The Sprinkle on Top

We all experience different seasons throughout our lives. At times we walk through this journey with the crisp air of Spring filling our lungs, the scent of fresh flowers and rain making every breath one of renewal, and the refreshing vision of a world blanketed in green. Other times we walk--or in my case, run--through the bitter winter storms. During those times, the heavy pressure of an oncoming thunderstorm can weigh on our shoulders, especially if we find ourselves stuck in the middle of a hurricane with no foreseeable way out. No matter the season we walk through today--or the season we'll face tomorrow--we have to rely on Christ always. Speaking from personal experience, it's often easy to forget Him when we walk through the Springs and Summers of life. It's not that we want to, but the peaceful time distracts us from the constant need we have to improve ourselves to become like Him. After the April 2018 LDS General Conference, Justin and I both felt the urgen...

Another month down... how!? Two days ago my sweet baby girl turned nine months old and has now been alive just as long as I was pregnant. Such a crazy realization! And my sweet baby takes a step (literally) away from being my little newborn and growing into toddlerhood every day. Well, Evie girl there's a reason this last month flew by so fast--it's because we've had a blast! The biggest change over the past thirty days has been you becoming mobile! You've wanted to move so badly for so long. You finally figured out how to crawl with both legs and you are everywhere and into everything. People warned me not to encourage you moving too fast because of this but I'm so glad daddy and I did. Now I can watch you chase down what you're thinking about whether it's Lucy napping on the floor or the broom as I sweep. Now that you're a master crawler--even Lucy runs away from you!--all you want to do is stand and walk. You hold Mommy and Daddy's han...

You, my sweet little lady, turned 8 months old today! The past thirty days have been filled with new adventures almost daily. And what a ride it has been! You're the most mobile baby I know, although you haven't quite mastered crawling yet. This doesn't stop you from chasing down your dirty diapers, scooting under chairs, or knocking over your entire toy box. You get on to your hands and knees and rock yourself back and forth before launching yourself forward. It's nearly effortless now and I love seeing you get the things your after. I guess it's time to baby proof! You're an excellent eater and are happy to try anything new... except peas. You hate peas. And green beans. And butternut squash. But you LOVE carrots and sweet potatoes, you're a banana and peach fan, you're learning to like chicken and apples and next on the list: pears, watermelon, peanut butter (your first exposure you didn't like the texture very much haha), and the list go...

Our ward auction fundraiser was this last week and I was asked to help bring cupcakes for dessert. I've always loved flipping through cupcake cookbooks, pinning new flavors of cupcakes to my Pinterest board (completely dedicated TO cupcakes!), and eating other people's yummy cupcake creations. I've never been able to make cupcakes on my own. At least not ones that don't look like a two-year-old decorated them. But I decided that was all about to change as I made four dozen cupcakes for our ward auction. I pulled out my cupcake cookbooks-- Your Cup of Cake --and set to work. In my defense, they tasted amazing... But for the life of me, I could not get my buttercream frosting to work. It just kept melting on my completely cooled cupcakes. I feel like you'd have to try hard to get them to turn out the way I did. I researched all over the place to a solution for my problem--add less liquid so the frosting's not as thin, add more powdered sugar to th...

I have to be honest, since Month One I've had Evie's posts ready to go days before she actually hit that age. But today I'm late... but only by a day. The older Evie gets, I swear the faster time goes! Our little sweetheart is 7 months old today! Somewhere along the line, we passed the 6-month-old stage where all the newborn woes are said to end. The beautiful light at the end of the tunnel came and went. And suddenly Evie's her own little person. Evie, you melt our hearts every day and have quickly become my best entertainer and one of my favorite people in the entire world. Over the past month, we've spent all day every day together just you and I. Some days have been hard as we're still battling your acid reflux and trying to find a medicine that works, but most of them have been amazingly fun. You love trying new things and we've done a lot of that this month. Between trips to the library and the grocery store to tasting new foods of all kinds...

This past month has been a whirlwind and I've loved every minute of it. Many people have told me how sad it is that babies grow up so fast. It is sad, but it's more fun and exciting to watch you learn and grow every day. We get a lot of Mommy-Daughter time and I have loved getting to be a part of every milestone you've hit and die every time your face lights up when I walk into the room. But some of my favorites... Every morning after you eat breakfast, I lay you on your changing pad by the window. After you're all cleaned up and dressed, we open the curtains and blinds. You roll onto your tummy and just watch out the window. Nothing exciting ever happens - well, once a neighbor was jump-starting his car - but you like to stare at the sky and tall grass. We lay on our backs and read stories. I lay you down first and you're usually confused until I lay down next to you. I pull out a book to read but instead of looking at the book, you turn and look ...

The past month or so, we have been working on the dreaded sleep training. And let me tell you, I dread it. Every. Single. Night. Sometimes I win and Evie and I both get a solid nights rest, but then there are those off nights. You know the ones, where I'm up for 1.5 hours with her screaming... It's cliche, but life would be so much easier with a manual. But there isn't a manual. Just hundreds of thousands of opinions you can pick and choose from. The more I've practiced sleep training with Evie bug, the more I've come to realize it doesn't really matter what my system is so long as I do one thing: Be Consistent.  Unfortunately for me, that means having to remember at 3:00 in the morning what I'm supposed to do to teach her to sleep on her own instead of just doing what I know will put her back to sleep immediately. Because my memory at nighttime isn't the best and, after long nights, it's not worth much during the day either, I decided to ...