Happy Ending

Thursday was a crappy day.  It started out okay, but my mood just kept getting worse.  Nate let me sleep off some of it, but when I woke up I was just SO not in the mood to make dinner (not a good excuse, I know, but at the time....).  Nate was such a sweetheart, he suggested that we just get out and get something to eat.  We ended up grabbing some tacos and then heading down to the park.  Yes, the same park that I just posted pictures of a few days before, but I just can't help but post these pictures. They remind me of what a wonderful husband and family I have.  At the park I was reminded how much I have, and how blessed I really am.  The kids were SO happy and cute the entire time.  Nate went around snapping pictures of everyone in these cute poses.  I just really felt the spirit and knew that I needed to hurry and change my mood so that I could enjoy the moment.  Every smile in each picture is something precious to me.  Each one of these sweet little people who I've been blessed to have join me in this life has brought me so much.  No matter where we live, what we do, how much money we have, they will always be the sweetest people on the planet, and I will have the pleasure of raising them with my best friend.  Sometimes life is hard, sometimes it stinks, and sometimes it feels like it's gone a completely different direction than I ever imagined, but SOMETIMES (in fact most of the time) it just doesn't matter.  What matters is that we are happy, taken care of, and close to our Heavenly Father.  I'm grateful for the reminder that there is someone in charge.  He knows what's ahead and he knows why.  And if I just put my trust in him, do what I can, and continue to hope for the best, everything will turn out fine (and way better than I could have done it on my own).  I've been through some lonely times lately.  Friday was another one of those days where it started out just fine (really good in fact!) and then one little piece of bad news and I was in the dumps!  I've had a lot of feelings like things are never going to get better.  Hopeless I guess.  But I think the reason I have been able to feel that way is so that these happy, peaceful, filled with the Spirit moments can stand out, and be the more desirable of the two.  I think it's normal to worry about how everything is going to affect my kids, how much adjusting they will have to go through, and how much I hate having things less than ''perfect'' for them, but I have to remember that these children are also Heavenly Father's children.  And he knows what is best for them.  He knows how much they can handle.  I know that he would not let anything happen to them that they could not handle (1 Nephi 3: 7) so I need to trust that whatever happens is doable.  I hope He will guide me and inspire me in ways that I can do and be the things that these sweethearts need, but also give me the faith to let Him handle it. I'm pretty sure that my crappy attitude has been more harmful to my kids than anything else.  And it's time for me to change.  I am ready and willing to take on whatever it is the Lord has planned for us.  I want to be strong, less complaining, less bad days, less bad moods..... I'm going to do it with a whole heart and with a smile!!!! 

Brad practiced jumping from the swing.... he's pretty good!

This picture needs to be framed.... it's my Charity in her true form :)

these next few were so perfect of Brad and Erika.... I just love my kids!

Noah loves the whole pretending like he's kicking you in the face stuff :)  Gets him everytime :)

Erika had a total blast crawling around the playground.  It's crazy how well she can get around on those already!

I just love Erika's face in this.  You can almost see her kicking her legs like crazy as Charity picked her up... she has SO much energy.  And she gets SO excited.

as much as it irritates me when my kids stick their hands up in front of the camera, I LOVE the pictures of it for some reason :)   Lukey's a tease.

I totally didn't intend on letting her slide down on her own, but when I set her up there to take a picture, she inched herself down and just did it all by herself!!!  Such a big girl!

and of course crawling up the stairs!

I love her face as she's going down :)  nervous yet courageous!

I'm really so thankful to have such a cute family.  They're so sweet and so forgiving.