scarlett: 4 months old

This girl makes the cutest faces to me all day long and I just fall more and more in love with her. She found her voice this last week and just screeeeeeeeches at the top of her lungs. I think it's adorable, sorry to everyone else... Scarlett always wants to sit up, is hardly ever satisfied laying down unless someone is giving her their full attention. I finally got her on a perfect 3 hour schedule with 5 hour stretches at night and two long naps during the day, but then my body tried to pass a stone and we just focused on staying alive so we're back to square one for now. Scarlett is efficient and impressively nurses for about 5 minutes tops at the time these days, and yells when she's done. I've noticed when she's happy, she's so happy, so smiley, so chill. When she's not happy, you know it too! No teeth yet, but such a drooling machine. Soooo close to rolling over back to front, like she arches her head so far back to see her big sis I can't believe she still hasn't done it yet, I bet she'll do it when she wants to. Scoots on her back in a 360° circle, going round and round. Grabbing at everything and brings them all to her mouth. Jabbers and blows with her lips and squeals and smiles at everyone. Not so much a mommy's girl like Amelia was, but I guess I'll live. Fits into 6 month clothing and size 1 diapers are feeling a bit tight these days! 13 pounds, 2 ounces (39%) and 25.2 inches (84%). We just love you, Scarlett babe!

Have I mentioned these two girls love each other? Amelia always wants Scarlett to be awake; she entertains her, kisses her, protects her, worries about her, loves to make her smile. Scarlett is always staring at Amelia, admires her, giggles at her, follows her, she is always more calm when Amelia is in the room. They truly love each other, and it melts my mama heart so much! I'm so grateful for this love because I was so worried about taking away Amelia's "only child status" and how heartbreaking that is. I feel like she truly understands now how much we love them both, individually and collectively.

little things

Things related to Amelia that cracked me up today:

1. "I'm going poop, star-yet, DON'T CRY OKAY!?"

2. Amelia choosing her pajama pants to match her polka-dotted shirt for the day.

3. I suggested jeans instead, and later found the pajama pants underneath her jeans.

4. Sitting on the toilet with the toilet with the seat up.

5. We gave Amelia a chip for finishing her dinner, and she breaks it in half to share with Scarlett.

6. "Mom, I put a bark up my nose!"

7. After a bloody nose, she ended up sneezing the piece of bark on Jeremy's foot. Bah!

It's been a long day. 4 month shots, finding a benign (thank goodness) tumor on Scarlett's back, lots of tantrums and hard choices for Amelia, the warm weather was also getting to me a bit. Lots of love and lots of patience for the girls today. The girls are in bed, and I'm feeling good in the mom department today!

xoxo

4/26//

("it's a roly poly!!!!!" exclaimed amelia)

wow we skipped two weeks because of that dang stone, but we made it back today (5 minutes late with my hair wet, no less)! we had four speakers for sacrament today, and i tried to remember a piece from each speaker. the topic was conversion to Christ, and although the speakers were asked last minute to speak, the talks were definitely inspired. sister carrington (who is my visiting teacher and amelia's nursery leader too) spoke of finding Christ through serving others. brother maddox explained that we are all converts, each one of us needs to personally obtain our testimony and anchor it to Christ. brother dudley spoke of his niece, who lost a stillborn child and then a toddler to the flu, who has lost so much, but continues to faithfully carry on. by the time brother bachman spoke, amelia had thrown our tithing envelope (complete with the check) in the trash and i was struggling to focus. all i could remember was him telling us his son caleb asking him if everything was black and white when he was younger. ha ha ha.

i believe in Christ. the church is true!

easter sunday

amelia's typical lunch and dinner, why am i not surprised?

the bigger bunny's name is amelia, and my amelia thinks thinks the little bunny's name is scarlett. :) (but it's actually susanna :( )

love the way scarlett is staring at amelia.

