Kaya's 3rd Month and Updates

Our Kaiju baby is 3 months!  (Yes, I know that a Kaiju is an big monster from Pacific Rim, but it's a term of endearment for our actually very charming Kaya Jane).  I can't believe how fast time is screaming by with our little girl.  She is such a joy to us and enlightens my life daily!
Kaya is quickly becoming a little lady.  She is a huge flirt with her daddy and smiles at him ALL the time!  She has the best smile in the world!  Her mouth opens up super wide and her whole face just crinkles up and the world has to just stop and smile with her!  She loves to laugh and is super ticklish on her tummy and thighs.  She can stand up with support and can almost sit up on her own!  Almost.  She's a rolly-polly girl and can roll from front to back pretty easily (and tends to do it every time mom wants to have some tummy time with her) and has rolled from back to front a couple times, but not as easily.  Kaya does NOT like the car seat, but loves going to Grandma and Papa's house where she gets smothered in loves and kisses from her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin, Tate.  She is most definitely a red head and has an attitude to match when she's not happy!  Otherwise, she is SOOOOO mellow!  Although she likes to be held, she's usually okay with hanging out in the bouncer or swing while mom takes care of Austin or gets the house cleaned up.  She went on a long roadtrip up to Ogden to visit Great-Grandma and Papa Smith and actually travelled pretty well.  She's still a great sleeper and a perfect addition to our little family!
Austin is still my 2-and-a-half little monster!  Hammer is definitely the best nickname for him!  He's been dealing with a lot of sickness over the past couple months (which totally SUCKS) and has caused him to act out a lot more because he just doesn't feel good.  Things are finally on the upswing, though and the past two days have been wonderful with him!  He's been sleeping much better and coughing less (yea for croup, NOT!) and has been so much fun.  Back to the Austin we know and love, for sure!  He got totally hooked up for Christmas this year with a race track, an electric train, and a HUGE transformer robot that he's been asking for since summer.  Lately his favorite phrase is "please help us" when he wants me to do something for him.  It cracks me up because he sounds like he's channelling Gollum from LOTR, when actually he got it from saying prayers.  Kinda funny. Today we were able to have a pretty relaxed morning playing with toys and then we decided to go up to Salt Lake to check out a cool aquarium and go see the ZooLights.  It was absolutely FREEZING, but Austin was so much fun and was completely mesmerized by the Tiger who was roaring and pacing around his enclosure.  We went to dinner at the Olive Garden in SLC, too and Aus got to eat his favorite food, meatballs and broccoli.  Weird kid, I know.  Don't worry, he loves his chocolate, chips and candy, too!  Austin is the most beautiful boy on the planet!  He has these eyes that stare into your soul and a smile that melts my heart.  He is my baby boy and I love that kid with all my heart, even when he's hard.  I'm constantly seeking the council of my Heavenly Father in how to parent my children.  I'm so imperfect and I get frustrated with myself for being impatient.  I have such wonderful kids, I hope they can survive my parenting!!!
We had a great Christmas with our family here in Utah and were able to FaceTime with the Greiner's down in Texas.  I wish we could somehow get both sides of the family together for the holidays.  Maybe someday!!!
Flash back to Thanksgiving...We had a great day at my parent's house with my family, again, Karl Greiner, Gma and Gpa Vogl and the Goodwins.  It was such a wonderful day and it really made me grateful for all of my blessings.  The Goodwin's are in the process of adopting three boys from Haiti and man, has it been a PROCESS!  They've been working the adoption for over a year and the boys still aren't home with them yet.  I'm sure they are so frustrated, but they will have them so soon, I know it!
Candice and Collin got to go down to Haiti for 5 days to serve in the orphanage the Goodwin's are adopting from.  I don't know who was changed more, the kids or my siblings.  Unfortunately I can't post pictures of the Haitian kids on the internet for interferring with adoptions, but the light the iminated from my siblings faces was angelic!  The beautiful children down there are so incredible and I know the experiences Dice and Whack had with them will be forever remembered!  They came home with literally the clothes on their backs and a few gifts they had found in the markets.  Candice told me that she literally pulled her favorite pair of earrings out of her ears and put them into one of her friends down there because she had nothing.  They witnessed the pure love of Christ as they saw the caretakers in the orphanage eating less than the kids in many circumstances (one meal a day) and still giving all they could to care for 30 babies and 60 children and teens.  It makes me so excited to go and serve those around me and far away, too!  I get to serve around here while my babies are little and then I hope to get to help around the world a little, too!
We've had a lot of fun activities over the past month like setting up our Christmas tree, playing with friends, going sledding on Christmas Eve, Gregor and I getting a couple dates in, and growing together as a family.  I sure love this little group of mine, they're the best!  Photo dump to come!

