A Yummy Treat

I have some pictures I've been meaning to post for a while now. . .

My sister in law Sarah took these photos of Finn when he was 5 months old this summer. They are awesome and I love them so much. I have plans to get them up on my walls . . .eventually . . .

I'm so in love with this little guy. Can't get enough. Thanks for documenting him Sarah!

Identity

As I sit down and put my fingers to the keyboard, the scope of my emotions is almost beyond words. At present, I am overwhelmed with pride, sadness, gratitude, love, and above all, an overwhelming sense of Identity.

I just saw a few minutes of a new broadcast. It was an in-depth look at the modeling industry. The reporter followed a few girls around New York City for a few weeks, interviewing them quite candidly about the way things work in the modeling industry. What I saw on this television show in just a few short minutes astounded me. These young, let me tell you young girls live a life that they seem to somewhat enjoy, but it makes my stomach turn thinking about the way they live. They don't know where their next paycheck is coming from, they starve themselves to be thin (or use other substances), and their entire self image is bases upon how much money they can make from a photograph or how frequently they get booked. Most of all, what broke my heart was to hear the stories of numerous models using their precious bodies to get ahead. One young woman told a gut wrenching story about being persuaded to participate in a sexual situation to get a photo shoot signing. I will spare you the details that she shared, but needless to say I was sick.

I know that things go on in the world that are awful. I know that there is little respect for our bodies and almost no respect for the sanctity of intimacy between a man and a woman. But to see it so raw really pulled at my heart strings. I feel so very very grateful to have a sure knowledge of who I am. I don't need to be a size two or have my picture strewn about in the media to feel good about myself. I know that I have come from a loving, glorious, wonderful Father in Heaven. I know that my spirit can remain beautiful and strong, even when my body fails and becomes weak and unattractive. I have the most beautiful, precious gift of having a wonderful, amazing loving husband who also sees this. And, together, we have used the sacred gift that God has given to man to create the most beautiful little boy. To me, in my life, he is the embodiment of everything good in the world. I am so much happier at home with him, changing poopy diapers and looking into his eyes as I rock him to sleep, than I could ever be at a job where my peers respect me and think I'm so accomplished. No greater love and sense of pride can be felt than by that of a mother and wife who loves her family and nurtures them with pride and love.

This sense of knowing who I am can be traced back years and years to the teaching I received as a young girl. I have since felt a great, calm and overwhelming reassurance through personal experiences that I am in fact a daughter of Heavenly parents and that I have infinite worth in God's eyes. But these words have always spoken strongly to me and seem fitting for how I am feeling tonight.

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love him.

We will stand as witnesses of God, at all times, in all things, and in all places,

As we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith

Divine Nature

Individual Worth

Knowledge

Choice and Accountablity

Good Works

Integrity and

Virtue.

We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation. 

What a sweet, peaceful reassurance these words bring to my soul.

Sunbeams and BYU

Gideon and I received the calling in our new ward to be the Sunbeams teachers. We are so excited about it! We team teach about 5 little ones, and we switch off every other week with another teacher.We taught our first lesson today titled, "I Can Be A Good Friend." It was an awesome two hours. Sharing time was such a blast, trying to keep the kids reverent while holding the girls on my lap, Gideon wrangling Finn, and amidst it all I had a little girl sniff my fingernails (I was wearing pink polish-she thought it might be scented??). We sang scripture power during singing time and man, did I miss that song! It's so refreshing to hear the simple truths of the gospel that are taught in primary. It's good for us to be in there and here those simple testimonies and gospel principles. On our way to class we did a potty/drink break. While in the bathroom one little girl pulled off her socks and shoes sitting on the floor waiting for the other girls who were actually using the restroom. So, of course, the other girls want to take off their shoes. I wasn't going to fight that battle; I said go ahead as long as you carry them back to class with you. In class we had a good discussion about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and how that was a kind thing to do for his friend. We also talked about the loaves of bread and the fishes that were dispersed among the 5,000 and how that all happened because of the little boy who shared what he had with the Savior. Other topics that came up randomly (mid-sentence) were Darth Vader hot air balloons, the fact that Jesus lives in the sky (and is also magical), the fair, and a couple "the gospel" answers. It was such a blast. We have the cutest group of kids. We are so happy to get to serve the sweet little kids in our ward and to feel a part of the ward.

