Endurance

*Just some thoughts today*

"A reliance upon the merciful nature of God is at the very center of the gospel Christ taught...There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, 'beyond his own.' The Savior reminds us that He has 'graven us upon the palms of His hands.' Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Cricifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, 'Come unto me,' He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way."
-Jeffrey R. Holland

I believe the merciful nature of God and the ability to endure have quite a bit to do with each other.  

One definition of endure is to suffer without yielding or to suffer patiently. Without this mercy could suffering really allow patience. I don't believe so. It is only through the mercy of God that we really can access the ability to endure. 

It also seems to me that it is in human nature that we look inwardly and sometimes forget to look outwardly; to look to others. I also believe it is our human nature to forget we all suffer and it's not easy for anyone to suffer patiently. "The grass isn't always greener on the other side." We all experience different struggles but to each of us they are struggles and they are real. When we can learn to look outwardly even in our own journey, during the struggles, we gain a bit of an idea of the merciful nature of God. However, God's mercy is a perfect mercy and ours will always be flawed in this lifetime. It can never be perfect as we haven't experienced the struggles of others as both our Father and our Savior have endured.

Through the perfect mercy of our Savior we find the ability to endure and to love, or to overcome rage, anger, hurt, jealousy, envy, hate, and more of what we all experience. After this is when we find ourselves starting to look outwardly, focusing on others more instead of ourselves and learning what mercy really consists of.

This isn't easy but do we learn anything when everything comes easy? 

Loving Forever

Tonight, I sit alone in the living room. The quiet of a sleeping baby and a snoring husband make me feel welcome in this little world of ours. It gives me reason to be happy, to smile, and to feel satisfied with life. Some moments challenge me to find the patience; the patience to push through until I find that satisfaction again. But the moment that it comes, whether it is cuddling that sleeping baby, hugging that snoring husband, or seeing them play together, it comes in full force and I can't help but be blown away! I have been given goodness! Something I couldn't have created by myself and I am grateful that God has made it that way.

Tonight, I am loving that goodness! I am loving forever! My forever with these two boys! I can call my husband that, a boy. I am allowed to after he begged me to buy legos for our seven week old son so they could play together! He can't complain but I love that about him!

It is refreshing. It feels good to be needed. To be wanted. To be loved by my boys! And in return, I need them, I want them, and I love them. I think that is part of why God created families! There is something about those relationships that warm our hearts and remind us of the goodness there is in life, in this world. That no matter who imperfect we are apart, we come close to perfect together! And the imperfect part only makes us need and love each other that much more.

Are you loving your forever?

Six Weeks Old

Our little man is six weeks old today!

Aren't the men in my life handsome?

Kamden is almost completely rid of his thrush and gaining weight better! He gained a half a pound and now weighs 8 lbs. 14 oz. Hallelujah! 

P.S. I must say Maryland is close to making up for my missing Idaho in the Fall! It is so pretty here with the trees! Kamden and I went on a drive this morning before our doctors appointments and let's just say there will be many more Fall drives before this season ends! Pictures to come!

Not to mention, Kamden is so excited to meet his Aunt Shanon! We pick her up at the airport tonight!

Halloween and Morning Mishaps

We have had a few things to note happen this past weekend.

The first was Halloween costumes!!!

I can't believe Halloween is almost here again already! We had our ward Halloween party this last Saturday! I wanted matching costumes for us that were cheap, easy, and doable. I searched for different ones and we decided on this:

I think he is the meanest, best looking pirate I have ever seen!

The second was having our bikes stolen and me waking up to a House Centipede on the wall by my pillow! I would call neither of those pleasant! At least our bikes weren't nice, expensive ones. We find a little comfort in that. However, I can find nothing optomistic to say about the House Centipede! 

I hate the new creatures we have experienced while living in Maryland. The House Centipede is one of those! They are creepy and fast and ugly and they are pretty common here, especially in apartment complexes from what I hear. We have sprayed a few times around the house but still get a couple every now and then and if I never had to see another one again in a lifetime it would be too soon! I cuddled up to my husband for the rest of the morning trying to sleep.

At least I have a cute little pirate to bring me back to normalcy after being disappointed and creeped out this morning!

