In My Daughter's Eyes

This song now has new meaning for me. The love I see in her eyes melts my heart. When I walk into her room in the mornings, she lights up, laughs and is so happy to see us! I love watching her grow, and cherish each minute I get with her. What a wonderful and fulfilling thing families are.

What is life like with a 7 month old?

Today, Sariah is 7 months old! It is hard to believe that 7 months ago, on this day, we brought in to this world our beautiful baby girl. She has been amazing from the beginning, and continues to bless our lives each day. She is strong, healthy, curious, and so much fun! Oh...and she has 4 teeth, with the 5th one coming in as I type. Here is what she is doing now:

* CRAWLING like a maniac!! She is all over the place. All of our plugs are covered, and we are working with her on setting boundaries of what she can and cannot touch.

* TESTING mom and dad. With the things she is not allowed to touch (like the dog's bed), we say "No Touch." She definitely knows what a "no touch" is and is constantly seeing if we are paying any attention. For example - our cell phones are plugged in to a wall in the kitchen. She will sit on the ground, looks RIGHT AT me, and reaches out to touch the cords with a funny smile on her face. This girl is way too smart for us!!!

* CURIOUS- she is in to EVERYTHING. She wants to know what everything is, and is absorbing so much! Here is a funny video of her playing with Corona's water bowl. It was funny because she wouldn't put her hand all the way in the water - just barely enough to touch it to see what it was.

* STANDING! She is now pulling herself up on many objects including her crib, the ottoman, her toys, Grandma Wilkes' couch, and everything that she can get her hands on. I am not ready for my 7 month old to be doing this...and she's been doing it for a little over a week. Yikes!!

* TALKING and SCREAMING . She talks all the time! She talks to herself, talks to her toys, talks to her reflection, talks to mom and dad, and just jabbers all day long. When she gets really excited or needs attention, she screams. Joy! Here are two videos of her - one talking, and one screaming.



* She continues to SLEEP excellent - 7:30pm to 7am. Lately, she has woken up in the middle of the night looking for her pacifier, so that has been a little difficult. But it is fun to hear her wake up at 7am very happy and just playing and laughing in her crib. I'll usually let her play in there for 30 minutes or so before I go get her because she's having such a grand ol' time! Here is a really cute picture of how she fell asleep one afternoon.

I am still working (about to change in May!!!), so she goes to a friend's house across the street. They have this AWESOME little powered car that she just LOVES being in. It was real dark the afternoon I got her when she was in it, but I just couldn't resist getting it on film.


This picture is just for Aunt Tracy. She asked me last Sunday on the phone what we dress Sariah in for church. Well Tracy - here's a picture of her dress last Sunday! Oh...and she's a pro at pulling off her shoes and eating them.
Here is a hilarious video of Sariah getting stuck in a corner. I know that sounds mean, but Sariah crawled over to the corner and then couldn't figure out how to back out! She was getting really mad. This little girl has quite a temper. She's already throwing temper tantrums.


She still loves her baths! She's now splashing all over the place. This one was at the end of her bath last night. She was so happy! Then...all of a sudden, got REALLY cranky. That means she's done and it's time for the other 3 B's: bottle, book, bed!

So what have Jared and Amber been up to? Well, Jared is busy busy busy sending out his resume. He graduates in June, and is not sure he wants to stay with his current company. The problem is that Tucson's IT market is pretty sparse. There are few good paying jobs in Tucson for IT professionals. We're praying he finds one of the good ones! If not *sniff* we'll have to start searching outside of Tucson. For now, we are staying busy with work and spending every minute we can together as a family. I am counting down the days until school is over, I wish my students a wonderful summer and I can leave the school and not look back. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job. But...I love my daughter more. I am so blessed with a husband who is working so hard to get his degree (7 years in the making) so I won't have to work anymore. Because I had to work, and had such an awful time being away from my daughter, I may take up babysitting in our home. I want to provide the love and caring environment that I was looking for to other moms who are in the same situation. We will see what happens!

Are 6 months old allowed to do this?

Sariah is unbelievable...and I'm not sure I'm ready for her growing up as fast as she is. Once she started crawling a couple of weeks ago, she has figured out she can do more. I was cleaning out her clothes the other day, and had her in her room with me. I was putting the "too-small" things away and pulling out the next size. As I'm folding clothes, I look over and find her playing with her humidifier (she has allergies and needs moist air to sleep). No problem, she's having a great time talking to it. I look back over about 30 seconds later, and this is what I see...





One night, she was so tired. We put her into her pj's, and I went to go make her a bottle. When I came back into the room, this is what I found...


Now that she's crawling all over the place, I find her in funny places in the house. Here she is, totally infatuated with the door stops in the kitchen. This is funny because when my brother Adam and his wife lived in the house, their son did the same thing! Our baby girl just gets bigger every day and learns so many new things. She is paying attention to books, jabbering all the time, and is really social with other babies. She is so fun!

We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet

I will always remember where I was when I heard that President Hinckley passed away. I was visiting teaching Sunday night, and as I met my partner, she broke the news to me. As I heard the passing of this great man, I was surprised by my reaction. I had a friend post on her blog that she was "strangely happy," and I couldn't agree more. Although I wanted to be selfish and wanted President Hinckley to be our prophet longer, I can only imagine the reunion between him and his amazing wife. He has lead a wonderful life, and worked hard. This is one of the most touching pictures of President Hinckley. This is at the funeral of his wife, whom he was married to for 67 years. He was heartbroken when she passed, and you can see that in his sweet face.



I believe that this tribute was a big step for Glen Beck, and echoes many members out there. We all will miss President Hinckley, but will always be grateful for his leadership, service, and love.

"We thank thee, o God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days."