Cute Sophia

So little Sophia is 4 months old now! Just today! She's growing like a weed right now, in fact I only have one pair of PJ's that fit her and they probably won't in about a week! Ha ha, but anyway, I've taken a few pictures and videos of her the last week or so and thought I would post them! Also, look forward to seeing some pictures of my new neice Emily later today or tomorrow! (She was born this morning and I'm hopefully going to go visit tonight! I can't wait!)
So early last week I realized that Sophia is going to start eating rice cereal in a few weeks! I decided not to start that until her 4 month appointment, which is in 2 weeks. Anyway, upon realizing this, I also realized that I didn't have a high chair! So I went onto KSL and found one for really cheap that works great! Gotta love KSL! :) It's a Peg Perego Prima Pappa (not that this means much to me, but supposedly it's a good brand?) and it's a few years old and the lady I bought it from used it for when her grandkids came to visit, but it is well taken care of and a neutral color so I can use it again, so I'm happy! :)

I had to have her toys there to keep her company, but here she is in her high chair for the first time! (She's still tiny in it, but she'll grow!)

Just another view, she had a hard time focusing for pictures. :)

Also, I tried a pony tail again, but rather than using a band I just used a clip and she likes this much better.

Awe, cute hair! :)

Then the other day I had her sitting in her little lounger chair thing and she fell asleep like this, holding onto the side! I think she was having an adventure dream because she didn't let go of that for over 20 minutes!

Ha ha, note the ankle rolls - love her chunky legs!

Still holding on!

Then I also have a couple of videos of her! I've started to love videotaping her while she plays because she's just so cute! She's started "talking" to her toys more and it's so fun to see her little personality growing! This first video she was playing with her bug - a toy Grandma D got for her - and it got away from her and she was sad and told me all about it. So cute!

And in this next video Jon has started to do the "balancing trick" with Sophia. She just loves it! In fact while we were doing this today and taping it, she let out her first real laugh! It's not a huge belly laugh, but it's a lot more than the little giggles she has been doing! (Don't mind that I didn't notice the light right behind her head, I'm not really good at the whole taping thing!) :)

I love that she finally had a real laugh! I can't wait for her to laugh more and more! Oh it just melts my heart. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed these! Don't forget to leave a comment!

(Sigh) It's Another Angry Rant...

Sorry, just need to rant for a minute to get this off of my chest.

Just so you know this will be about politics, however I'm not going to tell you my side of it because, well it's not really relevant to my point.

Today one of my best friends called me. She had put up a status update on her Facebook saying that she was really happy for the Health Care bill being passed last Sunday. Because of her medical history and current medical standing, she has been denied for coverage and also her family has had to pay over $1000 a month in premiums because of medical conditions, so this is something that she's been looking forward to and has supported since the beginning. Also as a side note, she has never publicly told someone who doesn't support it that they're wrong, she has just made her point and moved on. So I made a comment about it, completely neutral, and went on about my day. When she called me she was asking if I had seen what someone else had written after me, so I looked at it. Basically one of her "friends" had gone onto her page and practically wrote a novel as to why she was wrong to be happy for the bill passing and compared Obama to Hitler and then continued to berate her by telling her that she is wrong, uneducated and blinded, all while finishing off that he didn't want to start a "pissing match" over it. She was ticked off that he claimed to not want to start something, yet basically told her that she was a stupid socialist Nazi in his retort. Granted, I really don't care what people think one way or the other on this, because it doesn't change my opinion, but what I do hate is the fact that people on both sides are firing such hateful things at each other over this. She also told me that she had received 2 other private messages, one stating that by supporting the bill she was going against God's will and will go to Hell for this. Another one told her that as a Mormon, she should not support this bill.

Aside from the personal experience of my friend, in Washington politicians are being spit on when they go to work and being called terrible names. Just like in the 60's, which to me is honestly scarier than the health bill.

