Tithing

I just wanted to take a moment to express how amazing paying tithing is.  It is such a blessing in our lives and I am so grateful.  Since Aaron and I got married over eight years ago, we have had such a large testimony of the blessings that can come from paying your tithing.  We have seen those blessings over and over again.

I have always been the one that made sure to pay our tithing after each paycheck.  We have a savings account linked to our checking that is specifically designated to tithing.  When we get paid, all I have to do is transfer that money into savings where it will sit until we can pay our tithing.  Since Teben was born over 5 months ago, I've really slacked in making sure that got done.  It's been so hard to find the time to get on the computer and pull the money for our tithing.  And when I say I've really slacked, I mean that it just didn't happen.  For our tithing settlement with the bishop at the end of the year, we of course wanted to make sure that we were full tithe payers.  Which meant that we had to get caught up...5 1/2 months caught up.  Ouch!  But, we were determined to get it done so we paid what we could and pulled the rest from our other, real, savings account.  It was pretty painful to take such a large chunk from our savings but we did what we needed to do to make sure that we could consider ourselves full tithe payers.

Within a matter of days of pulling all of that money and significantly lowering our savings account, the windows of heaven opened up and we received a huge blessing for which we are so grateful.  In the mail we received a reimbursement check from my OBGYN.  Turns out that we had overpaid on our contract from the pregnancy and delivery of Teben.  We were not expecting that check and against all odds, the amount that we received was almost exactly what we had just paid in tithing to get caught up.

Time and time again we have seen that if we will just do our part and pay our tithing, we will be taken care of.  I know without a doubt that the blessings that come from tithing are so much greater than anything we could ever receive from just the monetary increase.  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for once again reminding me of that.  And for not pulling away from us when so often we fall short of where we should be.  

5 Months

Can it really be 5 months since my world was changed?  5 months ago yesterday I held my sweet baby boy for the first time.  Where did the time go?  I still remember looking down at his beautiful puffy squished face for the first time and it was absolutely amazing.  That day and that moment was the best moment of my life.  This beautiful boy is the best thing I've ever done.



Teben Bruce Boutilier...

As of today, Teben

• Can sit for small periods of time. 
• Can roll from tummy to back. 
• Can scoot and spin in a circle like nobody's business!  I'll put him down on his play mat for tummy time and I'll look at him shortly after and he's on his back and his head is where his feet used to be.  He's a magician!  Haha.  
• I'm pretty sure he's going to roll from back to tummy any day now.  He comes so close, it's just a matter of time.  
• When his binkie comes out he most of the time manages to put it back in for himself.  It's pretty cute to watch him try to do that!  
• We started him on solids this month.  Our pediatrician recommended it to help him sleep through the night.  It didn't seem to help any so we only do it occasionally, but he loves it!  He's quite the little eater!  
• He's also started this new thing in his crib where he scoots himself up until his head is rammed into the bars of his crib.  At which point he starts crying and I have to come put him back on the other end until he works himself back up and we do it all over again.  If it wasn't for that he'd be just about sleeping through the night.  

Speaking of which, we started sleep training this last week.  We always let him sleep with his binkie and unfortunately, we created a dependence on it to the point that if he woke up in the night and it wasn't  in his mouth, he would cry until it was.  We were getting up 6+ times in the night just to put in his binkie.  That got old really fast.  So...sleep training.  We decided that he wasn't allowed to sleep with his binkie anymore and if he woke up, we would let him cry it out for 10 minutes, go in and check on him, let him know we were still there, then walk out and let him cry it out for another 10 minutes.  That was the cycle until he would finally fall back to sleep.  The first night he woke up 3 times and each time it took about 50 minutes of that cycle until he would put himself back to sleep.  It was pretty sad listening to him cry since he's never been a crier.  But, it had to be done.  The next night, he still woke up 3 times but each time he put himself back to sleep within 15 minutes.  And last night, he put himself back to sleep within 5-7 minutes so I didn't even have to get out of bed!!!  Well, except to move his poor head away from the bars.  Sleep training went so fast and he is doing so well!  I'm so proud of my boy.  The only down side to this whole thing is that he lost his voice.  That first night was pretty rough on him and now anytime he talks or cries he just sounds so silly.  Poor boy!

Anyway, it's been a pretty great month for our boy.  I'm so proud of who he is and the accomplishments he makes.  He's got my whole heart wrapped around his tiny little finger.  I love that boy so much!!!