Tribute to Thad the Graduate!

It was an exciting week at our house! We enjoyed the Celebrating, and now we have time to blog it!

Thad did his last days of clinicals this week, and is now a Graduate of Nurse Anesthesia! These are some fun pictures of him cheering after his last overnight of "call" and then his last day before he went to work, and when he came home and Peter meet him to say Wahoo!

As I step back and look at the past 2 1/2 years, I can't believe how quickly life goes by. Life is wonderful! But how short it is. Days and weeks can sometimes be long. But the months and years truly do fly!

My cute husband is so happy! I asked him yesterday how he was feeling, and he said, "I can't believe it's already here. It's exciting. It's scary. Just because I want to be the practitioner I've prepared to be. And now it's time." He has done an awesome job at juggling being a fantastic husband, a super dad, a Stake YM 2nd councelor, the Student rep for his Anesthesia class, a friend to many, and a righteous man. I admire him for the ways he has chosen to be successful. He chose to follow the commandments of God and put God first. Then his family. And then everything else. I have seen God bless him and our family in so many ways.

Our marriage has been strengthened. Our family has been expanded. As everyone knows, children expand your heart and love capacity not just the size of your family! (Peter turned 11 months this week as well!) Our faith and comittment to the gospel has been multiplied. Our understanding of the "work and glory of God" which is to "Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" has been clarified. Our missionary skills have needed to be practiced more. And our missing of our families being near to us has grown.

I just feel so grateful to know that even though I am imperfect, Heavenly Father is so merciful and magnifies my efforts to be better. And he blesses us.

In my scripture study the other day I read Moroni 7 : 20 and the question was for me.
"And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?"

I know that all good things come from Christ. But how can I lay hold upon all of them? And then the answer came as I read further.

Mornoi 7:25
"Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ."

It comes from Faith in Christ.
And that is strengthened by the ministering of angels, and hearing the word of God, from the scriptures, prophets, leaders, etc.

Moroni 7:33
"And Christ hath said: If ye will have Faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

I can see that I have much to do to strengthen my faith. But the blessings the Lord has given us here in Sioux Falls have helped me. We have had angels in the form of family and friends be there for us. We have been led to make choices to lead our family and our personal actions. And God has magnified those efforts. I am eternally grateful. Prophets and apostles, and even leaders, continue to teach us of what we must do in our families to be happy, prepared for trials, and to come unto Christ. As we have followed those words from the Lord's leaders we have been blessed.

I desire to lay hold on every good thing. And so tomorrow comes and I am grateful to have another day to work on it!

It was a great week of celebration and gratitude!
More to come in life. Glad we lived while we were students and just didn't wait for it to come to an end. That has been a great blessing as well. Now the next chapter begins!
Loves,
Malinda :)

A Few of Peter's Favorite Things!

Well, As you can tell by the over sized pictures in the layout design, I am still learning how to blog. I need a little help, so if you get a call or email, or you just know what I should do, I would love advice!

But for now, I thought I would keep up this journaling goal that I have. :)

I have been watching Peter and getting a feel for his favorite things, and I just love them with him. A few of them cause me a little extra stress because he has no fear and he is getting very mobile, but if I just keep teaching him how to be safe and keep my eyes always in his direction...hopefully we'll keep them as favorites!

So here we go:
He loves water! I love it too! We'll keep those pictures for his picture book just because I don't want to post anything that could tempt inappropriate people to our site. :)

He loves Shoes! For Christmas we got him shoelaces because anytime he can pull at them and swing them around he will. He crawled into the coat closet yesterday and I just happened to capture the moment of him relaxing in shoe heaven. Crazy thing, is that I bet his feet out grow these big shoes of Thad and mine when he gets to High School!

He loves blankets! He will pull out all the soft fuzzy ones, and just roll around in them. He loves it on his face. He loves to play what I call "Parachute." I have him help me make our bed and I put him in the middle of the bed and then throw the sheets up and we both get under them while they fall down on us. Then when it falls down we toss it back up and get under the "Parachute." We laugh and giggle. It takes a little longer to make the bed, but great for making mundane daily chores a family fun event!

He loves his toothbrush. I didn't have a chance to get a picture yet. It is coming. He chews on both ends. But I am glad he likes it now. I hope that sticks in the future!

He loves to climb. He is so persistent. We have this chair and ottoman by the window, and he isn't quite tall enough just to jump up and get on it. It takes some real effort to stand on his tippy toes, and to use his upper body strength to hold himself up enough to get his knee and leg up to climb. He gets frustrated sometimes and takes a little time to fall back on the floor and think about it. But right after he regroups, he gets back up and he does it. Then he climbs to the top of the chair to look out the window and play with the blinds.

He loves the blinds. Loves to feel and hold the twirl wand and wants to suck on the pull strings. I let him twirl the wand, but don't like the thought of sucking on the strings.

He loves to go outside. He always is telling me Bye Bye in sign language. When Thad came home last night from a long day of studying, Peter saw him at the door, took 6 steps, and then fell to his knees, and started crawling...right past Thad and out the door. He looked back saw me coming to get him and he took off down the Hall! He wanted out! A little challenge I will have as we are still going to be living in freezing cold weather. But I'm praying to have inspiration and ideas of what to do.

