Leah's Birthday

Egg Mcmuffins for breakfast (her request)

 Tea Party Lunch, with special guests Belle and Jessie

A real Belle cake, which Leah saw two weeks ago in the grocery store and announced: "There's my birthday cake!" It might have been the highlight of her day.

Happy Birthday Leah!

To Leah on her Birthday

Dear Leah,

Happy Birthday! Can you believe that you are three years old today? You have been telling people that you are three for a few months now...maybe you've just been anxious to grow as big as your sister. Why do I feel like you grow so much faster than she did?

This year we discovered that you have a bit of a stubborn side. Daddy and I have to laugh in exasperation sometimes. You're not ever mean or anything. You just...tend to ignore us sometimes...and do whatever you want...no matter what we say. I wonder if anyone would believe that looking at your sweet face? I like to think that you're the perfect combination of sweet and sassy.

Yesterday as I lay down by you for nap time you put one of your little hands in mine and the other on my cheek. "I love you momma," you said sleepily. Then you closed your eyes and drifted off. I lay there watching your eyes flutter and felt like my heart might explode.

I love you, my sweet Leah-loo.

Today we will celebrate you with balloons and lots of pink. We'll eat your favorite foods and we'll stay home because that is where you like to be the most. I'm sure we'll play dress-up and play-doh and cook various delicacies in your play kitchen, all with your beautiful Belle doll in tow. These are the things you love the most right now, so we will do them and think about how special you are and how much we love you.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Love,
Momma

Goodbye 2012

2012 was a pretty awesome year for us. I liked it.

Brad matched to two awesome residency programs (both his top picks)
We went to the San Juan Islands
Lainy turned 5, graduated from preschool and started kindergarten
Leah turned two and potty trained herself soon afterward.
Brad graduated from medical school (the highlight of the year)
We went to Disneyland
We moved to Spokane and started residency
We found out we are expecting a baby boy.

Yes, I'd say it's been a good year. Here's to 2013! Happy New Year!

Christmas

We just returned from our visit home for Christmas. We had a wonderful week that was, as holidays seem to go, a little too short. We had a bit of everything: loud and busy surrounded by lots of people and quiet and introspective with a few loved ones. It was a lot of fun.

I feel like we used our vacation time more efficiently this visit. Obviously it's hard to divvy up so short a time amongst so many family members, but we did our best. And the time we did spend was spent well. We tried not to be frazzled and rushed. We tried to enjoy whatever we were doing while we were doing it. I think it worked. At least I felt more relaxed.

All of Brad's siblings were in town and his parents had some fun things planned for us. We made gingerbread houses, stained-glass ornaments, and held a not-to-be-forgotten Christmas Eve program that included 4 Mary's and 3 Baby Jesus' (I was the pregnant Mary, then handed the role off to the three new mom's with their three new babies). Good memories.

Brad's master plan for our gingerbread house - a hobbit hole

My family was all in town too, but not for long. My sister and her family moved to Alaska two days after Christmas. Still, we had some fun together holding Nazareth Night, going to a cabin for a couple of days, seeing Les Miserables, and finally sending Hayley, Justin, and baby Jocelyn off at the airport. Good memories there too.

Each of our families had family pictures taken while everyone was in town. That is always awesome when you're pregnant, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right? No, it was actually fun to see everyone looking snazzy (even if Leah did ruin the Hansen's pictures by throwing a tantrum and laying on the floor).

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas break. I don't know when we'll all be together again with us having a baby soon then moving across the country. Our goodbye's were a little more bittersweet this time around. Darn family. It would be easier if we didn't like them so much! At least we have some good memories to hold us over for a while.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Wish

I haven't been able to sleep well lately. My mind has been full of too many things: pregnancy, Christmas planning, worrying about moving in six months (silly), Mormon women wearing pants to church on Sunday (also a bit silly), and of course Newtown.

After hearing the initial reports of the shooting (while my kindergartner was at school), I turned the news off feeling overwhelmed and devastated. I didn't want to hear people trying to make sense out of an act that was utterly senseless. I've largely kept the news off since then, but it's been on my mind. And every once in a while I come across a picture of a beautiful child - one that reminds me too much of mine - or a picture of young parents like Brad and me, and I cry for them and their grieving families. I feel like they deserve my tears and my prayers. Like maybe tears from a stranger help somehow.

I came across this quote in a blog the other day. It rings true with me: "(My son) is developing in warp speed these days. I am so aware of him. His little self fills a room. I owe him the world. I am responsible for giving it to him. This little sliver of his life, it is mine to improve. And it is awe inspiring and overwhelming and comforting even, in a strange way...We are responsible for each other and we do our best. Together we can make the world go away."

Tomorrow we begin our drive home to Rexburg for what will probably be our last Christmas home for the foreseeable future. We'll spend the week with the people we love most in the world. What a blessing.

So this year my Christmas wish is that I will spend my time improving the sweet lives around me. Maybe I can't protect them from the awful, tragic things in the world but I can love them and treasure them. I can make home a safe and separate place. I know my efforts are sometimes clumsy and distracted, but I'll try my best.

Hopefully we'll remember what an incredible opportunity we have at this time of year: to celebrate the life of the One who will heal all the hurts and pains we endure in this life. And maybe, with that knowledge and a lot of love, we can make the world go away for a while.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!