Our girls are getting so big so fast! Amaya is now 1 1/2 and Oaklie is six months old! Time is just flying by. I took Oaklie to get her six month pictures taken by the wonderful Brianne Serrano and she took some of Amaya and me. As always, they turned out great! Brianne has been our photographer since Amaya was born and I have absolutely loved our pictures every time! She is great with kids and really efficient and they always turn out beautiful!
I wouldn't exactly call these "family pictures" because we are missing one very important member of our family. I am SO excited for the pictures we will all be taking when Dallas gets home!
Our little girls are growing like weeds! Here's some updates:
Amaya is a full blown toddler--and boy can she light up a room! I can't believe how big she is! She was 26 lbs at her eighteen month appointment and is getting taller all the time. Amaya is talking more each day. Oaklie used to be "Oh", then she was "Oh-ee", now she's "Okee". Pretty impressive! I love being able to hear what is on Amaya's mind, and she loves to tell me all about it. Her favorite things to talk about are dogs ("Ruff-ruff"), Dad, Jesus, Grandpa (Bam-pa), and Uncle Nate ("Nee").
Oaklie is now six months old! It's amazing that half a year has already gone by. She's growing too but she's still a little shrimp at 14 lbs 15 oz. Her baby cousin is about to pass her up! At her appointment she was in the 26th percentile for her weight and the 97th for her head, which made me laugh pretty hard. Dallas' nickname was "Fat Head" when he was little, but I couldn't bestow a nickname like that on sweet little Oaklie. She must have lots of brains in there! :) Her personality gets bigger every day. She loves jumping in her jumper and laughing at her sister.
I heard this quote when Amaya was a baby and I just love it.
“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
This is definately true and I can tell you that it's DOUBLY true for two little ones! We love our little girls to pieces and love watching them grown and learn!
Inspired by THIS blog, I am trying to do better about writing down funny things my kiddos do. Most of you have already heard this story, but I'm going to share it again.
Amaya is talking up a storm. She loves nursery and learned how to say "Jesus" recently. She loves to point to the pictures of Christ in our home and say, "Jesus, Mom." It's pretty heartwarming. I'm reading a finance book by Dave Ramsey, and Amaya picked it up the other day and said, "Jesus" and pointed to his picture on the front. I told her no, that it was a picture of Dave Ramsey, but she kept saying, "No, Ma. Jesus". She carried it around and sang, "Jesus, Jesus".
For the record, these are the pictures of Jesus at our house:
And this is the picture of the book:
Easily confused, considering the beard, but I'm worried we might need to have a talk with Amaya about idol worship.
Coming soon...new pictures done by THIS fancy lady and updates on my SIX month old and my 1 1/2 year old!
So this blog post is rather abstract and not like what I usually post, which is the comings and goings of our family, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I good friend of mine recently said that emotion isn't something to be afraid of because it is what makes us human. I've thought about that a lot. People have accused me before of not having or showing emotion, I guess that is because I don't always show my emotions the way other people do. Each of us expresses our feelings differently; some of us wear it on our sleeves, and some of us play it a little closer to the chest. I don't think there is a right or wrong way, it's just different. One of the ways I express myself and share emotions is through writing. It is much easier for me to share a thought or a feeling through writing than aloud, and my very long journal is proof of it :)
We are roughly halfway through this deployment. We've had a lot of ups and downs, thankfully more ups than downs, and overall I feel like our family has grown a lot. I'm excited and terrified to see the growth that will happen the next six months. Although, (as wimpy as this sounds) Dallas being deployed has been the hardest thing I have ever done, I have never been more grateful for my blessings. Sometimes as Amaya, Oaklie, and I are bumping along, I find myself being rather numb to Dallas being gone and think to myself, "Oh this is just normal life." And then I stumble across a picture like this:
This is Dallas and me in June of 2008. We had been dating for two weeks and this picture was taken the night before he left for his annual two week training. At this point in our relationship, we had already decided to get married and we had already set a date, but we hadn't gotten engaged officially yet (Dallas told me later he'd already bought my ring :) ). I remember this night. I felt like my heart was breaking.
Even though twelve months is a lot longer to go without seeing Dallas than two weeks, it doesn't mean that it was easy the first time he left for Army stuff. It was still really hard. I missed him so much it ached. It was all I could think about, and I looked at his picture a thousand times a day. It was the longest two weeks of my life.
