I'm a happy wife!

Sorry for the lack of Clovis pictures! As some of you may know, I went to Clovis with Loralye last weekend to surprise my mom for her birthday (it was on Memorial Day)! Unfortunately I accidentally changed the setting on my camera and it shot most of the pictures from that trip in RAW format and it will not process them correctly and now my camera is completely freaking out and won't even connect with a computer. My dad is currently searching for the software for the computer, so hopefully that will solve my problem because I have some adorable pictures from the trip! My camera is super nice (it's a $900 camera!), but it is several years old and has some issues. So, my husband, being the wonderful man that he is and knowing how much I love taking pictures, surprised me with this little beauty yesterday...

It's a Sony A300! I LOVE it!! I got home from work and the box was sitting on the table with a note on it that said "I love you" except it was a picture of an eye, a heart, and a U. Silly sweet man!

We went to Krista's baseball game last night so of course I had to test out my new toy. Here are some of the pictures from last night:

Miss Kris!

Loli and Auntie Ambie watching the game.

Getting loves from Grandma Wendy.

This was just kind of funny. I was taking pictures of the glove on the fence to see how close I could zoom in to something and I accidentally got an action shot of our baseball star =)

These next 3 pictures are from the last week off my old camera. It took amazing pictures, but every 20 pictures or so I'd get one with a bunch of lines through it or the color would be off or something. So annoying!

These last pictures are from last night after the game with my new camera. Great quality like my last camera, but this one doesn't screw up any of my shots!!

4 Months Old.

Loralye turned 4 months old on Saturday which meant going to the doctor's for a well check up! She now weighs 14lbs 8oz (75-90%), is 25 1/2 inches long (90-95%), and her head is 41 1/2 cm (50-75%). I'm not sure why the percentiles are so varied... She also got another round of vaccinations which she was not happy about, but we gave her Baby Tylenol right after and that immediately calmed her down (She likes the cherry taste!). I gave her Tylenol once more before bed about 6 hours later and she was her normal happy self all weekend! It was a lovely change from the last time she was vaccinated! We also decided that we won't be starting her on any solid foods until she is 6 months old. Our pediatrician said that babies that are exclusively breastfed would benefit from not starting solid foods until they're 6 months old. And I'm not going to argue about not having to buy baby food for another couple of months! As long as she seems satisfied after every feeding we will be putting off rice cereal until July.

Baby girl is doing so many new things every day! She is so good at reaching for the exact thing she wants and bringing it to her mouth! She has found her feet a couple of times in the last week, but does not seem overly interested yet. She likes to talk to people all day long now. Well, people and walls and her toys and the ceiling. She just likes to talk! She is still smiling a lot, but is not a big laugher yet. We're working on it! And we're also working on getting her to roll over. With us being at work until 4:30 every day, she doesn't get a lot of tummy time, but she is getting very strong nonetheless. Anywho, here are a couple pictures from the last week!

This was Loralye's third time at the piano, but this was the first time that she started pressing down keys herself! So fun! After 16 years of playing, I'm finally going to teach! Although I think she'd rather eat the keys then press them down :)

It takes two of her tiny fingers to press down a key!

One Day Late.

I just wanted to wish my mama a very happy [belated] Mother's Day! I feel so much more appreciation for my mom this holiday now that I am a mother myself. She has done so much for me each day since the moment I was born and I am so lucky to have her as my mom! I would not be half the wife or mother that I am today without her wonderful example, wise words of advice, and constant support throughout my life. I am so blessed to have such an amazing woman, mother, and daughter of God to turn to whenever I need anything! She brings sunshine into my life everyday even from 6 hours away and I couldn't ask for a better mom! I love her for everything that she has done for me, my father, and my brothers! I am so lucky that she was able to help me learn to become a mommy during Loralye's first two weeks of life and I love that my daughter will have such a loving grandmother in her life as she grows up! I love you mama!!

I would like to also wish a happy [belated] Mother's Day to the other mom in my life... My mother-in-law, Wendy. I love that I have a mom so close to me that is willing to do anything for me and my family. She is such a sweet, caring, and loving mother and grandmother! I am so grateful to her for all that she is and does and for raising her son to be such an extraordinary husband and father. I owe so much of my happiness in this life to her!

I'd also like to thank my husband for giving me such a wonderful first Mother's Day! I enjoyed every minute of the day!! I love you my husband!! And here's Loralye looking at my Mother's Day roses from daddy... I think her look is, "Those flowers look kinda tasty!" lol.

Love ya'll!! Hope your Mother's Day was as perfect as mine!!

Life.

I wrote this on my facebook, but feel like I should share it on here too...

I have been thinking about this lately and I feel like sharing it with the world. I teach Sunday School at my church to 12 and 13 year olds. Almost every week no matter what the subject of the lesson is, I try to encourage them to look at the big picture when they are making decisions each day. I tell them that in the end when we go to heaven, the only thing that will matter is whether or not we chose to be on the Lord's side. We will all make mistakes. We will all have trials and sufferings and devastation in our lives. We will be tested every day to see if we will stand up for truth and righteousness or fall and let our lives be overcome by sorrow and sin. Life rarely turns out exactly as we plan it. The road bends and curves and we need to learn to let the Lord steer us the way we should go or Satan is going to be able to easily push us off the road and into an unknown and treacherous territory. Some people will have to deal with significant losses in their lives. Others will be pushed down by addiction over and over before they can stand up again. Some people will never know the joy of being married and making a family. But no matter what our test is, we can succeed! We just need to try our hardest and remember to repent each time we falter. That is what the atonement is for. We just need to use it! I also know that the power of prayer is so strong. It is direct communication with our Father in Heaven and if we keep that line with him open, he will help us whenever we need him. He loves each and every one of his children more than we can begin to understand. I can't even imagine the sorrow he must feel when he sees his children turning away from him. His greatest wish is that all of his children are eternally happy and that we make the choices we need to so that we can return to live with him again. He will always be there for whatever we need. He won't just give us whatever we ask for, but we need to remember that he knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows what we truly need and what we can handle. Life might not always deal us the hand we want, but with the help of the Lord we can make the most of it and come out on top.

Big Girl.

Little girl is getting so big now! She'll be 16 weeks old on Friday and I just set her doctor's appointment for her four month check up! Yikes! Laughing update... After her first chuckle, she didn't laugh again until this past Monday and then it was only some giggles. It's been fun trying to coax them out of her though. Update on our family... We're in the process of buying a house! We are taking first time home buying classes over the next week and come May 16th we're going to be actively house hunting! We're looking to stay on the west side of town so we're not too far from work, but we will be leaving the area we're in now. We're hoping to be moving into a house sometime in July! Yay!! Anyways, here are some pictures of Loralye from the last week or two.

Her first time playing in the jumper. She's technically too young for it, but she's already too tall to have it on the lowest setting!

She sun she's looking at has a big smiley face on it. She loves it!

Playing with daddy... He calls this game Fishing for Baby =)

And she loves it!

Sitting on daddy's lap trying to catch her toes. She's so much more interested in them now that I've painted her toenails pink!

So proud of herself for sitting up in the Bumbo!

She was blowing spit bubbles at it =)

Playing on mommy and daddy's bed.

I love her cute little pink shorts!

She can hold her head up so well now!!