Vacation

Hayden and I flew to Washington a week and a half ago and have been enjoying our time with family. Dax's sister Laryn was running for Junior Miss, and we came a little early to see if we could help. All of Dax's 8 siblings were able to come for the event, and Laryn won! I don't have a "blood" little sister, so you can imagine how exciting it was for me to be able to have someone so close to me go through Junior Miss like I did. I never had the experience of helping a little sister and I haven't been to a Junior Miss pageant since I went to state, so I think I was probably more excited than anyone else in the family. Laryn was beautiful and performed absolutely fabulously.

On Monday I went with Dax's oldest three sisters (Makala, Taneil, and Haley) and Dax's Mom to go shopping and spent the night in a motel before Taneil flew out. We definitely looked like a mommy group: Makala with Hyrum(12 months), Taneil with Jhett(10 months), and me with Hayden (17 months). Haley and I are are pregnant as well. It was so much fun to spend time with Dax's family.

Now Hayden and I are staying with my parents, and although they are always really busy we are enjoying our time here. We thought we had escaped the various sicknesses that had been circulating around in Dax's family, but unfortunately we are both working to get over colds. Can you believe that this is my FIFTH time being sick this pregnancy? We are just hoping to be better by the time we travel back to Utah. We won't see Dax for another 4 days and we are definitely missing him. I know he's feeling pretty lonely without us...he doesn't have any motivation to go home at the end of the day. :)

I didn't bring my camera cord on our trip so the pictures will just have to wait.

Tender Moments

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of Hayden. I opened his door and saw him standing there smiling at me. As soon as he saw me he sat down, folded his arms, and said, "prayers." Of course I pulled him right out and we said a prayer together. However, I have a confession to make: I have never said a morning prayer with just Hayden to have his "own" prayer. We have our family prayer, but not an individual one for him. We have family prayer at night kneeling in his room, and as soon as we say "family prayer time!" he runs into his room, sits down, and folds his arms. Not to put my flaws out there, but if there is one prayer that I miss during the day, it is my morning prayer. Sometimes I just get up and have something to do from the first moment I'm awake so before I know it it's lunch time and I realize I haven't said a personal prayer. My 17 month-old is giving me lessons on prayer, what a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. From now on we are working on having a morning prayer for mommy and a morning prayer for Hayden.

Debut of #2

Well, it's about time to announce that we are expecting baby #2. At least this way people will know I'm not just letting myself go, and I'm rounding out for a good cause. :) Things are going well, I'm really hoping that the nausea and vomiting start letting up soon. However, I've discovered the wonders of Unisom and B6, so it is going fairly well. Dax is convinced it is a girl because I am more sick than I was with Hayden. Some women just get more sick with each child though, so we'll see. I can't fathom a girl at this point, so I can only imagine it as a boy. Besides, we have everything for a boy, and in the same season. We'll love whatever we have, and I suppose we'll find out in just over a month! We are excited to add to our family, and are definitely excited for more energy and less sickness now that the 1st trimester is over! Due date: Sept. 4th.

"Cute Little Wife"

I will start this post with a fair warning: this post is religious and could potentially be very controversial and lengthy. Read at your own discretion.

This morning I was checking my email and noticed an email from someone in my ward, reminding about an activity and suggesting that the ladies in the ward check out a blog for LDS women. The only reason I actually looked at the blog was because the girl said she voted we have a service activity on the most recent post, and since I am the committee chair for relief society activities I decided I should investigate. After reading the post I went to the blog for, I scrolled down to the next post out of curiosity. The post author talked about how her husband wanted her to take their 2 month old to one of his classes to show him off, and so she did. While in the husband's class someone commented how it was nice to meet his "cute little wife." The author then went into detail about how the she didn't like the connotation from that phrase, considering she has been to over a dozen countries, graduated from college, had written for Newsweek, and was in the process of getting a law degree (1st year completed). The author felt that there was so much more to her than being a wife and a mother, and in a way felt degraded that she was viewed that way.

After reading the article I sat stunned for a moment. Yes, I whole-heartedly agree that you should keep interests and work on other talents and skills besides being a wife and a mother. However, isn't the whole plan to become wives and mothers, to nurture and care for our families in a way that no other can??!!?? At this point I began to fume, and unfortunately Dax came into the kitchen for breakfast just then. :) Luckily he helped calm me down quickly, because really I am sure that the author of this post had no intention of belittling women, on the contrary I think she was trying to empower them. Dax tells me he thinks I feel interior to women like that (although he says I shouldn't). I wouldn't say I am inferior, I am completely comfortable with who I am and how I have chosen to spend my time (as a wife and mother). I am confident enough in myself that I know I could have chosen any major or profession and graduated or performed reasonably well. I guess it is just frustrating for me to see people who feel that until every INDIVIDUAL passion and desire is completed that they aren't "fulfilled" as a person. Even if that means putting off marriage and children in order to fulfill those desires. I could be wrong on this, but that seems like exactly what Satan wants us to do. Not feel that being a homemaker and nurturer to children is enough, so we have to go out and pursue "our own" interests. Again, don't think I am against pursuing talents and cultivating skills and abilities. Dax phrased it well for me: "Whenever Satan can get us to sacrifice something great for something good, he feels like he has won a small victory." It reminded me of Elder Oaks' talk about good, better, and best. I think in the gospel plan the best thing is to be a wife and a mother. That isn't to say that other things like a career, etc aren't good things. I just think that Satan is getting good at making the women of this world feel like we can't be fulfilled until we have that master's, have secured that job, or whatever it may be. In reality I think the most fulfilling and rewarding role we can have is as a wife and mother. "Just a wife," "just a mother," "I just stay home and raise kids," are "just" the most important things we can be doing! "No success can compensate for failure in the home" -David O. McKay

I in no way intend to pass judgment on the people who choose not to stay home and raise their families, or those who put off having their families. The Lord's timetable is different for everyone and each family alone with the Lord can make those important decisions. Each family is unique and there definitely needs to be "individual adaptation" as the Proclamation to the World tells us. I just know that I truly get more satisfaction from watching Hayden learn to say please and thank you and recognize a picture of Jesus than I did from graduating college with a 4.0. And, after staying home with Hayden and watching him learn and grow I realize that these are moments that happen once in the eternity of each child, and I would hate to miss them.