Children....And Their Parents.

I'm sitting here tonight in my comfies, feeling the need to sort of vent. I'm just getting home from an awesome relief society activity and am home alone for a couple of hours. Might as well blog right?

Our activity tonight focused on kids - how to discipline them, what sort of activities to do with them, how to teach them, and how to stay organized on top of it all. I kinda felt like a bad mom at the end of the night. It's safe to say I have some pretty awesome ladies in my ward. I could learn a few things from them.

It's overwhelming to stand by Brooklyn's crib tonight, tucking her blanket a little tighter (my house is cold tonight), and think of all Roger and I are responsible to teach her. Especially in the next five years. Such crucial years for little ones. I get anxious thinking of how many ways I could fail her as her mom. I left this activity tonight with lists and lists of things I need to do better now and in the future - even five years from now. But looking at it I realize I'll fail miserably if I try to tackle it all at once.

I'm seeing quite clearly that I am a selfish person. I focus my days around me, not my family.

I think I've needed a refresher on what it really means to be a family. A wife. A mom. A daughter and friend, too. Tonight was a good self evaluation for me. There is SO MUCH I need to do better. I stress just thinking about it. Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Good thing tomorrow is a new day. I need a clean slate. I need to decide what is on my "Essential" list, what is on my "Need to Do" list and what is on my "Want to Do" list. I need to make these two people a better priority and stop being so selfish all the time....

Good thing there is only 24 hours in a day.....because that means the day ends at midnight and you get to start over. :)

I love my life, I am a very lucky girl. I'm married to the BEST man on earth, I have the most perfect daughter (yep, call me biased), I'm employed, and have so many good things in my life - the list could go on and on. I think its time I do a better job with the 'blessings' in my life.

Four Years Ago......

This picture was sent out as our engagement picture. Crazy how much fun we've had in the four years we've been married.

I love this guy so much. He is so good to me. I feel so special and loved by him. He treats me like gold every single day.

Happy Anniversary Roger, I love you!!

Getting So Big

Where to even start? I hate catch up. I really need the internet during the day. But that's not an option right now....so here is my month of updates. Get a drink and treat - its a long one.

And of course most of the the post is about the baby, need I say more?

Only in Utah weather do you play in the garden hose during the day and wear a hat and coat at night. Brooklyn will actually wear this thing (now if only I could get her to wear bows again).

In other 'big girl' milestones, we finally made the switch to a front facing carseat. Our super tall girl was kicking the seat like crazy and was just too darn big for her infant carseat anymore. As you can tell, the car is still a sleeping pill for her (like mother like daughter!).

Roger. Oh my sweet husband. He's so incredibly busy. And works so hard. We miss him during the day and evenings. It has been an interesting few weeks adjusting to the new schedule. Brooklyn and I are buddies, but we sure look forward to the couple of hours we get to see him each day.

Roger turned 30 the end of August. Here are the only two pictures I got of that day. Super wife award coming right up.

The day after his birthday Roger ran the Rivalry Relay. His brother was the mastermind behind this race and it was such a success! Congrats to those that ran in the intense sun and up those rough hills, you're all amazing.

Our latest fun includes watching some high school football and soccer games, cheering on the youngest Firth Hillcrest Husky, watching my beautiful sister Callie go to Homecoming, cheering on the Utes and enjoying the cooler weather....

And of course I had to post videos of Brooklyn walking. And her version of crawling (no she doesn't actually crawl, she scoots). Watching these I'm reminded yet again how blessed we are that our miracle baby is able to achieve these milestones!

Blogging

I need to blog. I have plenty to post about....

But Rog has the laptop all day (and some later evenings) at work = no internet access for me....

The new job is awesome. Time consumming and stressful, but he comes home smiling every night....

The new calling is fairly busy as well, but he loves it....

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE to see Roger in a suit and tie? Oh my drop dead sexy husband. 6 days a week people!! (He loves Saturdays for the fact that he can wear normal clothes)....

I love our baby. She's so sticking fun right now. A total ham that girl is.

