Wyoming

As I was washing dishes today I couldn’t help but miss my childhood. I remember just how simple things seemed and how I was never let in on the worry of making ends meet for our rather large family. We just had what we had and made do with it. I think I was maybe 5 when I received my first brand new outfit from the store. My mom would make us all sorts of colorful summer outfits. Matching top and bottoms. I miss her and would love to talk about so many things with her today. The attached photo is of my mother's parents from 1984. This is how I remember them. Grandpa Shumway died four years after this. I am looking forward to sharing the beauty of where I was born with Will and our little Grace one day.

Those Eyes

This morning I woke up first thing as I always do to feed Grace. She was making some noise when I came in to get her and after I opened the door It was the most adorable thing to see her pop her little head up to look at who had coming to see her. Grace is a bit social and seems to cry out the most when she realizes that she is alone. After her morning feeding it is comical to see that way she takes a look at the world around her as if she is it for the first time. The wonder of seeing everything around her that causes me to reflect on the joy in life.  We could all go with looking at things in this fresh sort of way.

My Baby has a lot of hair.

I am still amazed at how much hair little Grace arrived with and how much it has grown. I thought I would never post a picture of her in the bathtub but this one is pretty priceless.

Mom

I am a Mom.

Wow.

I wish I could explain to my dear little Grace just how much I love being her mom. She has this way of making me feel so special and seems to know exactly how to make me feel centered in the craziness that may be going on around me. No matter what happens in life, I am so glad to have her to keep me centered.  I can’t imagine a day without the joy of teaching her and seeing her understanding grow. Everyday she seems to grasp more and more of the world going on around her.

Upon thinking of the moments I have had with Grace since she arrived, my focus is helping her know during each moment that I will always love her. Among the lessons I would like to share with her, I want her to learn: to face life’s challenges with confidence, to see outside of her own life by helping those around her, to listen to her heart, to be bold in her dreams and goals, to have faith to know that her Heavenly Father loves her and hears her prayers.

It is pretty exciting to now be celebrating my first Mother’s Day as the mother to my dear little Grace.  It causes me to reflect upon how my own mother must have felt about her own children.  She has been gone for 17 years, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss her.  I want to wish her a happy Mother’s Day, and for her to know how grateful I am for the opportunities and lessons that she gave to me.  I hope that I can be as good of a mother for Grace as she was for me.

six months.

Lil' Miss Grace is now six months old and I feel like I am so not ready for all the things that are next. She is grabbing at everything in sight and wants to put it all in her mouth. I find it funny how she can be so entertained by something as simple as a white plastic hanger. She played with one the other day for several hours. What a joy she is and how she is keeping me on my toes.

Discovering

Grace is discovering so many new things and keeps us on our toes already. She is at the point where she rolls over from front to back and back to front but has yet to figure out how to move around much more then that yet. She especially determined to roll over when there is a toy just out of reach. Sometimes she gets the toy and gets so upset then gets upset when she can’t get to her back again. Right now her top toy is one that her Nelson Grandparents gave her for Christmas. A plastic slinky. Random. The look Grace gives while trying to figure it out is price less. Discovering toys is one thing but discovering yourself is another. Many times we put Grace in front of a mirror of some sort and she is just fascinated with seeing herself. I caught just a few of those moments to share. We sure love this little girl.

The Weekend!

I am always a little sad when the weekend is over. We worked so hard all week to get to the weekend and when it is here I soak it up. Some of the highlights from this weekend where having the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday night. Will took some time on Saturday to make them a homemade apple pie which was the favorite for everyone. It has been so long since we had them in our home and it was fun to see how Grace enjoyed our visitors. We also went for a walk at the temple grounds here in LA and Grace grabbed at anything she could reach. Will put Grace up close to one of the flowers and she pulled it apart..opps. My favorite moment was when Will tried to teach Grace to fly. I long for Weekends when we get to spend time like this together.