My Cracker Loving Boy

I have a 1 year old cracker loving boy. He loves to move and explore. He loves anything he isn't supposed to get into and loves his mommy and daddy more than anything. Separation anxiety is hitting hard to our cracker loving boy. He is persistent with his emotions and feelings which makes me dream of him as an older man with thick curly long locks, using that same persistence and drive in his life to do good. My cracker loving boy loves to explore. He loves to go into every space he can and pull and rip anything he can. He is an energetic boy. He has a heart of gold. I didn't think that one year old's could have such sweet genuine emotion to them and show it towards other people, but he does. He loves his stuffed animals and puts them right in his face and gives them "kisses". Now and again though I do find some animals along with mommies kitchen utensils down the empty air vent in the kitchen so we may have to work on that a little more :) We can count on him standing in the same area of his crib, beaming ear to ear when we first make eye contact after a good nights rest. He loves dogs, but is scared by them too. My cracker loving boy is not a snuggler unless there is a nightly bottle insight. The food that he loves most is crackers. He knows where I put them in the cupboard and he will go right to that one and reach on his tippy tippy toes to get them. I have not seen him sit down and work on something longer than he does trying to get crackers out of the sleeve. He loves to stick different objects in holes (hence the animals in the vent). He clenches his fists and screams of excitement when he sees any food he wants especially a pouch.
We love our cracker loving boy and am so grateful for the stress and the growth that he has brought us, but also the exuberant amount of love and happiness that he brings to us everyday. Michael and I sometimes just sit and watch this cracker loving boy and just laugh at the things, noises, faces that he pulls. (Yes such an only child thing to do)
We have loved this 13 months of being with this boy and look forward to the many many many more years of him teaching us life long lessons.

Tired

The 9 months of not getting very good sleep has really been hitting me the last 2 weeks. Richard has always generally been a good sleeper. He wses up about once a night, but that once a night is killing me. I usually get up early, go to work feel good and motivated and then once i come home and 1-4 pm  hits i am exhausted. Anyone else feel this? I have tried to take naps, but napping usually makes me more tired and grouchy. The horrid time hits and I have no energy to do anything. I want to sleep, but I know it will be worse when I wake up. Our meals have been slacking, I try and do chores and I get them halfway done and can't finish. I think the answer to all of this is just going to bed earlier. Anyone else have good advice?!

What Happened?

What happened to love and kindness? What happened to the thought of we are all unique, we bring different strengths and weaknesses to the board and we all accept each other?
I have been quite distraught at the things that I have seen the last couple of weeks on social media, as I am sure everyone else has too.
Not by what the President has put out or by the things that celebrities who think that they are higher or have power of us, but of the things that people on my level, my friends, have said and how they have acted. Because of this, I have deleted my Facebook, because it wasn't doing anything positive or my life. It wasn't making me feel better, and wasn't making me think better. If anything it was making me sick, and angry to read things that people say to each other whether it is hurtful or not because they thought that their thinking was the only correct way.
The main thing I can't get off of my mind the last week and I have expressed to Michael many times is, these people would not say these things to the recipients face. (well maybe some would, but they need a filter :)) These people are hiding behind a keyboard putting people down for their beliefs, their looks, their religion and they think they can because know one see's them physically. They are hiding, or so they think.
I have been contemplating and thinking about this the last week and while I was going to pick Michael up yesterday at work, I saw the sunset and the freeway backed up filled with people who all had one goal in mind, to get somewhere. It made me think of everyone here, we are all here put on this place called Earth to figure out how to survive. We are ALL desperately wanting and craving love, friendship, closeness, respect, and acceptance. I don't know one person who doesn't want any of those things. We all have the same feelings of, struggles, fears, hardships etc. they may not be the same from person to person, but we all experience the emotions of it. Donald Trump doesn't have the fear of financial problems as Michael and I do, but Donald Trump has the hardship of being over a country and having millions of people hating him. I don't care about what he has done, but can you imagine if you had that many people hating you and comparing you to a man that killed 6 million Jews? (which I think is extremely disrespectful and rude, but I can see people could think that) I am sure that is a hardship for him. (people say he has an ego that wouldn't be affected, but seriously he isn't emotion less)
I become really frustrated with Michael sometimes because I ask his opinion on certain political topics, and his answer is, he doesn't have one. He doesn't know enough of each side of the story to form a answer that he is comfortable to stand with.  Does anyone have the FULL understanding of things, of both sides of the coin or is your opinion skewed?  He talks about how people are so emotionally attached to their opinion that anything that is contrary to that is wrong and shouldn't be understood. He never will claim himself as a republican or a democrat, because there are good to both things, he doesn't believe full republican and he doesn't believe full democratic, because each have good qualities that can build off of each other. I hope and strive to be like Michael.
I have been thinking of how to write this post for the last two weeks and I hope that I have been able to portray, that we are all humans. We all cry, suffer, and crave understanding. No one thought is correct whether you think it is or it isn't. I have tried the last two weeks to understand, to not judge, to see people for who they are and to see them as the Savior see's them which is perfect love. I am so excited for February to focus on love because the World needs it. Love is what lasts and builds people up.

