reading

When Taylor and I were dating he told me that he wanted to be a reader.  He wanted to be the guy who had lots of books and who read all the time.  After three years of being married--he is that guy.  Right now I think he is reading 5 (ish) books simultaneously.  I love this about him.  

1. That he isn't a talker--he is a do-er.

2. That he reads a lot.

In my Children's Literature class at BYU-I, my professor told us that the most powerful reading influence a child can have is if the child sees their father, not mother, reading often.  Mmmm.  I love my husband.

Yesterday, I downloaded a highly recommended book called Bringing up Bebe.

I'm about 50 pages into it and really enjoying it. It's an American mothers comparison of parenting differences in America and France.  So far, my favorite nugget is this:

“When I asked French parents how they disciplined their children, it took them a few beats just to understand what I meant. “Ah, you mean how do we educate them?” they asked. “Discipline,” I soon realized, is a narrow, seldom-used notion that deals with punishment. Whereas “educating” (which has nothing to do with school) is something they imagined themselves to be doing all the time."

I love the perspective this give me and it makes me more hopeful that raising children will be a positive growing and learning experience for both of us.

Being a wife and a mother are the greatest callings I could imagine having.  I am fulfilled by my family and grateful for their companionship here on the earth.  I am grateful that I am sealed to them for eternity.

Until Tomorrow.

growth chart

Gramma Brown got Lise (and her future siblings) the cutest growth chart for her birthday.  It's adorable.

Yesterday, we measured her and she is 27 1/2'' tall.  A little human is zooming around our house!  A human who was once so small she looked tiny when we laid her in a laundry basket which was her crib for the first month of her life, is now busy doing independent things and playing like a big girl.

 She now...

-- Has 2 bottom teeth
-- says, "hello", "dada" and "mama"
-- loves to pretend to answer phones
-- kisses e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g and everyone
-- knows to be soft with other babies
-- Sleeps 12 hours at night
-- isn't attached to a specific blanket but loves carrying one around
-- Follows me around the house all day long.  When I'm out of sight she comes looking!
-- Eats yogurt, cheese, cereal, lots of fruit and still enjoys a little bit of baby food every now and then
-- Loves swimming at the pool, relaxing in the hot tub and watching big kids splash
-- could swing at the park for hours
-- DANCES!  This girl gets down!
-- still cuddles her momma

Time flies and babies grow too fast.

Until tomorrow.

goals

Three of my friends and I have decided to do a competition {cash money is involved} to motivate us to live healthier life styles.  It was my friend Erin's idea and it's be so much fun.  We've been at it a week and even though I'm not perfect at it, I'm having fun.

Some of the things we are striving to do each day include

--journaling {hence my daily blog posts}
--drinking 64 oz of water
--30 minutes of exercise
--reading uplifting material for 15 minutes a day
--getting fruits and veggies
--not eating after 8pm
--and a few others

Erin's idea came at a perfect time for me.  Since Elise turned one yesterday, I am off the hook for providing breast milk {!!!!!} so I started doing Take Shape for Life.  I have felt so in control of my diet because TSFL provides shakes, bars, soups and other meals that are insanely convenient and packed with nutrients.  After a week I'm down a pound and feeling good.

I've also been doing Jamie Easons LiveFit program via bodybuilding.com.  I'm in Phase 1 which means I'm doing no cardio but rather focusing on weight training so my body can burn more calories at rest.  I love weight training and can feel a difference more than I can see one.  Which works for me!

Life is more fulfilling for me when I have set goals for myself.  I feel like I have direction and each day is a little more well-rounded and productive.

Until tomorrow.

grandma.

This weekend has been a very special one for me.  I was blessed to get to have my mom come visit for three full days and each and every day was packed with mother-daughter essentials.  We were also able to squeeze in quite a few grandma moments!  My mom knows how to fill my canteen. It was hard for me to drop her off at the airport this evening.  I felt exactly the same way I did when I was eight and was at a sleep over feeling homesick.  I would start feeling sad and I would really miss my mom.  Luckily we took so many pictures we completely filled our phone storage space {kidding} so I can look back and remember these days well.

A little glimpse of what we did:

Saturday

Woke up and packed Elise snacks to last like seven hours. Then we headed out for our adventures.  First we found a Goodwill I hadn't been to yet and we searched for children's book treasures!  This was special for me because I love books because my mom read to me so often as a child.  She read the stories with her mom voice that left me hanging on each page.  I love that books were such a prominent part of my childhood and I want to give my kids the same gift.  We found some great Max Lucado books, Dr. Seuss's story about OOBLECK and how it takes over the town, Eloise in Paris {every girl must own} and believe it or not this one.

 Yes, of course we bought it.

After book hunting we were famished so we got Cheesecake Factory amazingness to refuel us for some clothes shopping.  My mom spoiled me with some beautiful new shirts and a perfect-for-moving-a-ton-at-church pencil skirt.

Clothes shopping can wear ya out so then we needed more food.  We picked up the husband and headed north to Benihana's.  A yummy Japanese place where they cook the food in front of you.  It's basically a dinner and a show and it was heavenly.