Is this a bill a big topic for our country right now? YES. Of course it is! Regardless of how you look at it or whether you support it or hate it, it's a huge topic of discussion and debate right now and is something that is going to affect everyone, whether positively or negatively. So here are my questions:

1) Where does anyone, other than the leaders of any one religion, get off in saying what or how that religion should vote or think?
In the LDS religion, prophets have always counseled their members to research all political topics thoroughly and to come to a decision on the matter on their own. They have never told their members how to vote or how to feel or how to think in regards to matters of government. What they do tell people is to do your political duty and vote according to your personal revelation and feelings on the matter.

2) What gives someone the right to condemn someone else for believing in something that they don't?
Here's the down and dirty truth: Not everyone thinks the same way or has the same opinions about things. (I know! What a shocker!) People are going to believe differently that you. People are going to vote differently than you. You can debate with people all day about which view is right, but guess what? Most debates end with both parties feeling even more firmly that they are right and the other is wrong than before the debate. For example, you can talk to me until you're blue in the face that your kids are cuter than mine, but will that ever change my opinion of how I think that my daughter is the cutest in the world? No. Because that's how I see her. And I'm willing to bet that everyone else out there has a daughter, niece, sister, cousin, friend's baby, etc, who they think is the cutest little girl in the world, and their opinions probably won't change because I flash a picture of my daughter. Silly example, I know, but that's how people can be with politics as well. They are set in their ideas and probably won't change because you tell them they're wrong.

Anyway, while I was talking to my friend, I found this quote:

"If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way."
-Joseph Smith, Teachings of Presidents of the Church Chapter 29, "Living With Others In Peace And Harmony"

He's speaking specifically about religion, but to some people, politics is their religion. Now I know that generally speaking, how people worship does not affect the masses, whereas politics and bills being passes or vetoed does. So, rather than go on a hate trail when you don't get your way, do your research and vote. If voting doesn't work, see if there are petitions or something you can join. Don't tell people that they are going to go to Hell because they saw it a different way. What you should be doing is studying. Find out if they have a valid point for how they feel. I know exactly why my friend supports the bill - she's done her research, and while she very openly states that it's not perfect, she says that she supports it because it will help people like her and her family. I also have friends to very openly oppose it - and some of them like my friend have very specific reasons for opposing it. Here's the thing - those who truly have reasons to support or oppose the bill have actually spent the time to read it, so I completely support their opinions. I don't tell them if I think they are right or wrong, but I support their decisions. Who am I to judge whether they are right or not?

There are the other people, however, who support or oppose without having a clue as to what they're supporting or opposing. They only reason they do so is either because

A) Their parents have that opinion, therefore they do as well
B) Their friend told them all about it and "they're really smart so I trust them"
C) Some person said it on the radio/TV/in their book, so I believe them.
D) I just do. (No reason given, no facts to support, they just picked a side and stayed with it)

The thing missing from all of these reasons is personal study. Do your homework or shut your mouth. That is my opinion. In fact, the reason I don't get into the debates, other than to point out something that someone says that I liked, is because I simply haven't done the research on it. I haven't read the bill, therefore I have no right to tell someone if they're right or wrong. I hear what various media influences say but they don't decide for me, I do. I can listen to them, but I really shouldn't believe any of them without doing my own research first. They're just as opinionated and biased one way or the other as someone on the street, so why should any of them help me in making my decision? The ones that I believe should be involved are me, God, and if there's something I don't understand a non-biased person who can explain a portion to me that maybe I'm not sure what it means. That's it. Until I read the bill to fully understand what's going to happen, I don't have any right to tell someone that they're right or wrong.

Alright, well this rant has gotten long enough, so I'll end with this. Please don't discriminate against people because of how they think. Don't condemn people for having an opinion that doesn't match yours. And for goodness sake, do your research before you start flapping your mouth about something that you really don't know anything about, even if you heard it on TV or from a "reliable source". Don't rely on someone else to figure things out for you - you need to do it. Will I read the bill - yes. Until then I'll keep my opinions to myself, hear out facts, and respect other people's right to think one way or the other.

Again, I hope I haven't offended anyone, that's not my intention, I just think that there is too much unnecessary hatred being spewed out there that really shouldn't be. Please think before you speak, and please remember that Jesus said to "Love they neighbor", not yell and scream and condemn them for thinking differently.

End rant.

