Saturday of Christmas Decorating

The last weekend in November is also officially the start of Christmas. We spent the morning baking banana muffins, sharing a pomegranate, and listening to Christmas music as we decorated the apartment.

Margo even wanted to be part of the fun. I mean, c'mon. There was food involved.

 

 

 

Kate always closes her eyes when she tries new food. I think it makes her more brave.

Of course she plays it cool with miss toddler attitude and slides off the couch gracefully.

Edwin was perfectly content to crawl around the living room with his toys.

With the nativity up, tree lit, and small festive touches around the apartment, it's made our cozy space come alive!

 

I am thankful for Saturdays and that we can spend (at least some of them) at home together.

A Different Person

Spurred by recent events, I felt a need to write this.

I am not the same person that I used to be. In fact, I almost see my past as a totally different lifetime. How far distant? Not all that much. I might look the same, but truly I feel that I am almost unrecognizable from who I was before.

Since moving out to Idaho I have felt my priorities completely change. Why am I doing so well in school (currently carrying a 3.99 GPA while having two kids?) because my focus has changed.

I am not perfect. Actually I am not doing anything half as well as I would like. But Jon and I discussed on the way home from church yesterday how we define our own success--thanks to a great Sunday school lesson--and we are closer now than we ever have been before.

Sometimes I think about sliding back into old habits. Giving up. Not caring. Why am I working so hard? Why did I move away from all my friends and family? Why am I trying to make friends here and learn names and bother with studying when it means sacrificing so much else (and sometimes including pleasures that I once thought were SO important?)

Well, I think it's because I've truly had a change of heart, and I only see things getting better. From here the world looks just like it should be. And even though I may have had that same thought at various times in the past, I can see now that my logic was flawed.

There is nowhere else I would rather be. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with physical location. As I told my dear sweet cousin on the phone this morning, I never expected such obvious and wonderful change to happen so fast. Most of it has been inside.

I have never felt such a true turning of my heart to the way I should truly be facing, and that is toward Christ. I wouldn't attribute it all to this school. Although I love attending BYU-I, I know that the experiences I'm having here would not affect me the way that they have unless I had been prepared for it to do so. Many years ago I would NOT have enjoyed a CES campus. Now, my life will be forever changed because of it.

Thank you to everyone who has loved and supported us in this transition, and to everyone who still calls and texts and shares with us their lives and calls us their friends :) We love you.

Portrait of a Young Boy Crawling

Jon left for work and Edwin was sitting on a blanket in front of me laughing and babbling. He just wanted to talk to me, and I was busy playing on my phone. When I looked up to babble back he smiled his huge gummy grin and I realized that right now I am his whole world! How long will that last? So I went and grabbed my camera.

I didn't do anything for the next half hour except take pictures of the kids. I got down on their level and just watched. It started with Edwin crawling all around the room, looking at the bookshelves, scrunching up the blankets, and following me around. He would turn and scoot like an inch worm to face wherever I was. He has so much concentration to army crawl to where he wants to be. I love his serious face! Most of his excited smiley faces were too fast to catch, but I'll remember them :) When Kate woke up she was so excited to show me her snow hat and Winnie the Pooh. I just let her play and talk to Edwin. It's so much more fun to observe than to coach. This is a glimpse of our snowy afternoon.