Blanchard's Blog: Down By The River

Today we went on a walk down by the river before dinner. Sebastian was so excited to be out right after his bath. He was so soft and clean.

When we first got to the river he saw these horses and went crazy. He was barking and running back and forth. The horses just kept eating.

When we first got on the trail a yellow lab was coming up with his owner, Sebastian was so excited to play. The owner told us how hard it was to have a dog, but worth it in the end.

Sebastian kept running after all the kids in every direction. My Love had to keep pulling him out of all kinds of places.

We love the swing that someone put along the river. It is so much fun so all the kids had to try it.

Then they all went in the river, yes including Sebastian, the freshly bathed dog. He absolutely loves the water!!! I don’t know how they all did it because the water was just freezing. Sebastian just kept running in after the rocks all the kids were throwing. At first My Love kept him on the leash, but soon realized he just wanted to jump in and play with the kids.

I love this picture!!

On our way home the kids found this really cool tree to climb.

Sebastian also wanted to climb the tree and be in the picture.

This is so Paris and Aubree, off in their own little world coming up with new business venture ideas, a new idea for a cardboard house or building or just talking about everything under the sun.

STORY TIME

When Daph was already pregnant with Aubree I was not even thinking about getting pregnant. So one day at church this little girl asked me out of the blue why I didn’t have any children. I told her I didn't want any children at this time. She couldn’t understand how I was married but didn't have children so I decided to go one step further and say that I took these small pills that stop me from having babies. I don’t know what I was thinking telling a 7 year old all about birth control, but she kept asking. About 2 hours later I happen to be sitting right behind her in primary, I didn’t even know she knew I was there. While we were in the middle of a song she turned back to me and said “I think you should stop taking those pills and have a baby.” I was just shocked that it was still on her mind, and why was she pestering me about having kids. Right after church My Love and I talked about it for hours and finally decided that the baby would be born after I graduated from college so it could work out. My most important goal in life was to have a bachelor's degree before I ever started having kids. So we started trying because of that little girl. I think Paris prompted that little girl to pester me so I wouldn't take another year or two to start, which I easily could have since it was seriously the furthest thing from my mind at the time. Paris knew Aubree was already on her way and probably couldn’t bare being apart from her for very long.

STORY WITHIN A STORY

Before we were officially dating but after our 10 days in Boracay, we were on the phone (Jared had gone back to the States and I was in Korea) talking about everything. I told him that I had always wanted to have a girl by the name of Paris. He said he also did and had written it in his scriptures when he was on his mission. I thought he was just trying to score some extra points in “my book” so I would put him on the top of my list for potential husbands. Well, many years later when we were moving from Las Vegas to Utah he found his missionary scriptures and sure enough inside the cover it said “Future Daughters Name Paris”.

BACK TO STORY

So weeks after we had started trying to have kids Gary and Jo Ann were over for dinner. Somehow we mentioned Paris being in heaven. I didn’t know this but Jo Ann was really having a hard time with us waiting for so long to have kids. We were coming up on our 4th wedding anniversary in 5 months. Having lived in this Mormon Culture now for over 14 years I realize her frustration…no one here chooses to wait that long to have babies unless physically they have to. So when we moved from Korea to Las Vegas she thought she would have grandbabies in no time, but we made her wait more than 2 years. So when Paris was mentioned she couldn’t take it anymore and she said “Paris is probably not even up there anymore. She has probably been given to another family because you guys are waiting so long!” A few minutes later she apologized for saying that, she was so worried she had hurt my feelings. Well in my culture you have aunts, uncles, grandparents, and anyone older than you telling you what they think you should do, so I have grown up just listening politely and doing what I thought was right anyway. Don’t tell the elders in my family!! So her outburst didn't really faze me at all. She explained later that if her mother-in-law had said that to her she would have been in tears for days. My first thought was “It’s going to be so funny when we tell her that she said this after we had decided to start having kids.” Poor Jo Ann has always felt bad about that.

It took us about a month and a half to get pregnant. I was ready to start the adoption process a little over a month into trying because I always thought I would get pregnant the day I decide to. My Wonderful Love was so patient with my craziness and a week later we were pregnant. Gary and Jo Ann were up in Cedar City at Troy and Daph’s the day we found out. We found out after work that day and drove straight up to give them the news. They had all gone out so we waited around for about an hour. You should have seen the look on Jo Ann’s face when we told her. She was so happy that the day was finally here when she would have her very own grandbaby in her home town. We left a few hours later because we both had to work the next day.

Paris was born at home in Las Vegas at 6:23 am after 49 hours of labor. Gary and Jo Ann came over about 4pm to see The Paris that had waited so long to come from Heaven. I was so grateful that my mom came right over from California to help me through that first week. I had such wonderful support from everyone!!!

Paris and Aubree have been best friends since the first day they met. There is just something a little different about their relationship that makes me think they have known each other for many many years before they were even born!

I love how Aubree is right behind Paris coming over to play.