Even Little Hands Can Stop to Pray

Last week, Corbin began to fold his arms for prayer. While he may not fold them through all of prayer is fine by me. The fact that he does it all, is both satisfying and astonishing. To think that such a small boy and understand that when I say it's time for prayer, it's time to fold our arms as well. I'm so proud and happy that we can all fold our arms and be silent for a family prayer now. Corbin isn't quite sixteens months yet.  So you can imagine my joy and excitement to share such an important aspect of our life is already being accepted.

I love it when Alister kneels at his bedside to say prayer at bedtime before I ask.  He knows it's what we do.  While he may not fully understand it's importance yet, he understands that it's apart of our life.

I have witnessed that children recognize the Savior at a very young age.  I have witnessed that being consistent in showing little ones how to pray brings joy beyond belief.  Witnessing such moments has only increased my testimony of Jesus Christ.  In His love for his little ones.  It makes me reaffirms my belief that we are all born with the light of Christ.  That at a young age, we know Him.  We love Him.  And if we, as parents, continue to teach our little ones about Jesus and His teachings, that knowledge and love can grow into a relationship unlike any on this earth.  But as parents, it is our responsibility to not only teach these things, but we are to teach them with love and compassion.  With patience and kindness.  With strength and courage.

I don't believe I will ever tire of sharing my testimony with you all.  Especially since moving here to Indiana.  I have noticed a change in my soul.  It is more noticeable at times then others.  But, it is there.  That change is not only an increase of my love for the gospel, but an increase of compassion and love for those who are seeking truth and have not yet found it.  So I ask you, if you know someone who is in need of our Saviors love, please, share it with them.  Whether they accept it or not, is there one choice, but reach out.  Do not be ashamed.  Find courage.

Do not forget to kneel in prayer for yourself.  Teaching your little ones is important, but taking a few moments and conversing with your Heavenly Father is also important.  Perhaps even more so.  Because, if our children do not witness us praying, they may wonder if we do.  They may begin to wonder if we practice what we preach.  So kneel.  Bow your head and talk with your Father in Heaven.  For he longs to hear your voice.

Kneel.

Alister - Two Years

Two.... Two! I can't believe he's two! (now I can since this is going up so late.) But we had so much fun for his birthday! We took him to his favorite place... the Zoo! Plus, my family was here to celebrate with us!

I'll never forget the night I went into labor with Alister.  Some of you may remember that we were going to name him Conner Joseph.  But, as my due date got closer, that just didn't feel right.  Then one morning Adam thought, "What about Alister Pratt?" I loved it. :) We loved it.  That was the name.  Later that night, I went into labor and Alister came the next day at 1:47pm. After 14 hours of active labor and 3 hours of pushing, the little boy we had been dreaming of had finally joined us.  Like any proud parent, we knew he was special.  Still do.  Now, he's a tender-hearted little boy who shows empathy and exudes sweetness.  We couldn't be prouder to watch him grow, laugh, love, learn and enjoy life.  We love you so much Alister.

Corbin - One Year

I know this is late, But I really want to catch up. Corbin is now a year old. What happened to my baby? Now he's walking, "talking", sleeping through the night and done with formula! I am so proud of his accomplishments and he adds so much joy and laughter to our family. Corbin is small for his age group. He's still under 20 lb. and is 28 and a half inches long. Although his head is in the 98% so he's a little bobble head. :) Corbin says "mama", "dada", "hey" and "done" to get down from the table.  He loves "running" around the house with Alister and gets excited when Papa gets home. He's a momma's boy for sure and is my little buddy.  While we didn't plan on Corbin coming into our lives so soon, we couldn't imagine life any other way.

I couldn't get the type of pictures I would have liked, but these are still cute. :) Some are from the little birthday party we had with the Elders.

UPDATE: OH MY GOSH! I can not believe this was never published! I thought I did! Well... Enjoy!

Christmas 2014

It was our first Christmas as a family of four.  :) It was simple and wonderful.  While, again, I didn't get the Christmas pictures I envisioned, we at least have memories of it. Well, Adam and I do (maybe just me). ;)  We spent the morning of course opening gifts and spent the day relaxing and enjoying one another.

We also, had the Elders over for Christmas dinner which was a lot of fun. :)

Mother of Two

Becoming a mother to Alister was both terrifying and exciting. Becoming a mother to a second son brought new fears. Will I be able to divide my time evenly? Will I feel too drained? I now have two future Elders to teach and nurture. Will I be good enough? Will I teach them enough? Will they learn compassion and become tender hearted? Will they know charity? ... I have two future Elders. Over time, that fear has turned to excitement.  One that I'm not sure I would have come to know this early in the game if it weren't for all the wonderful Elders I've met here in Indiana.  I watched some youtube videos of missionaries returning home a while back.  A couple of them the sons raced to their mothers and embraced them and wouldn't let go.  I totally balled my eyes out.  It made me hope that I could one day know that feeling of joy, love, pride and relief to embrace my son after two years.

