A Collection of Happy Days: March 2015

I feel like so much has happened in the past month - I'm starting to rethink my blogging priorities, maybe I should strive for twice a month rather than just once a month. This is gonna be one of my longer posts…

First of all Kayla is growing and growing and growing. We had her two month check up last week. She was 12 lb 5 oz. And a whole 24 in long. Why do babies grow so fast? However, we are loving all the new 'tricks' that she is learning. We love getting her to smile. And she's even starting to belly laugh now. Still working on holding up her head for longer than a minute or so, though. She is such a joy in our lives. We love her so much!!!

We have been SO blessed, as of lately. I am constantly seeing the Lord's hand in our lives.

At the beginning of the month I went to tell my boss I was quitting, but instead she offered me to come in for 2 hours a week to work on stuff in the office. 2 hours a week is hardly any money, but it still does help a little bit. And it's very flexible. I'm able to be at home with the baby all day and go into work whenever Jacob can be home with her.
I received a check in the mail for a full refund on my breast pump. When I purchased it, I was told that I had a copay because of my deductible. To get all that money back was totally unexpected, but I am so grateful!
We just got the bill from the hospital… We only have to pay 3% of the total bill. THREE PERCENT!!!
Being double insured is freaking AWESOME!!!
Jacob just received a pay raise.
I've only purchased 1 box of diapers and hardly any formula. That stuff is stinking expensive!!! We have been so fortunately to have so much help though. We've been given SO many diapers that before Kayla was born she had a wall of boxes of diapers! We've gotten so many free samples of formula too. In fact, there was a guy trying to contact me for about a month because some formula was sent to my old apartment where he now lives. I couldn't believe that he found me on FB and kept the box until I got back with him (silly other folder that doesn't notify you when you have a new message)
I just got called as a relief society teacher at church and immediately felt blessings from the Lord. I'm not a fan of public speaking. Well the Sunday before my first lesson I was in Katy and they were on the lesson I was going to teach the following week. So I felt comforted seeing someone else give the lesson and I felt that it helped me prepare and not focus so much on how nervous I was. I truly felt the power of prayer working for me. I know people were praying on my behalf and it truly strengthened my testimony of prayer. And in my opinion, by some miracle I actually pulled it all off. My husband and brother inlaw were standing outside the door when it ended and they said every woman that walked out told them how great I did. I know people always say the teacher/speaker benefits the most from preparing a lesson/talk, but more so than the message I felt so much love and support and (I didn't think I'd feel this way so soon) I am so grateful to have the calling as a teacher now.

Seriously, the list goes on and on of the many ways I feel so blessed. One of the things I really struggle with is fearing the unknown. And we knew when I got pregnant that things were going to be changing a lot and that it wouldn't be easy. But over the last few months as the change has really started to hit us, I have seen the Lord's hand in SO many ways. We have been blessed financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. My testimony has been strengthened so much. I know that He lives. I know that He is here, in mine and my family's lives. He is helping us through our trials. He loves us. I am so grateful.

And with such wonderful timing, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints recently posted a video about that very thing my testimony has been strengthened on.

Check out this website -->> http://www.mormon.org/easter

Watch the video.

Explore Easter week.

And share.

Taken at 6 weeks. She'll be 10 weeks on Thursday.

Before and after. Silly husband insisted on not cutting his hair for 1 year...

I possibly prefer the haircut. None the less, I love him either way.

We went to Katy the weekend of my birthday and Kayla got to meet her great grandma Nicholas aka GG

Kayla and cousin Elizabeth

We can kind of wear a bow in our hair!

celebrating Jacob's raise

This was the first time we let Leia meet the baby without a glass door between them.

St. Patrick's day and about 8 weeks old...

She is very good with her facial expressions. I love looking at the faces she makes. Some sadder than others, obviously. Still cute though. Haha.

She loves music. And I love that she does.

There's almost a 2 year time period between these pics, but some things never change...

At Kayla's 2 month appointment.

After her appointment we drove to Dallas. We were able to spend a day with Logan and Alyssa (and their Mom and Dad). If we're being honest, Kayla spent the day in Aunt Missy's arms. Missy said her neck was sore afterwards ;) Then we went to the airport to pickup more cousins! Michael, Kiya, Crew, and Lina flew in from Utah. They came down for a baptism. Except for the day or so they spent in San Angelo for the baptism, we were able to spend almost a whole week playing with them. The Heck's came to town to join us as well. And it happened to be the same weekend as Kayla's baby blessing. We had a blast having so much family in town. We were just missing the Parkers!

Lina and Kayla. Lina is 3 weeks older.

Kayla loves sticking her tongue out. And she seriously gets a kick out of other people sticking out their tongues!

It's tough work playing. They both fell asleep.

So did Papa...

Playing at the park.

Apparently she wasn't too fond of Uncle Michael. I don't know what he did to get that look from her. Poor guy...

But seriously the faces she makes...

Grandma McConnell and the two newest grand babies

Kayla (2 months) Lina (3 months) Jane (7 months)

After General Women's Conference we took a few pictures. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out very good (not everyone is looking and some are blurry). But I decided to go ahead and post them anyways...