Where I'm From

I had to do this poem for my education english class and I had a lot of fun coming up with it. Enjoy!


I am from the big red rocks in Southern Utah.
From ballet shoes, and gigga pets
I am from the split level brick home at the bottom of a large hill.
It was always filled with laughter.
I am from mulberry trees and volcanic rocks.
Where only plants that required little water could grow.
I’m from the game and music filled home.
From Tracie and glen and my 4 older siblings.
I’m from the tradition enthusiasts and where family is everything.
From being told to be kind and where hard work is the key to success.
I’m from a very religious home who goes to church every week and lives our religion everyday.
From Danish decent who traveled to America for religion.
From Danish pancakes and root beer freezes.
From a man long ago who fought for religion and was in Carthage Jail with the first prophet of our church.
The walls held precious photos that held memories from the past.
I am from a family that taught that marriage and a family is the goal. These teachings lead me to the life that I live now.

2017, The Year of The New

2016 was a dream year for Michael and I. It was the year of many firsts, the year of ups and downs but overall a great one. We gained the biggest blessing life has to offer, our sweet Richard. He has brought us so much happiness and love that I could never dream of having. The love that I have for my sweet Richard is just a glimpse of how much the Savior loves us. 2016 was a year full of learning. Learning how to care for this fragile, tender new baby while juggling school and work. Learning how to better cook on a stove that only two burners worked on and an oven that only the top burner worked. Learning how to find myself and especially learning and choosing to be happy.
After I had Richard, I had experienced a lot of sadness and fear. Everyone talks about the actual birth of a baby and how grueling it can be, but I didn't hear a lot about the recovery and months following birth. I cannot complain because I had about the easiest physical recovery ever, but the emotional side of recovery was not the easiest. Satan uses his power to make us feel low, to make us feel like we aren't good enough, to make us just plain scared and sad. The days after I had Richard were some of the lowest days that I never want to go back to and that is because I allowed Satan to enter my thoughts about the situation. I think it is perfectly normal for women to have hormonal emotions and all of that, but for me personally it was because I let my thoughts wander.
I had a healthy baby there, and yet, Satan used my experience of giving birth and tried to make it a negative and scary thing. I do believe that because I wasn't prepared emotionally and physically for the type of birth experience that I had, that I do have a little "trauma" related with it. Of course I would do it all over again to get the amazing blessing that Richard is, but that doesn't mean that hard things didn't come with it. For the last couple of months, I had to figure out how to be happy again, to figure out what I wanted out life and what my goals were for my future, my family etc. This didn't just come over night, this was months of thinking, pondering, reading the scriptures and praying about. So as I was thinking about the goals that I want to set for 2017, the main topics that I am working on is bettering myself. Plain and simple. No intense long goals, just finding things that make me happy. Finding things that challenge me, things that help me grow or discover new talents. I am focusing on bringing things into my home that only allow me to be the greatest person I can be. So with this, I can be a better mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend. Heavenly Father wants you to be happy. He doesn't want you to completely forget about yourself and submerge yourself in pleasing and working for others. He wants you to figure out yourself, so that way you can then be the best servant for him. So with your new goal setting, I challenge everyone to at least set one goal aside to just yourself, not your family, your work, your house, just you. This may seem a little self centered, but with all that I have thought and gone through, it is okay to be a little self centered and to care for yourself. So cheers to a new year, a new chance to find things so that we can be truly happy.