The Thankful Post

Seeing how November is the month you're supposed to be thankful for stuff, I figured I'd write a few down on the ol' blog.

These are in no specific order, mind you.

I'm thankful for...

#1 - An awesome house, in an awesome neighborhood. I'm so grateful to live in a house that fits my family perfectly, and is in a neighborhood with so many neat people. I've made a ton of new friends, and it's been really fun getting to know people! It's nice to live somewhere where we're accepted and even welcomed.

#2 - An understanding and loving husband. I am so lucky to be married to someone that makes me laugh every day. Someone who understands that when I say "You're such an idiot" I really just mean "I love you." He's an amazingly smart and talented guy, and an fantastic father. I love Justin.

#3 - My hilarious and sweet little boy. My little dude is the highlight of my day. I love making him laugh, and watching him learn new things. He's almost one, and while I feel like time has absolutely flown by, I almost cannot remember what life was like without him. Honestly, I don't want to. He has changed me in ways that no one else could, and I hope that he knows that I love him with all of my heart, and I always will!

#4 - A family that is so awesome. My brothers and sisters are all amazing. They are my best friends, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Honestly, how many people want to hang out with their family on a regular basis? We're hysterical, smart, and amazing... if we're any judge. But the same goes for all my in-laws. I have the most thoughtful and sweet in-laws that anyone could ask for. I hope to one day reach their level of awesome.

#5 - Technology. I can't lie, I'd be lost without my cell phone, the dumb thing. And Netflix and Hulu.

#6 - Books. I love reading. I always have, and it's safe to say I always will. My kindle has been one of the best purchases that I have ever made. While it doesn't replace the real thing, it has introduced me to so many different books that I otherwise would not have read. Love my Mmmm-BetterNot! (That's the name of my kindle, thanks Lor.)

#7 - The Gospel. This by far doesn't fall last on my list, in fact, it's probably first. Without the gospel I would be leading a very different life today. One that I know would not be happy. I love the Savior, and all that he's done for me. His love for me, and understanding of my feelings has been a huge help in my life. Knowing that I'm not alone in my trials is an amazing thing. Unfortunately for me, I don't voice this enough. I was going to say 'One day I hope to work up the courage to tell more people this"... but I realized that I shouldn't be waiting for 'one day'. I've learned recently that 'one day' might never come. There is no point in waiting for something to happen, and I know that. But back to the gospel... I am so grateful for it's influence in my life. For the person it helps me to be. For the Atonement, and the chance it gives me to start over. I'm grateful for prophets and apostles who guide me. In times when I'm lost or confused, they offer words of direction and encouragement. Words that I love to hear. I'm grateful for my Father in Heaven, who knows me and loves me.

There are so many things to be thankful for each and every day! I think it's something everyone could work on.
If you need some help, this cute girl has tons of ideas.

Snow globes

I love snow globes. I only have a few, but I think they're just so fun and pretty and I could watch every piece of glitter settle to the bottom.

Well, for Mother's Day, Justin got me a Sleeping Beauty snow globe, which is WAY awesome. I love it. He knew I wanted it because it's on my Amazon Wish List. -anything we want, we put on there, and that way around Christmas and birthdays we're not pestering each other with 'what do you want' question- Well I was looking for some more snow globes to put on my wish list, and since The Little Mermaid is my favorite, I was searched for Ariel snow globes.

Who would have thought that The Little Mermaid -who literally lives in water (snow globes are FULL of water!) are so hard to find! There were some small cheap ones on Amazon, the same ones on the Disney website... and after googling, they only had ones that were no longer available.

WHAT?!

Family Pictures

So my side of the family hasn't had family pictures since I was 15 I think... So that had to change. My sister found a photographer (sorry Whitney! It wasn't me!) and we found a date that worked, and it was done! Easy enough. Here are some of the shots...

This is my whole family

My parents and the grandkids

HAHA! I saw an idea like this on Pinterest, so I wanted to try it... I looooove how it turned out. Especially the third shot.

I love my family!

Teething

Um, what happened to my happy, independent, smiley boy?

In reference to my last post

I'm doing WAY better.

I started thinking about why I was feeling the way that I was; that I wasn't 'enough' of something... thought I wasn't sure what. So I took a step back and did an evaluation of everything in my life, and the way that it affected me.

With the things I could control, I did what I could. I removed some things from my life, I added other things... both have been a big help.

With things that I could not control, I turned to the Lord. I fasted and prayed, and presented Him with a solution, and asked for assistance in reaching the solution. I feel this is personal experience, but I want to share, because you never know when this could help someone else... My husband believes that there are some things in which we need to come to our own conclusions, and then ask the Lord if he feels that's a good answer. I agree with this because I don't think the Lord is only there to give us answers. I think He is also there to encourage us in a choice we've already made, to love us, and guide us when we ask for it... among millions of other things. Continuing on though- I knew that the solution that I needed in my life, right now, was strength. The strength to choose to be happy. To choose to forget the things that don't matter, and the strength to only look at here and now. After figuring this out, I fasted and prayed, telling Heavenly Father I just needed the strength to essentially just be my old self. Happy. Confident. Strong. I would have days where I was my old self, but I was having more days where I wasn't feeling right. I would be quiet or mad or some unexplainable feeling that was just frustrating me further... So I simply asked for Him to help keep me strong in my choices. I WANT to be happy.

