it's here!

the christmas season is finally here! 

i cannot express how excited i am...

i actually get excited driving around town seeing christmas trees on the tops of cars...

seeing houses with glimmering christmas lights at night...

and looking at all the beautiful decorations people are starting to put up.

it really is the most wonderful time of the year!

and now, since it is the last day in november, 'tis time to reveal the bucket list.

tomorrow starts the official countdown to christmas!!!

i am so excited to start checking these babies off.

did you make your list yet?! 

missionaries.

last week, the husband, chloe and i were on one of our frequent walks 

when i saw a group of people walking ahead of us.

i could tell right away that this group was not on the same type of walk we were on.

in fact, i could tell, almost immediately that this small group of about 5 individuals were missionaries. 

i think nowadays just about everyone has seen an LDS missionary.

they can be spotted a mile away.

pants/suit, white shirt, tie, and the infamous name tag indicating that they are missionaries 

for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

these missionaries were not LDS, and i have no idea what church they belong to,

but it made me think about missionary work in general...

i have a huge amount of respect for anyone, of any religion, who chooses to do missionary work.

especially in this day and age.

to give up your time to spread a message of happiness is a wonderful thing.

i don't think you can make an argument against that.
you may not hold the same beliefs as the individuals carrying out the message,
but the sacrifice and devotion to their faith is admirable.

missionaries, of all faiths, have the door slammed on them daily.
they are yelled at. called idiots.
if someone has a differing opinion, we all have a tendency to disagree, argue, belittle, or ignore.
but its my hope, that all of us can look at these people who are dedicating their time,
with more respect.
whether you agree with their message or not,
you can change their entire day by taking a minute to just say "hi".
you can make a big difference in their life.

there is really no major point to this post, other than to say:
i am extremely grateful for those who chose to do missionary work. 

especially to the young men and women from the LDS church 

who dedicate their time and leave their homes to be "full time missionaries".

{young men serve 2 year missions; young women serve 18 month missions}

thank you, to all the missionaries out there. 

perfection.

 just because these are pretty awesome...

 it's officially one week until thanksgiving!

that also means i've officially been sugar free for 21 days now.

that, my friends, is a true miracle.

{but you can bet i am already planning out my thanksgiving day desserts!}

what are your favorite holiday treats?!

are you with me?

if you didn't know already...i love the holidays.

i love everything about them.

i love the music.

i love the lights.

the food...

the movies.

the family gatherings.

i love it all. 

now, i'm also one of those who likes to celebrate each holiday as its own.

i can't stand how people rush though one holiday to get to the next one.

christmas commercials in october? 

no thank you.

christmas music before thanksgiving?

no thank you.

ok. ok... i lied.

typically i have the "no christmas music until the day after thanksgiving" rule.

then you can hear christmas songs blasting from every speaker i can get my hands on.

this year i am breaking that rule.

thanksgiving isn't until the 28th this year! 

that just didn't give us enough holiday cheer time. 

SO...

christmas music will officially start playing in our home at the end of this week.

{i am so excited!}

all that being said...

i saw a cute idea that i wanted to share with you.

{in hopes that you might share in the fun with me and do it too!}

and although its still 'thanksgiving time' in my mind,

 it takes a little preparation so i wanted to share it with you now.

this year i've made...

a christmas bucket list.

you make a list of 25 things that you want to do during the holiday season,

then, the goal is to do at least one thing on your list per day up until christmas.

a couple things from my list:

"buy a real christmas tree"

"take chloe to go see santa"

"make paper snowflakes"

i cannot wait to share the rest of my list with you, 

and then subsequently, post {with pictures} as i check things off.

i love this idea because i feel like every year i forget something.

after the holidays i'm always saying, "i wish we remembered to do x,y, or z".

not gonna happen this year!

i'm on a mission.

are you with me?!

