Fall is (almost) here!

Seriously, I don't think I ever have been so excited for fall to come.  But I am way, way excited this year.  It hasn't even been that hot this summer in St. Louis so I really can't even blame the heat.  I have a super cute assortment of scarfs that I bought at the end of last spring on clearance and I have had to wait all summer to wear them!  I know vain, and silly, but I am way excited about these scarfs.  I am also quite excited to be pregnant in the fall.  With Hudson I was in my last trimester during the summer and it was pretty miserable, so I am looking forward to the cooler weather.  Also, one more word as to why I am excited for fall....SOUP!  I realized last year just how much I love soups, and I have been finding all sorts of recipes for yummy soups but it has just been too hot to make them.  I haven't really been able to cook much this summer because I realized that pretty much every kind of meal that I make is a hot meal, and Joe doesn't want to eat hot food after his 30 minute drive home in a car with no air conditioning....I wonder why? Needless to say, I cannot wait for fall to actually get here....and you know what comes after fall????  CHRISTMAS!!!  Which means a baby!

    Speaking of baby...we are having another boy! And we couldn't be happier.  I have felt that our second baby would be a boy since we found out that Hudson was going to be a boy, so I think I have been waiting just a little too long for this little guy to come!  I am so excited that Hudson is going to have a little brother to run around with and be best friends, and have someone to teach all of his awesome cool tricks to.  I am just so excited to have two little guys romping around the house together.  And, I went through all of my baby clothes the other day and I forgot how many cute little boy clothes we have, I think we need another little boy just to show those off!  I can tell that this baby is a special spirit, and I feel so blessed to get to be his Mommy.  It is really kind of emotional to be going through the process of having a baby again, and it is so different this time.  With Hudson, I was so so soooo busy with school that I really didn't have a lot of time to really just revel in the fact that I was going to be a Mom.  This time around I am still very busy, but it is Mommy busy, not school busy.  I love looking at Hudson and thinking how he was once a little baby, and how I get to do this all over again.  I'm very nervous, but this time I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and that he has sent these little boys to me for a reason.  I don't always think I'm a good mom, and I know I'm not a perfect mom, but I know I'm the right mom for these little guys.  And I know that they are the right babies for me.  It is amazing how much I need Hudson and how much he teaches me already.

     For instance, today I was trying to get dinner ready, and a special yummy desert (orange brownies...try them, they are to die for) and Hudson was just screaming for attention.  I really felt like I didn't have the time, and I was a little fed up with the day already.  I spent the morning at the Dentist (not my favorite place), and Hudson took a short nap which means he was CRANKY!!!!  I was trying to listen to a General Conference talk to calm me down, and I happend to be listening to President Monson's talk from the last General Conference session about obedience.  As I was getting frustrated with Hudson for being so needy while I was trying to uplift myself spiritually, and get dinner on the table, it finally hit me that part of my obedience to the Lord as a mother is that I need to put my son first and attend to his needs.  We have been commanded to raise our children in righteousness and we have learned through the Family Proclamation that we have a sacred obligation to attend to the needs of our children.  So I took a deep breath, knealt down next to Hudson and helped him with whatever it is he was crying about (I honestly don't remember).  He immediately settled down, said thank you, and kept playing with his toy.  That little lesson today was exactly what I needed.  I just can't believe all the things I am learning as a mom.  p.s. he started crying again a few minutes later by the door because I wouldn't let him go outside.  He cried a bit longer, but Dad happened to walk in the door pretty soon after that and made Hudson feel like a champ again!

August has been a pretty laid back month, The highlight of the month was definitely finding out that we were having another boy.  Did I mention that I am so excited?  My studio finally took off in the month of August as well.  Honestly this has been such a great, big, huge blessing.  It was really discouraging trying to find students, and having lots of people tell me that they wanted their kids to learn piano, but nobody actually started lessons.  Finally, in August, BOOM!  I now have six students and a few more potential students.  I honestly feel so blessed that I am able to actually use my talents and degree for something.  I love teaching lessons, I really do! And it is extra nice because now we have money to put away into savings for when we move after Joe graduates!  And a little extra money for buying things like a new hairbrush...because Hudson dropped mine in the toilet earlier today...gross!

