FHE ideas

What do you like to do for Family Home Evening?

After listening to Uchtdorf's talk from RS broadcast last week I started to think about all the simple and easy things we can do as a family for our Family Home Evening activities.

Aaron and I usually are all for keeping things low key and we like to remember the whole purpose of FHE...to be with your family and to strengthen your love for each other and the gospel. I feel like sometimes Aaron and I can be anti social, not really anti social, but more into hanging as a family than with others. We love being together after he has been gone all day/week at work. In any given week we are known to go on at least 5 strolls together whether it be at the beach, the harbor, on trails, etc. We find a lot of joy in being together outside with our family. However am up for new ideas of activities to do for our FHE.

This last week we met up with a few couples and just hung out at the beach for sunset for our FHE and it was perfect. I always enjoy a good time with people who share similar values and beliefs as I do. I feel like it strengthens my testimony even more.

I am thinking cooking may be a new thing I consider FHE as Aaron and I both love to be in the kitchen and we have fun when we are doing it. As Viv gets older we can all do it together and make a special yummy treat.

Hmmmmm any other ideas. What do you like to do for FHE?

Need a pick me up?

Do you just love the light in my eyes? My mom and dad can't get enough of me. Can you?

I am babbling and smiling a ton these days and my mom and dad don't do much other than just stare at me and snuggle with me. If you ever need a pick me up in your day just check out my mug and I promise it will brighten your day.

Missoni Madness and FNL

Are you as in love with the line for target as I am? I am obsessed and just love staring at it all the items, even all the out of stock stuff. It is just so pretty looking and funky. Just my style.

I am in love and at the same time so sad that I couldn't get my hands on more.

I ordered a tankini online that they still had and am going to be checking out stores in my area for more but man all I can say is dangit!!! So bummed.

I can't believe it was sold out in just a few hours. Had I been thinking clearly and not in my Friday Night Lights daze I would have gone early and stood in line for when the store opened.

That brings me to my next thought FNL!!! Loving it. Aaron and I are totally into it and are stoked to have another series to watch and love together. Kind of an issue though as we end up staying up late watching it not knowing when Vivian will sound the alarm next to eat. Thankfully she is pretty consistently sleeping from 8pm or so until 5am or later (knock on some wood for me), but we still take things day by day and have no expectations of her so I still feel like we are being risky staying up so late. But it's fun how excited we get when she goes to sleep, we get ready for bed and run into the bedroom, load up the netflix and just watch watch watch until one of us finally calls it quits.

Vivian's Special Day

How has time gone by so fast that we were the people blessing our baby at church this past Sunday? This time last year we were getting ready for our first round of infertility treatments and while we felt super hopeful I was the saddest I can ever remember. Now 1 year later we have a 2 month old. Overwhelmed with gratitude to say the least.

We chose to do the blessing in LA in the Westwood 2 ward. We always thought that's where she would be blessed and that ward honestly has been the most amazing ward we have ever been and couldn't imagine doing it anywhere else. There were so many who came to support us and see Vivian be blessed, friends from the 1 and 2 wards along with friends we made in LA, OC and our families. It was perfect!!!

Aaron gave her such a sweet blessing and focused on what I thought was so important, the attributes that she will need to succeed in life, in the gospel and as a woman. In the circle was Aaron, Bill, Gerrit, Nate, Jake, Matt, Jeremy, Tony, JayBird, Millard, Taylor and Mason.

Vivian was a dream all day. We woke her up at 6 so we could feed and drive to LA in time to get ready and settled. Aaron held her the entire time as I wanted him to already have her comfy and I felt like it was a special day for him and I just wanted him to have all the bonding and sweet time with her on that day. She slept the entire meeting in his arms and it was so sweet to see him just stare at her the whole time.

After the blessing we were able to visit with friends and the YW in the ward. Such a treat. Then we drove back home to relax a bit before family came over for dinner.

Measuring success

Since becoming a mom I have thought a lot about and been faced with the MEASURING STICK. Not the measuring stick we used in school or the one I use on myself but the societal measuring stick. I have to be honest I think we should throw it out. I have always hated the whole "keep up with the joneses" type of stuff that goes on in the world. Until I had Vivian I felt like I was able to stay away from the measuring stick of life pretty well. Aaron and I just tried to beat to our own drum and while at times we started to do the good old compare and contrast with others we, for the most part, have been able to not get caught up in this too much. However now that we have Vivian I feel like the measuring stick is being placed on us and I can't stand it, in fact I hate it.

Why is it that the first question someone now asks me is

"How long does Vivian sleep at night?"

Do you really care how well my baby sleeps? Honestly does it matter much to you? Or is it more about the good old compare and contrast game that gets played?

It is almost as if people placed judgement on me as a mom (and other moms) or as a person based on how well my/their baby sleeps, eats, naps, sticks to a schedule, self soothes etc. When in reality none of that stuff matters...NOT ONE BIT.

Now it just so happens that Vivian sleeps like a rock, eats probably way too much food (she is already 12 lbs...total chunk), naps well, goes to bed at a consistent time each night, isn't fussy, and is pretty much a dream of a baby. However what if she weren't? What if she woke up every hour screaming? What if she had to be rocked everytime she needed to sleep (check it out studies actually show that rocking a baby has many developmental benefits)? What if she were a total thumb sucker? Or how about what if she screamed bloody murder all day long? Would any of those things reflect anything about me as a mom or as person? Or what about Vivian would any of those things make someone think negatively about my baby?

I think the cat and mouse, keep up with the joneses, and good old compare and contrast game is an easy one to fall into and I am doing my best to not be affected by it, however it is like everyday someone asks one of those measuring questions, waits for my response and then proceeds to respond with their opinion and feelings and it drives me bananas!!!

In my opinion the only thing that matters is how well I teach my child the gospel, prepare her for the world and instill a strong sense of identity as a daughter of God. All that other stuff is just fluff, not relevant at all. I understand people are just trying to find common things to discuss however we all know that the questions are loaded and the answers given carry major reactions with them.

Of course there are the good old parenting debates that come up to, you know the ones I am talking about

Do you breastfeed or bottlefeed?

Does your baby suck thumb or use pacifier?

Do you let your baby cry it out?

Does your baby sleep in your room? What about your bed?

All of this stuff just doesn't matter. How about we let people raise their kids how they want to. How about we not give our opinions so freely and quickly to others. There is not ONE right way to do things in life. Everyone does things the way they feel is best for them.

It's easy to say that the hardest thing about becoming a mom thusfar has not been taking care of Vivian it has been dealing with all these things, the opinions given without invitation, the measuring stick, and such. I think it may be a girl thing because guys don't care about any of this. Can girls please be a bit more like guys?