Carter’s first attempt at solids was kind of lack luster (It was rice cereal; who can blame the kid for not eating much?!) so I didn’t post the video. But when I gave him a taste of Fay’s bedtime snack apple sauce, he kind of got addicted!  He clearly likes the taste; but I think he also didn’t mind that it wasn’t coming from a spoon. Spoons still throw him off just a little.

Also, Fay’s singing in the background gives it such an authentic touch! Don’t you agree?

 

Lastly: this is a picture of Fay and Josh wearing “earrings” this afternoon. It is too precious not to share!

If you have been to our house in the past 4 or so months, then you have undoubtedly already heard Fay sing this song.  If you haven’t seen Fay recently, you really can’t quite get a grasp on what she’s about without hearing this song. 🙂

So, school has been going for two weeks now for Josh, but I feel like we have been hanging onto summer a lot. We did the zoo the day after Josh started school, then Lacey came, then we had this long weekend, and I am thinking that summer might really end this week. We’ll see. We’re good at hanging onto the fun stuff! (And really bad at getting back into normal bedtimes…)

Anyway, I just wanted to share something about me. Because I feel like it…  Every year, as long as I can remember, as summer draws to a close I have felt the promise of a new beginning as a new school year approached.  I remember laying on the back bed of the motor-home with my sister Christina as we drove across country for family vacation daydreaming about how awesome the coming school year was going be. We were finally going to really practice the piano, and we were totes going to be the best dressed, most desirable girls in our respective grades, and we were going to get all As and live happily ever after!  And even though I have been graduated from BYU for nearly two years, and even though I love being a full time mom, there is always that longing that comes at the end of the summer for a new beginning and becoming something better.

I have been thinking for the past few weeks about how I could possibly recreate the feeling of new and important changes in my life without sacrificing the things that are the most important to me (ie: being a wife and a mother).  So, I have come up with an idea for this autumn that has so far satisfied my longings without sacrificing my higher priorities!  I am going to be giving myself classes at home!  I made a giant list of things that I always wished that I had been able to study more in college and I have selected a few of them to have as “classes”!  The plan is to dedicate at least 30 minutes each evening after the kids go to bed (assuming they actually DO go to bed) to work on one of my selected subjects each night. I plan on getting my learning materials from the library and from MIT Open Course Ware, and from any other connections I might have. For example, I have enlisted the help of Josh to be my private tutor for my “beginning programming” class. (Thursday night date night on the computer!!!!)

I am really looking forward to learning new things this “semester” and I hope to continue doing this sort of thing forever. Maybe not as structured as I’m planning right now, but I love the idea that I can just keep on learning the things I want to even if I don’t have a professor to spoon feed it to me anymore!

I guess I gave myself the week off of blogging last week because I didn’t get the day off of work I was hoping for. 🙂

This past weekend, we had Josh’s sister Lacey at our house!  We had tons of fun with her! And Josh and I got to go on SO MANY DATES!!!!

On Saturday morning, Josh and I went to the Raleigh NC temple and got to do a session together for the first time in over a year! It was basically like another honeymoon!  I never feel closer to Josh than I do when we are in the temple together! I am so grateful that our marriage started in the temple and that the temple gets to be part of our marriage forever–which makes our marriage last forever! Basically the temple is the best! Just do it! 🙂

On Sunday, we went on a walk on campus, and Lacey took some beautiful pictures!

Told you they were beautiful!

On Monday, Josh and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! To continue our celebration of the joy of Eternal Marriage, we decided to go roller blading! And then we went to dinner at a place called Nantucket Grill and Cafe. It was delicious! Lacey was so good to watch the kids again for us!

We had a great weekend. And I totally would have posted a picture of Lacey; but she took all the pictures, I guess, so I don’t have one.

