5 Wonderful years!

It is hard to believe that 5 years have passed since Brian was born. What an incredible blessing it is to have him in our lives!! I can't even begin to express my gratitude to Heavenly Father for allowing me to be his mother.

Even since he was little bitty, Brian has been an extra sensitive child. I don't remember a time when he hasn't been concerned about the comfort and well being of others. I love watching him take care of his sisters. He is always makes sure that they have what they need. When Brian would come home from pre-school last year, he would always make sure that he had something to give to Caitie as he was showing me what he had done at school that day. His number one concern when he found out that he would have another sister was "2 sister are too much to take care of." He makes it his personal responsibility to care for their needs.

I am amazed at how quickly Brian picks up on things. He is like his father in that he LOVES to learn. I am proud of his accomplishments thus far. He is reading well and ready to enter kindergarten in the fall. More importantly, he is loving the scripture stories and often likens them to his own life. Several months ago John put Brian to bed. When he didn't come down right away I assumed that John had fallen asleep while laying down with Bri. I was wrong. John came down with a huge smile on his face. He said that Brian had been asking question after question about out purpose here on earth and had listened intently as John explained the Plan of Salvation to him.

Just in this past year I have seen Brian's love of trying new things grow. He has wantaed to try a new sport each season and has tried his hardest at each one. Even though he may not always be the best kids on the team, he always tries his hardest. He always has a wonderful time. I could definately learn from his attitude in this regard.

Brian showed us all what a huge heart he has as we celebrated his birthday. He decided that for his party he would have people bring gifts for a group of homeless and underpriveldged children. We had his party on Saturday and were planning on delivering the gifts the next week. On Monday night I asked him what he would like to do for his birthday. He told me that he wanted to take the presents to the kids and celebrate with them. I was tremendously touched by the selflessness of his little heart.

He is such a blessing to me and to all those whom he comes in contact with. I am tremendously grateful for these past 5 years that I have had to teach, love, play with and learn from such an incredible son of God!!

Happy Birthday, Brian!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Beautiful baby girl

It is hard to believe that it has been only 4 months since Anne-Loren has come to join our family. The time has passed quickly. She rolled over on her own for the first time a couple of weeks ago and 2 nights ago she blessed us with the wonderful sound of her laugh. What a blessing it is to be a parent!! Since most of you don't get to see her very often, I thought I would post a few of the many different faces that she makes.

 

 

 

 

Relaxation?

So Saturday afternoon I found myself sitting in the lobby of a massage clinic. I had had a severe headache for several days and was hoping for a bit of respite. While I was sitting in the clinic a massage therapist walked in through the front door, walked up to the front desk and asked the receptionists "Which one of ya'll want to take me out back and beat me up?" I thought that was an interesting way to say hello. My immediate thought was "That is going to be my massage therapist."

Sure enough, 10 minutes later she came back out and called my name. I followed her back to the room. Everything started out perfectly normal. She began telling me about her life - 4 month old baby boy, boyfriend, friends with boyfriends in prison (I thought this was a bit unprofessional but nothing else about this). She told me quite a bit about one of her "girl friends". I assumed that she meant one her friends that is a girl.

Well, about 30 minutes into the massage she had me turn over on my back. After she had massaged my head and neck for a couple of minutes she began to slow down. She had been yawning loudly for most of the 30 minutes that she had been giving me the massage. I wondered if she was falling asleep. Just after that she stopped, turned down the lights, and then began the massage again. Less than 2 minutes later she bent down and KISSED ME ON MY FOREHEAD!! "What was THAT?" I asked her. She answered, " OH... Sorry, it was nothing?" Nothing? I had just been kissed by a girl with whom I had been in this room for the past 30 minutes, wearing practically nothing, and letting her touch me! I get sick just thinking about it. So I asked her again, " WHAT WAS THAT?". Her response? "Nothing, Nothing. I thought I saw something by you and I was trying to get it. Don't worry, it is gone now." Of course it was gone there was nothing there in the first place. Needless to say, I was extremely disgusted at this point and very much in shock. I told her that I had no desire to finish the massage. "You want to discontinue?" she asked me. I firmly told her yes and waited for her to leave to room so I could get dressed and RUN out of there.

I told the people at the front desk what happened. They were kind enough to not make me pay for the massage ;) Then I got out of there as quickly as possible. As you can imagine, most everyone has found this quite hysterical. I am getting to the point where I can begin to laugh about it. I was, however, VERY, VERY, disturbed for a few days. I guess it is a given that I will no longer be looking to massages for relaxation.

Goodbye A.R.E.'s

This past week John found out that he passed his last registry exam!! For those of you who don't know, becoming an architect does not end upon receiving a degree at the end of a 5 year program. Once the education is complete there are 9 tests (the architecture registry exams) and a total of 700 units, completed in 16 different categories, (1 unit = 8 hours) of work that have to be completed before a person is considered a registered architect.

I am so proud of John. He finished and passed all 9 of his A.R.E's in just a year. Actually, he took the first test in December and finished the last one in May. That is 9 tests in just 6 months!! I think that is pretty impressive. Not only that, John is working extra hard to have all of his units completed by the end of the month. I am so proud of him working so hard to finish this mountainous task in record time!!