Tuesday, April 30, 2013

WELCOMING BABY #2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The four of us celebrating the baby!


Here's how it all happened :)

On Monday Dan came home from taking his last final and we celebrated
that for less than 30 minutes before I told him I thought I might be
pregnant. He said, “well take a pregnancy test then!” and so we looked
around in our medicine cabinets until I found one. I was pregnant! I
gave Dan a kiss and felt such joy. That has completely been my feeling
since finding out I am pregnant…pure joy and gratitude! I am so
excited for this little baby to come into our life.

On Monday I had a special experience. Milah had been asleep for a
while and while I was cleaning I got this prompting to read my
patriarchal blessing today for scripture study. It was funny that the
prompting came but I didn’t actually read for 2 hours into her nap…and
she miraculously ended up sleeping for 3 hours! Milah is an awesome
night sleeper but a terrible napper. She naps only once a day for
maybe an hour so this was unheard of!

Some things that stood out to me were very special. “Through your
prayer and study, and faithfulness you will be able to be a mighty
force in God’s hand. I bless you will have the desire to serve
faithfully in whatever you are called to serve, knowing you will not
be asked to fulfill a calling or take a responsibility that with the
Lord’s help, you will not be able to do.” This meant something new to
me today – I had a prompting that my mission or role to be a mighty
force in God’s hand is through motherhood. But then the phrase “serve
faithfully in whatever you are called to serve” stood out and I
thought: my next way to serve is to be a willing vessel for a baby. I
didn’t know, but I started suspecting that maybe I was pregnant
because of these promptings. Second, I read “I bless you with health
and strength, and those actions you know you can do will become easy
and enjoyable, as you help other people, as you help your friends,
your family and those that you work around.” I thought that will apply
to me while pregnant – do what I know I can do, take life easy and
that work will become enjoyable.

A few days before we found out I told Dan even if I got pregnant
sometime this summer, I am just feeling such excitement for when we
can have a little baby. In my heart I felt that I would love to be
pregnant soon, but I knew I had to go with what Dan and the Lord
wanted as well. I am grateful that I was already pregnant when I said
I was so excited. It is a special thing to feel a connection with a
baby inside of me. I can’t wait to meet him/her and to learn the gifts
he/she has. 

Now it makes sense why running a 7.4 minute mile and a 5k in 25:24
minutes made me feel nauseous.

We called my family and they were so full of congratulations. A few
minutes into our conversation, Savannah was
so excited in the background - it made me happy. 

I feel like this spirit is a very special, gifted spirit who has
wanted to come to our home and into our lives even before Milah.
I am grateful that with a spirit inside of me I feel the Lord’s presence more. Milah has
been very huggy lately and gives us kisses all the time. I think some
of this is because of not nursing but I also think she may know about
her little baby sibling who is on his way and be so excited to see
him! I loved listening to Karen – a Mormon mother of 12 who said “I am
a willing vessel and the children just wanted to come close together
and to be great friends” I feel that Milah will have a very strong
bond with this other sibling! I am grateful for Dillon because
especially in our teenage years we were so close.

I pray that I will have the Lord’s blessing. I know this baby is a
gift from God. Dan is already taking on this additional mantle and I love him
in this loving, tender, spiritually strong role! He will give me a
blessing tonight and I am grateful to know the Lord is with us. His
will is my will and I pray that our wills become more continually
aligned. I hope to be able to go to the temple soon and ponder on
these things. I also see a lot slower pace of life with a lot of book
reading while Milah plays and a lot more enjoying Milah. Now that I am
pregnant I see how this will be the perfect trimester because Dan will
be able to take care of me as much as is needed with not so many time
crunches to meet. I am grateful to have this special time together as
our own little family this spring. I love the Lord and His will!  And
I love this new child who will bless our family!

As of late...

Alyssa maxing 100 lbs! Good thing I did this before I got pregnant :) 

Danny maxing 225lbs! Wahoo!
Dan and I were in Layton with the fam and we all decided to bench press our max weights. That's how the Holbrooks roll, ya know? Haha, actually this was the first time. But it was so much fun! 

Lately we've been eating out on Sundays. Well, sort of. We went to the Cannon center a couple of times and man was it nice to have a Sunday meal with no dishes! We should come here more often! 


Date at Sammy's



 Milah loves swinging on the swings at the park!


 A couple of family pictures :)

We loved General Conference!

Milah Loves Storytime

How Milah did so much tummy time -- she loves seeing all the kids at storytime.
Milah also loves the puppet shows :)



Milah Discovered the Bulk Bags








What a fun experience! She loved feeling the rice cereal in her fingers, making snow angels with it etc. 

The Graduate!


 GRADUATION!!!!! Receiving his diploma from Pr. Idie, the man who inspired Dan to choose an Economics Major. Dan graduated with a 3.95 GPA in Russian and Economics (double major) with a Business Strategy minor.


The family support! Dan's mom watched Milah while Dan walked and even ran her down to him so he could carry her across the stage. Then they took us out to dinner to celebrate :)

 
Dan and Drew -- one of his best friends :)
Dan's parents made the comment "look what you accomplished at BYU" Way to go boys for finding wives and having and supporting so many cute kids!

Spring Fun with Milah




Milah has been so much fun lately! She's been noticeably cuddly and loves to give us kisses. She also likes a fun game called "baden" (meaning one ram) "baden" (two ram) "tuts!" and then she hits her head against ours.