Happy Birthday Party Leila!

For Leila's birthday party, Jared and I decided to have a family-only shindig. Luckily, just with our local family, we had 21 people there! And yes, I know how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many people I love! I am a pretty low-key party thrower. I like it easy and simple because otherwise I get really stressed and overwhelmed and all of the fun of a party gets sucked out. So we had family over for hamburgers, hot dogs, salads and soda. What more do you need, right?

Before the party, I did a little photoshoot of the birthday girl in her cute little dress.

Christian giving her a "hug"

Trying to eat her birthday bracelet.

I didn't get any pictures of dinner, but here we are opening a few presents. She got cute outfits, shoes and some books!

I don't think that outfit will fit you brother...

Dad and sister

Leila just wanted to eat the paper. No surprise there.

Her new favorite toys!

After gifts, we did the customary birthday cake for the birthday girl!

Daddy "Helping" put her hand into the cake

And she tastes it!

Still not sure...

A little encouragement from Aunt Jamie!

Oh! But she hates the messy fingers!

And a belly-laugh from Jared!

She leaves the cake behind to crawl around the table!

Oooooh, but a spoon is brought to her. Now we're talking!

She starts to dig in

But NOTHING makes her happier than watermelon!

Well, except a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other!

Mmmmmmmmm!

Messy fave.

And the classic "ugly-pretty" pose

The aftermath

Thank you to my family for coming and help her celebrate her first birthday!

13 months

I was sitting in church today...husbandless (Jared is still in L.A. with his brothers) balancing Leila on my lap as she jumped and screamed and blew bubbles and basically went crazy! Ordinarily, I might be a little overwhelmed, but she was so beautiful....so ALIVE! I couldn't do anything other than be grateful to a God who would grant me such incredible children. Don't get me wrong, everything is not all sunshine and flowers, but I live for days like today. Where the stars align, Mr. Sandman shows up, and when the dust of life with kids settles long enough for me to see what an absolute blessing they are. 

I also realized that Leila is officially 13 months as of two days ago. Amazing! I remember telling people that months 6-12 were my absolute favorite with kids. I am realizing that months 6-12 were my favorite with CHRISTIAN. Maybe it is because she takes her time in most things, but I feel like the last few months Leila has just come alive. Her personality is finally starting to shine through and I feel like I am falling more in love with her everyday. Here are my recent favorite pictures of her.

Why yes, that is a funnel cake topped with ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. She kept digging her fork (the wrong side, of course!) into the whipped cream and LOVED it.

After a 3-4 month hiatus, I finally broke down and took CJ to McDonald's. I think Leila loved the playplace more than he did!

This one is my new favorite. My friend Emily watched Leila this morning and then brought her to church and this is the picture I got when I asked how things were going. SO CUTE!

This month she took a few steps on her own and is doing a really good job of standing unassisted. She is still really cautious, so she hasn't started walking yet, but she is getting close. She has learned to blow raspberries and loves to do it to make us laugh. Her new favorite thing is blowing through the straw on my water cup and making bubbles. Eating has come a long way this month! She is finally eating enough to justify the weaning of 2 of her feedings (HALLELUIA!). I am still nursing 4-5 times a day, but at least the end is in sight! Oh, and more good news, she seems to have moved past her dairy allergy. I am still easing her into it, but so far, so good!

At 13 months she loves: music, clapping, high fives, blowing bubbles, making noise with her mouth, cheerios, playing with Christian, swimming or any water time, whipped cream/ice cream and veggie fries.

At 13 months she hates: Being forced to do anything, yogurt, bedtime, dresses (because she can't crawl easily enough), and getting knocked over by Christian.

Happy 13 months Leila, we love you!

A Word About Patriotism

John Quincy Adams: “Posterity — you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”
 
Anyone who knows me knows that I am extremely patriotic. I love America. I come from a long line of military men, and also spent my high school years as part of the ROTC. I truly believe that God preserved this land for the freedoms that we enjoy. And I also believe that we are losing these freedoms due to complete and total laziness as well as pride and the ever-present "all about me" attitude that seems to be permeating our society. When did this feeling of entitlement start? When did we start believing that OTHER people should sacrifice so that we don't have to? That we DESERVE things like houses, cars, iPhones, healthcare (and any form of birth control we can think of!), food, clothes, etc...without actually working for it? 

I remember having a heated conversation with my little sister. She was moving out and wanted to take my DVD player with her. I had another one, so the nice thing would have been to let her have it, right? And maybe I would have, until she said, "...you should give it to me because you have so much and I have so little.". I don't begrudge her thought process. What infuriates me is this feeling that because I worked hard and had more than her, that I was in some way obligated to give her my things so that we could be "even". How did we get here? 

Grover Cleveland: “A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.”

At church on Sunday, we started to sing a hymn that I have heard about a million times. But this time, I let the words fill my soul and I got to a point that I was so emotional, I couldn't even finish singing. And no...it wasn't because I was overwhelmed with love and pride for my country. I was devastated to realize how much we have lost.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
  
Have you stopped to read these words lately? The founders of this nation sacrificed money, land, status, and even their lives to grant us the freedoms we take for granted. But that isn't what made me cry either. 

It started in the second verse "America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw. Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law." We have turned away from a God that can mend our flaws. Instead of humility, our society promotes pride. We see flaws as human nature and instead of trying to be better, we accept and justify them. Self-control seems to be an outdated idea. Why control the natural man? Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die! right?

The third verse was poignant for me too. Do we have any heroes left that love the country more than themselves? Do we love mercy and righteousness more than life? Are there any political leaders (who supposedly represent the people) left that don't let personal interests and groups control them?

