mormon's in america

last night you may or may not have watched nbc's rock center which dedicated their entire hour to a special titled "mormons in america". since i am a mormon in america, naturally i tuned in to see how they did. overall, i would give them an A. they presented accurate information in a generally positive light, which can sometimes be a difficult thing for nbc to achieve... of course there were a few things i wish had been different, like the amount of air time abby huntsman, an "ex" mormon (as she put it), was given. but overall, it's certainly worth a watch.

so now i would like to share a few specific thoughts on the show. first of all, i'm glad they did include abby huntsman in it, not her specifically but an "ex" mormon (i've never really heard it referred to that way until last night, hence the ""). i'm glad they included successful members, typical members, non-typical members (like the biracial couple) and even someone who has struggled but returned. i, shockingly, enjoyed the yale professor's comments and i wish they had shown him more. mainly i'm glad they showed as we see ourselves- happy, service oriented, and striving to live the closest to Christ as we can.

i loved the first segment with the jet blue founder. he was such a positive example of how the church can and does shape lives. i loved the segment on the church welfare program and even i learned a little something from that. (i always knew the church owned farms and such but i guess i never really knew what they actually them). i loved that they pronounced moroni correctly! i loved that they talked about the success of many members of the church. i loved that they beautifully explained the benefits of serving a mission. and they were right about children saving from when they are young- we put $25 a month into a saving account for evan's mission.

here are some things i didn't love so much: i didn't love abby huntsman saying that she hopes someday the church will allow more people into the temple. clearly she has no understanding of the sacredness of the temple and why you must be a member to enter. i do not wish to be privy to the more private parts of any other group that i do not subscribe to and i would hope people could have the same respect for our temples. i did not love the active member saying she had had one coke in her life like it was a bad thing. there is NO church doctrine about caffeine. we are told to stay away from anything addictive or harmful, and some people have independently interpreted that as caffeine. i have a coke zero nearly every single day and i am a worthy member of the church- no harm there. i was confused about the member gay man marching for gay marriage. and i was very, very saddened by the story of the last man, who is gay and has so clearly struggled with the decision of how to live his life. i feel so sad for anyone who has to make a choice regarding a serious temptation in their life and i cannot imagine the pain associated with any decision made. i said a special prayer for him last night, that he may find peace in his life.

it was only an hour long, so obviously they didn't cover everything. but i think they did a more than fair job of showing what they could, all sides included, in that hour. if you want to know more, all i ask is that you go to the source. you may visit www.mormon.org for direct answers to questions or you may visit www.lds.org for more independent study. and you are always welcome to view my mormon.org page (see the link on the right side of my blog).

i hope through all of this attention in the media, that people may learn to accept mormon's for who we are- members of a church who believe in Christ and try very literally to emulate Him in our words and deeds. by no means do i ask for everyone to accept what we believe as their own (not that i would mind that... :) but i do ask that you accept that it is what i hold to be the nearest, dearest, and the most absolutely true part of my life.

so tired

so evan has had 2 nights in a row of bad sleep. and i'm exhausted from it. yesterday, i woke up SO tired- you know those mornings when you wake up and you can't even open your eyes, that kind of morning. then we were home all day, just the 2 of us, for the first time in months and that wore me out. then i had young women's and we cleaned the highway and that wore me out. then to cap all of that evan didn't fall asleep until 1:30AM!!! and then woke up less than 6 hours later. so needless to say, i'm beyond pooped today.

the point of this post is not to gain sympathy. frankly many of you are probably reading this and saying... so why are you sleepy exactly? the point of this post is to say HOW DO MOMS DO IT??!! i know moms who have kids who never really sleep through the night. my sister, for example, did not sleep through the night until first grade. i am barely functioning after 2 days of this nonsense and i only have 1 kid to top it all off. and i don't work. i REALLY don't know how a working mom does it.

my hat goes off to all those awesome moms who not only live and function well off no sleep, but most of them manage to remain beautiful through it all too. i admire you. i want to be like you but only in theory, not in such a real way that i have to experience your pain in order to get there. for now, i will continue to hope for my wonderful sleeping baby boy to come back to me and i will pray that your children grace you with a full nights sleep too.

little monster party

since evan is down for a really good nap, i'm taking advantage of the down time and finally blogging about his first birthday party. it's so worth blogging about too- we had a great time with lots of family and friends.

now since his birthday fell on a saturday you may be wondering why we had it a week later. well basically the timing just worked out better for family who was traveling in so they could see matt's end of camp performance on friday and go to evan's party on saturday. and i'm glad we got to celebrate his actual day just family and with something smaller.

but the party was fabulous! i couldn't have done it all without lots of help from my family, especially my mom and katie. and my parents bought all the food... which was a huge help too! so i decided on the theme a long time ago and have been buying and preparing for a while. we had a lot of people there- roughly 40 people counting kiddos. thankfully my parents have an awesome basement which ended up being the perfect place to host all the fun. i will tell the rest in pictures but let me start by saying, i did a terrible job at taking pictures. i did not get great pictures of the decorations, i did not get pictures of evan with anyone, and the pictures i took just aren't anything awesome. oh well, such is life. i hope you can see all the love and fun through these less-than-awesome pictures anyway.

 a bit of the food table. i turned $1 easels from michael's into cute little monsters that told what some of the food is.