Natural Disasters

We have had some adventures while we moved to Maryland that we definitely never expected! 

We have now lived here for almost four months and have now experienced or been issued a warning for four different disasters.

In August we experienced an earthquake of a 5.8 magnitude. Nate was at work and I was at Target. Everyone was pretty worried and while it is good to be safe I really just wanted to finish my shopping instead of sitting in the parking lot. Eventually, I was able to and Nate even got off work early! There was some damage done in a few areas around Washington D.C., Virgninia, and Maryland but nothing that affected us directly. 

About two weeks after the earthquake we got drift of Hurricane Irene along the east coast. We were on a hurricane and tropical storm warning. We got a pretty bad storm and lost power for a few hours that night in our apartment but that was about all that really affected us. There was quite a bit of damage done to trees around our complex and the city of Laurel. A large tree was uprooted by the road in our complex and a few other trees in Laurel. Church was cancelled as it happened on Saturday night and some people in our ward were out of power for about a week! We were lucky to only loose it for a few hours!

Two weekends ago from today we were on our way home from being in town with Nathan's dad and there were a few fire trucks that passed us. As we got closer to our apartment complex another one passed us and we followed it into the complex. A building in the complex caught on fire and was damaged pretty bad. There were about five fire trucks and two of the buildings were evacuated. We found out later that it was the furnace that caused the fire and one of the buildings was pretty much destroyed on the inside. The structure is still standing but they will have to completely gut everything out and redo the roof as it burned through. Nobody was hurt and everyone is being put in new apartments. We know at least one man is moving into our building.

 View of the smoke from our apartment building

Close up of some of the damage!

Now, it brings us to today! Nate came home from work and notified me that we were on Tornado warning. It has been storming the last few days and I guess there was a tornado that touched down in Virginia and there have been some funnel clouds around the D.C. area. It has just stormed and we don't really expect much else as the warning was only until 11:00 pm. It is now 11:05 pm. 

We are very grateful that we have not been affected by any of these disasters and not sure what to expect next here in Maryland! Don't forget the hostage situation with police, swat, loud speakers, and army soldiers with bazookas at our apartment complex in Oregon. That was an interesting experience too! That happened within the last year as well!

We are all about excitement but don't really prefer to experience it in these forms! Are we missing anything that we should expect next? We have covered just about everything you could experience with natural disasters!

Thrush, I Hate You

We are fighting a cursed problem in our house (or Kamden's mouth)...

It's called Thrush (yeast infection located in the mouth) and Kamden and I have had quite enough of it!

We first noticed that Kamden had a yeast infection on his little thighs and the doctor recommended we get some Lotrimin Anti Fungal to treat it. We applied it 3 times a day like he said...it went away shortly after. End of story, right? Not quite!

I had also been dealing with pain during feedings with Kamden. I would get burning, shooting pain during his feedings sometimes and after. I researched online trying to figure it out. I thought it might be a few things. I tried different treatments and it wasn't working. I kept researching. Later, I noticed white spots on Kamden's cheeks. I had noticed on his tongue before but figured it was milk from nursing. However, the white spots forced me to think it was thrush which I had heard about before. I researched it...that was when I found out what was causing my pain as well! Yep, it was that cursed problem, the Thrush.

A doctors appt. two days after the last one and another co-pay later it was confirmed. One prescription later and he still had the cursed problem...this time worse than before! In the words of the doctor he has "an impressive case of thrush."(Seriously, are you kidding?)

One more doctors appt., two more prescriptions, no weight gain in a week and a half (caused by not wanting to eat because of a sore mouth aka Thrush), and $125.00 (for prescriptions) later brings us to today! Not only that but we now have another doctors appt. in a week and a half (as well as another co-pay) for a weight check.

If it's not cleared up by then I might go insane! 

For being a healthy baby he's had an awful lot of doctors appointments (and co-pay's) in the last month. Today was his fifth doctors appointment and he is only a month old!

 Here's to hoping the next month goes by a little better!

Time Flies

I can't believe my little guy is already one month old!

He is growing so fast and it makes me excited and breaks my heart a little at the same time!

Time flies when you are having fun!