Visiting Teaching

So I know I've already done 2 posts today, but I just had one last one. I just wanted to say how much I love visiting teaching! I haven't done it much up until the last year or so. I had a really good partner last year who we went to visit the sisters every month and I had so much fun! Then I got a partner who, like me, had a hard time finding the time to go unless the other person initiated it. So we went once and I didn't go again for a few months. I kept wanting to go, but it was hard with being pregnant and then having Sophia, and then my partner got pregnant and was sick a lot. I know, excuses excuses. But I just got a new partner, an older lady in the ward who I've always thought was the most poised person I had ever met. She is such a sweetheart and is so strong, she's a great example to me. We've only gone to visit the sisters that were assigned to us once but it has already been such a blessing to me to do so! One of the sister's is younger and neither of us knew her, but she was cute and we had fun talking. The other two though are the ones that really made me realize how important visiting teaching is.

The first sister we went to visit is an elderly woman - not a member of the church but her husband is a convert who's first wife was also a convert and died of alzheimers a few years ago. He had it in his mind that once his new wife heard the gospel she would immediately have a miraculous conversion like he did, but she didn't. She believes a lot of it, but is scared of changing religions so late in her life. Also, she recently started suffering from alzheimers, which makes it difficult to remember what she's being taught and makes her frustrated with it. So when we went to visit, I kind of had a feeling right off the bat that she was suffering from alzheimers, which my partner later confirmed. We didn't give her a lesson because she mentioned that she was frustrated when a couple of young boys came and tried to teach her, so we just talked. I felt so uncomfortable because I didn't know her, and being so much younger than both her and my partner I sort of felt like the odd-man out. But while we were talking to her I got the most amazing feeling of love for this woman who I had just met. Maybe it was because I've had 2 grandparents suffer from alzheimers and it brought back memories of them, I don't know, but I just felt love while being there with her. I put in my two bits about the Book of Mormon and how I love how it compliments the Bible so well, and that was really all that I said, but it felt right. My partner later told me the whole story on our sister and told me that she felt that what I said was exactly what was needed right then. Such an amazing experience though, because even though I was a little uncomfortable, I felt that I had needed to throw in my piece and felt so good for having said it, and when my partner said that as well it was a double confirmation. I haven't had much experience with speaking through the spirit, but I think that's what happened. I can't wait to visit with her again.

We also went to another sister's home who was very sick and is now in the hospital in the ICU. We went to visit even though she never called us back to confirm our appointment, and she said some things that had us worried. When we asked her what we could do, she just asked us to pray for her, and we had a prayer in her living room and left. We found out later that she had been suffering from delusions. She went to the hospital the next week and while they were pumping excess fluid out of her chest cavity and around her heart (8 liters!) the surgeon nicked her carotid artery and they had to send her to St. Marks to get more help. I'm still praying for her. We also brought her family dinner tonight since her sons are in town to help watch her. It was the first time I had made dinner for someone in the ward who needed it and it just felt good, even though at first I was stressing about not being able to afford dinner for other people while we're so tight on money ourselves, I felt that it was the right thing to do and I'm glad I did it. If anyone reads this please keep her and her family in your prayers (her great-granddaughter was hit by a car a month and a half ago and is not looking good still).

Even with the sad stuff that's happening, I would have never even met these two sisters had it not been for visiting teaching and having such an amazing partner who gets me to go. The feeling I had while visiting these sisters was really just like that of going to the temple - it's a feeling I've very rarely felt outside of the temple actually. And it's amazing that in one day of visiting teaching I have really truly gained testimony of its importance.

Anyway, I usually try to not get too religious on here simply because I know a few people who read this are not religious or don't really care to read about this stuff, but I really felt that I should share this, so hopefully no one is offended! :)

On a side note, while I'm talking about praying for people there is a family in my ward who's baby (a few months older than Sophia) just had open-heart surgery due to complications with RSV last week and is still in the ICU (or NICU? I'm not sure which one...), so if you could throw her in, her name is Piper and she's just the cutest little girl. Anyway, just keep these families in your prayers as they definitely could use them right now.

Visiting Home

Last week Sophia and I were able to go and spend the week at my parent's house! My Mom had a bunch of PTO that she had to use, so she took a week and a half off and invited us up. It was so much fun, and so good to see my family and spend time with them! Here's just a bunch of pictures that we took while we were there:

My dad and Sophia - he was showing her Rusty, the chocolate lab they have.

