Happy 4th Birthday Joshua

September 29th 2012

Fours years ago today, our precious Joshua was born.

These last couple days have been difficult for me. 

So, I thought instead of writing my thoughts, 

I would write the words of those who have comforted me the most.

"We rest assured that all things are controlled and governed by Him whose spirit children we are. He knows all things from the beginning to the end and he provides for each of us the testings and trials which he knows we need."

 - Elder Bruce R McConkie

"The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth."

 - President Joseph Smith

"[Death] is the great reliever. It is a majestic, quiet passing on from this life to another life, a better life, I'm satisfied of that. We go to a place where we will not suffer as we have suffered here, but where we will continue to grow, accumulating knowledge and developing and being useful under the plan of the almighty made possible through the atonement of the Son of God." 

- President Gordon B. Hinckley

 "...all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven." 

- D&C 137:10

 "If we say that early death is a calamity, disaster or a tragedy, would it not be saying that mortality is preferable to earlier entrance into the spirit world and to eventual salvation and exaltation? If mortality be the perfect state, then death would be a frustration, but the Gospel teaches us there is no tragedy in death but only in sin." 

- President Spencer W. Kimball

"The only different between the old and young dying is, one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other, and is freed a little sooner from this miserable, wicked world.

 - President Joseph Smith

"Your Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son love you perfectly. They would not require you to experience a moment more of difficulty than is absolutely needed for your personal benefit or for that of those you love."

 - Elder Richard G. Scott

We miss our little guy dearly.

We love him. 

We know that he is in his Heavenly Father's care now. 

He is where he is supposed to be.

Now it's up to us to be who we are supposed to be,

 so that we can live with Him and our son Joshua someday.

Spokane

September 15th 2012 we officially left Moses Lake, WA behind.

{Can I let out a little YAY here??}

We have been settling in over the past week, and the new apartment is almost unpacked.

I think this is the first time I've actually been fully unpacked in over 2 years.

It feels great!

I will post pictures of the new place and the projects we've been working on.

Stay Tuned!

August

You know those months that just seem to go by and then you realize they're gone?

August was the month for our little family.

I'm going to try and re-cap the month, so forgive the long-ish post.

Hopefully it will give all of you more of an idea of what's going on in our lives.

Beginning of August    **********************************************************

At the beginning of August we decided to take some drastic measure to get our apartment rented.

We needed to break our year contract, and we needed to be able to move quickly in case anyone was interested... so we moved pretty much everything into a storage unit and left Collin with the bare essentials. He still needed a place to live and work...but we needed to get the apartment ready for future tenants....

Why??

Because Collin was accepted to Eastern Washington University. Yay!

He is going to start on his Masters on September 26th 2012.

This was all slowly in the works since June, but things have finalized and we're ready to get going!

August 4-10     *****************************************************************

After the febrile seizure experience... Eithan had a rash for about 8-10 days.

It was bothering me, but it wasn't bothering him... so we let it take its course.

And eventually it did go away, and he has his baby soft baby skin back again.

{forgive me for the 'bum' picture... it was the only spot you could see it the best}

August 15- 17     ***************************************************************

The Winks family had a little camping reunion at Farragut State Park.

This is just a little outside of Spokane, WA.

This included a day at Silverwood.

This experience is best described in pictures. Don't you think?

Enjoying a Banana Breakfast before the real breakfast... 

because everything takes longer than we think it should to cook when camping.. smile

Off to go play on the camp playground.

{Daddy/Son pictures are the best, aren't they?}

There was a really cool tire swing there... I want one in our future backyard.

The meal hang-out... Eithan was constantly taking Brody's chair... 

and everyone was always trying to keep the kids 'relatively' clean...

 but we all enjoyed eating the camp food despite all the mishaps and dirt.

This picture truly describes how Eithan felt about being out in the wilderness...

Loved it!

Some Wilderness, Some Dirt, A Stick. 

Set. For. Life.

He took awesome naps while we were out there, despite the noise level.

He usually has to sleep in the utmost quiet available, 

but he slept fine despite loud talking and clanking around. 

Then... OFF to SILVERWOOD!

Eithan really couldn't do much there.

We tried to take him on a kiddie ride, and they had to stop it early to let him off. {opps!}

So, we rode the Carousel and walked about Silverwood to explore, 

but Eithan didn't do anymore rides after the.

{He was even a little 'iffy' about the Carousel}

The Water Park was Eithan's and our favorite of the whole adventure.

He loves water.

He played until he was chattering so hard we had to pull him out and wrestle with him while he was crying because he wanted to get back in the water so badly.

The last thing that we did for the day was take the train that went around Silverwood Park.

It was so much fun to ride the train and see the whole park/wilderness around it.

Eithan was ready to just sit and relax too.

{So were we!}

{priceless}

We all then went home and crashed in our tent!

August 18     ******************************************************************

My family came into town so that one of my nephews could be baptized.

Addison Rose is one of the newest members of our church now!

Yay for Addi!

It was fun to see my brother and his family for a few days.

We don't see them much at all.. so I appreciated being able to spend time with them.

August 20     ******************************************************************

Called into our Realtor company to see if any applications had come in and whether or not the apartment had been rented yet... found out that someone was moving in on the 21st... and that we needed to be out today! Eek!

Fortunately I had moved everything out before and we just had to get Collin packed up and do some light cleaning before we officially moved out of Moses Lake.

August 23     *******************************************************************

Playing in the dirt.

Actually digging up potatoes in Grandpa and Grandma Rose's garden...

 but it kept him occupied so well I just didn't have the heart to stop him! {smile}

August 27     ********************************************************************

Collin is officially done working for the BSA.

Since we were accepted to school and everything was in motion to be moving in September...

it was decided that the end of August would be the end of his being a District Executive.

Sad in some ways and great in others.

We're really excited to get moving on with a different phase in our lives. 

****

Now we've both been applying for jobs trying to get anything before we move up towards school.

We think we've found a place to stay... we'll find out this week.

And then we'll be moving.

Wow... 

and that was our 'fun-filled' August.