In other news, Gideon just finished his first week at BYU. He got pulled over on his bike for riding during the break on campus (always a rebel ;)), which I really don't know when else you would ride your bike. During class?? But he loves his classes and is really enjoying being on campus where you can really feel the spirit and just enjoy the positive vibe. He is currently re-evaluating his degree options, so we'll see where we end up. Right now he's thinking of 3 options: Accounting, Information Systems, and Actuarial Science. If anybody has advice/insights to either of these three fields, we'd love to hear it! We will hopefully be done in about 3 to 5 years, depending on his major. I know, it's a long road. But we really are enjoying the good ol' days right now.

Other than that, I am officially addicted to spray painting stuff; Finn rolled over for the first time COMPLETELY on his own and on purpose today in the middle of sacrament on the floor; we don't sleep a lot, and we've been vegging out on candy corn. Can't wait for fall to get here! I think it's time to bake some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins this week.

That's our life as of late! Sorry for the outpouring of random factoids, but there you go. Happy labor day to everyone!

So Long Sweet Summer

So I've been a horrible blogger and not blogged anything all summer. To my defense, it's been a crazy few months. Along with caring for a wild baby boy, we have also moved 3 times this summer, visited 3 states (for a total of 4 flights), driven 16 hours round trip along the north coast, along with many other day-t0-day events. It has been a wonderful summer. Busy, but awesome. We visited my parents in Seattle, then Gideon's family in California, then finished off our travels with a trip to Arizona to see my brother and sister in law Zach and Caitlin and their 3 gorgeous kids. We didn't get any pictures that trip but we did take finn to the water park and had a blast the entire weekend just relaxing (as much as you can with all of our kids!). This was the first time since we've been married that Gideon has had a break from school. Man did we love it!! He heads back to school monday and we are mourning the loss of our together time. We really have had such a blast spending so much time together, visiting family, and most of all watching our beautiful little boy grow and grow. Finn is 6 months old today!! I can't believe it. It's like I went to sleep one night and woke up to this huge little boy. In my mind I still picture him a tiny little newborn. Hard to believe he'll be crawling and walking before I know it. Well, I am sure to get back into blogging now that Gideon will pretty much be gone all of the time and I'll have more "lonely" time. For now, here are some pictures to highlight our summer.

ADAM AND FINN AT MY PARENT'S HOUSE

OF COURSE WE HAD TO GO TO LOS BAGELS WHILE IN EUREKA. SO YUMMY!

WE TOOK FINN TO THE BEACH, HE LOVED IT!

WHILE IN EUREKA GIDEON GOT TO PARTICIPATE IN ISAAC'S EAGLE SCOUT COURT OF HONOR. WAY TO GO ISAAC!

OLD TOWN EUREKA ON THE PIER.

MEDLEY FAMILY REUNION IN EUREKA

FINN'S FIRST PEEK AT THE OCEAN

FINN SLEPT LIKE THIS THE ENTIRE PLANE RIDE

ROASTING MARSHMALLOWS AT MY PARENTS IN SEATTLE

THE SUMMER ALSO INCLUDED LOTS OF NAP TIME WITH DADDY.

GIDEON AND FINN AT THE PARK WHILE MOMMY WAS AT THE GYM

(NOTICE HOW HE'S PLAYING WITH GIDEON'S EAR, A CLASSIC FINN MOMENT)

FINN AND I HAD A LOT OF FUN STAYING BUSY WHILE DADDY WAS AT WORK. WE WENT TO THE POOL, THE PARK, AND WENT ON LOTS OF WALKS.

86 Days of Love

Finn turned 3 months on Sunday. I am hurrying to type this as he is cooing in his swing, feasting on his hands. He is so time consuming these days, but I love it. I'm usually covered in puke by 10am, and by noon we've both gone through a few wardrobe changes. He smiles and gets excited when we play with him now, and it's so much fun! He is getting to be quite the little ham. He holds his head up amazingly well. I think we're going to be getting him a bumbo this week. He now cries a faint, annoyed cry most of the time before falling asleep. It's really funny except that I feel bad for him when he does it. He weighs about 12 pounds and is about 25 inches long. He's so big! He also sleeps through the night MOST of the time. Although there are days. . . or nights. . . you get the point.


Things are busy around here the past few weeks as we are moving AND painting our entire new apartment. All I can say is thank goodness for instructional paint videos on the internet. And diet coke. Here are a few before shots of the new place (sorry for the poor quality. . . from the iPhone).