Play hard, sleep harder.

Jumping on the bed with Kaya's headband on...

He totally cracks me up!

Keep on jumpin'

Baby Kaiju.  Look at those LIPS!!!

Mama's little Ginger!!!

Christmas Post and Feelings

I rarely get the urge to write without feeling guilty about being behind on my journal-keeping, but tonight has sparked a desire to record my thoughts lately.
Today I found out that a distant friend of mine lost her 2-year old daughter yesterday due to a drowning incident.  My heart is absolutely broken for this sweet lady and her family.  To lose a child would be immensely devastating, but on Christmas just seems to add insult to injury.  I question why a loving Heavenly Father would take a child in that way, or take a child in any way for that matter?  In my limited opinion, children should bury their parents, not the other way around.  I look at my Grandmother who carried my mother and her twin sister for nine-months, getting excited to meet and raise two beautiful little girls, only to find that one of them would have fatal birth-defects and die only a month later.  My heart aches for families who lose children.  It seems so unfair in so many ways.
But, at the same moment, there is a small amount of envy for those children who get to go home to a loving Heavenly Father, who get to embrace our Master so soon after leaving His presence.  These angels don't have to experience many of the pains and anguish that rack us almost daily in our mortal exsistence.  They don't sin.  They don't fail.  They are pure and sweet and perfect and only needed a body to fulfill their mission in establishing their place in the Celestial Kingdom of God.  They will have families, and increase, and love, and experience, and opportunities for growth beyond anything we here on earth can comprehend!  Having this knowledge makes me so incredibly grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  In celebrating His birth only yesterday, I am reminded of His infinite love for each of His children.  For in His atonement we have all become His, we have been saved by His grace.  I know that He has provided a way that I can have my family for Eternity and that my sweet friend will be able to hold her daughter again in her arms, to look into her eyes, to smell her hair, to tickle her tummy, to laugh, and play, and grow together forever.  What joy and comfort can be taken in this knowledge!
I often scare myself with the thoughts of losing my family.  It's something that I don't like to think about as I am sure many don't as well.  It's a horrible thought.  But then, again, I think of my Savior.  I think of the Plan of Salvation and am comforted to know that no matter what happens, I am sealed to my family for Eternity and death CANNOT conquer that sealing.  What is mine here will be mine forever if I keep myself worthy of that supreme blessing.
This mortal exsistence is not easy.  In our heartaches we can seek out the comfort of our loved ones and that which the Lord provides for us, but it still hurts.  We still cry and feel and hurt.  That, my friends, is when we can get on our knees and admit to our loving, merciful, and perfect Heavenly Father that what we have been given, we cannot do alone.  We need to be willing in those hard moments to allow Him to take that burden for us and walk along side us, just like those in our lives who lift not only our burdens, but us as well when we can't go any further.  He will send us angels on both sides of the veil who will strengthen our hearts and our backs to pick up our loads and carry on.
Again, my heart goes out to this sweet family.  I love you, and even though we are not close, you reflect on my heart and mind at this time and always.  I know that God lives.  I know that His Son, Jesus Christ, IS the Savior of the World.  I know that we can be comforted by the Holy Ghost and that we are truly the children of a loving God.  He is the perfect parent and entrusts these little ones to us here on earth because He loves us enough to allow these perfect angels into our homes to teach us, to try us, and to love us unconditionally.  I will hold my children a little closer tonight and thank God for the opportunity I have of being their mother.  Remember the first gift of Christmas was a child.  The child.  The Son of God who came into the world to save us from sin and from death.  With this knowledge, I am happy and know that there can be peace even through our challenges.