The Prayers of a Child

 

Some of you may know that we have been trying to have another baby for over 4 years now. I did get pregnant a couple of years ago but miscarried. That was hard. Several months ago Stan and I decided to stop actively trying. I decided that I don’t want to deal with the monthly disappointments anymore. I am extremely grateful for the 3 kids that I do have. We were lucky to even have a 3rd child. I feel very blessed, but even so, this has been a hard trial to endure. Even though I will always be sad that we didn’t get the opportunity to have more kids, I am slowly coming to terms with it. However, I still can’t bring myself to get rid of all the baby clothes. :)

The hardest part about all of this right now is that my sweet 6 yr. old Dallin refuses to accept that we won’t have any more kids. Dallin has always loved babies and wants so badly to have a baby brother or sister. He has prayed for it night and day for over 2 years now.

Some cute stories…

*In one of his prayers when he was about 4 years old he said, “Bless that we’ll have another baby…and that it will be so cute.”

* When my sister Merilana was pregnant a couple of years ago, I remember Dallin coming up to me and exclaiming, “Mom! Merilana’s tummy is HUGE! She’s going to have a baby!” He was so excited for her. He then continued, “I don’t know how she did it. I just know to pray and pray.”

* When Dallin was about 4 ½, Parker was saying our family prayers one night and asked Heavenly Father to bless us with another baby. After the prayer Dallin said, “C’mon!!! When is mommy going to have a baby? We’ve prayed for it LOTS of times! It should come RIGHT NOW!” I think at that point he was starting to get a little impatient. :)

* Several months ago he mentioned to me that he had noticed that he is the only one anymore who prays for me to have a baby. I guess the rest of us kind of gave up on it and stopped praying for it. I was surprised that he actually noticed that. I took that opportunity to talk to him about the possibility that we wouldn’t have any more kids. He then said, “I’ll never give up on having a baby.”

*A few months ago he came to me and said, “I hope that I will catch a Leprechaun someday…then I could have a wish and wish for you to have another baby.”

*There have been a few times where Dallin would look at my tummy and say, “Mom, your tummy looks like it has a baby in it.”  I have to keep reminding him, “No honey…it’s just fat.”  :)

*Last Sunday after church Dallin informed me that he wasn’t going to eat lunch so that he could fast for me so that I would have a baby. What’s funny is that a few minutes later I see him opening up the cupboard. He said, “I’m just going to have some snacks instead of lunch”. When I informed him that fasting means no food…including snacks, he quickly changed his mind about fasting. :)

*Sometimes Dallin likes me to say my morning personal prayers out loud so that he can hear me pray. Recently he asked me to pray out loud and looked at me intently and said, “Mom…don’t forget to pray that we’ll have another baby.”

Can you see why this is so hard for me?? What a sweetheart! It just hurts so bad to not be able to give him a little brother or sister. I suppose that he will eventually come to terms with it too. I do have to say that I have complete trust in my Heavenly Father which helps beyond measure! I have no doubt that He knows me, loves me and weeps with me. It helps so much to know that God sees the whole picture and knows what is best for me. If having another baby is not what is best for me and my family, then I can accept that. I am truly grateful to know that He is aware of my feelings and will help me (and Dallin) get through this trial. I’m grateful to know that it is all working out the way that it is supposed to work out. And besides…being at this stage in life isn’t such a bad thing. I’m actually enjoying it. Maybe you’re even a little jealous of me… no more diapers, no babies hanging out with us on our date nights, no more sleepless nights, grocery shopping by myself, naps in the afternoon etc. etc…are you jealous yet?? :)

Amy’s wedding

On January 15th our niece  Amy was married in the Mesa Temple.  Amy was just a little girl when I came into the family.  She has grown into quite the beautiful lady don’t you think? We are happy to have Jed as part of our family now.  They had been dating for a long time and it wasn’t until we talked to his parents at the wedding that we made the connection that Jed and his family were in Princess Park ward the same time we were.  Jed was probably only 10-11 years old back when we were in the same ward.  It’s a small world! :)

They make a gorgeous couple. 

 

 

2010 Family Pictures

Thanks to Hanah Bonilla for taking our family pictures this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow in Mesa??

