Our little Zoolander.

SO, while I sit here thinking about how GREAT it would be if Saoirse would get at least a 45 minute nap in (alas, she enjoys anything but napping, including her tired cries and screams) I think of how cute she is getting and how wonderful it will be when she gets over this "not napping" thing she's doing.  This morning after feeding her I was laying next to her in bed trying my hardest to go back to sleep but failing, she was just laying there very awake, but looking around our room and just enjoying laying next to mom in the warm blankets.  It was soo awesome.  I caught a glimpse of her at 2 years old, coming to lay next to us in the morning to wake us up.  It's so strange how old she's getting!  I can't believe it.  In just a couple of weeks I'll be the mother of a 6 month old.  That's when all sorts of crazy things start really happening, like her crawling and the end of my leaving anything within her sticky grasp.  Right now, she's still only rolling to the left (I like to call her my little Zoolander) and trying so desperately to move in a forward direction.
P.S. weird fact, I was sitting on the couch writing this very post and heard what could only be the scratchings of a little mouse in the wall only to find Saoirse on the other side of the wall with her limbs through the crib slats playfully scratching said wall.  My crazy little Zoolander...

Anyway, here are the latest and greatest of the little drool bucket.

This is how every picture of me turns out, I swear.  She's turning into her mommy!  I love it!

Daddy and baby enjoying some time in the grass.  Saoirse seemed to be a little confused by the scratchy carpet.  When we laid her down in it the look on her face made me think she thought she was being eaten by some huge monster.  Hilarious.  Oh yeah, and I guess, her welcome for giving her the palest skin in the world.  She will have a lifetime of slathering on thick layers of sun lotion.  

This was taken yesterday and she remains the cutest baby ever.  P.S. after seeing this picture, I realized how stinking LONG her hair is getting!  Crazy.

A couple of weeks ago we packed up the fam to head down to Manti, Utah for the temple wedding of one of Joseph's favorite mission companions.  The groom was born in Taiwan and came to the United States for the first time ever just a couple of weeks before the wedding!  He married a girl from the States (Joseph thinks she's from Montana).  They're pretty cute together, he speaks Chinese to her and she speaks English to him.  It seems to work pretty well.  I mean, they got married.  ANYWAY, the Manti temple is BEAUTIFUL.  I am still shocked by it really.  See for yourself...

Yes I took this picture.  I know it should probably be in National Geographic or something.  

Super awesome Temple, super awesome people, super awesome day!  I hung out outside with Saoirse while Joseph attended the Sealing.  Have I mentioned how I LOVE sealings??  They're the best thing ever.  They're so magical and they always make me cry - whether or not I know who is being sealed whom.  Heavenly Father is so great!  He has provided us with a plan that makes it so we can be with our families forever.  That's FOREVER people!  What an awesome plan.  What the heck, it's seriously the greatest thing I've ever heard of.  How do I know it's so great do you ask?  Because I am sealed to both Joseph and Saoirse for time and all eternity and it feels awesome to know death can only separate us for a short time.  

My advice

Since our friends will be getting married this Saturday in the B.E.A.utiful Timpanogos Temple, I've been thinking about advice I would have for them to create a stronger and more gospel centered marriage.  Getting married in the temple is a good start.  But it takes so much work to keep your marriage strong.  I've only been married for a little over a year, so I don't have a ton of experience in this field, but in the time we have been married we've had to adjust to living with each other and learning how to make our home a place where the Holy Spirit can be.  So, my advice to newly married couples everywhere(!) is that in order to build a stronger love between you two, you should always find time to serve each other.  I can't even describe the joy that fills me when I catch a sneaky Joseph trying to do the dishes before I get home or clean the apartment or whatever.  And honestly, the reason I do anything around the house is so Joseph can come home to a cleaner home than what he left from.  It's then important to notice/compliment/thank each other for all that they've done.  Not only is it important to serve each other but also to let the other person serve you - it's about finding the perfect give and take balance in your relationship.  

I love serving Joseph and keeping him a happy husband which then in turn, makes me a happy wife.  I plan on being with him for eternity and that eternity started the moment we became husband and wife in the Nauvoo Temple on May 7, 2010.  So it's essential to work on continually being in more love than we were the day before so that our eternity can be a pleasant one.  

My love.

Oh how I can't wait until my Joseph gets home from work!  I think my favorite thing is to hang out with him.  He's my favorite person ever!  I can't believe that he's the one I get to spend eternity with and make babies FOREVER with!!  I love eternal families and I love the temple where everything starts!  Some friends of ours are getting married in the Timpanogos Temple this month and I am so happy for them.  I recall the moment Joseph and I walked together through the temple to be married while Saoirse was watching us from heaven and it makes my heart feel so full.  I was so excited to begin my eternity with Joseph and everyday seems to be the best day of our eternity together.  I love going to sleep and waking up next to my best friend in the whole world.  Dang I can't get enough of it!  Anyway, for our friends, I can't wait until they can experience the happiness that I've had having the most perfect eternal companion.

Who would have thought that reality would be happier than my dreams?  I certainly didn't.

My life has been a busy one.

It has been MONTHS since I've posted anything and it's been just over a month since my little baby Saoirse Lorelai has been born!  I still can't believe she's here and she's MINE.  And no matter how much poop there is on her or how much cheese she makes in her neck crevices she's still the cutest thing I've ever seen.  She gets a little less cute when she's crying for seemingly no reason in the middle of the night, but I still love seeing that toothless smile she gives occasionally and those chunky cheeks.  I think it's fair to say that you really can't fully understand love until you love a child.  They do nothing to deserve your love - they puke, poop, cry and occasionally sleep.  Being a parent to a puking, pooping and crying baby helps me to better understand the love Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father have for us.  It helps me better understand Christ's grace.  We do nothing to deserve His grace, but He gives us his love despite our imperfections.  I know that I would do anything for Saoirse but I know the best thing I can do for her is to be the best mother and wife I can be and to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ so that she can know just how special she is and how lucky she is to be born into a family who has been sealed for time and all eternity in the Temple.