The thing that is so amazing about the Atonement is the compassion that Christ has for us. Although he has suffered more pain than we could ever imagine, He doesn't tell us that we need to suck it up. He loves us and He mourns with us. When Lazarus died, Jesus saw the sorrow of His friends, had compassion on them, and wept, even though He knew that Lazarus would be brought back to life soon. (John 11)
It brings me so much comfort and teaches me so much that Christ is a perfect man who lived a perfect life and showed emotion. It teaches me that I need to have more compassion for others and that it is not wrong to share your emotions with other people. I started crying last week in Relief Society and I was really embarrassed about it, it's something that's really out of character for me. Although, to be fair, they shouldn't do a lesson on sacrifice unless they want a lot of crying :) But then I thought about the story Dallas and I had read about Lazarus and it reminded me that it is okay to share our feelings with others. I have learned so much from other people who have shared their precious moments with me. If having emotion is what makes us human, then sharing emotion is how we connect. It is what makes us brothers and sisters in the gospel.
We had a great Valentine's Day this year! Below is the card we sent Dallas
Poor Dallas had a bit of bad luck today. They do a lot of races on holidays for the soldiers and Dallas ran in a 5K today. A few minutes in, his ankle gave out on him and he completely faceplanted onto the concrete and got some road rash on his arm. He said his ankle didn't hurt, so he started running again and a 1/4 mile later it did it again! He walked over to the doctor's office and he just had a mild sprain, which is great news. Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish the race but if he baby's his ankle for a few weeks, he'll be set to run the 5k on St. Patrick's Day.
Dallas sent me these beautiful roses and a card. They perked up quite a bit after I put them in water and I think they will be gorgeous in a few days! Amaya puked Valentine's Eve at my parents, so we ended up staying the night there and in the morning my mom watched the girls so I could Skype with Dallas uninterrupted :)
Below is one of the gifts I sent Dallas; a book by Oaklie to match the one Amaya gave him for his birthday (Amaya's can be seen here)
Since Dallas left I've had the opportunity to become friends with a lot of other army wives. We started getting together on Monday nights for family home evening and the Bachelor. It's been a lot of fun and we had heart shaped pizzas and fondue on Valentine's Day.
For all of you who are watching it this season, I've just got to put in my two cents. I was so happy that he sent Michelle home!
I really hope he
ends up with her
Because Emily is definately my favorite! Although to be honest, if I was single, I wouldn't date him. So I couldn't really blame her if she dumps him.
Anyway, here's a few more pictures from our night.
I need to take a picture of all of us together but I keep forgetting! Amaya kept loving on her friend and Eleanor would just walk away. haha
My friend Heather took this picture and this is what she said about it, which was so sweet
"I love that I have made friends because of this deployment, but I really love that my daughter made a friend too. Eleanor got visibly excited when Amaya walked in the door tonight. Later they were playing in her room and we could hear them laughing. We went in ready with our cameras and they were jumping on the bed!"
Another awesome email from Dallas that I wanted to share.
Last Sunday was one of those days that I hope I will never forget but I don't know if I was really thankful for it during it. We went to another IDP camp aka refugee camp that the U.N. is giving aid to. When I stepped out of my vehicle I couldn't believe what this place was like. It was a landfield that had been turned into some kind of little village for these people. In particular a noticed a couple little kids playing around in the mud and garbage and then i saw one little girl that was about Amaya's age. She was all dirty and was sitting in the back of a little wagon while her older sister was going through some rubble and finding spoons and bowls that they were going to use to eat with. It brought a tear to my eye to see how bad these little girls had it but then I started to think about my girls and realized how blessed we all are to have places to keep our children clean and warm. We have so many nice things and that I am grateful for. I think God gives me moments like this in my life so I can remember that I am blessed and no matter how hard or bad my day is there is always someone that is having a worse day.
Things are going well and time is really picking up now it seems like. It has been cold lately with the rain and all. Yes I know it has been below zero and a lot of snow in Idaho. Life is good though and thanks for all your prayers and support.
Love you all,
Dallas
Refugees going about their day
1SG Howard and SSG Walker and the landfield aka refugees home
This is when I was deciding if I was going to go and get back in my vehicle or not because I thought I was going to break down right there. This place was bad. (Remember you never know when someone is going to take a picture of you either!)
His email made me think a lot about life and sacrifices. Today our lesson in Relief Society was about sacrifice and I thought about this email I got yesterday. I realized I don't always have the best attitude when I am asked to sacrifice, but sacrifice is really a blessing. It's hard to have Dallas gone and we really miss him, but we are very blessed to have the opportunity to serve other people. My prayer is that because my little girls had to sacrifice playing with their dad and seeing him for a year, other little children might have a home to live in, a place they can feel safe, and the opportunity to go to school. And for me, knowing that one child's life in better makes all of our sacrifices seem so small and so worth it.