Fay and I have been a little under the weather for the past few days; but this morning I woke up feeling totally awful: sore throat, congestion/crazy runny nose, head ache, stiff. I was like “Man! This is totally lame! I’m calling in sick.”  So I called my boss, and told her “Hey! so I’m really not feeling well this morning, and I would like to get the day off work.” She responded by screaming at me that she MUST watch more Sofia songs and dumping salt and cheerios all over the kitchen.

Bless her little heart!

Nobody at home was feeling very well today, but we all manifested it a little differently. Fay manifested her discomfort by screaming a little extra, I manifested it by being probably much less patient than I should be, and sweet little Carter manifested it by sleeping in, taking 3 good naps and snuggling extra.  I’m so glad Fay and I had him to make our sick day a little better.

Speaking of my cute kids. Check this out!Most. Adorable. Boy. Ever.

I just love her wide eyed stare! She really is such a good girl. She’s just a two year old girl.

So, I had a birthday last week that I never posted about. It was wonderful! It was my golden birthday (I turned 24 on the 24th) and Josh spoiled me rotten!  But we didn’t take many pictures, and our eyefi isn’t quite itself because we recently got new internet, and mostly I have had something else on my mind for a long time that I want to share.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints, and I was raised by two of the highest quality people in this world.  They taught me to love my Heavenly Father and serve Him with my whole soul for my whole life.  They taught me to love the people around me and serve them. My parents taught me that family is the most important gift we have apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My parents taught me very well, and they happened to choose to raise me in Utah.

Since moving away from Utah, I have realized that for whatever reason,  many members who take pride in the fact that they aren’t from Utah, and don’t seem to have any issue making fun of/assigning stereotypes to members of the Church who are from Utah. People say these things in my presence, though not directly to me, and don’t seem to think anything of it.  It seems that everybody outside of Utah ought to know that “Utah Mormons” are an inferior brand of followers of Christ. This trend, along with other experiences I have had recently have helped me see some of the things I do (and without thinking about the individuals it may affect) quite a bit differently.

I believe with all my heart that a person can have bleached blonde hair, wear make-up when they go camping, name their child LaPrell, and still be a righteous follower of Jesus Christ.  Though perhaps I don’t fit whatever stereotype people give to Utah Mormons (perhaps I fit it perfectly), I know that I am just doing my best to follow Jesus Christ the way I have been taught; and I realize that basically everybody is doing the exact same thing.  We’re all just doing the best we can.

But this isn’t just an issue I have seen with members outside of Utah. This is something that I see myself doing. I suppose that is the reason I am writing this: so that I can figure out a better way for me to do things. But what I realize now is that though it may seem that the entire world accepts a certain stereotype, there are individual children of God–whom He loves beyond comprehension–that make up every group of people who have been lumped into one stereotype. If I were to say the things I nonchalantly say about a group to the face of any individual in that group, I would feel enormous remorse for months.

Our Father in Heaven loves all of His children. He loves them individually and collectively. If we asked Him “Do you love members of your church who are always trying to ‘keep up with the Jones family’?” He would say “I love them more than you or they can possibly comprehend.” If we asked Him the same thing about people who have any idiosyncrasy or sin in the book, His answer would always be the same.  He loves everyone! I feel His love for me, and it is extremely humbling to realize that He has that same love for EVERYONE EVER!

I have caught myself saying things like “Oh, well some people are just so obviously without good intentions…” and that is how I justify judging them. But it turns out it was NEVER my job to be the judge of somebody’s goodness or flaws. Jesus Christ paid the price for everybody’s sins and so He is the one who ultimately has to decide where their hearts have been. And He, knowing all our sins and imperfections, our pride, our selfishness, our sloth, our pessimism, our everything, is the One who wants the most to save us.

I am grateful that I have had the privilege of learning these things again, and I am sad to admit that I will likely have to learn them many times over in the future.  But I hope that I will be a little better at seeing past the stereotypes and the quick judgments, and remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus will love each and every one of Their people no matter what they do, no matter how many times they fall or even willfully rebel.