May God refine us until all of our successes are noble and until we recognize that every gain we have comes from Him. 

The truth is, I don't know how to fix it. I don't know how to do anything beyond just loving my own kids and teaching them what it means to be an American and how to be refined by a loving Father in Heaven who knows what is hiding behind our natural selves. I want them to know how important it is to fight for what is right, even when it isn't popular (and getting less popular every day, it seems!). And yes, I DO believe that there is such a thing as a definitive and ultimate right and wrong, even though it may not be politically correct to say so. 

We live in an amazing country and we are letting our values and beliefs be thrown to the wolves. We are being divided by the minority and convinced that we are the ones who need to change and that our beliefs are "backward" and "old school". 

In my church, we have something called Articles of Faith that outline our fundamental beliefs. Number 11 of 13 says, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." You can view all 13 here. 
I wholeheartedly believe that we can allow people to have their own beliefs, without being convinced that in order to support them, we have to give up our own. We can be loving and kind and charitable and still voice our own views. Maybe by returning to our own passionate beliefs, whatever they may be, can America return to a place of freedom, hard work and tolerance.

Happy 1st Birthday Leila!

Is anyone else completely shocked that it has been a year already? The day was really low-key because her actual family birthday party isn't until the 21st. Have I mentioned that it kinda sucks to have her birthday, our anniversary and Father's Day all the same week!? I shoulda planned this better....

We celebrated with an early morning photo shoot thanks to Jared and a pancake breakfast. The best part is she even ATE some of the pancakes. Win!

Yowza. I don't know where my kids learned this cheesy face!

Pancakes and blueberries, a birthday-girl's dream!

 Christian, being the big brother he is, even "helped" open her gift. He was pretty bummed we didn't put candles in her pancakes so he could blow them out. :)

Yay! Sippy cups!

Why yes, that is a pancake stuck to her lip

At age 1 Leila can clap, say Mama and Dada, dance, and is crawling like a mad woman. She likes to hold our fingers to cruise around, but probably won't walk for a couple more months. She is getting more confident and cruising around the furniture a little bit. I can now (FINALLY!) say that she is not exclusively breast fed. She doesn't love to eat, but is pretty good about eating a few bites of rice cereal or veggies a few times a day and we finally found a little veggie snack she actually gets excited about. She loves water and can drink from a straw which made me really excited. Leila can still sneeze on command, and makes the funniest cheesy face that brings a whole new meaning to the term "Ugly-Pretty" (see the photo shoot above if you don't know what I mean!). She loves to talk and babble and gets really excited when she hears any music. She also loves books and gets really excited when I read to her. Her favorite song is the theme song to "3rd Rock From the Sun". :) She loves her older brother and thinks he is hilarious...especially when he says the word "poop" (smh). At this point she still has a dairy allergy, but I am hoping she will grow out of it. . She has 12 teeth that have broken through with 2 more almost through and I think it is annoying and hilarious at the same time that someone with so many teeth refuses to use them! All in all she is healthy, happy and an absolute joy

Happy 1st Birthday, Leila! You are beautiful inside and out. I love your quick smile. I love your bright eyes. I love how you light up when you see me. I love that you are already a huge flirt, even though it will bring me trouble later! I love your deep husky voice and that you finally learned to growl. I love that you dance and clap your hands every time you hear music. I love that you take your time and are more cautious. I love (and hate!) that you do things at your own pace and refused to be rushed. You are strong and beautiful and I can't wait to see what the new year brings!

These are a few of my favorite things

Bedtime and Naptime and Bedtime and Naptime...

Just kidding

On our latest jaunt down to SoCal to play at Disneyland, Jared and I were talking about Christian and the cute things he says. Now that he is 3, his words are clearing up and he's losing some of our favorite mispronunciations. SAD! I wanted to write them down so we can always remember his cuteness.

Root-ba-yare - Rootbeer

Light-da-queen - Lightning McQueen

Valill-ya - Vanilla

Lellow - Yellow

Skip-choose - Scriptures

Sir - Sure
Fursday - Thursday
Vasania - Lasagna

And everyone's favorite....

Pop-si-yo - Popsicle

Hard to believe this is the same kid. I love my chatty, sweet, snuggle-bug!

11 Months!

Wow. I am in complete shock that Leila is almost 1. This year, especially the past 5 months, have just FLOWN by.

Leila is still a really happy and easy baby, for the most part. Eating is still a struggle, but the past few days have been better. She is eating some rice cereal at breakfast (about 1 Tbsp, but still, it's something!) and will usually have a couple of bites of baby food a couple of times throughout the day. It's hard because it takes a such a long time, but I am working to be patient and just enjoy the time with her.

She is getting much quicker with crawling and a little more adventurous. She loves to have me chase her around. She will giggle and try to go even faster. She is finally able to pull herself up and isn't quite cruising, but getting more comfortable standing on her own.

Her favorites:
Playing in Dora's food and water
Waving and clapping (she does it constantly)
Chewing on the rubber ducky her Auntie Beth gave her at Easter
Fake Sneezing
Making cheesey faces (what is with my kids!?) and scrunching her nose
Smiling at anyone who looks her way and quickly turning away like the flirt she is
"Talking Tom" or anyone who will copy the sounds she makes
Anything Christian does to make her laugh

Her voice is still low and sounds like a growl. She is starting to say things that sound close to mama and dada. In all of our food trials, we found out that she has an allergy to dairy (not just lactose intolerant, but actual rashes. Yay!) and I am hoping that she will outgrow that. *Fingers crossed* She is growing well and moving at her own pace, and that's all I care about.

Happy 11 Months Leila-girl. Love you and your sweet nature!