Weslie Lately

Wes will be 17  months pretty soon so I thought I'd post a quick update. Her favorite words are:
All done!
up (when she wants help climbing)
Ball
Hi Kitty
Yup
Bum-pa (grandpa)
Up-ba-ba ("up above the"...world so high....)-words from twinkle twinkle little star
She is trying to mimic more words and sounds these days.

She loves soda and is always reaching for our cups and straws. She is so lovey dovey with any cat or dog.

Favorite foods are mac and cheese, peaches, and any pasta with red sauce. She is allergic to peanuts.
She has a mouth full of teeth and is just waiting for the last top 2 molars.

She isn't even close to self feeding with utensils. The most I can get her to do is put the fork with food already on it into her mouth. She's a little behind but that's okay.

The last week I received my first real kiss on the mouth from her. She has been so snuggly since Utah and I love it! Lots of hugs and snuggles for me!
She is always busy and moving.

Utah 2013

Wes and I were lucky enough to attend our cousin Tyler's wedding with my dad in St. George. Wes got lots of one on one time with grandpa and lots of ice cream. It was so fun. Congrats to Tyler and Flora for tying the knot!

After the wedding me and Wes headed up north to Salt Lake for a girls trip. We visited as many loved ones as we could manage in 3 days. What a whirlwind it was being a single mom and moving around with all of our junk constantly. It was worth it though, we sure do miss all our friends and family there! I even got to eat at every single one of my favorite Utah restaurants which was a bonus.

Weslie loved Tenley chasing her! These two were practically friends since birth!

Laney saw another kid on this little ride in Park City and wanted to use her own money to buy Weslie a ride. She is so sweet!

Daddy Daughter Date

Tomorrow we leave for Utah! We are excited but we will both miss dad a ton. Tonight they had a special date. It was a first for both of them. A tea party!

Drops of Awesome-applied in my life

For those of you who know me well, you've probably noticed that I have a bad habit of being a little negative sometimes. It's not because I'm an unpleasant person, it's just that sometimes I can be insecure about myself or guarded to avoid disappointment. I've used those defense mechanisms for so long that sometimes I don't even notice it anymore. Lately, I've been praying that I could notice and recognize when that happens so I can start to actively make changes. It was really hard at first because I really let things eat at me when I do something embarrassing, etc.

Fast forward a couple weeks and now I am more confident with myself and happier. I don't have all these things weighing me down anymore. What worked? Well, honestly it was just all in my head. Whenever I did something good I acknowledged it to myself. Whenever I thought of something negative (about myself or others) I tried to just put it out of my head and think about something else (some things were much harder to shrug off than others, but I did my best). Maybe the thought was something embarrassing that I did. I was still embarrassed about it, but there was nothing I could do about it now, so I just thought about something else. I also started recognizing the awesome things that I did and stopped discrediting them or watering them down with all the things I didn't or might not do next time (see the blog post below for more on drops of awesome!). Soon I stopped buying into the idea that I wasn't good enough or sweet enough etc. It sounds silly but that's really all it took. And without all that in the back of my mind I had more time to fill my thoughts with ideas of how to magnify my calling, serve others, fun things to help Wes learn etc. I really became happier, keeping myself and my thoughts busy with positive things.

Every girl should give this a try because every girl has insecurities. This blog post really helped me get started.

http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/19/drops-of-awesome/

It really just clicked in my mind that entertaining negative thoughts really just weighs us down. Heavenly father knows we're not perfect and he's okay with that. All we are asked to do is try our best, learn from our mistakes and KEEP LOOKING FORWARD and we are entitled to all of his grace. He loves us just the way that we are, so much that he sent his son for us. Many of us have read the bicycle analogy in the book Believing Christ, but this was another great talk that helped put things into perspective for me.

http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/08/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng

We really all need to believe that his grace is enough for us and let that give us hope and courage to carry on. I hope that someday I am able to see myself the way my heavenly father sees me and all the potential that I have. I hope to someday have changed myself so that I am comfortable in his presence and can live with him again.

Sunday Funday...or lazy day

Church was good today. We finally made it to church early for the first time ever and got a bench seat. Wes did much better being corralled in a bench then she has done being stuck sitting in our laps. They finally pinned me down with a calling and I got all sustained and everything today. I am officially the new Young Womens personal progress leader! I am pretty excited about it. A lot of the ladies I have wanted to get to know better at church are in young womens, so it will be nice to get to hangout with them. I go to YW third hour and also to the Wed activities to help fill in for the leaders that can't always make it. The YW seem like a really good group of girls. There aren't very many of them either and they all seem really close. I am excited to get to know them! It will be a new fun thing and it will also help motivate me to make it through the third hour of church when Weslie is at her breaking point! Just 2 more months and she can play in nursery. Hopefully the flu season will be over by then! I am such a germ freak I know, especially now that I've got Wes. There's seriously nothing worse than a sick baby. After church me and Wes had naps and Kevin got to watch his golf tournament. I made steak for dinner and now I am getting some quiet time upstairs in bed while Kevin and Wes watch the Superbowl. Sounds like a great lazy Sunday to me. Oh and there's one more thing. It's kind of embarassing but definitely worth mentioning. Today I finished reading the book of Mormon, all the way through from cover to cover. I had never really read it straight through, other than a BOM read-a-thon sleepover we did when I was in YW and you can imagine there was chattering and day dreaming. I think I was still in beehives and I probably fell asleep sometimes in the wee hours of the morning so it doesn't really count. Anyway I am really glad I did it. It feels much better to know all the stories now and I can better understand the lessons in Sunday school.