My baby boy!

I have to take just a few minutes to write about my sweet little Henry! Earlier this morning I was laying down with him to put him to sleep for a nap. Once he fell asleep he would randomly smile and giggle in his sleep. It made me realize how blessed I am to have such a sweet little boy.

Henry will be 9 months on Saturday and I can't believe it. I can't believe that time has flown by so quickly. Henry was born 7lbs 13oz and is now near 20lbs (He will get weighed next Monday so this is my guess). He is so much fun in every way! He is attempting to crawl but is having a hard time with it. The poor little guys gets so frustrated with being stationary. One of these days he will get it! One of my favorite things he has developed lately is smiling for the camera! (as seen in the picture on the right) It is the cutest thing you have ever seen. He already has a cheesy grin! Mama and dada are his most common "words" but he has no idea what he is talking about :) but we love it just the same. 

He is a hungry man just like his Uncle Josh. He eats between 3-5 jars of baby food with at least 2 cups of oatmeal or rice cereal per day. Plus about a piece of bread and some Kix. Not to mention that he still nurses every 2 hours during the day. But I am fine with his intake of food because he sleeps through the night which is wonderful for Mackay and I. He is our growing boy and we love him!

Another thing that Henry loves doing is waking Daddy up on Saturday mornings! We let Dad sleep until a decent hour of course and then Henry, with a little help from mommy, sneaks in and jumps on daddy in bed! As you can see by the picture Henry loves it and Daddy doesn't mind at all!

Mackay and I love being parents and we especially love being Henry's parents!

Thank you all for your support, love, and prayers! We feel them!

Mid-semester update!

What a smile! He was just so cute I had to take a picture of him!

So we have roughly 9 weeks remaining of the semester. I had my first series of exams and they went better than I had anticipated! My classes are more time consuming this semester than I thought they would be but they are going well. I am enjoying the material and have told Mackay that I think this has been the most interesting semester, subject wise, I have had so far. Having the classes be interesting increases my motivation to go to classes which is good. Things are going great for us! Mackay is prepping for the MCAT and is getting very excited to apply for Medical School. Henry is growing like crazy and very frustrated that he cannot crawl yet. We keep encouraging him and hopefully within the next month or so he will be crawling. I am sure he will be getting into everything that I don't want him to, but at least he will be happy!

Christie was gone for about 2 weeks and it made me realize even more what a key role she is playing in making it possible for me to get my bachelors degree. Thank you Christie so much for everything you are doing for our family! I really could not finish my degree right now without you!

We have been blessed with wonderful family and friends who are so supportive of us and who love us so much! Thank you all for your love and prayers! We love you!

I included a video of Mackay tickling Henry! 

Enjoy!

Enduring to the End

So this evening Mackay and I attended the adult session of Stake Conference. It was a very enjoyable meeting. Mackay was kind enough to take Henry so I could listen and not try to keep Henry distracted the entire time. This was wonderful because I learned a lot of things I was really in need of and my testimony was strengthened. The one thing I want to share here is on enduring to the end. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this is a common phrase. (For those of you not familiar with this phrase, go to lds.org, type "endure" in the search bar at the top right corner of the screen, and choose the first item on the list. This will give you a basic idea of what we believe on this subject.) To be perfectly honest, I often imagine enduring to the end as a painful and completely unenjoyable experience such as getting a tooth pulled - tons of pain but in the end much better for you. But tonight a few of the speakers spoke on enduring to the end. One sister spoke on how she came to find joy in enduring. The two experiences she related had to do with praying for the Lord's guidance by receiving specific answers to prayer. As most of you know, Mackay and I are both in school full-time, Mackay is preparing for the MCAT & works part-time, and we have a son. As this dear sister spoke, I felt as though she had written her talk for me. I decided when I got home to do as she had done and ask the Lord for guidance in my specific situation. I want to testify that God answers prayers! I now know the specific things that I need to do to find joy in enduring. Life does have much pain and disappointment, but we can also have overwhelming joy. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer, LIVES! I cannot even express the joy this brings to my heart! He feels your pain and He feels mine and He is there to succor us in our afflictions. I know this with all my heart! He is the reason we can find joy in enduring!