We got Sophia's hair into a little pony tail! It was so cute! However...

Sophia wasn't a fan.

I think her poor little head is still a little too sensitive for pony tails, but at least I know it's long enough to do one! :)

Just playing with Grandma

Hee hee, and Grandma playing with her. :)

Lately Sophia has just loved to watch TV - she's starting to prefer cartoons more, but anything that's colorful and has a lot of movement get's her attention pretty fast. My mom was watching a movie and I found Sophia like this. :)

Mom and Sophia watching TV

One morning, I was off getting ready for the day while my parents were playing with Sophia, and I came in to find that they had built a "pillow fort" so that she could sit up without any help. She loved it!

Grandpa and Sophia just chillaxin.

Anyway, that's just a few of the pictures we took, but it was way fun! We also got to see my aunt who's black lab had just given birth to 10 puppies!!! So if you know anyone who wants a black or yellow lab, she's got plenty that will need homes in about 5 or 6 more weeks. :)

Lastly for this post, after we got home from my parent's house we decided that it was time for Sophia to start sleeping in her own room. She normally sleeps a minimum of 6 hours at a time, and usually closer to 8 hours at night, and goes down pretty easy most nights, so I had to suck it up and let her sleep by herself. She did great the first two nights! Here's a picture of her on her first night:

Yeah, don't mind all of the blankets piled around her - she can do a full 360 in her crib when she kicks those little legs, and since I never bought a crib set with a bumper I improvised for a couple of nights before giving in and getting the bumper. It's way cute but I don't have any pictures. Oh well. :) Anyway, so Sophia has done great sleeping on her own - even though the last night or two has been harder and she's woken up a lot more, she still does good most of the time. :)

As for me and Jon, same old same old. He's still studying for the PCAT - he's planning on taking the test in June probably - and I'm still doing my homework for Medical Transcripting to be done someday soon I hope. :)

Well that's all for this post. Don't forget to leave a comment! :)

Sophia's 1st Walk

So I started my day playing with Grandma. Mommy and I went to Grandma and Grandpa Daugherty's house to visit - it was so much fun! We spent a whole week there! Grandma would usually come and get me right when I woke up so that Mommy could sleep a little longer - she wasn't feeling very good. Anyway, this day started much like the others, where Grandma and I played until Mommy got out of bed.

After we played for a while, we decided to take me on my first walk! I had never been in my stroller before, but it was pretty nice. The only thing I didn't like was that it was kind of bright outside, even with the clouds it made me squint.

Grandma pushed me in the stroller while Mommy took pictures. Mommy wouldn't let us take any pictures of her because she didn't put any makeup on. Silly Mommy!

We were off! It was fun to walk around, but soon we ran out of sidewalk, so we had to rough it a bit off-road. My stroller has some pretty good shocks though, so I mostly slept while we bounced over the dirt.

We went all over Hyrum! We even got to see Mommy's old high school, but we didn't go inside. Maybe someday I'll go to Mountain Crest like Mommy! :)

Then we had to stop off at the Soccer fields. This is where Mommy played soccer when she was little - it was pretty cool.

We had a great view of the mountains the whole time - it was very pretty!

Then we reached our destination - RedBox! It was inside of the McDonald's, so we were kept a little warmer while we rented our movies. Mommy picked out The Princess and the Frog for me to watch! But I was getting kind of tired at this point and so I didn't let her know that I was happy about it.

Then we went acrossed the street to the store and got some snacks. When we were done shopping it had gotten much colder and much darker, so we called uncle Jeffrey to come and pick us up rather than walk home. Good thing too, it started raining a little while later! This is us waiting for uncle Jeffrey outside of Reed's Pharmacy.

He got there soon enough and I was warm and snuggly inside of the car. By now I was very tired - it was hard to keep my eyes open!