{i've broken another rule by putting chloe in a christmas onsie already.
i had to though...it was too cute and will be too small in december. sigh.}

baby blessing.

in the LDS church, babies are not baptized.

it is our belief that individuals can be baptized starting at the age of eight.

we see the age of 8 as"the age of accoutability"

which means simply:

an eight year old knows wrong from right.

then can choose to make good and bad choices.

at the age of eight, a child can choose to be baptized.

when a child is born into an LDS family,
rather than being baptized,
they are given a baby blessing.
this blessing is typically given at church
during their first couple months of life.

in the blessing the child is officially given their name
as well as a blessing of health and happiness.
each baby's blessing is unique to the individual child.
for those non-lds folk reading, a blessing is king of like a prayer.
 {i'll write more about blessings in the near future}

i was lucky enough to have many family members attend baby c's blessing.
all of of the husbands immediate family were there
along with some extended family who were able to fly in from out of town.
almost all of my immediate family came too,
which was lucky for me because i didn't ask most of them until the day before.
i was really nervous, and didn't want to pressure them to come,
and I was nervous because many of them had never attended an LDS church service before.

it was such a special day, and to be able to share it with family made it even better.
here are some pictures we took after church:

{two of my 3 older brothers}

{my mom...aka grandma}

{the husbands' dad and grandfather}

{all the girls}

{cousins}

{it's a good thing you cannot tell baby c had spit up EVERYWHERE and was screaming throughout all the pictures}

a place of peace.

i was asked if i might share some pictures of baby c's nursery.

but i want to preface the pictures with some thoughts...

as always.

when i found out i was pregnant, 

it was quite a shock.

after all, just a few weeks prior 

i was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome...

a syndrome that can leave you with many fertility issues.

in my case, i was lucky.

the diagnosis was wrong.

while i do struggle with extremely painful ovarian cysts,

i would not have to worry about the awful 'i' word so many struggle with.

(infertility)

the excitement kicked in and i was beyond overjoyed to plan.

ask anyone that knows me...

i am a list writer.

an organizer.

a planner.

one thing i couldn't wait to get started on was our baby's nursery.

i knew i wanted to go neutral with the bedding and many of the decorations.

i also knew i would add pops of either blue or pink depending on the gender of our child.

when we found out c was a girl, i was pretty shocked.

i had thought that our little one was a boy.

in fact i was pretty sure of it.

jokes on me i guess! 

thrilled to be having a baby girl, i wanted to jump into decorating asap.

the only problem:

chloe's nursery was currently a home office for the husband.

the next few months were as follows:

me: hey dear, lets clean out the middle room so i can start getting ready for the baby! 

the husband: we've got a lot of time, lets just hold off a bit.

you can just repeat the last few lines. 

overandoverandoverandover.

the husband was excited for her arrival, but not all that thrilled to be giving up his office.

of course, in time, we slowly packed things up.

moved his desk to our bedroom

 and cleared out what would soon become baby c's little place of peace.

i am beyond pleased with how it turned out.

you know how projects don't end up how you envisioned, 

probably like 99% of the time?!

well, this one i am happy to say turned out exactly how i wanted.

i guess all that extra time i had while the husband was dragging his feet 

gave me plenty of time to really plan

{and search pinterest}.

i didn't think her room would be super girly,

but the pops of pink i chose 

{the drapes, and scrapbook paper, along with some gifts from family members and friends}

made her room especially girly.

perfect for our little june bug.

{sorry in advance for the crumby pictures. they are from my phone}

 

today i lost it.

i've had a pretty rough day today and i just need to get it all out...

i am writing as i think things over, 

so please forgive the rambling and or randomness of this post.

since day, 1 chloe has been an amazing baby.

i don't have anything to compare her to except stories of other babies,

but i'd say she is a very 'good' baby.

she sleeps pretty well,

she is typically very happy, and she rarely cries

unless she is crying for a reason

{hungry, tired, needs to be changed}.

we've had it pretty easy.

when she is fussy with me, 

i can hand her to the husband and she typically calms down {or vice versa}.

however, things have changed recently.

last friday, chloe had her 4 month check up where she got her vaccinations.

if you know anything about those, you know it can make little ones pretty fussy.

on top of that, we were greeted by daylights savings time,

which has messed up her schedule in the worst possible way.

on top of that, she has already cut two teeth and is still teething.

on top of that, my once happy baby is no longer happy.

she goes from happy and laughing, to wailing-- in a matter of seconds.

to top it all off, for some reason, the past two days when i try to put her to sleep or console her,

she arches her back and wants nothing to do with me.

my patience was wearing thin today...

and then it happened.

she was in another crying episode and i was trying to console her.

i was doing everything i could...feeding her, rocking, singing, pacifier, the works.

all she would do is try to squirm away from me.

i tried putting her down, but the screaming got worse.

i tried and tried. 

i was frustrated. 

she was frustrated.

so i put her down on her play mat and walked away.

i sat in my bedroom, right down the hall from where she was lying, 

and took a few deep breaths...

