Brody can play basketball...with some help!

One of the great things about this time of year is that Jake doesn't go to school so he has more time to spend with Brody and me.

Brody and Jake were playing outside yesterday and I just had to share the video. Brody was just so thrilled to make the basket. There were some cool pictures as well.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAKE!

On this day December 30th 4 years ago I married the love of my life. Now that I look back to the day and the wedding itself it was a very inexpensive and very low key wedding. Not to take away from anything from that day. Everything looked beautiful at our reception and it was a wonderful day. I guess its because since that time I have had siblings and many other friends get married. I was telling Jake the other day that I also don't really remember planning much. All I remember is spending time with him whenever I could and just not really caring how the wedding day went. In a lot of ways I guess its nice because I didn't become a "bridezilla" during the planning process or on the day of the wedding. I didn't really care what the center pieces looked or how the room was decorated. I just wanted to be with the person I loved. The day went by way to fast but I still remember how handsome Jake looked and feeling just so much peace and happiness with the decision I made. I knew that life, no matter what happens in it, I would be happy because I have found someone that makes me so happy.

Since that day a lot has happened in life. But I still feel that every day I spend with Jake is a gift because I feel so grateful to be with him let alone be his wife. I still wake up in the morning and wish more than anything that we both had nothing to do but hang out with each other. After all the years of knowing him (8 years) and being married to him (4 years) I still cannot get enough “Jake time”. He is everything to me and I love him more and more everyday. He has brought so much happiness to my life, both little and big things: watching movies, talking about the day we have had, talking about frustrations, the funny things that happened on Scrubs or The Office. In the history of our marriage Jake has always had a job and also worked very hard in school. He takes care of me and wants to fulfill my needs. He is has also been a wonderful father even with all that he has to do.

One of the attributes about Jake that I love is that he is always striving to be better. Even with all he has to do he still has goals to spend more time with Brody, doing projects around the house and improving his mind. Jake is also a very romantic guy and I could go into more detail but I think this post has already been very mushy. But I will end with saying that Jake loves me for who I am and I have always been able to myself around him and that is very important to me. I have never had to be someone I am not in order for Jake to like me and not only that but he adores who I am.

These are just some of my feelings about the love I feel for Jake and why I feel that way my. I just hope that everyday he knows how much I love him.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congrats to the Van Dusen family. Natalie had a baby girl on December 27th around 4 pm. She was 7lbs 5 oz and her name is Lila Adele.

Christmas Card picture

As some of you might already know, because you received our Christmas card, we included a family picture with our card. This year we decided to have a "family" picture as opposed to just including a picture of our kid on the card. I would have rather had just Brody because well as a "family" its difficult to take a picture where we all look good. But Jake made the point that last year we had a picture of just Brody. Jake also got his braces off recently so we thought why not. We didn't want too much of ourselves in the picture (Jake and I have some unwanted weight we'd rather not let all of our family and friends cherish in a photo). The picture below is the picture we chose, though of course the one printed on the card came out a lot darker.

Precious moments...well maybe not precious!

I did not do anything to set up this picture. I just looked over at Brody when he was watching TV and he was standing there with his pants slowly creeping their way down his bum. It was just too perfect so I decided to take a picture

Fun night of celebration!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AMBER

My wonderful friend Amber had a birthday on Wednesday but we didn't celebrate it with her until tonight. Her husband Chad arranged for a surprise at the door this evening - her friends and their families and we had food with us! So we ate delicious Neds and some great cookies. We chatted the night away while playing with kids. Natalie has two little boys and a girl on the way and there is a girl on the way for Chad and Amber too plus they they have Brooklyn (even though she is 7 she was nice about being surround by such little kids) and of course there was Brody who was in and out of being happy. Since the partying went on to around 8:30 and 9 ish the kids were pretty good when you consider their bedtimes (that's excluding Brooklyn, she would probably be good no matter what). The pictures I am including really show Brody looking really tired. Thanks Chad for arranging it - Amber seemed to be really surprised and it was a fun evening. Nights like tonight never seem long enough (especially for us girls who chat so very much). We had lots of fun.

P.S. Apologies about the red eye in the pictures.

"These, Our Little Ones"

The title of this post is also the title of an article that I was so fortunate to read yesterday morning and I would like to share a little from it because it left me feeling responsible and inspired. The article was from this month's issue of the Ensign (its an LDS church magazine with wonderful articles and stories in it, some of which are written by the leaders of the LDS church). This article, in particular, was written by the leader of our church, President Gordon B. Hinckley. In the article President Hinckley talks about the joy and responsibility children are to their parents. He quotes Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

I didn't realize until I had a child that parents are 100% responsible for raising their children. Like many would say who know anything about early childhood development or education, children learn so much within the first few years of their life. Habits and personalities are developed young. The attributes I try to teach Brody he will most likely keep with him his whole life. If I want a child who is kind and nice to everyone he meets no matter who they are or where they come from, then I need to teach Brody to be kind and nice AND he needs to see examples of kindness and love. Regarding kindness and love, here is another quote from this article, "Do you want a spirit of love to grow in the world? Then begin within the walls of your own home. Behold your little ones, and see within them the wonders of God, from whose presence they have recently come." There are also so many other qualities that I want to teach Brody, such as respect, manners, honesty, understanding, tolerance, common sense, and I want to teach him about the Lord and his son Jesus Christ. Being a mother and father is an amazing experience but there is also so much responsibility and power that come with those roles.

President Hinckley also went on to name four imperatives in reference to children 1) love them 2) teach them 3) respect them 4) pray with them and for them. I think those four imperatives, as he refers to them, are such wonderful tools of parent. Though they seem very obvious I really think that, when making decisions in raising children, those four imperatives should always be considered.

I could go on and on about this article but I shouldn't so I will instead just say that of course this article affected me so much because I am a mother with a young child and I think a lot about how well I am doing as a parent: Am I using too harsh of a tone? Does he watch TV too much? Is it better that I read him the book or let him look at the book on his own? Does he play too much? I know that some of that is just the life of a parent and the worries and concerns never stop. But this article made me think more about how I am as a parent at this stage in my child's life, when he is so young and impressionable.

My favorite quote from this article was when President Hinckley quoted someone else, E.T. Sullivan, "When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mothers heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies."