Happy, despite us all being sick, anniversary to us! Four years of Steed bliss!! :)
We woke up this morning at 2am to day two of our sweet Lydia running a fever. It was 103.3 and she's been coughing and wheezing something terrible! Mitch gave her her next dose of Tylenol and we offered her Gatorade, water, and I nursed her (feeling glad we still haven't weaned yet for now). She still sleeps in our bed and on nights like this, I'm glad because I can listen to her breathing and feel her little forehead through the night. I, of course, am a first-time parent so everything worries and freaks me out more than it probably should and I was on the edge of a melt down.
At this point, Lydia sat up to drink some water, and saw my painting of Jesus across the room. It's on our dresser so when you sit up in bed, you are facing Him. Lydia often whispers, "Jee-sa!" when she sees Him in the morning and smiles, and it of course melts my heart. This time when she sat up, she saw Him and clapped her hands while saying, "Jee-sa! Jee-sa!" Lydia loves bears and tigers, so something she does to play with us is roar like a tiger, and we roar back to her. She looked across the room at Him and started making her cute little play roar, and I totally broke down crying. It was like Jesus had come to visit sick little Lydia and she was so happy to see Him and play with Him. That in turn comforted me and filled me with peace as we settled back down to go to sleep. I believe that Jesus does appear to little children to love and comfort them, and I bet He even "rawers" back to them like a tiger to play with them because He loves them.
I know that the veil is very thin for little children, and I know that God loves us. As I lay there thinking about how Jesus healed the sick and called the children to come sit around Him in the scriptures, I could feel His love for me too, imperfect as I am. I'm so thankful that He never gives up on us, no matter how many mistakes we've made, or how inadequate we feel. How I love Him!
I felt something else special as I watched Mitch go get the water, the Tylenol, the cool cloth for Lydia's forehead, a glass of water for me, and even put a Band-Aid on my forehead where I scratched a zit or something and was gushing blood. I said to him, "Happy Anniversary!" and he said it back to me as I thought of how grateful I am for him. I could never have imagined on December 27, 2012 all the challenges that we would face together in our 4 years of wonderful marriage, and how our love would change and deepen from that fun, new love to the profound, grateful, enduring love that comes through patience and diligence with the passage of time. My dear Mitchy was serving Lydia and I and taking care of us even though he's sick too. That, to me, is true, selfless love. How I love him dearly and can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with my Mitchy. I am so thankful for our temple sealing which binds us and our children together forever. It truly is a miracle.
Here are some fun pictures from this Christmas and holiday season! Here Lydia and I were at Costco and this nutcracker was playing Christmas music, and Lydia cried any time I started to walk us away from it, so we stood there for a while listening until we really had to go. :)
Here we are on a lovely, warm, sunny day in November taking a walk along the Sammamish River trail that's about a two-minute walk from our apartment. :)
Mitch's brother, David, and his wife, Dani came to visit us over Thanksgiving and it was wonderful to see them and spend time with them! I made my first turkey ever, and we loved it!
We had Thanksgiving dinner and went to Pike's Place Market and had a very tasty lunch in a quaint restaurant overlooking the Puget Sound.
Lydia and I did some Christmas shopping at Target and she found these ear muffs that she loves! She thinks they are bear ears, so she puts them on and loves to say, "rawer!"
Here are some cute pictures of Lydia, the one of the bottom right was when we put up our Christmas lights! We put those up on our deck right after Thanksgiving, but we waited a while to put up our tree for fear that Lydia might pull off all the ornaments. :)
We finally got it up about mid-December, and it wasn't too bad! We just put non-breakable ornaments on the lower branches and Lydia whispers, "Wow!" every time we plug in the tree.
Here she is sitting on a present and playing with an ornament. :)
I finally finished putting together our family stockings and I'm really happy with how they turned out! Lydia loves to walk up to each one and gently shake it to make the bells ring. We made a fire in our little fire place and watched a Christmas movie!
We were SOOOO happy that it snowed a few times before Christmas! We definitely love snow, and I had just told a friend in Utah recently that I missed sunshine and I missed snow, and seriously, the next day it snowed! Then it was sunny later in the day! It was a kind, tender mercy of the Lord! Lydia and I had so much fun playing in the snow!
We did lots of fun and simple things that really made the season special. With Lydia, it doesn't take a lot for her to feel happy; just being with her and doing something that she thinks is fun.
Like pushing her around in an orange box from Costco with her cute little flamingos inside for the ride. :D
Letting her mix gingerbread cookie dough with me and letting her pour in the ingredients:
Singing Christmas carols as a family while Dada plays the piano:
And one of our favorite things we did, riding a carousel at the mall after finishing our Christmas shopping!
On December 23rd, is snowed again!!! :D We wrapped our presents and put them under the tree. Dada and Lydia had a wrapping paper roll duel :)
An incredibly kind person in our ward dropped off a bunch of chocolate, a nativity, and tons of the sweetest Christmas children's books by our door with a card, telling us that their children were all grown up and out of the house and they hoped we could enjoy these books with Lydia. It was the kindest gift!
On Christmas Eve, I baked a ton and that evening, we made a delicious hot chocolate drink, Abuelita, which Mitch and I make every year for Christmas! We always put it in our special mugs that we painted together at Color Me Mine in Provo before we got married. :) Lydia drank from my Ghirardelli mug that I've had since I was a little girl that matches one my sister has. :)
We watched White Christmas and snuggled on the couch. It was perfect!
I woke up early Christmas morning and Mitch and I stuffed the stockings. Here's the living room on Christmas morning, just before Lydia woke up!
Here's Lydia coming out first thing in the morning!
Lydia loved the farm Duplos we got her and the toy our neighbor, Sasha, got for her that plays music and shoots colored balls into the air. :) I got a quad-copter drone for Mitch and I got a fancy blender. :)
So that was our Christmas morning! We went to Church later in the day and Skyped with my family and Mitch's family. It was wonderful to talk with them all! We had a wonderful Christmas, and hopefully we all get feeling better soon so we can enjoy the time off Mitchy has this week!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Steeds!
Here is our Christmas card incase you missed them. :)
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