I love my little family.  I'm so blessed to be able to stay home and raise Saoirse (and any other children that come along).  I'm blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive husband who loves our family.

Coming up in three days is mine and Joseph's one year anniversary!  I'm so happy to be able to celebrate that with him.  I simply cannot believe how blessed I have been in the past two years since my baptism (which was two years ago on Monday), it has strengthened my testimony that if we follow the Lord's commandments then we will be truly blessed.  I know that I have been.

I love life!  I've never been happier, or more tired.  :)

Our fluff sitting adventures. My obsession.

So I'm waiting for Joseph to come back home from his "meeting" with the boys.  They're all planning their hiking and camping trip for the end of the summer.  It's been hard for me (being that I have an obsession with Joseph that I can't begin to describe) to imagine him gone for three days.  Need I remind you that I haven't been away from him for longer than about 6 hours straight since we got married.  It kind of tears me up thinking I'll have to go to bed alone, wake up alone and eat alone.  The thought that he could get hurt somewhere in the forest or drown in that stupid river makes me want to shrivel up and die.  Even though I'm completely aware that he's done more dangerous things and survived, it scares me to think I won't have him here.  But amongst the fears there is a glimmer of happiness, I know that even if something did happen to him that we have been sealed together in the temple.  I know that we will be together for all time (a time that is much longer than this 80 or so years of life we have here).  I'm also aware that hiking and camping are the things that make Joseph the happiest and I want nothing more than for him to be happy.  It seems like an easy thing  - let him go on his trip - he'll be happy and I'll be happy, we'll be together forever, what's the problem?  I suppose there isn't one.  Perhaps the separation anxiety I have is one that will decrease once we're actually separated for a time, even though I know it will probably never really go away.

Eh, it'll give me some time to watch a season or two of M*A*S*H.  Oh how I love that show.  And I can eat what I want - and that will include meals that contain a box of stuffing mix and Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  Yes.  That sounds nice.  Yay for ice cream!  While I digress to a single lifestyle for a few days I might as well whip out a tea party with my stuffed animals.

Our fluff sitting adventures. Part two.

Babysitting Sophie has been fun.  She's been pretty cute.  Yesterday while I was perusing the internet, Sophie started running around and desperately wanting to go into the back rooms (there is a door separating the living room and the hallway to the back two bedrooms which are the little boys rooms).  I thought she was trying to be sneaky and relieve her bowels back there, so I took her outside.  But upon our return inside she went straight back to that door again.  I decided to let her back there (following her) to see what she wanted (perhaps a toy of hers or something).  Once allowed into the hallway she ran straight to the oldest boys room, I let her in.  She paced quickly around the room looking under the bed and all over until she finally jumped on top of the bed looking around for something.  I realized that she was looking for the oldest boy!  We left the room and she went directly to the master bedroom door, I'm sure still looking for the boy.  It was pretty cute.  She does it every once in a while still, but fortunately Joseph has been more than helpful keeping her occupied.  If he's not throwing her toy around for her then he's chasing her around Sophie-ing her which is more than entertaining for me.  All in all, a pretty good time.

I forgot to mention why we're fluff sitting.  Our friends Robin and Neal are in the midwest spending time with both of their families.  In just a few days they'll also be attending Robin's grandma's baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  It's such exciting news for the entire family.  What a great blessing for her.  Her grandma will then be able to be sealed to her family for time and all eternity - what an incredible blessing to be with the people you love forever!  I feel truly blessed everyday when I wake up next to Joseph, and I know that no matter what happens, we will be together for the rest of forever because we were sealed in the temple.

Our wedding

Ever since I started this blog (a whole 24 hours ago) I think about all the things I could be posting. Or at least I try to figure out WHAT to post. I'm a little lost. But it's so fun!! So I'll get to doing anything, like the dishes and try to figure out how in the world to make it interesting so I can blog about it. Turns out that doing the dishes are in fact, not interesting. The same goes for vacuuming and laundry, the things I do while Joseph is at work are all not very interesting. So while I'm obsessing about what to blog, I suppose I can post pictures of our wedding. For those of you who don't stalk Facebook (or me) you may not have seen the pictures Joseph and I edited (but mainly Joseph edited them and I sat around on Facebook).

The morning of the wedding was exciting but I was rather calm (on the inside). However I do remember also being stressed out, lots of little things were going wrong. And Robin (a bridesmaid) got stuck doing my hair.

Unfortunately for her I gave her about 12 hours notice that she was doing my hair. But it turned out looking really great!

And then I was off to the temple! This was about the time my nerves started kicking in, and Joseph didn't bring his ring into the temple. But no worries, just one of several things that would inevitably attempt to make my stress levels hospitalize me.

Almost everyone had to wait outside the temple while Joseph and I got married, it was a hard not having a traditional wedding (that everyone could come to), but it was so worth being sealed to Joseph for all time and eternity.

Yeah, check it.

Did I mention that it was windy? At least the bridesmaids had ponytails.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

Did I mention that IT WAS WINDY??

Check out this handsome man.

Scarlet (my niece) was super cute at the ring exchange. I asked her to hold my bouquet while I stood greeting everyone, so she stood behind Joseph and I dancing around in circles with the flowers.