SEVEN MONTHS

Can you even believe it? Homegirl is getting SO big! 

Baby Girl's personality is coming through more and more each day and she is so interactive! She absolutely loves "joining the conversation," when ever Keiton and I are talking she babbles and screeches because she thinks she is so big 😂 She smiles 100% of the time and is a complete dream! (Except around 1 AM, she is always hungry and definitely thinks it's the end of the world) 

Her new favorite thing to do is giggle.  We were at Walmart the other day and she giggled at everything. It was one of those adorable laughs that can make anyone smile. We had people around us smiling and laughing and she was loving the extra attention. I was laughing so hard because she apparently she thought her jokes were hilarious, it was SO cute!

 

Baby Girl makes being a mom the best job in the entire world! She brings so much joy and happiness into our lives! Her smile melts my heart and my favorite thing in the whole world is seeing her face as she lights up when she sees me or Keiton.  She makes life so much fun and I love seeing her excitement for the little things in life 💕

                                               

  

She is definitely my daughter because her new favorite thing is Mickey Mouse.  She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she gets SO excited every time she see her Mickey stuffed animal. I took her with me to Disney On Ice with the Dockstader Girls and she absolutely LOVED it! Disney girl through and through. 

 

Baby Girl is adorable and I can't imagine our life without her! 

SIX MONTHS

This little lady is half a year old! 

I still have a hard time believing it was six months ago she joined our family. Time has flown by so fast!  I feel like I blinked and she went from a tiny, cuddly, precious newborn to the wiggly, playful, smiley baby she is now.  Seriously, I need to stop blinking because I want her to stay little forever!

She now weighs 17.4 pounds, 65 percentile.

27 inches long, 82 percentile.

She still has a big melon, 17 inch head circumference, 93 percentile. 💕💕

This has been my favorite stage by far! She LOVES to play!  She is a chatterbox, cooing all the time. She thinks it's hilarious to coo back and forth with people.  Peek-a-boo makes her giggle so hard we have to take a little breather 😂  Her absolute favorite toy is her stuffed animal raccoon.  She also loves her baby doll and to chew on everything she can get her hands on.

She is fascinated by hands, especially her own.  She loves to sit and watch her little thumbs wiggle.  She has cut her first two teeth! Her bottom two teeth popped up the other day, we learned when she bit Keiton.  

Homegirl LOVES foods!  She is a great little eater, sweet potatoes and apples are still her favorite. She pulls a disgusted face when she eat peas and green beans but she continues to eat most of the jar! When we make her bottle her little face lights up and she get SO EXCITED! 

Baby Girl loves to be on the go.  She loves going on walks and seeing the world around her. She is beautiful and brings us so much joy! It is crazy just how much we love this little stinker!  

Suffocation

We are at that point of the semester where every professor has decided to make life miserable by assigning tests, projects and papers at the same time.  Everyday I go to class and feel like I'm being buried deeper and deeper by the amount of things to do (the phrase suffocation.. no breathing... comes to mind).  

You would think that would I would super organized in order to get everything done but I have "senioritis" super bad right now so it usually means staying at a constant stressed out level and turning to Netflix instead.... (I'm only kind of kidding about that) 😬

 I do have days where I would rather play with Baby Girl and catch up on my shows but for the most part, Keiton and I are somehow making it through this insane busy time.  I mean we both bombed tests last Saturday but hey I didn't say we were successfully getting through this busy time, just somehow floating through.  

Keiton got his hair cut this week and the lady who was cutting his hair was our age.  When she found out we had a baby she freaked out and asked him if he regretted having a baby so young.  Keiton was taken back at the question and told her if he could go back he wouldn't change a thing.

I whole heartedly 100% agree.  

School is overwhelming at times but it's always been stressful. Having our sweet Baby Girl makes life not only bearable but SO MUCH FUN too!! How can you not be filled with joy when you look into this face?! 

I would rather be busy than bored which is good because this little girl is a wiggle worm, always on the move (heaven help us when she can walk).  Luckily she loves to play so we set her in front of her toys and then try and get to get as much done as possible.  If anything having Baby Girl has taught me to be more productive with my time.

I have learned that with the help of God, somehow everything on my to-do list gets done and by some huge miracle I am at least passing my classes.  The rest is up to me and my attitude and I whole heartedly believe that it is possible to get through stressful situations with joy.

One of my favorite quotes is from Elder M. Russell Ballard,

"Attitude is an important part of the foundation upon which we build a productive life.  In appraising our present attitude, we might ask: 'Am I working to become my best self? Do I look toward the positive in life?' Remember, a good attitude produces good results, a fair attitude fair results, a poor attitude poor results.  We each shape our own life, and the shape of it is determined largely by our attitude.

So that is my though this week, no matter how stressful life is right now focus more on your attitude and a little less on the list of things to do.  Keeping a positive attitude and smile on your face will go a long way!

I'm so grateful for this little girl who constantly reminds me to smile.  We spend most of our days laughing, babbling and playing and that makes all the difference in my attitude! 

Valentine's Day 2017

It's crazy to think how much has changed in a year.

This time last year we announced on social media we were having a baby.  And now look at her, she is getting SO big!  I don't know what we did in our life before she came along.  I don't know how I filled my days without kissing those chubby cheeks a million times or tickling her chunky belly and listing to her adorable laugh.   

Now we have our little one and she makes everything in our little family feel complete.  Even as little as she is she makes holidays, even little ones, a lot more exciting.

 

Before Keiton, I never really cared about Valentine's Day.  I thought it was a fake holiday and dumb that we had to have a day to tell our loved ones we are thinking about them.  Now that I have my forever valentine, he has changed my mind!

