May the force be with you this Halloween.

When I saw this yoda costume on sale at Walgreens I knew our fate was set for a very nerdy Halloween. Plus it gave us an excuse to watch some Star Wars movies.

We pimped out our son to win a prize at the Church Halloween party. We got froyo money! Mama was very happy.

"Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!"
―Yoda

Monday's to-do list.

I woke up today and had the urge to make a collective to-do list of all the thoughts floating in my head.

It was a big list. Thankfully the sun was shining and it gave me the energy to barrel into the list full force!

Laundry, meal plan, grocery shopping and all with the beautiful blue sky saying "I AM FALL!!" (said like that sparticus dude)

And I would like to send a jealous shoutout to my uncle patrick who is leaving for a holy land tour tonight. I hope he stays safe and buys some cute Israeli baby clothes for max (hint hint)

5 years and still learning...

At the end of this month I will have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 5 years.

It seems like such a short amount of time for all the growth that I have felt in my life. But still I feel like I have so much further to go.

I was thinking this week about the scriptures and about how I am continually struggling to grasp their many stories. I grew up with a general knowledge of Adam and Eve and Noah and some of the Savior's parables but that was as far as my knowledge went. I certainly didn't comprehend the stories for the lessons within.

Over the past five years I have gained access to more and more scripture stories and have gained the ability to actually study them versus just reading them. But I want to KNOW them. I want Max to ask me about Ruth or Captain Moroni and I want to be able to tell him all about God's servants and the examples they set.

So long story short I have decided to start now. Every day I have been choosing a story from the scriptures to tell to Max. He sits on my lap with those gorgeous navy eyes looking up at me and I tell him as much as I can about Noah and Nephi and Queen Esther.

There is always so much learning to take place and I am grateful that my Heavenly Father has placed in me a desire to learn and expand my knowledge. Not just for the sake of knowing but for the sake of understanding.

Striped Baby Boy

They say dressing a baby boy isn't much fun. Well they are probably right but I can't help but throw every striped thing I can find on him. What is it about stripes on baby boys?

Ignore the cleavage going on...he is getting really good at pulling on his own shirt. Mix that with drool and it gets pretty stretched out during the day.

Our weeks have been revolving around Papa's schedule which is fine with us. We are excited for this coming weekend, or at least I am because we are going to a Pumpkin Patch!

How does this happen?

Where did my itty bitty baby go?

He used to sleep for all but 4 hours during the day. Now its all smiles and gnawing on his knuckles.

He used to fall asleep on my chest and now he dozes on Daddy's.

Yesterday at church we saw a four week old baby and my goodness she was tiny. To be fair she was as big as Max when he was born so she was definitely extra small but seriously it started to hit me how stinkin' big they get so fast.

I love my little man. I love his smiles and the fact that he can now accidentally roll from his stomach to his back. I love that he laughs at fart jokes and goes all bug-eyed when we make wierd noises to entertain ourselves...I mean entertain him.

Feeling like a grown up

I wore this to church a couple of weeks ago and felt like a grown-up. Especially when I was holding Max.

I literally stared at myself in the mirror for the longest time. I physically felt a transition in my life.

It was wierd.

Growing up is kind of a funny thing. Sometimes you notice the changes, sometimes you don't, and sometimes you have to push them out after carrying them for 9 months.

Last Weekend

Not this past weekend but the one before that we watched General Conference. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a worldwide broadcast from Salt Lake City where the inspired leaders of our church talk about issues facing us today. They aren't given topics or anything, it is purely based on prayer but it is always one of my favorite weekends of the fall. In fact this past conference marked the 5th year I have heard a prophets voice. The fifth year that I was able to hear inspired messages that have helped me guide and direct my life so that I may have peace and joy.

There are a number of ways to watch conference (on BYUtv channel, online, live, or at a local stake center). We don't have internet (collective gasp!but how are you posting? my phone can be a hotspot when needed, but isn't fast enough to stream video) and we don't live in Utah and we don't have a television either (I know we are like neanderthals or something). Saturday morning some friends from school invited us to come over and watch it on their laptop with them (so nice of them to do so btw) but they weren't going to able to watch the Saturday afternoon session so we headed over to the stake center. We also watched Sunday's sessions there as well.

The main difference between watching it at home and at the stake center.

Dressing up.

Doesn't Max look so dapper in his white oxford onesie?

It's kinda nice to dress up for conference. I think it adds something to the experience. Although don't get me wrong I love listening to it in my PJs too.

All of the messages were beautiful and inspiring and reminded me how thankful I am to have the gospel in my life today.

Sunday looked like this.

I LOVE when Kyle plays for Max. It happens a lot since Max is totally and completely captivated every time. Sometimes he kicks along and sometimes he is completely still just watching Dad's hands finger and strum the guitar. I was very excited to capture this special moment. Even though it happens quite often now.

mornings

I like mornings. I love when the sun streams into your bedroom window and wakes you up.

Growing up, my room always welcomed the bright sun in the mornings. It would glow with the opportunity of a new day and sometimes I would just lay in bed for a few more minutes soaking up the warmth of my covers.

These mornings look a little bit different but I am abosolutely loving them. Max is a great night sleeper. He goes down around 8pm wakes up for a quick 4am feeding (in which I am usually half alseep or have some nice quiet reflection time) and then he wakes up at 6am when Papa gets up.

At 6am I pull him into bed with me since the threat of Kyle's rolling in his sleep is no longer a danger. I feed him there and then he falls back asleep for another hour. I sleep too.

Then he wakes up all cheerful and happy and he will lay there an coo while I read some morning blogs on my phone. Oh how I love mornings with him. We talk and play and I let him have some tummy time. I compliment him and call him nicknames like "Guapo," "Bubba," and "Little Man."

It's funny because a baby totally changes things. But all the changes are infinitely better.