BOYS!!!! I LOVE BOYS!!!

Three future priesthood holders.  Three future missionaries.  Three future big strong men to help around the house when Scott and I are old and brittle.  Something inside me told me it was another boy, and I was right.  It feels good.  It feels really really good.  I love little boys.  My sister and I are 18 months apart, so she was practically a twin who was just in a grade younger than me.  Under her I had three brothers, all whom I bossed around, took care of, and rocked to sleep, and changed diapers for.  Those three brothers prepared me for my three son's one day.  I'm good with boys.  This is great news.
Scott has always had a fantasy of three sons one day.  His dream came true.  Seth couldn't be happier.  He would have taken a girl a lot harder than how Crystal took the news of a boy.  She was hoping for a girl, but I'd been telling her for a while now that I felt like he was a boy and she was okay with it.
I was always meant for this.  I knew I was going to have one daughter, and that she would be first.  I'd known it since I was 19.  I felt it with my soul, I felt it during hard times in my life, that my little girl was watching me and cheering me on.  I also knew that the rest were boys.  I always pictured a girl and two boys, but my wonderful bonus baby has joined our ranks, and we're excited to see him face to face in 20 weeks.

When I was preparing to be a missionary, a friend gave me this quote, from the man who was our living prophet at the time. It made me feel good, because deep inside, I felt like this pertained to me, and I feel like I was prepared all my life to have sons in my home.

"Many young women serve missions.  Many are preparing to serve, not because they aren't married or have nothing else to do, but because they have a desire to serve and therefore are being called to the work, the reason so many are going is because in the next generation, Heavenly Father will be sending his priesthood army to the earth.  He wants to send them to mothers who have been properly trained and taught in the gospel, and what better training can a woman have than that of serving a mission?"  -Gordon B. Hinkley

If any of you out there are reading this and thinking, "I have sons and didn't serve a mission" or " I have daughters, does that mean I'm not strong in the gospel?"  UM....I hope you're not seriously my friends and thinking that.  Every situation is different, but this particular quote was made for me.  NOTHING could have prepared me personally, with my strengths and weakness, (mostly the weaknesses) to be a better mom than serving a mission.  I would not have been mature, nor prepared enough to be a wife and mom without it.  If you knew my maturity level before my mission, you would agree with me.  I needed my mission.  My mission helped me figure out what I wanted out of life, something I wasn't too sure about before I served.  Some girls do just fine without those experiences and they are awesome.  I just wasn't one of them. It was because of my mission that I knew the specifics of what I wanted (and didn't want)  in a husband, it was because of my mission and the feelings I had learned to understand as a missionary, that I was able to recognize Scott as my future husband and not overlook him like I did so many times with nice good boys as a 19 year old.  (I didn't hang out with jerks...but I was just distracted.  I didn't know what I wanted out of my life yet.)  Heavenly Father knew what training I needed, what trials I had to go through, and what experiences I needed to have to be the best mom I can be, and my mission was part of that.

I'm also not saying that had I not served I wouldn't have had boys...I'm sure I would have...but my life experiences have helped me be more prepared for what was coming, and I asked for many of those experiences because I was always thinking of ways to prepare for my future family, even as a 12 year old little girl.  Ever since I was just a kid, and honestly I believe way before I was born, the thing I was most looking forward to in my life, was having my own family.  My very own little family with a loving husband and children to love and look after and be with for the rest of my life. My life...no my SOUL wish came true.    Being a wife and mom is the hardest work in the world, but also the happiest. I'm so thankful for my experiences as a missionary and how they helped me learn about hard work and sacrifice.  I'm so thankful that I'm part of the LDS church because the things it taught me, got me through the hardest times in my life, and helped me figure out how to be happy.  Not just satisfied, really really happy.  I'm also so thankful for a husband who loves kids as much as I do and has been supportive of my choice to have another baby.  I'm the happiest woman alive today.  

One more quote, a quote which I love with all my heart for all the mommies out there.

The noblest calling in the world is motherhood. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece, or who can write a book that will influence millions, deserves the admiration and plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose immortal souls will exert an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or have been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God.   - David O. Mckay