Elephante

I got a little envelope in the mail yesterday with no return address. Curious, I opened it and all it contained was a little piece of paper. You know the kind, it was my new visiting teaching assignment. I looked to see who I would be visiting and was excited to see that it had gone from three people to one. Then I looked below my name to see who my companion would be and at first I didn't recognize the name. Then suddenly it hit me..... Elephante. She is my next door neighbor and we call her elephante' because she is a very heavy walker. You can hear her clomping into church and walking around in her house. I swear the woman is building a car in her kitchen, I don't know what else would be that loud. Crap. Seriously? I don't like her. She just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe she's nice. But I don't want to like her. I am happy having nothing to do with her.

I have a feeling the Lord has another life lesson in store for me. Bleh! :)

Remember when?

Remember when I first started this blog and I was determined to win a Wii from my 99.5? My goal was to win something someday. I haven't stopped in my pursuit and I finally won something! I won a book and software called 30 meals in 1 day. It tells you how to make 30 meals (or less if you want) in one day and freeze them all so that you always have something you can pull out of the freezer when you are short on time. The recipes are easy and made of simple ingredients that everyone would like. It was probably the least exciting thing I have ever entered to win, but it will probably end up being a really great thing for our family and hopefully soon I will be posting about how it all turned out!

Let go

If you ask my dad (or probably anybody) he will say that I am extremely stubborn. When my mom can tell I am going through a hard time she usually asks me if I want my dad to give me a father's blessing. Most of the time I turn her down and she looks at me like I'm crazy. What is there to lose? Why on earth would I not want a blessing?! I'm stubborn, that's why. And I don't want to cry. I know I will.
So I won't go into my sob story of why I have been in one of the darkest moods I have probably ever been in, but I want to write down this experience as a way to bear my testimony and as a way to remember. I have been trying to fight back every day but a lot of days I think Satan won those battles. Finally on Thursday I decided to swallow my pride. I needed some help here because I was obviously getting worse and worse on my own. I asked Bryce to give me a blessing that night.
When he gave me that blessing I cried. I knew that would happen, but I could immediately feel a feeling of comfort and as I listened to the words of the blessing I knew that they were coming straight from Heavenly Father. There were things Bryce said that were more than what I expected to hear. I asked Bryce afterwards if he felt like he was being told what to say. He said that he was, that the words were just coming into his head.
I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood and the huge difference the blessing that I received has been on my heart.
The lessons in primary the last two weeks have been about the power of the priesthood. I think my little 7 year olds already know the lessons I am teaching them, but now that I am 25 I think I am finally getting it.

9 months

Jayda's 9 month appointment was on April 30th. Her stats are:
Weight: 19 pounds-55%
Length: 29.25 inches-79.5%
Head: 17.25 inches-40%

She can pull herself up to a stand.
She has graduated from an infant bather to just being in the tub.

She loves anything to do with swinging.

She doesn't love the grass, but doesn't hate it.

She helped me celebrate my first official mother's day.

Her two bottom teeth have also cut through her gums.

Firsts

It feels like everything Bryce and I do together is more exciting now that we have Jayda. Not only are they "firsts" for her, but for us also. This past month has been FULL of "firsts".


Jayda went to her first funeral for her great Grandpa Schow.....

Where she let her first balloon float into the sky for him.



She went on her first road trip up to Idaho to see her cousins....

Where she had her first Easter egg hunt. It was freezing cold with fierce winds and she slept through the whole thing, but we still did it. :)

Her first Easter basket. (The Easter bunny i.e. Londi added two more adorable outfits to the basket on Easter morning. Thank you Londi!)

She loves, loves, loves her cousins. I would love to have a family just like theirs someday.

She crawled for the first time and I am loving it. She is so independent and you can just see her little mind taking everything in, learning what everything is around her; vents, tables, door stops, etc. I had little hand prints on my stove for the first time and I loved it. I almost took a picture :)

She has also said her first words. The first one was "mama" and her second one was "baby". She can wave to you now and pull herself up on things.

I guess when you are brand new to this world everything is a "first" but these were some fun ones. We are looking forward to the first time we can put her in a swing, take her fishing and camping, take her to the zoo, and all the fun things that come with summer time. They all seem that much more exciting because we get to experience them for our first time together as the 3 of us.

Happy Anniversary

This is where we were 3 years ago. March 23, 2007 marked the beginning of our lives as an eternal family. The past 3 years have been amazing and I have been so blessed to be married to such a caring, sweet, fun man.

Quick update:

I started a new job two weeks ago. (I know again, right?) Getting cut back to part time was the best thing that could have happened to me. I will post later about that, right now I am exhausted trying to learn everything and keep up. I work with very intelligent people which is a bit intimidating but they are all extremely fun to work with and I am loving it so far.

Jayda is 7 1/2 months old and can get around anywhere by rolling and scooting around. She pushes up on her hands but isn't quite to the getting up on her hands and knees part. The picture below is when she finagled her way underneath our tables.
She loves spending Thursdays and Fridays at home with daddy. Looks like she will probably be a little blondie like Bryce was when he was little.

We have started her on solids. So far she is exactly like her dad. She likes grapefruit, lemons, limes, cucumbers in vinegar, and sweet potatoes. (Not your usual starter foods) If it were up to me she would have never tasted those things in her life. She also HATES carrots. It is the only thing she has absolutely hated so far.

I get to teach her the fine art of shopping. The two of us go out a lot to see what we can find.

Friday night we took her swimming for her first time with grandma and grandpa and my two little cousins. Since it is an indoor pool it was pretty loud and she was clinging on to me for dear life. My dad got her to loosen up and soon she was kicking all over the place and loving it!

Our happy little swimmer when we took her home.