 the cakes!! cakes by shirley here in seneca made them and not only were they super cute, but they were super duper delicious! (fresh strawberry filling with cream cheese icing)

a little bit more of the food table. i took the pictures too early though cause half of the table is empty! 

 a banner with his monthly pictures

 the doors even joined in on the party!

his little throne.

 most of the little friends who joined us

 monster bowling- the kids had a good time with this

 pin the eye on the monster- all the kids loved this silly game!

even evan had to get in on that one

evan loved smashing the cake- katie did most of the eating of it (she doesn't like strawberries...) he would not wear the hat but we at least snapped a few pictures with it- it's just so cute!

i really did not expect him to get so many presents- but he loved it and we are thankful to have such kind people around us!

so blessed and thankful to be a mommy to this perfect little one year old. love you tons evan!

evan's first birthday

evan's first birthday was august 4. we didn't have his party until a week later, but that doesn't mean we didn't celebrate the day of! we started the day at home, just us and katie, and took his monthly pictures- the last ones! then we had a nice lunch as home before heading to greenville to take evan to chuck e. cheese's for the first time on his first birthday! i spent my first birthday at chuck e. cheese so naturally, he had to spend his there too. well, to sum up the whole experience- he LOVED it! he loved the rides, the games, the show- all of it.

 loving the jungle gym in the toddler zone

 he had lots of phone calls to make

 he loved all the little rides

 and of course, he always loves a slide

 evan and chuck

even us big kids had a good time!

after we spent about 2 hours there, we all went to dinner at on the border. he ate a yummy dinner of corn dogs and veggies and then they sang to him and brought him a dessert, which is kindly shared with the rest of us :) we didn't want to fill him up quite yet with sugar because we had a cake waiting for him at home. he got to see tortillas being made and chew on some crayons- it was a great place to have his birthday dinner!

such a happy family!

after we finished up in greenville, we drove back to my parents house for presents and cake. we thought since he would be getting presents at his party the next week, maybe we should go ahead and do all of ours to not overwhelm him with too much new stuff. plus, we were ready to give him what we all had bought him! so we sang, helped him blow out his candle, and went on the the present opening. well, he loved opening presents at christmas and he loved it on his birthday. but what he really loved were the cards my parents and grandparents got him. 

evan LOVES ballons

his cake with one "candle"

his favorite thing of the night- the dragon card

we ended the festivities with cake and ice cream. evan thought this was his smash cake, cause that's all he did was take a handful, squeeze it, then either throw it on the ground for the puppies, throw it on my mom, or try and feed someone else. what a silly boy!

i think evan had a great first birthday! i know i thoroughly enjoyed celebrating it. it was a day filled with family and fun. it was so good, i'm sure now he has super high expectations for his second birthday- and he should! he is a great little boy and deserves a day all about him. don't worry evan- we won't disappoint next year and we are already looking forward to it!

evan- 12 months

my baby is a toddler! how can this be?? his birthday was about a week and a half ago but my goodness, this past month has been beyond crazy! it all started with family visiting, followed by youth conference, followed by more family, followed by 2 1/2 weeks of band camp, intermixed with more family visiting, and evan's birthday/party- finally getting to blog is awesome. matt is back at work and evan and i are just hanging out watching pbs- the way life should be at 9 in the morning!

so about my new toddler. he is wonderful, as you already know but allow me to update you on his latest stats:

he weighs 24lbs 3.5oz, which means he is slowing down because he is now only in the 70%
he is 31 inches long, again only in the 70%
his head is still in the 90-95%- what can i say, he's got a dunnam head like his mommy
he also has really big feet. i already knew this because he is wearing a 5 in shoes, but the doctor confirmed it.

he has a few of obsessions: first and foremost, his mimi. if my mom is around, i might as well not exist- he only wants her! she says it's cause she is the biggest monkey for him and does pretty much whatever he wants, which is probably true. plus they just love each other tons! his second is a book katie made him for christmas. we read it at least 600 times a day. third he LOVES to go outside with my mom to her backyard and scoop poop. i know it sounds crazy, but he points to the door saying "oo" "oo" (out) and then points to the stairs grunting, then points to the shovel grunting, and then laughs and smiles every time she scoops something (he sits on her shoulders). we did get rid of one obsession- the pacifier. he did really well with that considering how much he loved it and i am really glad to see it gone.

he also now hates a few things namely the bath and any food that is even a little bit warm. he also hates baby food but the good news is that he loves pretty much all regular food so he is really easy to feed. although he is not crazy about this switch to milk, but neither matt or i like milk so that's not terribly shocking.

he has gotten so smart! he knows a lot of words, even though his speaking vocabulary is fairly small. he has a word book (that he is also pretty obsessed with) and you can ask him to find a lot of things and he will point to them. in the book katie made him, he can point to a lot of his family members if you ask him. he knows what he wants and he is not afraid to ask for it. he will point you in the direction of what he wants until he gets it.

other things he loves: going outside, books, playing with trucks, playing with balls, yogurt, ice water, mickey mouse, balloons, iPhones, remotes, lions, elephants.

i love evan so much. i cannot imagine my life without him. he brings me the greatest joy i have ever known. i am so blessed to have watched him grow into this curious and bright little toddler this past year and cannot wait to see what year 2 brings!

the best one i could get this month...