1 YEAR OLD!

My baby is a year old (technically, not for about 3 more hours..it's almost the 4th!) Everyone says it, but I can't believe how fast it has gone. It seems like we were just loading him in the car to bring him home. That was the longest car ride of my life, even though we live about 3 minutes from the hospital. I remember sitting in the backseat, looking over at Brent, and just crying the entire way home. I was so overwhelmed with love for this tiny baby but at the same time scared to death that I wouldn't know how to take care of him properly! That first night home from the hospital Scott and I kept saying that we wanted to go BACK to the hospital where we felt safe! We kept thinking we were doing everything wrong. Luckily, Brent has made it to a year old, so obviously we haven't done anything TOO terribly wrong yet! As strange as this sounds, I also couldn't pray outloud for several weeks. Scott would have to say our prayers every night, because I couldn't even verbalize my gratitude to Heavenly Father for Brent without SOBBING. It was a good month before I could talk about loving Brent outloud without crying.

Being a mother is the greatest accomplishment I've had and this past year of his life has been the best of my life. Recent things that Scott and I have experienced, along with thinking back on this past year, have made me realize more than ever that THINGS don't matter. Someone could walk into my house and take every single possession I own, and I wouldn't care as long as my baby is in my arms and my husband at my side. I can honestly say that.

Scott and I thank Heavenly Father for giving us Brent and for allowing us to have his sweet spirit in our home. He is a ray of sunshine in our lives and I would go through labor, as horrible as it was with him, again in a second! :)

Scott and I can't get enough of him and we even miss him when he is napping. I can't tell you how many nights at about 10:30, Scott turns to me and says "I want to go get Brent from his crib. I miss him." (By the way, my response to that always is- I love him too, but if you are crazy enough to go wake him up, then you've got some issues.. ) :) My favorite times with him are every morning when we go get him from his crib and he lays in bed with us for a little bit. Those sweet moments are growing few and far between now that he is mobile. He will lay in between us for about 4 seconds, then he is crawling all over us like jungle gyms.

Here are some pictures of Brent right after he was born! (P.S. in almost every single picture I look like I am high- don't worry. I was high, but it was perfectly legal. It's called morphine, I believe. :) )