this man i love

This man I love

Is good and kind

Brilliant and generous

Affectionate and resourceful

This man I love

Makes our life joyful

Works hard for our family

Shares his gifts with the world

This man I love

Made me his wife

Fathered my children

And cheers me on when I fly


This man I love

Loves me and always will



Happy Anniversary, Jared dear. I love you more.

playing

Every once in awhile Miriam will play by herself like this. I peaked from the kitchen and saw this the other day and had to grab my camera. She spied me too as you can see.

the view from our front porch this morning

Last night the rain turned to snow and this is what we woke up to! I knew we were going to get at least one more good snow. The sun is now shining bright and working on melting the snow away already. I think Spring can come now.

update

I feel like I have lots to blog about but no time to do it. Here's some of what we've been up to...

Last Thursday I photographed my first birth! Very exciting and totally wonderful. It went perfectly. And the timing couldn't have been better. I got to the birth about 7:15 am, the baby was born at 9 and then I stuck around until 11:30 to get pics of the baby being weighed and measured. It was also perfect timing because Jared wasn't teaching that day like he normally would have because of spring break. Miriam even survived being away from mama for nearly 5 hours quite well. Hopefully I'll be able to share some pics from the birth on my photo blog after the family sees them. I'm going to be busy this week going through them all. As to be expected, I took a lot!

Friday night we went to a party at our Hypnobabies instructor Liz's house. She invited over past students for a little reunion. We ended up staying until almost 2 in the morning! We were just talking up a storm with Liz and her husband and sister. Kindred spirits for sure. Amazingly, Asher actually stayed awake that whole time too playing. He didn't want to leave. Definitely has his dad's night owl genes.

Um, I can't remember Saturday. Hmmm... I know we slept in and I took a nap too, so maybe all we did was try to catch up on sleep? I feel like there was something else.

Sunday was busy. We went to a baby blessing of one of Jared's cousin's new babies. Afterward we had lunch at Jared's uncle's house with all the family. Then we came home and Jared made dinner, I made a cake, and my brother's came over. It was Nick's 19th birthday. Can't believe my baby brother is 19!

Yesterday Asher's eyes started getting red and goopy and he ended up sleeping in our bed cuddled up to me all night. He's definitely not feeling well although his eyes seem to be better than they were this morning. We put some breastmilk in them last night but he hasn't let me put more in today. Breastmilk really helps clear up eye infections.

The big kids are also off school today. They are currently watching Justice League.

So that's the boring update for ya'll. Miriam hasn't been going to bed quite as early the past week and I've been going to bed earlier so my two hands free computer time has been sorely limited. Hopefully I'll back into the swing of things this week.

be inspired

I saw this on facebook today and shared it there, but had to post it to my blog as well. What an inspiration this man is. He feeds the homeless, ill, old, and forgotten members of his society. He bathes them and cuts their hair. He loves them when no one else does. Sounds like someone else who lived a couple thousand years ago, doesn't it? This man is also a Brahmin, the upper caste, so he shouldn't even touch the people he's caring for.

EDIT: Jared put this in the comments, but I wanted to add it here too so you all see it. You can donate to this man's organization here: http://www.akshayatrust.org/

Not sure why its cropped the way it is but you won't really miss anything.

Jared on Mormon Stories

 

Several months ago we discovered the wonderful Mormon Stories Podcast. Started by John Dehlin, this podcast series seeks to "interview interesting people about Mormon-related current events, issues, media  and culture." There are lots of fascinating interviews from which we have learned TONS. And now Jared is among them! Jared's interview is titled "An Academic Introduction to the New Testament".  It is basically a crash course in the New Testament from an academic viewpoint. I'm really excited to listen to it and learn more myself! If you missed the hyperlink above, check it out here.

A small disclaimer: The ideas presented are going to be quite different from what you get in LDS Sunday School or Seminary. The purpose of this podcast is to share how scholars evaluate the evidence and what conclusions they come to after dedicating their lives to studying this material. It is not Jared's intent to destroy faith, and it includes his account of how he reconciles his faith and studies. He freely acknowledges there are other approaches that also work. Finally, he welcomes any discussion on the interview page. 

I'm so proud of you, babe!

8 months old

Better late than never, here are M's 8th month portraits. 

(They are only so-so. We took them in a hurry.)

I'm still rather shocked that she is really 8 months old already, but this is a really fun stage.

She sits and plays by herself...well next to me usually. She doesn't tolerate me not being near for too long. 

She is liking her daddy more and more, which is adorable.

She loves peekaboo and will even hold the blanket over her face herself.

Her laughs are infectious. 

As are her smiles.

She has a superior gag reflex which means she's not eating solids yet, 

even though she likes to taste things.

She really loves her big brothers and sisters.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel like the luckiest mom ever 

to have such a sweet and beautiful baby girl.

Yeah, I'm not really liking the post-processing I did on these either, but am too lazy to redo them. Oh well. She's still cute!

ack!

I just realized that today is the 24th and that means Miriam turned 8 months old YESTERDAY. I can't believe I totally missed it! Today someone actually asked me how old she is and I said 7 months. Why does time have to go SO freaking fast?! I don't like it. Guess I'll be taking her 8 month portraits tomorrow... two days late.

amazing hypnobabies home waterbirth--unassisted!

My wonderful Hypnobabies instructor, Liz Phalp, gave birth to her 6th baby back in October. She recently posted the birth story and video to her website, and I just have to share it. I totally teared up watching her quick, easy, peaceful birth. It brought back how I felt when Miriam was born. The awe and peace and ease with which it all happened. Although the specifics are different, our births were very similar--quick labor, kneeling in water, water breaking late, only pushing a few times, catching the baby ourselves, the utter joy felt while lifting a new baby out of the water.

This was not a planned unassisted birth; the midwife (same as mine) just didn't make it in time!

Here is an excerpt from the birth story and the video follows:

I remember feeling excited when I realized that no one else was going to make it. Though I’ve never wanted a planned, unassisted birth, I knew the ones that happen by accident, always seem to happen without incident, and I was really feeling good about things. So with this pressure wave I pushed once and the water broke, I pushed again and his head came out. When I said “there’s his head” Tyson said “are you serious?!” and finally put his phone down, then as I took another breath Tyson said “is he out?” (I’m not sure why he couldn’t see at this point, I guess I was blocking him, I was in a part kneel, part squat), and I said “not yet” then pushed the rest of him out. It was so incredible, feeling his head after the water broke, then seeing his head when I pushed it out, then holding his whole body as it came out. What an incredible way to be totally and completely connected to my baby and my body, and doing it all completely by myself was so incredible! I just really can’t describe how it felt other than completely natural and right! From the minute I stepped in the tub not a single fear or doubt even entered my mind, I was so assured and confident. It was like someone else stepped into my body, someone who had done this hundreds of times. It was so perfect, so amazing, truly such a miracle!

She also named her baby Asher. :-)

just because

Sometimes it's ok to be a girly girl.