snow days. sick boy. sacred experiences.

We've had quite the eventful weekend.
I can't believe all the snow.  We were at my parent's for much of the weekend,  them living on a very steep hill in the mountains resulted in LOADS and LOADS of snow. I am absolutely a *fair weather fan* but I had to agree with my sister-in-law, Jenna when we were driving down a hill in Bountiful, Utah and the snow was already deep and falling beautifully and a deer crossed in front of us and she said, "it's just magical!" Agreed. Though it's best when I can watch all that "weather" from inside my warm house.

Poor baby Lee has been developing quite the bad cold with a lot of congestion in his chest and today it seems that it has made him Completely exhausted. He went to bed at 8:30 last night (two hours earlier than usual) and didn't wake up until 11:30 today! He promptly fell back asleep an hour later.  He's definitely not himself today; really quiet, calm, fragile and clingy.  Poor boy. He is handling it like a champion though. 

*sick boy*

We went up to my parent's because my sister Annie went through the temple for the first time Saturday night.  With pregnancy sickness and having a baby, though I've gotten to the temple, I haven't done a full session in a long time. 
I was so struck by how *empowering* keeping God's commandments is, and what a protection it is to us and our families.  There is literally no better way to be happy and fulfilled in this life and the next.  I was reminded of the greatness of the promise of eternal life and families as my thoughts turned to our good friend (he served as an LDS missionary in Hungary at the same time as Kevin and I) Drew Whittier, who passed earlier this year after a tremendously courageous and incredible battle with cancer, and his amazing wife Tiffany.  I am so grateful that God has created a plan that shows us how to return to and become like our Heavenly Father, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Surrounded by much of my immediate and extended family in the temple I was again overwhelmed with gratitude that we will be a family unit forever and not just briefly during this mortal part of our lives. 

one of those days.

Today has been one of those days.  I have felt frustrated, irritable, unproductive and generally lousy.  Part of the problem is Lee, let me explain...
Recently (aka this week) Lee has become very agitated, he doesn't nap for more than 15 minutes at a time, and he spends a lot of his time tensing his whole little body and angrily grunting. Usually clawing my face or neck in the process.  Ex-haust-ing.

*Lee this morning.*

I hate most of all that I don't know how to make him more calm, I have tried every little thing I can dream up and nothing seems to help all that much.  Poor boy.  The added demands and stress have left me feeling SO on edge, grumpy and blah.  Kevin was good to remind me (over and over) last night that my #1 job is to BE Lee's mom and thus, even though I did very little else yesterday, I did the most important thing.  I know he's right but it doesn't feel like enough or good, etc... I am having a bit of a time letting go.  Today has been much the same, I didn't even bother getting baby Lee dressed today, never thought I'd be one of "those" moms who lets their child hang out in the pj's that they spit their peaches all over that morning, but today I am. I decided to eat lunch before getting to my list of people I needed to contact for some reason or another and of course by the time I'd finished Lee was up from his "nap". One of those days. Kevin urged me to get out of the house, at least long enough to walk down the street to where our mailbox is with Lee so I did.  It was my first time putting Lee directly into the stroller instead of his carseat first and...he got stuck.  I could not for the life of me get the buckles to come out. One of those days.  And deep down I know it's okay.  But the deep down is having trouble getting to the surface today.  One of those days.  My agitation has made me hungry but we haven't been shopping in at least a week.  I hate not having salty munchies when I "need" them.  One of those days. 

AND THEN...

... we have blissfully peaceful *moments* and I can't help but think of how much I love this kid.  I know days like today pass just as quickly as the good ones and soon he'll be all grown up and so I guess it's okay that today has been one of those days.

mission calls and a special halloween.