It was a fun adventure! Hopefully Mommy will remember to take me on walks more often. :)

3 Months

Little Sophia turned 3 months last week! Man she's getting big - I have to remind myself not to tell people that I have a "newborn" anymore! Anyway, I weighed her and she was 11.8 pounds a week and a half ago, but she's growing so fast she's probably up to 12 or more by now! And she finally fit into her 0-3 month jeans! Okay, so they're still big on her, but they stay up so I counted it. :) Funny thing is that her 0-3 month onsies are too small on her now, but the 0-3 month pants are either just right or big on her! She's going to have a body like me - short squatty legs and a long torso.

As of the last week or so she doesn't mind her tummy time so much anymore, which is great! Here's some pictures of her enjoying her tummy time - look how strong her little neck is!

Look at that face! So sweet! And for the record I made that bow and I am very proud of it. :) (Thanks Mary for teaching me how and for providing all of the ribbons and such!)

She has her tongue out a lot...especially when there's a camera involved! :)

She was smiling right before I took the picture, but every time she sees the camera she stops! To get the smiling pictures I usually have to hide the camera. :)

And now for the best part of all! Today (right after taking these pictures actually) SHE ROLLED OVER!!! I thought it was a fluke at first - there's no way she just did that! But I put her right back on her tummy and got the video camera just in case, and sure enough she rolled! I just can't believe she's already doing that, I wasn't expecting it for a while longer, but then again I still think of her as a newborn so maybe that's my issue. Anyway, I tried to upload the video but the stupid thing wouldn't load after 2 hours so I gave up. Sorry. :(

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures! Be sure to comment!

Thanks

Hey, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been sympathetic towards my self-pity. After putting that last post up I went back the next day and was going to delete it and saw that a lot of you had posted really great comments that made me feel better about everything. Glad I'm not alone out there and I just wanted to say thanks for all of your love and support! You guys are great! And I promise not to be so depressing in my future posts! lol, Anyway to start off my non-self-pitying posts again I'm putting up a hilarious picture of Sophia. Ha ha, I love her little pout and she's perfected it! Enjoy!

I Just Need To Complain And Feel Sorry For Myself For a Minute...

So the last 2 months have been stressfull! I know that a lot of people have more to stress over than I do, but honestly the last 3 years have been easy! I only had to worry about being a wife. We had 2 good incomes, a house all to ourselves, some dogs - not much to stress about. So I feel like I need to vent a bit and then maybe I'll feel better. If you don't like whiney posts, then you really shouldn't read this because I'm going to be whining a lot.

Since having Sophia I will say that I'm happier than I've ever been, but I'm also more stressed than I've ever been! Not with the mothering part like I would have thought, but with everything that came with it. Like the bills. I had no idea that we would have over $4000 in medical bills! Our insurance totally screwed us over on that. Then trying to work out my time off of work. I had called a month before Sophia was born to get all of the information, and then when I called a week after she was born it was all suddenly wrong! and then after many calls and tears and a lot of frustration, I get a call from them saying that what I was told originally was right. Grrrr. Then because of everything that had been going on, on top of just recovering from having a baby, I had the added stress of not having any money for Christmas (which actually turned out okay in the end, but stressful up until the day almost) and not having time to do my Medical Transcripting class, which I was going to use three weeks before Sophia was born to get ahead in but ended up having Sophia 3 weeks early instead. (*Note: I'm actually very happy she came three weeks early)

So that was the first month - then in January I started to feel the stress of all of the lack of sleep and had to go in for my 6 week checkup, only to find out that a mole that was removed during my labor had some atypical cells and I would need to get a bigger chunk cut out to get rid of them. So just after recovering from birth, I had to get sliced up again. Also the stress from the medical bills hit full force this month, which I'll admit put a little bit of a damper on my birthday but Jon was great and made me feel special anyway. But we had to apply and then get denied for financial assistance for our bills, then we had to fight with the short-term disability people to see if I could continue to be paid past 6 weeks.