And!!!!.............She's walking!! (Still can't just 'let her go', but she has definitely figured it out.) Just shy of 17 months and she finally figured out her balance. (It's still so hard for me to tell if she's 'all caught up' - do I say she walked at 16 months or 13 months or somewhere in between? Ah, the developmental life of a preemie.)

Maybe this week I'll do a real post with pictures....

Sharon Perry Rasmussen

My sweet Grandma passed away last night. I had the honor of being there to watch her pass through the veil into heaven.

My beautiful aunts, her daughters, surrounded her bed - encouraging her to go. To end her suffering and join Grandpa again after all these years.

My sweet cousin, Tyler and brother in law, Davis gave her a blessing. They told her she was loved, but it was time to give up her mortal journey. That she should no longer hesitate in staying on Earth. Three minutes later she passed on peacefully.

(Four generations....Sharon, Lisa, Ashlee, Brooklyn)

I sobbed in the corner as I watched my mom and her sisters cry over her. What a sacred experience, being in that room where the veil was so thin. I'm sure there were angels surrounding her bed last night. How heartbreaking to watch their grief. I wanted to hug them and make their hurt go away.

Grandma was spunky, the ringleader of this family. She was a constant party. And beautiful. She was loved so very much. And will be missed more than I think words can express.

Grandma you left quite the legacy. We love you and will miss you.

Proud

I'm proud of my husband this week. I don't get him on the blog nearly enough (can't help it when our baby is so darn easy to talk about), but I want him to know how much I LOVE and appreciate him. I don't tell him either of those things as often as I should. So here you go Rog, for all the world to see. Brooklyn and I are grateful to belong to you.

The changes in our family this week have caused us to feel like we're on a roller coaster ride. We feel like we have that 'stunned' look...

Followed by some deep thinking....

Then a smile....maybe this will be doable after all!

Yep, definitely good changes!

Yes, definitely good changes in our family! Took a couple of days to swallow the overwhelming time committments Roger will have starting these next few weeks, but how proud I am of his hard work and dedication.

P.S. I think I just became a widow and single mom between his new calling and job. If you find Brooklyn and I fighting with each other, its because I think we're gonna have waaaay to much time with each other in the coming months. Love these two! :)

Laughs

Nice to meet you.....

Some girls in our neighborhood met up for a playdate with our kids at the Petting Zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Love these ladies, and their kids. Brooklyn wasn't so sure about the animals that close up, but she loves other kids.

Brooklyn has given us some great laughs lately. Like this one...

That would be her "what's up" face. No clue where she learned that one. But we wake up to this face every morning. She also does this to everyone that looks at her lately - the cashier at Walmart, the neighbors, during ALL of sacrament meeting (yah, we got some good giggles from people behind us this last week). Hilarious. Most of the time.

Then she does faces like this one - I call this her 'evil' smile. Doesn't she look naughty?

Or try this one ... she has latched on to this blanket. Of all the blankets she has, she chose to love the one that someone made for her. It's tiny, but she loves it. That led me to Joanne's Fabric store for extra material of this exact blanket. Now can someone sew it for me please? I don't sew - Call me the opposite of Martha Stewart.

She sure is funny right now. And curious! And a busybody! She is always moving, seriously. She won't crawl or walk, but she scoots like its nobody's business. So dang funny. She's into everything.

This morning while I was showering, I left her on the floor with some toys (which never seems to work, she still whines at me the whole time I'm in the shower), and proceeded to scoot herself over to the door and scraped some of the hard water residue off the shower - and ate it! Ugh, gross. Better clean the shower.

And last week, she opened a tube of Criticaid diaper cream and ate it. Obviously I need to feed her more.

She's fascinated with her nose. She'll point to it if you ask her. She also points to her belly button, but seems to have missed our lesson in Anatomy....she ends pointing to her boobs instead. Haha.

Another winner? Last week I handed her my phone on one of the 'coma' morning after I had worked and she proceeded to 1. call my dad 2. sign onto the internet and sign me up for Nascar monthly updates. I laughed on that one right after I tried to calculate how much that bill was going to cost me from Verizon. Awesome.

Oh we are so entertained by this girl. Exhausted. Amazed. Did I mention tired? Love her!