 Much of our Halloween was the same as most, we (Lee) dressed up, we had our bowl of treats ready for the trick-or-treaters and we had our traditional chilli, hot cider and doughnuts with family.  But the beginning and end of the day were what set this Halloween apart from others.  At 6 am Kev and I got texts telling us that our sister, Annie, had gotten her mission call. (In our neighborhood, missionaries get a call as soon as the mail is sorted in the morning.)
So, as if it were my own mission call all over again, I had a hard time sleeping after that.  But Annie (and everyone else) had obligations that kept us from finding out where she'd go until 7:30 that evening. 

*How quickly this is all devoured. :)*

Needless to say, having Annie decide to serve as a full-time missionary for our church for a year and a half has brought back tons of memories from my own experience both from deciding to serve a mission and as a missionary.  Serving as a full-time missionary is absolutely a unique time in a person's life and one that would be impossible to forget.

 Here are some of the moments Kev captured as Annie read and shared her mission call with all of us. (several computers and iPhone facetime-s were also set up so friends and extended family could participate.)

*Perth Australia Mission. *

Our cousin got her mission call the same night and is also called to serve in Australia. (in the Sydney mission) She and Annie report to the MTC on the same day.

(Here's a New York Times article that Annie was featured in regarding her decision to serve.)

 Since Annie's call I pulled out my missionary journal and started to read through the first few entries.  My mission is the one time in my entire life that I have consistently written in a journal daily and now I cherish the recorded memories. I was shocked at how many emotions I felt as I re-read my entries from MY first few days in the MTC.

*my missionary journal.*

*entry from my first full day as a missionary.*

As I was reading through entries from my first few days in the MTC I came across this entry;

-march.19.07 monday-
"...It's been a good day.  I felt so strongly today that I'm completely inadequate to share the Gospel, I can't do it myself...this scripture in Matthew really struck me, 

"I will make you fishers of men..."

It just hit me, Christ makes us missionaries. We really aren't alone."

As I read this today I was again struck by the power of Christ's promise in this scripture, He will make us capable of whatever it is that He has called us to do, whether it be full-time missionaries, wives, mothers, sisters, teachers, friends, leaders, daughters or whatever else we may be called on to do.  We don't have to become on our own.  Christ's Atonement enables us to be whatever it is that we need to be.  Just as He helps us as missionaries, so He helps us in every day of our lives as we struggle through our weaknesses and imperfections to serve Him.

Lee's Room...finally.

Well Lee is now officially over SIX months old and I'm finally posting pictures of his room.  Better late than never, right?

I really wanted all the big pieces in Lee's room, and most everything else for that matter, to be gender neutral so that it would work for any future children and it would grow with him better.  That decision and the fire-engine red crib really were my starting point for color choice.  

This painting is of the church right in the middle of the city square of one of the cities (Debrecen) I served in as a missionary in Hungary.

Detail of Debrecen painting. I did this when I was 6-7 months pregnant. It was hard to reach it. :)

(Kevin and I did all the artwork in Lee's room with the exception of the print of Jesus with children on the back left wall.)

(Kevin made this table and the footrest and I made the quilt.)

(As you can see, since I took some of the pictures, we added more clothes space to Lee's dresser.)

(one of my favorite things is the crib, it was Kevin's when we was a baby.)

This is Lee's "I just attacked this stuffed animal in my hand" face.

My first quilt. I made this pattern up but got the idea for how to piece the color stripes together from a quilting book I have.

The mobile here is actually from Lee's Pack N' Play, it fits perfectly on his crib too.

     As you can see, Lee got a little bored of taking all these pictures of his room. :)

6 months this week. Go baby Lee.

So our little baby Lee is already 6 months  this week.  (tomorrow) Woot.  Kevin took some pictures of Lee for me about a month ago. And...we're just getting to them.  So, here they are. :) I hope you all are enjoying this rainy, cold Wednesday too.

Happy 1/2 birthday to Lee Daken.  He is so much fun right now. He chatters all the time, sits up a lot, still hates tummy time, throws some tantrums, loves his "solid" foods, laughs at all of Kevin's jokes and is generally thrilled for any attention from his Momma and Papa.