Yes!! On December 30th, 2010 it really DID snow in Mesa!  This kind of excitement rarely happens in our parts! I’ve seen it snow here in Mesa maybe 3 times in my lifetime. It didn’t last too long…maybe 30 minutes, and it didn’t stick to the ground for long, but who cares?? It’s snow!!

 

Can you see it?? I know…it’s hard to see, but I promise it really was snowing!!

 

Brrrr…we’re not used to this kind of cold! Maybe my boys would have dressed a little warmer that day if they would have known it was going to snow! Such Arizona boys…shorts and bare feet in December.

 

Fun with Cousins

During Christmas break, Stan’s brother Russell and his family were in town.  We rarely get to see them, so we enjoy it when they are here.  Cassie and Parker were invited to spend the night with their Millett cousins along with some of Russell’s kids.  They had great time.  Uncle David took the boys hiking and the girls had a blast hanging out (talking about boys) :) and going to see the movie “Tangled”.

 

Christmas Day

First matter of business…Did Santa eat all the cookies??  Indeed he did!!!

 

Cassie was excited about her new clothes, books and new curtains for her room!

 

Out of all of Dallin’s presents, he was most excited about the Little Debbie Christmas Tree Brownies…go figure. :)

 

Parker was most excited about his brand new camera and hiking backpack!

Little did he know what was coming next…

After we opened Santa gifts, we took a break to eat breakfast.  After breakfast, we opened up the family gifts under the Christmas tree.  Parker happened upon a suspicious package under the tree.  The tag said, “To Parker…From Parker”.  Hmmmmm…very interesting indeed! He was a bit confused. 

Story time…Parker has been saving up his money for quite a while to purchase something really neat.  His original plan was to buy a Nintendo Dsi, and had finally earned enough $ for it.  One day I happened to bring up the idea of a laptop.  He loved the idea! He knew that a laptop would cost more $ than a Dsi, but he was still willing to wait until he had earned enough. He had $200 saved.  I told him that the only way he could get a laptop for that cheap was if there was a great deal on Black Friday.  Thanksgiving rolled around, and lo and behold there was a $200 laptop at Walmart.  We told him that chances were that in order to get the laptop, you had to spend the night at Walmart.  Stan and I weren’t sure that we were willing to do that.  After getting home from the Thanksgiving festivities about 10 pm Thanksgiving night, Stan decided to drop by Walmart to see if there was already a line for the laptops. He called and told me that they only had 15 available laptops, and 15 people were already in line and had their tickets.  Bummer!!  He ended up staying at Walmart all night anyway so he could purchase some other items and then went to Target afterwards.  At about 7:30 a.m.  after he was done shopping, he decided to go back to Walmart.  He remembered that he had seen a laptop on display and thought he could ask about it…smart man!! It was still there and so he asked if he could buy it. The sales associate said Yes! And at 10% off!! Woohoo!!! Leave it to Stan the Man!! We were SO excited!

The morning after Thanksgiving, I told Parker that his Dad had tried to get the laptop…but I purposely only told him the first 1/2 of the story. :) We thought we’d keep it a secret and surprise him with it on Christmas. Oh boy was he excited!!  He couldn’t even believe it! It was a fun Christmas moment.  Kind of nice when your kids can buy their own Christmas presents. :)

He was even more excited when he discovered that his Uncle Jared had downloaded a bunch of cool games onto his laptop!

 

After all the presents were opened, we thought we’d get a little exercise in by playing our new Wii “Just Dance” game.

 

 

                                                          Everybody was happy!!

 

 

And then we were off for food, family and fun with the Phelps’ and the Roberts’.

 

Another Christmas to remember!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents house.  Yummy! It was practically Thanksgiving Dinner all over again…turkey, ham, potatoes, rolls etc.

 

 

When we got home, we let the kids open one present under the Christmas tree…warm, fuzzy blankets!

 

 

Afterwards we read the Christmas story and sang Christmas Hymns.  Right before bed we prepared for Santa Claus and his reindeer to stop by our house.  The boys were kind enough to lay out 1 carrot for each reindeer.

 

And then it was off to bed!! Well, for the kids anyway…