

One More Time

 We made it one more time to the temple during 2020.

It was a sweet experience as we served not realizing that it was the last time until who knows when. I am grateful that we take advantage of going to the temple as often as we do. That way I don't feel any guilt now that I can't go.

One day the temple will be open again and we will go as often as we can!

We Did It All!

I have had a kind of an idea/goal/dream of doing all of the ordinances of the temple in one visit for a few years now. Well January 2020, we made it happen! We got there in the late afternoon and headed for the baptistry. It's been a long time since we've done baptisms thanks to my nephews that are old enough to go to the temple in California.

It was a wonderful experience especially since we haven't been able to go like we used to.

 

Six hours later, we were all done!

I am so grateful to do this work for my family. Each and everyone of them matter and deserve to choose whether or not they want to follow Jesus Christ's example. It's been hard not being able to go to the temple like we used to, but eventually we will be back and doing more work for our family.

Riding Around

Jonathan and I spent quite a bit of time during the rest of his Christmas vacation riding our bikes. We rode around the bike trails in our town.

On New Year's Day, we started out with a delicious breakfast and then took our bikes to ride around in Austin.

I enjoy the view of the city from across the river.

At the end of our ride, we found a few murals and had to take pictures with the Winnie the Pooh one.

We love the mild winter weather that enables us to ride all year long!