Happy Birthday Dave!!

Today is my sweet husbands 25th birthday. 25 seems (and is) so young. I really look forward to the next 75 :) years with my wonderful companion.

25 reasons why I love Dave, he is:

1 - Kind
2 - Always 100% honest
3 - Funny
4 - A FANTASTIC father
5 - Gentle
6 - Strong
7 - Always setting (and achieving) goals
8 - Smart
9 - A good listener
10 - Optimistic
11 - Never gets intimidated
12 - or nervous
13 - Has a beautiful voice
14 - Loves sports
15 - Makes Carson laugh like I will never be able to
16 - Changes the channel if there is every anything inappropriate on...even commercials
17 - Romantic
18 - Sensitive
19 - Handsome
20 - Thoughtful
21 - Frugal
22 - So VERY VERY patient
23 - Protective of his family
24 - Hard worker
25 - Scratches my back for long periods of time
25a. - Likable
25b. - Genuine
25c. - Loves my family
25d. - Eats things even when he doesn't really want to
25e. - Always puts his clothes away
25f. - Loves to dance...alone is preferred I think...so funny!!
25g. - Treats me like a queen
25h. - Truly the best husband anyone could ever ask for

I LOVE YOU DAVE!!!

Life Lessons

There have been a number of difficult experiences lately that have directly affected me or my family lately. I am not going to sit and tell you my life is hard, nor that I wish these trials would go away. I do want to express how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. Here are some of the lessons I have learned and deeply felt over the past couple of months:

1 - Don't take what you already have for granted
2 - Don't take your family for granted
3 - Don't take your child(ren) for granted
4 - You CAN financially afford whatever Heavenly Father thinks you need as well; He will provide
5 - It doesn't matter how alone you feel, the Savior is always in your mind and heart because he has already been there and done that
6 - The church is true despite it's members
7 - The timeline God has planned for you is better than the one you have planned for yourself
8 - God ALWAYS knows better
9 - More people care about you than you realize
10 - There is no room for me to be judgemental anymore; it is keeping me from who I need to be
11 - Don't sweat the small stuff
12 - It's ok to let the house get a little messy if it means spending time with family
13 - The Savior LIVES
14 - It's ok to mourn but it's not ok to be stagnant
15 - You can ALWAYS pray
16 - You sometimes have to do what God wants before He will give you what you want

I make it sound like I have been in the depths of despair, but I want to make it clear that is not the case. Sure, there have been difficult thing, but I and my little family are very happy and very well taken care of. It's just nice to reminded every now and again that God is in control.

Carson is Huge and talks a lot!

This is what we confirmed yesterday at the Doctors office. He is 28 pounds and 33 inches long. He is still on the same growth curve. In the appt, the doctor asked me if Carson said any other words besides mama and dada. I responded "yeah, around 20 other words". He was floored! I knew he was a big talker, but I didn't realize how big. Here are all of the words Carson says, hopefully I can remember them:

Daddy
Bonk
Cracker
Diaper
Juice
Meow
Woof
Ball
Book
Eyes
Teeth
Hi
Bye-Bye
Row (He sings row row row your boat like this...rowrowrowrowrowrowrowrowrowrow)
Boo (Peek-a-boo)
Get it (he says this when he wants us to retrieve something
Ear
Yum
Uh-oh
Thank you (my personal favorite)
Ow
Jesus
Apple (doubles for Up)
Go
Tiger (sounds a lot like Cracker but is still different)
Lights
Bubble

Did any of you notice which work was NOT on the list???? MAMA. I am ok with this because he couldn't have a better example than Dave so I'd be happy if he was a daddy's boy.

Douglas

Many of you know who I am talking about and many of you don't. Douglas is the homeless man that attends our ward every Sunday at 8:00 am. I don't know if he actually cares about the church lessons at all or whether he simply likes the refuge from the cold. Either way, Douglas is special. I am drawn to him and I don't know why. I think about him often and have great desires to help. Douglas always smells of b.o. and seems to only own one pair of clothes as well as one coat. I do not want to pass this up. If I don't act on my feelings now, I will forever look back with guilt and wonder. I don't find it hard to offer him a ready smile and warm hello; but am I truly giving of myself? I am by no means asking for handouts for Douglas, but if any of you are touched by Douglas as I am and want to help, let me know and we can figure something out. Something we can all do though is keep him in our prayers.