Evolution of Finn

I have been neglecting the blog . . . it's apparent. But I have good reason. I've been binging on baby. Big time. This adorable little boy is like my favorite chocolate cake, a foot massage, and a good chic flick all wrapped into one. When I shove my face into the folds in his neck, the world melts away, and nothing bad can come into that tiny spot. He smells like a baby spit-up-and-heaven cupcake. We've been hiding out. Staying away from any moment that I might have to disperse his beauty into the world; I've been keeping it all to myself, gobbling it up. He's my best kept secret. He's like a new spring hat, and everyone will want to try him on. So we've been sitting in our rocking chair. Neglecting house work, forming not-so-great eating habits (at least on my part-he doesn't really have much of a variety now does he?), watching hulu and snuggling each other like there's no tomorrow.

I've been obsessed with watching him change. He's learned how to suck on his hands. He keeps them in little tiny fists wrapped so tight that I have to wash them out because his spit causes it to smell quite "musty" in there. It's the funniest thing to me. And he also loves classical music, courtesy of Gideon. He plays it on Pandora for him when he's in his swing and he'll stop crying, just sit and smile as he listens to the melodies. It's a beautiful thing. This kid is such a daddy's boy. When Gideon walks through the door at night, Finn bursts into the biggest smile at just the sound of his voice. And daddy knows all the right games to play to get him to quit fussing when he's tired, and his marching through the living room puts him to sleep without fail 100% of the time.

But we do get out. When we feel in the mood. Yesterday we went to Nordstrom and he was so good in his stroller the entire time! He smiled at all the sales ladies and they all "oohed" and "aaah'd" over him. Then I decided to push my luck and try one more store. As I am half naked putting on a skirt in the dressing room, he looks at me funny and simultaneously I smell something fishy. I lean in closer...closer...closer...yep. Code brown. And he starts crying, because, of course, who wouldn't cry if they were sitting in their own slimy poo? So I hurry and slip off the skirt and pull him out of the car seat. Good thing I have a changing pad in my diaper bag, since the bench in there was 100 % concrete. I undo his clothes to find the poo is all the way up to his shoulder blades. Yellow, slimy back-mess. Yum. By now the whole room smells and the sales lady is checking in on me. "We're. . .fine. Thanks," I reply when she asks me if I need a new size. I wanted to say "YES! A new set of baby clothes would be awesome right about now. And some sweats for me. I'm tired of these jeans that are not forgiving of the mommy pooch." So after wiping the poop off of the wall that got there who-knows-how and picking up his binky about a thousand times during his diaper change, I got him all cleaned up and dressed in a spare outfit I had (first time I had to use it!), bought that skirt and got out of there as fast as I could. Do I even need to tell you that I drove through McDonald's on the way home for a large Diet Coke?

And PS: Today we stopped at a garage sale with Finn. They were selling a beautiful piece of furniture for originally $100, then marked down to $45. So I told the lady we could do around $30. She made a wary face and came over to look at it with me. "Well, maybe, you guys are a young couple . . ." and then she saw Finn. He was smiling at her and that took the cake. "Oh, MY GOSH!! Look at that beautiful baby! Oh yes. Yes yes yes. For YOU I will do $30." She then proceeded to call her entire family and all the shoppers over to gawk at our "gorgeous little baby." Finn, I am taking you shopping with me every single time!! Way to go little buddy.

Easter Sunday and Finn's Blessing

From left: Kelly, Ben, Adam, Dad, Mom, Gideon, Finn, Me

Last week my parents came into town for Ben's graduation. It was so much fun to have them here! They took us all out to Thai food (which was amazing . . . so wonderful to eat curry and not have heartburn!!), we hung out at their condo in Midway (beautiful), and they also hung around our house a lot. It was such a good time just relaxing and chatting together. My dad and brother and sister hadn't met Finn yet, so it was fun to watch everyone enjoy our sweet little boy. We miss them already, and we can't wait to go visit them in Seattle in June!

Since everyone was in town already, we decided to hold Finn's blessing that week, which just happened to be Easter Sunday. It was such an awesome day! It was Easter Sunday, Finn's blessing, and also my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. Also, it was Finn's 2 month mark. He's getting so old! The blessing that his daddy gave him was beautiful, and it was so special to be able to share the day with all of our family. Afterwords we had a little family get together at our tiny apartment, but surprisingly we all fit! Special thanks to everyone for bringing food and supplies. It was so awesome to be together with both of our families and just enjoy the day.

My talented sister in law took these amazing pictures of Finn for me. Thanks so much Hannah!

He's making a sucking face in all of these pictures because he was one hungry boy. He was crying so we just gave him his binky, then would rip it out super fast and Hannah would shoot the camera like crazy for a few seconds before he started crying, as seen below:

We blessed him in the blanket that my brothers were blessed in, so it was extra special to have the blanket in the pictures. Plus it made a pretty backdrop!