Now all of this was stressful, but none of it compared to me trying to make a decision to return to work or not. Now I have never wanted to work after having kids - call me selfish, but I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom. My mom was home with us and I loved it, and I feel like I had a better relationship with my mom than some of my friends did with their mom's who worked. This has been the goal from day 1. However, I knew that I probably would not be able to do this, which is why I started the Medical Transcripting class. Since that's not done though, I had to decide whether to stay at Convergys or not. I loved my job. I love training new people, I love it when my agents do well in class, and love it even more when they get out of my class and do great things. I love the people I worked with, and I loved most of the projects I trained on (UHG and DTV I loved, Bank of America I hated.) Then I heard that if I came back I would be training on the Bank. Yeah, that helped in my decision making, so Jon and I prayed about it and decided I should stay home. Now for the twists. Right after I told my boss that I would be quitting at the end of my maternity leave, he says that I might be able to train on the Census project and then be a team leader for the class I teach and be able to work AM and possibly even part time. Those were good, and what was better is I would be getting paid more because the government is issuing those paychecks. Sounded great, but Jon and I went to the temple and the answer was no. So I continue on, trying to get my class done and trying to keep up with all of my bills. Then the day before my last day at work, at about 5:00pm, the next twist. Now my boss is offering to let me train on DTV again, on a morning shift. So Jon and I could tag team with Sophia except for a few hours in the afternoon when our schedules overlapped, and we wouldn't have to worry about bills but we'd both be a little behind on schoolwork. Sounded good again, the only catches were the daycare and I would have to be able to commit to working there through August and then leave. Also, I had to make a decision by end of business the next day. So I went in the next day after having no idea what to do after thinking it through the whole night before, and talk to my boss. I'm thinking, okay I can work this out and then we won't be stressed about money anymore. But after talking to Jon and working it out with him (on the phone in the hallway while my boss waited for my answer, no pressure or anything) we both don't feel like that is the right decision, and I go back and tell him that it's definitely my last day.

At this point I'm pretty emotional because I'm still a little torn on my choice, and because I hate to say goodbye to my training family. And to make matters worse, I think that my boss had been hoping I would stay because he seemed less happy after I told him my choice and just told me to take my time to write my goodbye email, showed me where the boxes were to pack up my stuff, and left. Then he had to come back and said, "Well I might as well give you a hug", and that made it a little better, but my farewell from that place just felt cold. I didn't get to see anyone but my boss, and it seemed like he barely remembered to wish me good luck. I don't know, I guess I felt a little unappreciated, especially since everyone else who's ever left the company, or just moved to another project, got a whole goodbye party with cake and everything where everyone could come and say goodbye and wish them luck, while all I got was a hug from one person and my goodbye was an email written while I cried alone at my desk. I know I'm being selfish here, but I would have at least liked to see the other trainers before I left, if not some of the other people I worked with or trained. I mean, I was more sad about leaving Convergys and the training department than I was when I graduated High School (which I honestly wasn't sad about at all...) I've spent almost 5 years there...oh well.

The good thing in all of this though is Sophia. She makes all of the stress worth it - but at the same time I still wish there was less stress. :) At this point all I can do though is put my faith in the Lord that he will help us find a way to work everything out. We still have bills - lots and lots and lots of bills, and we're still going to struggle for a while, but I feel like this is what we were supposed to do, and that we made the right decision in having me quit work to be home with my daughter. I know that he'll help us find a way, but it's still a little scary for me not knowing exactly how or when that will work out. Anyway, I think I've complained for long enough - in fact I may even delete this post...I haven't decided yet. Anyway, if anyone's made it this far in reading (which I really kind of hope you didn't because it's a snoozy-sob-fest) then just know that I do feel much better after ranting it all out and that I really do know that we made the right decision in when we had Sophia and in my leaving work, and that he will help us in all of our hard times.

Help a Friend!

Hey everyone! I almost forgot to do this and would have felt terrible if I had, so I'm remembering to do it now! :) One of my friends from my Bear Lake days, Whitney, is working on getting her Masters degree and is doing her thesis and needs some help from everyone gathering information for it. She's doing her thesis on internet folklore with a focus on blogs and bloggers. All you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and email it to her - that's it! It doesn't take very long to do and will really help her out. Also, I will vouch 100% for her in keeping anything you put on the questionnaire completely confidential because she's just a good person. :) Anyway, to get all of the details and the questionnaire, go to her blog at http://www.thekingandiblog.com/2010/02/king-and-i-need-you.html

Please help me help my friend Whitney! Thanks everyone!