*quick disclaimer about being happy - I am extremely happy in my life. I love my husband, I love my baby, and I love my house. When I talk about being unhappy, that's referring to me struggling purely on the inside - with my self esteem, or my lack of craftiness (dumb, I know), or that my body wasn't the same, just dumb little things like that. But some days they'd all hit at once, and I'd feel pretty useless.

But I know that Heavenly Father has heard me, and He's helping me. It's really an amazing feeling, knowing that I don't have to bear my burdens alone.

I'm not sure what I would do without the gospel in my life.

One of those days

I just need to get this off my chest...

So today is turning out to be one of those days where I feel like I'm just not enough.

Not enough of what? I don't know. But it's so easy to feel like this... and to wallow in the self pity of something I don't even understand. I don't know if it's that I'm not spiritual enough, skinny enough, happy enough, pretty enough, or what. Maybe it's all of those things. Who knows?

But I really hate feeling like this.

Rant over.

Pictures!

Baby Keek updates

And just to give you an idea as to how hard it was to get the 7 month pictures...

Mobile babies are to hard to control. 

Then our anniversary trip...

These were in Snow Canyon

This was Kanarraville Falls - way awesome. Highly recommend it.

Another Baby Keek update... He tried Mum-Mums. They're pretty much like foam... The pictures here tell the whole story. 

Hahahahahaha I love him

Happenings

How does that happen? It's like I blink and suddenly two months have flown by.

I realize I no longer have time to get on the computer. I'm either chasing Keith around, since he's crawling and climbing up the stairs (heaven help me!) or when he's napping I'm trying to get ready, or reading, or napping myself. A lot of my free time has disappeared. I'm fairly certain I was cheated out of 'lay my baby down and he won't roll or crawl away' time. He started crawling at 6 months. 7 months he started going up the stairs. Um.. if he's walking by 8 months... you may never hear from me again.

Either way, it's been so fun. He has so much energy, which can be either good or bad. Depending on how much energy I have. Most of the time I can keep up with him, but every now and then I just want to cry I'm so tired. But Justin is an amazing help, and it's a huge blessing that he comes home at 3:30 every day. Pretty sure it's the only reason I've survived. But Keith is so funny! He loves to crawl all over me, and slobber all over everything he sees. He chases Auggie dog around the house, and thinks it's funny when Auggie licks him, or on occasion growls at him. But Auggie has been really good with him. For the most part, Auggie will just look at me with a look in his eyes that screams "Why are you letting this happen to me?! Why is this little thing still here?" But Auggie hasn't bitten him or anything like that, so I'm not worried. He just takes what Keith gives him.

Last month Justin and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We went to St. George for a couple of days, and went out hiking. It was a lot of fun. We went places that we haven't been before, which is always an adventure. We left Keith with my brother and his wife, so that was the first time we'd spent a night away from him. Kind of nice, kind of stressful. I was really excited to get home and see him.

This month was also Keith's first time to his great-grandpa Keith's cabin. It was fun, and not too hot.

We took Keith 'camping' for the first time this month. We stayed in a trailer, if you call that camping. But Justin slept in a hammock, and I slept in my sister's trailer with Keith. Not the best sleep I've ever had, but I got some.

I made homemade ice cream! I totally did! And it even turned out okay. We had our next-door neighbors come over (look at us, being all social) and had some chocolate ice cream and talked. It was nice to get to know them, seeing how we've lived here 7 months, and they're like the 2nd people I've met... the first for Justin. He's really anti-social.

It's been a busy couple of months. Sometimes I think we don't really do that much, but when I sit down and write this all out... I realize that we did a lot more than what I thought.

I'll be posting pictures later, since my camera is downstairs, and I'm upstairs. Keith is awake, so if I walk by his door, he'll see me and start crying... so it'll just have to wait.

Daily Journal

So Justin and I have a journal where we write one thing every day. It doesn't have to be profound or anything, in fact a lot of mine say "Hung out at home, nothing special" especially when Justin was in school.

I'm saying this because I've been looking at the entries from last year (we just started it last year) but it's amazing to see how much has changed in the last year. A year ago, Justin had his first interview with his current job. A little over a year ago, I found out I was pregnant. We also had just moved in to an apartment.

Now we have an almost 6 month old. We have our own house. Justin is graduated, and working at a job he loves. Our dog now lives with us. :)

It just made me think about how so many times we have points where we think "Is this never going to end?" or something along those lines. Well it ends, and quickly. Things change so fast in our lives, it's a good idea to sit and enjoy it.

On Sunday, Justin and I spoke in sacrament (dun dun dunnnn) which actually wasn't that bad. We spoke on prayer, and it really made me think about that quote about how God answers prayers with "Yes" "Not yet" and "I have something better in mind"which I think is completely true. I know that he listens to us. I know that he answers us. We just have to be listening, and paying attention. He only wants what is best for us, and he doesn't give us a trial that we cannot overcome.

That's my two cents at least :)

Picture Post

Finally cut my hair, and it was long enough to donate!

Our outfits for pictures. I was SO excited when I found Keith's shirt. It was exactly what I wanted.

I wish Auggie would really stay in here for nap time... then he'd be out of the way!

We went to my parent's house to watch Wreck It Ralph (awesome movie) and it got really quiet upstairs... She'd gotten into the baby powder. 

He tries to roll over everywhere, and always ends up napping in weird positions. 

My mom was singing to him, and he kept trying to lick her face :)

My baby is 5 months old!