     August has been a really big month of growth for me as well.  Things have happened that have really made me upset with my lot in life at the current moment, and for a while I stopped looking at the good things and only accentuated the bad.  I called my mom crying a lot over petty things that were really just silly.  And I got really angry.  Really angry that things weren't different, and that we didn't have more money, and that people had other things I didn't...petty things like that.  I was really just frustrated with every little thing in life.  Finally about two weeks ago there was a quote by President Hinckley in the weekly newsletter for our Relief Society.  It says
     "Don’t be gloomy. Do not dwell on unkind things. Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the          sunlight. Even if you are not happy, put a smile on your face. ‘Accentuate the positive.’ Look a little              deeper for the good. Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, with great            and strong purpose in your heart. Love life.” Gordon B. Hinckley
This just kinda struck me in the face that I was seeking every single little storm that I could.  If something had the possibility of getting on my nerves a little, it was all of a sudden going to get on my nerves a lot!  I realized that that probably wasn't the kind of person Heavenly Father wanted me to be, and it definitely wasn't the kind of person that I wanted to be.  It has been my goal in the past few weeks to put a smile on my face and to stop seeking storms.  Man is that hard!  I haven't been very good at it, but I know I have been better.  I know that I still have a long ways to go. I have felt the softening in my heart towards my family and towards myself.  I have been happier in the last week or so, and when I am not happy, I look for the sunshine, and try to enjoy it.  I'm telling you...this strategy works.  Heavenly Father wants us to be happy.  He sent his Son so that we could be happy.  There is no reason to be sad, and gloomy.  Or unkind.  By trying to change my heart I have been given a whole new perspective on life and how many blessings that are just pouring in.  Life is good.  I love it.  I love being a daughter of God, and I love the happiness that knowledge gives me.

It's July! And we are having a baby!

     So, as the title suggests...I am pregnant!  We are having another baby!  Pretty much everybody knows this news already, but one day I am going to make a book out of all these blog posts, and so I figured I should probably mention this big piece of news.  The baby is due on Christmas Day!  Super exciting for me, but probably not as exciting for the baby.  I always thought it would be pretty stinky to have your birthday on Christmas.  Oh well, we will figure out some way to make it a lot of fun!
     So far this pregnancy has been pretty tough, but not nearly as hard as my pregnancy with Hudson was.  My biggest blessing is the fact that I have such an amazing husband and such wonderful in-law's to help me.  Seriously, I wouldn't have survived those first few weeks on my own.  (Ok, I probably would have, but Ed and Debbie have made things so much easier and bearable!)  I also have a great doctor who helped me get some great nausea medicine early on, so I could feel better before it got too bad.
    We find out on August 12 what the baby is going to be and the days are just dragging by! I want to find out so bad!
     July had a great start for our family.  Joe had a week of vacation from school, and so he took the week off of work and we just played and played all week long.  It was so fun and so needed for our family. We went to a super fun outlet mall, which is not your ordinary outlet mall!  It had a go-cart track and a mini-golf course, and I think even a paintball thing.  But the coolest part about this mall is that the official training rink for the St. Louis Blues (the hockey team) is there!  We actually got to see a hockey game, but it was only some high school kids playing.  It was still really neat to see it, and we got to see a real live Zamboni!  I have always wanted to see that (weird huh?) and I finally did!

On the 4th of July we had a great day!  We went up to St. Charles and watched a parade, and then we got to walk around Old St. Charles for a bit, it still has a lot of old building and cobblestone streets!  There was a super yummy soda shop that we stopped at, and they had a soda fountain from the 1920's that they still used!  It was one yummy soda!  Hudson also got to sit on Santa's lap (you know, Christmas in July or something like that) but he freaked out so it wasn't for very long.  Though, he did understand that in order to get the yummy looking candy, he would have to sit on that big guy's lap!    After we got home we all lounged for a bit and then we went to Darryl and Elisa's for a 4th of July BBQ!  It was tons of fun and great to just visit with family.  After dinner we went to the park to watch the fireworks.  By that time Hudson was so tired that he wasn't too excited by them, but he did just cuddle and snuggle with me and watched them quietly.  That was one of those perfect moments in my life, where I was so happy I thought it was just going to burst out of me.  Here I was, sitting there with my baby in my arms, and my husband by my side as I remembered how blessed I was to live in a country where I could do that very thing.  I know there are a lot of things going on in the U.S. that we may not like, but it still is God's country and I cannot be any more proud to be an American.

     On Joe's last day of vacation we went to the water park and splashed around the entire day.  We had been doing swim lesson's with Hudson the week before, so we were hoping that maybe after giving him a whole week break he would like the water a little more.  Didn't work.  He loved the little splash pad, and the lazy river (in which he just floated on the water but never got in,) but as soon as we got in the pool he was ANGRY!

     The rest of the month has been moving quickly and I can't believe that it is almost over!  Debbie came home from Idaho the day after the 4th of July and you could tell how happy all the Grandchildren were to have their Grandma back home!  Debbie was in Idaho for the entire month of June, and so we all missed her very much. Hudson has loved having his Grandma home and another friend to play with.  Especially because she has a new tablet with lot's of fun games for him!

(So, I just realized that I never posted this, so sorry it's late.  But better late than never!)