Sunday

Church was fabulous as always.  We had a funny small word moment when one of our friend's mom who is also visiting from out of town recognized my mom as a college roommate!  Crazy!

Sunday was also when we celebrated Elise's birthday.  She was truly spoiled to have all the friends we are selling pest control with come and celebrate with her.  We had balloons, cake smashing, cheesecake with berries, tutus and lots of laughs. It was a special day for our special princess.

There also may have been some floating in the pool with grandma but I can not deny nor confirm the truth of that statement {since it was Sunday}.


Monday

It's not a visit with your mom without a pedicure so we did that first thing.  Then we did some more quality sun-soaking, floaty riding at the pool.  We had it all to ourselves and it was perfect.  Afterwards we ate at BJ's Brewery which I will be sad to leave when we go back to Utah.  This place is always good and you can't beat and Oreo Pazookie.  You just can't.

It was hard to say good bye but memories were made and we will see each other soon in September.  I so love my mom and can't believe she has already come and gone.

Until tomorrow.

ribbons and curls and all things little girls

Anyone who knows me well or who has spent any amount of time around me since having Elise knows that I would be devastated if she was a tom-boy.  Being a tom-boy isn't a bad thing.  It's just a bad thing for a mom like me.

My own childhood was so rich with imagination, make believe, dress-up, dolls, princesses, nail polish (my aunt Laura told me I couldn't paint my nails red because, "Red is for women." And wow, did that make me want red a million times more), clip on earrings (I had to wait until I was 10 to pierce my own...maybe that's why I pierced Elise's at three months??).  Anyway, the point is I LOVED BEING A GIRL.  I had girl oozing out of me and I have been anticipating all the girl things I will get to do with Elise since I found out she was going to be a "she"!

I am happy to report that things are looking good for me.  It's hard to know when kids are babies because they don't show a whole lot of preference when it comes to toys.  But yesterday while I was getting ready in the bathroom, Lise waddled in carrying her baby doll in the crook of her arm.  She walked right up to my legs and stuck her own baby arms out for me to pick her up.  And there we were, mom and baby, baby and doll, kissing and cuddling.  And so the angels sang down and thoughts of tea parties and pretend weddings danced in my head.

I think we're going to get along just fine.

excitement

I was thinking about what to write about in my journal today and I realized that there are a few things that I am really excited for that will be happening in the near future.

1. My mom is coming to visit us in California....TOMORROW! She gets to stay for the weekend which is when we are going to celebrate Elise's 1st birthday.  I can't wait to pick her up, hang out and chit-chat, get yummy food, pamper ourselves with pedicures and let Elise give her kiss after kiss.  We haven't seen her since Christmas.  That's seven, long months without seeing my mom.  Saying I'm excited is an understatement!

2.  My cousin, practically sister, is having her second baby boy on Saturday!  She makes cute kids and I'm really excited to meet this new little guy.  Lots of big changes happening for her family.  Three weeks after she has her baby she is moving to Huntington Beach for her husband's law school.  That means she is only six hours away.  That means I'm going to get to see her and her baby.  And that means I am one happy lady!

3. In September my teensy nephew, Chase is being blessed in Rexburg.  The whole Brown clan will be there and its conveniently the same weekend my mom is dropping my beautiful, grown up, baby sister off for her first semester of college.  In September I get to see SO MUCH FAMILY and I can hardly wait!!!  I may or may not be most looking forward to re-walking the BYU-I campus with my sister while we scout out her class route and get her student ID.  Maybe we'll do some family names together in the Rexburg temple.  My favorite temple with my favorite sister.  I'd love that.

I have a wonderful family and I am so looking forward to seeing them in the upcoming months.


Elise wanted to type a little note :)

qweœß‰Ï›Å͉ Z

little miss independent

My baby is now a toddler and that happened really fast.  Freakishly fast.  She has personality oozing out of her and she has opinions!  She has made it very clear to me that baby food from a spoon is old news.  The last few weeks meal time has turned in to a World War and I was getting really, really frustrated.  So yesterday, at breakfast, I had had it.  I put some cheese and grapes in front of her and she absolutely loved feeding herself. (I gave her finger food quite a bit before but I got frustrated picking up soggy bananas and crusty-who-knows-what)  But this time, wow, this time she was ready to feed herself and she ate great!  Then lunch came and she got grapes and cheese again.  And then dinner..grapes and cheese and some left over pizza (green peppers, onions, olives and all) and she loved the pizza.  After I put her to bed though, I couldn't help but think grapes and cheese are great but let's get some variety for this girl!  So I scoured my Pinterest pins and found some great baby recipes that call for using up infant cereal and baby food.  Here's what I made:

I used my Little Green Pouch to squeeze baby food onto parchment paper in little dots.  Then I froze them.  The result are little finger-friendly baby food melts.

Easy and awesome.  

Next, I used a recipe from Wholesome Baby Food to make teensy-tiny baby pancakes which used the infant cereal.  These are so yummy and healthy for a little peanut!  They are flavored with mashed banana, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.  Mmmm.

These took a little while to make but my sweet friend Erin came over and we flipped pancakes all night long.  My tiny eater loves both of these new treats and I love that they use up the foods I was trying to feed her with a spoon.  

Until tomorrow.