Back in Mrs. Riley’s AP English class, senior year, we made “Life Lists” which are often referred to as “bucket lists”. We were supposed to record 100 things that we wanted to do/see/experience/own before we die.  Well, one of the things on my Life List was to go to Washington DC and see The Mall. This past weekend I did! (And by “I did”, I of course mean WE did!)

Josh and I both loved all the monuments, but especially the Lincoln Memorial! It was so fun to talk about all the different presidents of our country and what they contributed while seeing the monuments built to honor them!Sup, President Obama?!

Fay’s favorite place from the whole trip was the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. She got excited about all the different animals and loudly proclaimed each of their names! Her favorite animal these days is a gorilla, and when she saw one she started walking like a gorilla and practically yelling “GORILLA!!!!”

We went to Arlington National Cemetery and got to see the changing of the guard. It was a cool experience. I feel like it is a beautiful thing to have a place to honor the men and women who have served our country, and in many cases, given their lives for it.

On Friday night, we had dinner with some friends who live in Arlington, VA. I am more than a little upset that we forgot to get a picture with them! But it was super fun to see the Chlarsons, and they took us to a REALLY yummy burger place in Arlington called “Good Stuff Eatery.” If anyone is in the area, I totally recommend checking this place out and getting the toasted marshmallow shake and TONS of fries!

Early Saturday morning (Approximately 3:15 AM), we got a special surprise in our hotel!Those are firetrucks behind us! The fire alarm sounded and the entire hotel had to evacuate in the middle of the night! It was actually somewhat amusing to see how different people responded to it, as well as to see everybody in their jammies!  The story is this: Apparently some fellow got really drunk and decided to pull the fire alarm levers on several floors of the building. So there never was a fire. Just an idiot.  But we get a really great story out of it!

Later in the day on Saturday (around 10:00 AM), we went to see the DC Temple! It was beautiful! I didn’t realize just how big it is!  And we didn’t get a picture of it, either, unfortunately. But we did get a picture in the Visitor Center!And I got to see a friend from back home who is serving her mission there! Yay Sister Griffiths!That’s right! I’m friends with beautiful people!

Small aside: We went to a Walmart nearish to the temple and it was seriously the classiest Walmart ever! There was a parking garage with parking ushers! There were elevators and escalators, and even the people there seemed uncommonly classy. I felt cool just buying bagels there!

Our drive home took 6 hours because there was crazy traffic from DC all the way to Richmond! This is a picture of Josh being very patient with it all while I was not very patient.

We had so much fun in DC! We totally want to go back!

 

 

I guess we’ve been busy lately, because it has been a LONG time since I have posted. My apologies.

Fay and Carter are the cutest kids ever! Fay is becoming more and more of a big sister all the time. She gets excited for Carter when he stands up (with assistance, obviously), she says things like “Carter happy boy!” and when he’s crying “Carter milk!”  It is really a joy to watch!

Carter also loves Fay! I notice him watching what she does, and he loves any attention he gets from her!

On July 11, we celebrated Second Christmas (aka: Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A). We dressed as cows and got free food! It was great! Carter’s outfit is actually a dalmatian one, but he looked enough like a cow, I think. Plus, he can’t eat chick-fil-a yet.

Last week, it rained like CRAZY in Chapel Hill! The whole family went outside to enjoy it! Josh and I took turns holding Carter under an overhang on our building and going out to play with Fay in the rain. Fay LOVES playing in the rain! We probably stayed out there for 20 minutes and we were all drenched! Alas, I had to take the picture, so you don’t get to see how wet I got.

Summer is being good to us!

 

Who says you can only dress your girls alike?

Post a comment as to what revelation you think Fay just told Carter.

Carter in the arms of Grandmother

Perfect!

Our whole little family at the Old Well

The fathers with the son

The mothers

We are a happy family!

I know I just talked about this; but I just wanted to again express my gratitude for my husband and fathers who worthily hold and exercise the Priesthood of God. That truly is a blessing!