One of the things I love about Keiton is that he is so good at telling me and showing me just how much he loves me every single day.  He is really great about randomly bringing home flowers, making me dinner, leaving notes around the house.  So Valentine's Day still isn't a super big deal, but I still get really excited because any chance I have to go on a date with with my love, I'll take it!  

Because of Keiton and Baby Girl, I have found myself getting a lot more into this "fake holiday." I had so much fun dressing Baby Girl up and taking Valentine's pictures and I even made an Oreo cake and heart shaped pizza. Yep, I have gotten mushy over the years, but we had SO much fun!

 

 It was the perfect night.  I am grateful for this fake holiday because we blew off all the homework we had and just had a fun night together.  Keiton got me flowers, we had dinner together, put Baby Girl to bed early and watched a movie together.  This weekend we are going to dress up fancy and go to dinner.  But I am so grateful that we get to celebrate this love all year, not just on February 14th.

How am I supposed to do this?

Mom life, college life.... I know I talk (maybe even complain) about this a lot but, right now, that's all I know.  I was having one of those days where I was thinking 'how in the world are we going to make it through?!' 

These days tend to creep up when I am running on little sleep or have a big assignment due.  Stress overpowers me and I just jump to the worst case scenarios, I'm going to fail my classes, I won't be able to finish school, or a similar thought pops into mind.

Lucky for me, the very day I felt all this pressure there was a lecture on campus called "How Am I Supposed To Do This, Advice for Moms Trying To Get Through School."
Talk about direct answers to prayers!

The speaker shared many great tips and I feel like all of the advice could be applied to anyone who is overwhelmed.

First, gain a testimony of your path.  When God asks us to do something, it is rarely easy.  That is because there is no growth in our comfort zone.  Seek for confirmation that you are doing what God wants you to do, then go forward and trust those feelings.

Second, manage your expectations.  Basically all of the ideas I have had about being a mom have been thrown out the window.  Baby Girl has slept in our bed, our house is rarely clean, I don't wake up early, we eat out too much, I'm not getting A's in my classes anymore and that's ok. I am guilty of having too high of expectations for myself and it usually just adds way too much stress! I am working on having high but healthy expectations for myself and my role of being a mom.

Third, use your village.  We weren't meant to get through this life alone.  It is ok to ask for help! This is something that I have a hard time remembering.



Fourth, take care of yourself. Find things that energize you and fill your day with you love.  This is hard for me because I feel like every second of every day is packed with so much to do that I can't even check everything off my to do list.  But I have been trying to add little things throughout the day that I look forward to.

Like, since I drive back and forth from Spanish Fork to Orem everyday, I started listening to audiobooks.  This helps to break up my long car rides and when things get intense, I actually look forward to driving.

Also, I actually look forward to feeding Baby Girl in the night, because Keiton and I use this time to watch Person of Interest.  She usually wakes up around 3 hungry, and we start and episode, burp her, put her to sleep and then we usually end up finishing the episode.  So if you have recommendation for a good Netflix show, let us know!!

This life is crazy, but I wouldn't change it for anything! And somehow we are surviving this super busy insane time of our lives and loving it too.

Momish

Baby Girl was surrounded by friends and in complete heaven this week! 

My parents were on a cruise so we stayed in Spanish Fork with Emily.

It was the best because she would go to bed surrounded by her Auntie Em and Uncle Spencer, who spoil her rotten. Then she would wake up and once again they were there to dote over her.

She wasn't even upset about it.

It was a tough week though. Baby spent the second half of the week not sleeping AT ALL. So we were so tired and on top of that we were juggling school, homework, Baby L, and driving Emily around.

I've been a mom for 5 months, but this was the most "momish" I have ever felt.  When I think about moms I think of my own amazing mom, who spent most of her time in a car driving us three kids everywhere. Well, I definitely got my feel of the car. I listened to Nicholas Spark's book Two by Two audiotape and got through half of it.

Needless to say between all of that driving and this cute girl, I didn't get anything productive done the whole week.

 I wasn't even upset about it.

In all of the chaos, my knight and shining armor was there. Keiton is always there to make me laugh and be my rock. 

I adore these two, they are my whole world!!

FIVE MONTHS

It's crazy to think I spent 5 months straight throwing up and nauseous while I was pregnant with Baby Girl.  Those 5 months were the slowest months of my life.  Now that Baby Girl is here and five months I can't even believe it! Having her here has been the fastest months of my life!

Baby Girl was sick for the first time ever.  All three of us had a cold and poor Baby was coughing, sneezing and her nose would not stop running.

Keiton and I caved and bought a NoseFrida. Yep that's right folks, we sucked the boogers right out of her nose. We were disgusted with the thought but desperate for her to be able to breath so she would sleep longer than 2 hours at a time. The nasty thing is it works and we are converted- seriously the coolest baby invention 😬😬

NEW TRICK!! 

Baby can balance!! She can't really sit up yet, but she is really good at balancing on our laps or if we put her hands out she will sit like a monkey for a while (until her head gets too heavy and she topples over 😂).

Baby LOVES to eat solids!!! She is a sweet potato girl 💕 She has also had carrots and bananas. She loves food too much to be picky so we haven't had any battles with her yet.  In fact, she only gets upset if we don't feed her fast enough.  

The walker is Baby Girl's favorite thing right now.  It plays annoying music and lights up, what is not to love??

It's hard to tell who loves to cuddle more, Baby Girl or her daddy.  Sometimes when she is upset, he is the ONLY one who can calm her down, I guess he has the magic touch.

5 months is so much fun! She LOVES to coo, sing and screech.  She is a wiggle worm who LOVES to play.  She is starting to get bored when there aren't toys or books around.  Bath time is her favorite because she loves to kick and see the water splashing around.  She is starting to sleep a little better at night again... HALLELUJAH 

She is SO happy most of the time.  Life is good, as long as she is not hungry or tired!