Sorry!

So much for all the updates I promised over Christmas break. Haha my break ended up being much busier than I had anticipated. It was still lots of fun, just not super lazy. I did a good amount of sleeping in which helped; haha but since Mackay and I were so excited to get to spend time together we often stayed up way too late talking. I must say if I had to pick a problem to have in a marriage it would be the one we have...talking to each other too much!

We just stayed here at home and did Christmas by ourselves. It was very enjoyable and I think the best decision for this year with all its craziness. We got to see lots of friends and family who live around here that we don't normally get to see during the school year. We very much enjoyed that as well.

I got to see my high school best friend when she and her family came out here for her brother's wedding. It was a sweet reunion and I wish we could have spent more time together. But I am thankful for the time we got to spend.

Over the past month or so Henry has become an expert at sitting up...until last night when he toppled over three times in 15 minutes...but that was just a random time. He is now eating solid foods and wants me to give him breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is a bit of a change from just being able to nurse him but has given me a little bit more freedom in my time away from him. It has been is nice since my class schedule this semester is not very conducive to nursing. When he feels like it, Henry can stand up, leaning against the couch for support. He is still working on crawling and is making a little bit of progress. I took him to the doctor yesterday because he has a rash and it turns out that I gave the poor kid my eczema...dumb! But I started putting the creams on him and it is already looking much better.

I was thinking that this was going to be my easiest semester thus far but that was a lie. None of my classes are particularly challenging conceptually they just all have a lot of busy work which is hard with a little baby who wants my attention. I was feeling pretty down about this and wondering how the semester was going to work and then we watched the CES Fireside last Sunday. Elder Christofferson spoke about asking the Lord for our daily bread (the help we need to get through today and relying on Christ today) each day in our prayers. I seriously felt like he was talking just to me. I have started utilizing what he taught and my life has been so much more manageable. I am so thankful for the Gospel!!!

Below are just some pictures and a video of what we have been doing! Hope you all enjoy!

Our Japanese New Years decoration

Mackay's friend from Japan sent us these traditional New Years rice snacks, mochi. Here we are about to eat them! And no Mackay is not trying to grow a beard. He had just not shaved for a few days.

Henry opening one of the Christmas presents

Henry and Dad chilling

We got TONS of snow

Our Christmas Tree decorated with Henry's toys! :)

Henry enjoying his favorite, sweet potatoes

Sledding with Henry!

The Alan and Debbie Family 2010

Where it all started

The grandkids begin!

One happy set of grandparents

A family of love!

Aunt Hailey

Just the siblings

smiles all around

Aunt Callyn

Sisters (thanks for considering me one of the sisters, girls!)

Family Tree

Just the boys!

Mothers and Daughters

Great Grandma Carol

Our happy family

I know that to many people out there family is a nice thing. I have come to learn through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that families are ordained of God. He sent us here into families so we could become like Him. I know God loves me and I know through the ordinances of the Temple I will be with my wonderful Mackay and sweet Henry even after I die.

The end is near!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(I can't add enough exclamation points)!!!!!!!

Classes are over and all we have left to tackle are...FINALS!!!! I have never been so happy to take finals in my life!

This is a post of things to come...

• new family pictures
• updates on life
• survival of finals
• funny car break down story!
• and possibly more!

Love you all!

Late Semester Update

For those of you who don't know Mackay looooves wrestling! So needless to say Mackay cannot wait to be able to wrestle around with Henry. He has already decided to have a room with a mat in it and a TV in the corner so they can train together when Henry gets older. :) I know this is a long intro for one picture but I figure you have to know the whole story to truly be able to appreciate the picture! This is Henry and Mackay's first wrestling match!

Kisses for Dad!

Boy I love my boys!

I think Henry is teething...

Cousin time! For those of you who read Christie's blog this is a repeat and yes I stole her pictures. But I wanted those who don't get to read Christie's blog to still see these cute pictures!

Kisses for Henry

Oh what a wonderful life I live!