Blessings and Growth

Lately I have been faced with the reality that my baby is no longer a baby. He has become so smart. There are a few things he does that expose the grown up Braxton. For instance:*He's starting to throw tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants.

*He knows what belongs to him, where things go and he helps to put them there.

*He brings me his boots and coat when he wants to go outside.

*He stands on the couch and tries to open the door for his dad when he comes home.

*He's learned to open the closet doors in his room and tries to hide from us as he plays with the food storage.

*He will no longer sit in the high chair. He wants to sit at the table for meals.

*He signs please and thank you 50% of the time without being shown how.

*He's picking up on words and signs quickly.

*He jabbers on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa Kunz for quite a while without surrendering the phone back to us.

*He gets mad at us when we tell him no.

*He brings us diapers and wipes when we ask him to (and he wants to do it).

*He recognizes nursery and starts to cry the closer we get to the door, but does fine once he's in there.
These are the majority of developmental signs I can think of. In addition to the joys of having a toddler instead of a baby I have realized the blessings of my tithing are coming to pass. I think I mentioned that Kent and I had a large sum of tithing money that we had to pay in December. I told the Lord that I was exercising a lot of faith to pay it and I would need a miracle if I paid it. I have to be honest I kept waiting for some large check to come spontaneously from heaven and it hasn't. I did have a check my parents gave us for Christmas that helped and there is a small check the church said they wrote to me that I never cashed so they are going to rewrite it.

In addition the Lord blessed me through my family in other ways. Our computer needs to be rebuilt due to a virus I think we have contracted. That means all my data will be wiped out unless it is saved elsewhere. Kent and I wanted to get a jump drive for Christmas but we couldn't afford it. I have been trying to save my many pictures of Braxton on the costco site, but I can only download 16 pictures at a time before it freezes up again. My brother called me a few weeks ago and told me about an external hard drive that was discounted because it had been returned or something like that. To make a long story short we were able to get the hard drive for $10 less than the store purchased it. We did a little wheeling and dealing and they made the mistake of telling us we could have it for that much and kept their word despite their mistake.

The other thing we have been in need of was a new printer, but again there was no way that we could afford one right now and I have been going nuts being the ward activities chair and not being able to make any handouts. Well my sister happened to loose her cell phone and when she went to get a new one they were giving a free photo printer away with the camera phone. They had no need for just a printer even though it prints pictures better than their current printer. Knowing that we were in need of a printer they gave it to us .

In addition we have been slowly able to get out from underneath our bills. Instead of having things turned off before we pay the bills we have been able to pay the bills and then receive the notifications. So things are REALLY looking up for us these days. I have a lot of faith and hope in what we may get back from our tax returns also. I am so thankful for my reestablished testimony of tithing. I have always had a testimony of tithing and I was really struggling not being a full tithe payer. Kent felt differently about how to approach things initially, but through prayer and the Lord's help he was willing to help me get our full tithe paid and I hope that he too sees these blessings and realizes how we can not afford to ever not pay tithing. I am so grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to follow this commandment and receive the blessings of heaven. There truly isn't room enough to receive all the blessing if we are faithful to the commandments of God!

I made a fort and Braxton and I enjoyed laughing and playing in it. Too bad the camera was cold from being out in the car and made for bad pictures.

Braxton wanted to just hang out on top of the fort for a while.

One night I put a pillowcase over Braxton's head and he thought it was so funny...
We just laughed and laughed as he tried to walk to me with the pillowcase on.
Brayden, Braxton, and Logan enjoyed playing under the Christmas tree at our playgroup Friday.
It's so good to see my good high school friend Chelsi. I'm so glad that I was able to celebrate the addition to their family that will be coming in a month or less. YEAH Chelsi! I know you can do it all natural when you are married to the mountain man!