He loves balloons! The local grocery store called HyVee gave us an orange helium balloon one day shopping. We brought it home and although it has lost it's floatation, it has become his best buddy. They go down the hall together, he wrestles it, he starts to crawl and hits it forward with his knee or his foot and it's kind of a chase game. So fun. I make sure he doesn't eat it because I know it could be not such a safe toy. But what a fun buddy it has become!

He loves media. The only real "NO NO" thing in our house is the computer. And he loves it. He loves to climb up and touch the screen. He loves to plink the keys on the keyboard. He loves the mouse. But I think it's a great thing that we have as a tool to teach him self control. It's hard to not play with it. I watch him and he so wants to go over and touch it. And usually does. But we have a system I hope will help teach him to start to think about his ability to make choices and to see the consequences. I know he is only 11 months tomorrow, but I do believe that the best and only control in life is self control. And I pray that I may also be a good example of using my agency to do good things and control my actions to do what Heavenly Father has asked me to do.

He loves his dad. He squeals with delight when his dad is in the room. He wants to be right by him whenever Thad is home. I am so grateful to be married to such a great man. I want my little boy to have his dad as a Hero. I know he will look up to Thad and want to be like him all of his life. And as Elder Holland has taught before, that Peter's relationship with his dad in this mortal life, will aid him in his development of his relationship with his Heavenly Father. That is my greatest desire. That Peter will come to know his Heavenly Father and want to be like Him.

So someday when I am needing it, just like Julia Andrews sings in the "Sound of Music," : "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad." Peter's favorite things are also some of my most favorite things!

Children are a joy. Yet we all have days we need to see the positive in the mundane daily chores. And this helped me today.
Love ya lots. :)
Malinda

Valentine Sweetness

Valentine's Day was wonderful! The greatest part is that it is just another day to celebrate the love of home! Everyday brings those same special moments from my cute husband and little guy! But special to Valentine's day were my Gerber Daisies, Peter's overalls that Grandma Larson made and sent in the mail, and his understanding of "Yeah!"
Peter and I do scripture time some time in the day, and we sing "Scripture Power" and clap as a gathering activity. Then we shout "Yeah!" and put our hands in the air after certain phrases. On Valentine's he caught on to the actions! I wasn't the only one with my hands in the air! Then because we loved it so much, he thought it was a great attention getter for dad and all our friends when we go places! "Yeah!" is how I feel inside!

That night Thad and I had a fun time making Tempura - the Japanese dish - for dinner. Peter wasn't quite sure about it, but loved the rice. We had eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, shrimp, sweet potato, and egg drop soup. And we just had fun cooking together and doing something new. I'm in love. :)

School Ends in 8 days...Heading to Litchfield Minnesota

Well, Time has just flown by! We are 8 days away from Thad graduating from school. He walked in December, but he has had to finish his clinical rotation here in Sioux Falls. February 25th is the last day! Now he is studying for the Anesthesia Board test, which he will take at the end of March. And then...we are headed to LITCHFIELD, MN!!

Moving brings many different emotions! We are so grateful for Heavenly Father leading us to a great job. In these economically difficult times, a job is something to be very grateful for! It also is my dream for Thad in his professional life...that he absolutely loves his job. I know he loves me...and he loves Peter...so we know he loves being home. Now when he leaves home and also when he returns, he will feel and share peace because he loves his job.

Home definitely is where my sweet husband and little boy are. Although great additions to our family are the wonderful people we love here in Sioux Falls. And we love the memories we have made and the future we have begun. We had our first little boy here! Peter brings so much joy to our lives. And he'll forever tell the story that he was born in Sioux Falls, SD.

But we also know that we are bloomers! Bloom where we are planted. And we feel so much peace and reassurance that Litchfield, MN is the place for us at this time. So, even in the dead of winter...I am going to remind myself that under all that snow and ice are buds ready to bloom when Spring comes. I may have to make my own sunshine on some days. But I am mentally preparing, and relying on Heaven to be in our home!

Where is Litchfield Minnesota? It is Located just 60 miles west of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul on U.S. Hwy 12, Litchfield is the Meeker County seat.

Litchfield's 6500 residents live in a growing community boasting a strong education system, fiscally responsible government, and employment in high tech manufacturing companies.

It is located on lake Ripley and surrounded by many others. We are looking forward to that beauty and hope to have it somewhat close to our own home to enjoy. We'll see what comes.

Our branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located in Hutchinson, MN which is just about 20 miles south of Litchfield. It will be a change not being so close to our church building. But we hope to live between Litchfield and Hutchinson to make driving to both places a little more convenient.

Life is wonderful. I cherish every moment. No one knows the future. I only know that with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and my little family and home filled with love, we can make it together anywhere. I will have to develop new talents staying connected to my family in Utah. I will have to develop new talents playing in freezing cold weather. I will need to develop...unknown ways. But I'm willing!

So here we go! I'll try...as I've tried before...to do better to put our life down on a blog!
Lots of love from Sioux Falls!
Malinda :)