BS in Fire Science

Ben finished his BS! Hallelujah! I'm so proud of him. Great job babe! Not only that, but he finished with a GPA of 3.83.

Life Size Bear

Shannon's family got Ethan this adorable huge bear when he was born. The initial purpose was to take monthly pictures of Ethan beside or on the bear...but seeing as how Ethan never cooperated and I usually forgot or lacked the time around his monthly birthdays, this is how we play with the bear. What can I say, we like to rough house! (We discovered that Ethan liked to attack the bear a few days back when Alli was beating the bear up with some nerf swords. She kept dive bombing the bear while I held it and attacked her. Then Ethan joined the fun.)

A second video

Testimony Strengthened

I won't go into a lot of details in this blog because I feel that it is the inappropriate time to do so, but I do want to reiterate what I posted as my status on facebook tonight.
  
"When we finally decide to quit fighting against God's plan and asking the questions, "why us, why now", stress dissolves and life becomes more clear. In time all things make sense and you realize just how good God is and how blessed you are. I thank God for all I have now and all we will have in our future. My eyes are finally seeing the fruition of our hard work and some of the reasons for our trials. Feeling blessed."


Ben and I have seen numerous blessings in our short 7 years together but there has always been one very hard and major trial for us...Ben's job vs. his aspirations. The struggle only grew as each year passed. One hurdle successfully handled led to another hurdle to climb. 2012 was the year of our greatest uncertainties and we still aren't 100% to a conclusion but we are finally getting to the point in our trials where we are seeing the reasons behind some of the trials, the reasons things happened to put Ben in the right place at the right time to be able to talk to the right people.

The trials sucked....don't get me wrong....but knowing the result....knowing now what we didn't know then, makes me realize just how ever-present God is in our lives and how blessed we are.  Every time we hurt because Ben was passed up for a promotion he deserved....now we better understand why. Every time we had to deal with confrontations issues as a result of Ben being disliked by management in his fire career, yet being adored by his EMS management....now we understand the purpose. Ben was being guided. We were being guided. I'm so thankful to my Father in Heaven for knowing our needs and knowing our desires. I'm just thankful. I can't wait to be able to finally share with everyone all of the exciting things coming. I look forward to 2013.

It's just a number and it doesn't define me

I've been a little unhappy lately knowing that I'm the heaviest I've ever been. Many people would argue that I don't look like I've gained weight and some might even argue that I've lost weight... To those of you who do, thank you. You know how to make a girl feel good.

But if I'm being honest my pants dont fit the same as they used to and the ever persistent woman pooch/muffin top is too poochy. I'm tired of seeing these rolls. I know I have the power to change it but it's been hard fighting fatigue to get up early and get motivated.

I want to look cute in clothes and this has prevented me from shopping because I don't want to buy larger sizes. I fear this will prevent me from working towards loosing the midsection. Today we went to shop on gift cards and a store I once loved is no longer a love at all. I used to wear a 10 at AE and while I could "fit" in a 12, my big butt truly belonged in a 14. I kept telling myself that it's just a number and it doesn't define me but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt the ego and motivate me more.

I was able to find some cute and flattering clothes tonight to boost my self image and self esteem but I am keeping some pants that are from AE size 10 that I LOVE. These are my motivation pants. I need to fight through the rough days of fatigue to get enough work outs in to start getting more energy and break my vicious cycle. My problem will be getting up before the kids to work out or working out while they crawl and run around me. Challenge? Yes! But challenge accepted! Bye bye pooch!

9 months

Ethan just had his 9 month visit with our pediatrician. His weight changed from 17.9 lbs to 21.2lbs and he is in the 74%.

His height changed from 27in to 29.5in and he is in the 89%.

His head circumference went from 17 to 18 in. And he is in the 71%.


Height and weight combined puts him in the 55%. Dr says Ethan's putting all his food to good use so our hungry little monster can continue to eat like a madman. He also said it was fine if Ethan is rejecting baby food for what we are eating at mealtime.

The kids are looking forward to Christmas. Alli seems most excited about her stocking. It will be here before we know it!

No slowing down now

Ever since Ethan figured out how to pull himself up, he also decided to make a greater effort in crawling. Now if he is on the floor, he is crawling. There is very little sitting. Here is an early video of his crawling.

Sleep over and Not to be Outdone...

Alli had a blast sleeping over at grammy and papa's. She got to stay up very late and actually convinced her Grammy to let her sleep with her! They woke up to more fun and Marilyn and Ashley got some cute pictures of the kids enjoying the day.

"Peace"

Hugs

Ethan couldn't let his sister have all the fun. After having a rough nap day, he didn't want to take his final nap before dinner. I was almost done cooking and wanted to get Alli fed before bringing him down. So I turned his monitor down so I could focus on her. When we sat down to eat, I saw the monitor blinking red and so I turned on the video to check on him. My mouth his the floor when I saw this below!

This is the first time Ethan has pulled himself up into a standing position. I watched him for a while and even saw him fall backwards, crawl back over and stand up again. Here we go. I better get my running shoes on because this kids going to keep me moving!