What I Learned From Peter

My mom flew in this weekend to see my sister perform in the Mesa Easter Pageant. 

I'm so glad we went. And not just because it's good to support your family (Lauren was great!). I was reminded of a lot of important things. Most importantly, I was reminded of the reality that the Savior lives. That he lived and died and lived again for us.

While I was watching, I thought about how Peter and the other disciples didn't comprehend that Christ was going to be resurrected, despite all that they had been taught. It seems silly almost. You've been taught so much, but you don't even realize the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice. But then I thought, neither do I. I have been taught so much. I have been blessed to have the scriptures, modern day prophets, and many teachers who have preached to me of Christ, and I still don't get it all. I don't think I understand yet how powerful the atonement is. I'm working on it. 

In the mean time, I am grateful for what I do know, and that I can keep learning, now and for eternity.

Birthday/Anniversary Celebrations

On March 6, Lauren had her birthday. I've waxed cheesy about her before, so I will leave it at, "We love you, Lauren!" and move right along. We had my Aunt Meredith and Uncle Norm over for dinner and celebrations, which was so fun. I should have taken a picture, oh well. I also tried to make her favorite Lemon Poppy Seed Cake and it failed, so she bought herself a pie. It's the thought that counts, right?

On March 10, Brad and I celebrated our fourth anniversary. Brad had to work late and I served leftovers for dinner. We are, obviously, devastatingly good at romance.

Clearly this week needed more celebration, so the four of us went to the Phoenix Zoo. 

We loved it.

I've always loved the zoo, but this might be the best one I've seen.

This was Amelia's facial expression 99.9% of the time, totally fascinated.

There is a very similar picture of Brad on his dad's lap on a tractor at the Phoenix Zoo when he was about this age, so we had to recreate it.

She had very mixed feelings about petting the goats. At first, when Brad tried to get her to touch the goat, she cried. But then, after a while, she learned to try it.

Are you sure it's not going to eat me?

She had a hard time understanding why we wouldn't let her walk through the zoo. Maybe because you walk .25 mph hour sweetheart.

It's pretty tricky to see from a stroller.

Most of the time if the animal wasn't moving very much, it was invisible to her. (Part of why we call her the T-Rex.) But, she still loved the Lions.

Goals

I didn't make a large, numbered, organized list of News Years Resolutions this year. Shocking, I know. From about age 9 and on I had a habit of making a list of goals in a variety of areas: Physical Health, Spiritual Health, Time Management, Financial, etc. etc. Every year it turns into a long list of everything I wish I could change about myself, which makes me think about all of my faults, and I achieve a few goals, but not very many. Then I'm all sad the next year when I make my list because I write the exact same goals (5k I'm looking at you, buddy.)

Last summer I read  Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. In the book she chooses one goal a month to work on, so she doesn't get overwhelmed by the onslaught of goals at the beginning of the year, and then adds another goal the next month. That is my new plan, and I think it's going better.

My January goal was to read my scriptures every day and write down something I have learned. Although I know how much better I feel and act when I regularly study the scriptures, it has been a habit that has come in and out too many times to count. Writing down something every time I study has totally changed the habit for a couple reasons. First, it's an easy way to keep track of how often I am actually achieving my habit, which keeps me accountable. Second, because I also wrote down the time of day I was studying, I realized that I almost never read my scriptures at night. I always have good intentions about reading before bed, I think I'll have more time and be more awake. But now I realize that I will just not do it. I will convince myself to do something "more fun" at that time of the day. It is morning or rarely at all.

My February goal was to get moving more often. Vague? Yes. But necessary. I am out of shape. I don't think I've actually been in shape for very long. I was running and doing yoga fairly often around this time last year but then my work hours went up and I didn't exercise at all. This month I decided to wake up with Brad, since he has to wake up pretty early to go to work, and immediately put on exercise clothes. It has been too dark for me to feel comfortable running outside, but I've done dance and stupid aerobic youtube videos. They may be cheesy, but they get me moving, which will hopefully help me be in shape? Hopefully. But, I have been pretty successful at maintaining the habit. (2016 is finally going to be the year of the 5k!)

My March goal is not to snack throughout the day. It is March 3 and I have failed every single day. :) Oops. I probably need to write things down, like for my January goal. Bah, humbug.

It All Begins With a Squeaky Wheel

Saturday morning I took a good hard look at Amelia's gums in an attempt to figure out why the whole week had been...less than ideal. There were three little molars barely poking through her gums. Three! Molars! In one week! This explains so much.

I realize that only a mother thinks that things like molars merit an entire blog post, but to me those little buggers affect everything at home. Amelia is the sun and I am her little planet orbiting around her. Let's extend the analogy and call molars asteroids. The sun is resilient and strong, she will withstand the molars. She will bounce back, sunny and happy. The planet is going to lose all intelligent life due to lack of sleep.

On Friday I took Amelia to run errands right after nap time, figuring a well-rested baby would handle the excursion better, but I made a fatal mistake. I went before lunch.

I should have known the whole thing would go wrong when we got a cart with a crazy wheel. Through the whole store the cart kept drifting right, right, right. I'm obviously a weakling because by the end of the trip my right bicep was aching with the effort to keep my cart from running down sweet old ladies and St. Patrick's Day displays. Amelia was entertained for a few minutes because I let her pick out a new toothbrush (I gave her two choices because I'm a superfun mom), and I let her hold it. Once she was done with her toothbrush, she wanted to get down and walk. We were almost done, and I couldn't keep track of her and steer the cart from heck. She started whining. I tried my best to talk in soothing tones. She started grabbing at her seat belt which came apart and then refused to clip back together. (Why is it that all Walmart cart seat belts are always broken?) The crying increased, she tried to stand up in the cart, I tried to use my forearm as a seat belt. Old men kept passing me and saying, "Oh, looks like the little sweetheart needs a nap." (Yes, there are a lot of elderly people at the grocery store because it is February and I live in Arizona.) I gave a weak smile and continued shopping. When it became clear that she was attempting to somersault out of the cart, I finally put her on the floor. She bee-lined it for a shelf full of little tiny jello packets and knocked an entire shelf to the floor. Cleaning up the jello, I ignored all the stares, picked her up (her screams intensified as she threw herself back and slapped my face repeatedly), and went to the checkout line.

The woman ahead of me in line let me go first. She told me she has six kids and she knows how I feel. While she unloaded my groceries she gave me tips on teething pain. Thank goodness for understanding moms everywhere.

Amelia kept crying through it all. Her face was all red and splotchy, just like mine gets when I sob too long. (Between my stinky feet, my splotchy face, and my cankles,
Amelia obviously won the genetic lottery.)

She saw a bird hopping across the parking lot on the way to the car, which made her start laughing. She gurgled the entire car ride, and, well, my face was a little splotchy by the time we got home.

Amelia's favorite thing to do when she's sad is to take selfies.