then i was hit with what felt like a ton of bricks.

i went back, picked her up, and started to cry.

i feel awful for losing my patience.

i feel awful for not being able to make her feel better,

and for not knowing what is wrong with her.

overall, i feel plain awful.

i can't express how grateful i am for a new day tomorrow.

confessions of a convert: fasting.

for those of you reading who are not mormon,

the first sunday of each month the LDS church has what is called 

"fast and testimony meeting".

members of the church are asked to fast, or give up all food and drink, 

for two consecutive meals (typically sunday breakfast and lunch).

then, the money that would have been spent on those two meals 

is donated to the church to help those in need.

while fasting we are asked to be prayerful about something specific in our lives.

we fast to deny ourselves of our physical and temporal needs, 

and to focus on our spiritual selves.

 

on top of fasting, 

at church, members of the congregation are given the opportunity 

to stand up in front of everyone and bear their testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

{a testimony is something that you personally know to be true.}

fast sundays, as we call them, have been quite different for me that past 13 months.

the thing is-- you are not supposed to fast while pregnant or nursing.

now here's the confession: i was not upset about this.

fasting is hard for me. i am not going to lie.

i am usually cranky 

and i get pretty bad headaches when i don't eat for long periods.

plus, i love food.

 

that being said, i realized this week how important fasting is.

my testimony of fasting was strengthened.

while i couldn't give up food for two meals, i gave up something else:

social media.

i know, i know. lame right?

 i wanted to give up something that i used constantly 

and the thing is, the past few months i feel like i have been glued to my phone...

checking in on facebook and instagram constantly. 

all things considered, 

i figured i could 'fast' from something i used a lot in lieu of giving up food and drink.

so... i gave up all forms of social media for the day.

i was suprised to find myself in a better mood.

more clear headed.

more present.

i spent more time singing and playing with chloe.

i spent more time talking with my family.

how sad is it that it took me giving up social media completely 

to realize how much i am on it?!

 

i realized yesterday, 

that no matter how you fast, 

we are asked to do so for a reason.

and that reason is different for everyone.

for me, it was to show me what's really important.

...and that the world doesn't end when you ditch facebook for the day.

plus-- this is the view i got, instead of my phone screen:

{don't you wanna just pinch those cheeks?!}

day 2.

due to the copious amounts of sugar i have consumed in the past few weeks,

i decided it needs to stop...

i have decided to cut out "sweets" from my diet.

to go cold turkey...

until turkey day that is!

today is day 2.

this new challenge of mine means...

no desserts

no candy 

no treats

{i guess it's a good thing we didn't go trick-or-treating after all}

no, i am not cutting out all sugar.

i will still eat fruit, and maybe occasionally drink a glass of juice.

my one 'treat' that i am definitely not giving up {yet}:

diet coke.

while i am not going to drink it all the time

{i only occasionally drink it right now}

i feel that keeping a zero calorie, zero sugar, beverage on the menu is just fine by me.

so who's with me?

only 26 days to go until thanksgiving!

___________________________________________________________________________

now for those of you who think i am crazy, 

here is a dairy free cookie that is

to.die.for.

they taste like mini brownies.

try adding a little peppermint extract for holiday zest! 

chocolate crinkle cookies:

(from allrecipes.com)

ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar

1.2 cup veggie oil

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. in a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and oil. beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir in cocoa mixture. cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.

2) preheat oven to 350 degrees F. line cookie sheet with parchment paper. roll dough into one inch balls. coat each ball in confectioners sugar before placing on prepared cookie sheet.

3) bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. let stand on cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

4) eat. eat. eat.

my added two cents: 

*if you don't have 4 hours to let the dough chill, throw it in the freezer for about 25-30 minutes.
*keep dough cool. if it warms up, its terribly hard to work with.

*wet your hands before making dough balls. the dough is very sticky.

*make sure to use enough powdered sugar to get the crinkle effect.

*who has parchment paper lying around? not me, just spray the cookie sheet with pam.

my little mouse.

halloween this year was very low key for us.

i'd say it was pretty much a typical day...

until 5pm when we dressed up our little mouse

 and brought her "trick-or-treating" to a couple houses.

aka we wanted to show her off to her great-grandparents and some friends.

no real trick-or-treating for us this year...

but you can bet i am already planning our costumes for next year.

chloe made the cutest little mouse.

now...happy thanksgiving time!!!