I say this every holiday, but they are so much more special with kids! We tried not to go nuts this Easter, but we sorta went a little nuts. Luckily, I still remembered a book about Christ and an "empty tomb" for each girl. the girls loved their new kitchen utensils and played all morning! (yes, even scarlett loved just holding her allotted one spoon and cup). While Jer hid the hard-boiled eggs we dyed, I talked to the girls about Jesus and His sacrifice and His love for us. Amelia said, "okay, mom" when I finished. I laughed. I fully believe in continuous teaching in all aspects because little humans just absorb everything. I sometimes just wonder if she thinks I'm absolutely nuts (probably).

We watched conference and then took the girls to the park for lunch. Amelia sobbed when we went home to take a nap (ah, love this toddler stage. so much). Jeremy and I watched/napped through the afternoon session before getting the girls dressed for Sunday dinner at the Bodtchers. (Jeremy's mom gets Easter dresses for the girls, and I was a little bummed we didn't have church this Sunday. Still, we dressed up just for the egg hunt)

love my scarlett girl

(thanks emily, for these beautiful pictures!)

whenever i ask amelia, "what do you say for the camera?" she yells, "CHEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!!" but doesn't necessarily smile...


I'm grateful for the Easter promise. I love spring and focusing my Savior's sacrifice. It was perfect that conference weekend coincided with Easter this year, as it allowed to think about how I can improve and renew myself. I'm so blessed (not lucky) in so many ways. In my day-to-day life, I'm exhausted and impatient and broken. I pray often to just get through the day, hour, minutes. But still, I grew these little humans and nourished them and teach them and they make me so very happy (and crazy too!). I'm so blessed and so loved!

Hope your Easter was just wonderful.
xo

4/5//

Happy Easter Sunday! We spent most of this day in our pajamas because it was general conference.

I took notes for the morning session (not the afternoon session... I'm embarrassed to admit that I got cozy and took a nap. :/). I noticed a trend between the talks... members who had lost their testimonies, anchoring your faith into simple truths, and the sacrifice of our savior. I was a little teary, since I have been struggling with many of my close friends leaving the church. My scripture knowledge is pretty shallow, and with my studying has waned with this busy life of young motherhood, My testimony is simple, and I am happy with my little forever family. Still, my heart is heavy and I'm grateful these talks are so individualized for each of us. I wish I could tell you I had a favorite talk. I really loved Elder Geraold Causse's plead to never tire of discovering the truth, anchor faith into simple truths, and seek companionship of the Holy Ghost. Of course, I always love hearing Elder Holland speak-- "he grabbed me, he held me, he refused to let me fall" a quote about two brothers, one's near death experience, and the other's silent actions to save him. I wish I could had written down the parallel quote of our brother and savior (mommy duties). All the more reason to find the talk and re-read it later, I guess. Finally, Elder Uchtdorf's talk about Heavenly Father's perfect love for us. I'm so grateful for this Easter Sunday and the promise to live with Him again. I am blessed because of Christ's atonement!

good friday & easter eve

my parents planned a cute hunt for amelia. probably 30 eggs hidden around the house stuffed with giant grapes and rolos. they also watched the girls while i took a nap. those uninterrupted naps do not happen often (like ever) and i will be forever grateful.

loving her orange dye. i love that this stage comes with "favorites".

(two cracked eggs at the bottom right)

amelia picked colors for each of us. of course, she picked orange for herself. :)

oh jer.

you can't see it very well, but this was a beautiful polka-dotted egg. i look awesome, because i haven't touched my hair in two days.

ha ha, so nervous she was going to drop all of her eggs.

saying cheese, but still nervous about dropping those eggs.

we went to the daybreak easter eggstravaganza, and it was very much a blood bath. a million eggs and just as many little kiddos. amelia was nervous and wanted to hold my hand through half the hunt. luckily, she still got many eggs. and i'm super pleased that they included some cute prizes and weren't all stuffed with candy...

in the afternoon, jeremy and i went to see furious 7. i ended up getting a 12 hour cancel from work that evening so it ended up being a perfect series of events leaving up to Easter Sunday.