I love to see the temple...

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house with the youth in our ward. The Young Women's president had chartered a bus for our group to drive there, and so we all got to go there together. I was so impressed with how many youth (who are 12-18 years old) showed up early in the morning, dressed in their church clothes, to go to the open house. They also gave a devotional, a program, and testimony meeting on the bus ride there and back.

I have never been to a temple open house before. Since the temple is open to tour before it is dedicated, I was expecting it to be an interesting experience, but not necessarily really spiritual. I guess I thought that the Spirit wouldn't be felt very strongly there, until after the dedication. However, I could definitely feel the Spirit there, and could tell the young men and young women could as well. There was such a reverence as soon as we entered the temple. I haven't been able to go to the temple very often since Eden's birth, and it made me really miss the experiences and feelings I get when I go to the temple. What a blessing for the young men and young women to be able to tour the place that they can go one day to have their own life-changing/enhancing experiences.

I am continually amazed at the talent, leadership, strength, and faith of the young women that I get to serve in our ward. They are such a good example, not only to each other, but to me as well. They bring a sense of peace to me, when I think about the challenges and temptations that my kids will face as they get older. They help me to see that it is possible to resist temptations and negative peer pressure and stay true to who you are. I am so thankful for them, and for the experience I had to go with them to the temple open house.

Eden is 5 months old!

I have been having computer problems off and on for a few months now, and so I have quite a bit of catching up to do on our family's happenings this past month. Since Brynn was born, I had made a goal to do a monthly photo shoot of each of my kids during their first year of life, and time just got away from me this time. So sorry, Eden! I feel really guilty, but I at least want to document what she is up to at 5 months (since she will be 6 months old in just a couple of weeks).

Eden, you are now doing the army crawl like a real pro. I am quickly remembering how hard it is to get anything done with a child your age in the house. Much of my day is spent redirecting you away from the tile and back onto the carpet. I have also had to rescue you several times from under the couch. We are back to the "no food or drinks outside the kitchen" rule, because you are putting everything in your mouth now.

We finally have you on a bit of a schedule, that includes two long naps a day, rice cereal or oatmeal once a day (we also thicken your bottles with rice cereal as per the GI's recommendation), and a bottle every 3-4 hours during the day.

You have really started to develop quite a personality. You are an all-or-nothing baby. You are either very happy and content or ticked off at the world, and you have a unique ability to switch back and forth between the two on a moment's notice. (OK, maybe that's not such a unique ability in this family). One of my favorite things about you is your smile. I will catch your eye frequently throughout the day, and you will often smile so big that the smile takes over your little body and it makes you shake and squirm a bit. You have to take a moment to regain your balance. Its so cute!

Surprisingly you have taken well to eating baby food. Unlike your brother and sister, your first experience eating baby food from a spoon was a good one. You happily ate quite a bit your very first time.

Church has gotten tricky, since you rarely fall asleep in my arms. The good part of that is that you fall asleep much better in your crib. You have officially made the transition to sleeping in your bed full time for both naps and nighttime.

You are definitely still an early bird, but you continue to wake up happy and chatty most mornings. You still want to be up for the day at 3 am, but we have been working on getting you back to bed after that. We are usually successful, even if it takes a couple of hours. That is usually the only time you are up during the night.

You continue to bring so much joy to our family. Your sister is still as smitten with you as ever. In fact, she has to constantly be reminded not to pick you up and to play with you gently, because she gets so excited to be around you. You brother has started taking more of an interest in you. They both like to sing to you and make you smile. Your dad comments at least once a day about how cute you are, or how cute something you did was. He's such a proud dad! And, of course, you are such a huge source of happiness in my life. Even on the most difficult days, one little smile from you makes it all worth it. I love seeing you learn and grow. It's interesting that I have gone through the baby experiences twice already, and yet it is just as fun and amazing to me as it was the first time. I love you, Eden!

May Miscellaneous

Hmm, this carseat makes a nice toddler recliner!

Lately when Eden takes her bottle, she has been putting her hand up to her head. I was glad to be able to get a picture of it, especially since Collin used to do the same thing during his feedings and I have a very similar picture of him.

Sleepy girl (...and sleepy parents too!)

Eden in her exersaucer, which she likes but never for very long.



Soon she'll be crawling

Eden's 1st Solids...sort of

Today we fed Eden solids for the 1st time...well, kind of. Due to her feeding/reflux issues, her doctor suggested we ad a bit of rice cereal to her bottles. We have been doing that for a little while now, so we held off from the typical 4 month age to officially start feeding her solids. We decided to try it out today while we were at my parents' house. She wasn't too sure what to do with the rice cereal in her mouth. She didn't have too dramatic of a response to the food, so I am curious to see how she does as she gets used to it.





My dad did what he could to help me keep her attention.

Goodbye Pugsley

Last Saturday our dog Pugsley suddenly passed away. We have had him for over 11 years, so he was obviously getting old, but he hadn't been sick or given us any indication that something was going to happen. Dave was still sleeping and the kids were in the family room. He started acting differently (laying down and peeing in places he wouldn't normally). Then he layed down in the family room. He wouldn't lift up his head. I thought he must be sick, so I checked on him about 10 minutes later, and he wouldn't react to me. I ran to get Dave. We frantically tried to figure out what to do and got a hold of someone at the animal clinic we've taken him to. Before Dave took him in, I knew he wouldn't be coming back, and so I had the kids pet him and say goodbye to him. It was really heartbreaking. Brynn has been asking lots of questions since then. She wants to know every detail of where Pugsley is, how he will get to heaven if he can't fly, how long Heavenly Father will need him and if Pugsley can come back when Heavenly Father doesn't need him any more. She will randomly get really sad about it throughout the day, and she keeps asking in her prayers if Pugsley can come back. Collin didn't seem very affected by it. At least I didn't think so until the other day. I had gotten out his food and treats to take to my aunt, and Collin had taken a few dog treats out. I told him that he needed to put them back in the box, and he said that he was saving them for Pugsley. I told him that Pugsley wouldn't be coming back, so we were giving the treats to someone else's dog. Collin insisted on saving the treats he was holding, and told me that he would just save them for a long, long time until Pugsley came home. I guess a 3 year old doesn't understand the concept of death. Pugsley was a really good dog. He was always gentle with the kids, even when they weren't as gentle with him. He was a pretty mellow dog, but was also loved attention when it was given to him. As my sister put it, he was our kid when we weren't able to have kids. He has and will be missed.