Being a mother of two boys has its own kind of pride. One that I'm so happy to know. I got a blessing a couple weeks ago from Adam and it was such a good reminder that The Lord has called me to be a mother.  That He has placed his trust in me.  That when I have doubt, He still has hope.  For that I am so grateful.

We get compliments everywhere we go on Alister and Corbin.  About how cute they are, Alister's hair, their blue eyes, Corbin's red hair, their good behavior.  People can't help but smile when they see those two smile.  When they watch as Corbin clings to me while sometimes flashing a smile their way.  If only these strangers knew just how much I truly do appreciate those compliments.  And while I do, I also wish they could know just how wonderful they really are.  I'll do my best to raise these boys in hopes that one day, they will both serve missions and they will be able to touch so many peoples lives.  Just as so many missionaries have touched ours. I hope that some of those returned missionaries read this.  Because I want them to know, that we love them. We miss them. We hope that they will continue to reach out and touch peoples lives with service, selflessness and charity.

No Regrets

As I sit here rocking Corbin, watching his eyes become heavy as he drifts off to sleep, I ponder to myself. Corbin is now ten months old. I still have to rock him to sleep. And while I am exhausted and sick at the moment, and can not help but think that I will never regret rocking my children. Yes, Corbin does not sleep well so I am going to start sleep training very soon, or we will all loose our minds. But still, I don't regret a single day or night of rocking Corbin. The same goes for Alister. 

Alister didn't start sleeping through the night until 14 months I believe. And I rocked him to sleep. The reason I stopped was because I was pregnant with Corbin and I was getting to big to comfortably rock Alister. Plus, I knew things had to change before the new baby. No matter how much I knew that at times, I would look back on the days when I could rock Alister and miss it. He was our first baby boy. I will always look back in fondness. I remember my first birthday after Alister was born. I got up in the middle of the night to feed Alister. When I sat in my rocker I looked over to see a wrapped gift and card. Something "from" Alister. I the card, Adam wrote as if it were Alisters words. In it read, "this is our special time". I read that and knew it to be true. Even though I was tired and worn out, it was a special time with my son. As Alister laid there in my arms, I gazed upon him telling him that it was a very special time. That I love him so much, kissing his face as he sleep. 

While it is easier to sleep train babies at a younger age, I do not regret my choices. While I rocked I got to look upon those precious faces. I could feel them breath and watch them dream. I've known people who don't ever rock their children to sleep because they don't want to encourage that habit. While logically I can agree that, that is very smart, emotionally I feel sad for them. Rocking my boys has grown to be one of my favorite things. And now, I will be sleep training Corbin soon. I will have to give up rocking him to sleep. Quite honestly, it makes me very sad. My baby is growing up. I think it makes me even more sad then when I stopped rocking Alister because we are not planning to have any more children. A decision I do not regret but I will miss rocking our babies. They are only tiny for a short time. The window to enjoy such pleasures is very small. One that I know I have enjoyed fully. 

Ten Months - Corbin

At ten months. Wow wee! Two more months until his first birthday. I just can't. He grew up too fast. But at ten months Corbin doing really well. Other then sleep still. But he's crawling and climbing up stairs. His favorite thing to do is to practice walking. Which Is great! The more he does it the sooner he'lol start walking in his own. I truly believe he will be walking around his first birthday. He's a smarty pants. He knows that the t.v. remote turns in the t.v.. He has turned it one a few times and when he does he'll hold the remote up towards the t.v.. He tries to turn movies on I guess. Hahaha! It's pretty cute to watch. It shows is that he's pretty observant. Oh! Corbin's hair has also really started to come in. And we have learned that he is not blonde like we have thought for the last several months. He is a red head! He's our little Irish boy. Which I must admit I'm pretty excited about. 

For a long time while growing up, I was always jealous of Cameron (my twin brother) for having red hair. I mean, it was RED! Thick and beautiful. Corbin's so far is a lighter red. Like a strawberry blonde. I must point out (brag) that he also has blue eyes. Which I'm sure you have already noticed. This means that Corbin has one of the rarest combos of hair and eye color. The rarest for red heads. While red heads are the rarest anyway, it is even more rare for a red head to have blue eyes. So that's pretty freakin' awesome. :) 

Corbin is an adorable baby boy who like his older brother steals the hearts of strangers every where we go. People are always calling him blue eyes. Saying how cute and precious our boys our. I love to see strangers faces light up and their hearts melt whenever they smile at them. I must say, it's an extra bonus to have adorable kids that the world loves. :)