The zoo made it all better

 I've had a rough week. Mills is sick and so we've kept her inside. Juan has been really busy and gone 16 hours a day. I did really good the first few days, cleaning, exercising, cooking, journaling, reading. I read my scriptures every day and prepared my lesson I will be teaching this Sunday. I did a lot of things that I love to do.

And then the emotional meltdown came. And I did nothing. And wallowed. And what brought me out of my rough patch? The zoo! Free day at the zoo, Amelia's first time to the zoo. And a good amount of sunshine. Just what I needed.

Amelia having a stare down with the monkey. She wasn't so sure about any of the animals. 

First ride on the carousel, she loved it. 

 I'd say Amelia was more excited by the kids than the animals. She was constantly waving at everyone, and it was free admission, there were A LOT of kids running around. Her little slice of heaven.

Oh and Amelia is climbing now. She climbs, and then she yells for me to come help her down. (These toys are all my mom's, btw. I can't wait until I get to pick out a dollhouse for her.)

Which she is saying Ma ma now. You saw how excitedly she says Da da, well Ma ma is quite opposite. It's always in a cry, like ma ma please I need you. And she repeats over and over until I come help, ma ma ma ma ma. Melts my heart.

Back to Amelia

I went a few weeks here without writing much about Mills, and I guess she wants the spotlight back because she is going crazy with all sorts of new things. 

First off, because it is too cute, she has said her first word. Da da. Now she's been saying it as a sound for a while now, along with ma ma and ba ba and all sorts of gibberish. But I am hard core, it doesn't count until now. I show her a picture of me and Juan while she's eating, and I've only been doing it for 2 days now, but today I pointed to Juan and I didn't even say anything, and she said, 'da da'. I have a video. Skip to :45 when she finally forgets about the camera and comes out with it. 

And she is now pulling herself to a stand. She surprised us by standing up next to the platform by the fireplace. Then she went one step further and climbed on top of the thing. Silly girl. I have yet to get this on video. 

And she has teeth now! She finally popped her bottom teeth last week! Teething wasn't such the nightmare I have heard it could be. Although she did not drink her bottle for 4 days straight, which stresses me out! Her little teeth are so cute, but don't quite show up on camera yet. 

Here she is at the start of me trying to get a picture of her teeth:

And after about 20 shots:

She is 11 months now. Isn't that crazy? 

My Current Favorites on TV

I love TV. I've talked about a few of my favorites on this blog, How I Met Your Mother which is still a favorite. Glee, maybe not so much anymore. I go in and out of tv shows. But these are my current faves, like the kind I keep on my tivo in case I want to watch them again.

 Parenthood

Aw, such a good show. I am a fan of Gilmore Girls, so it's good to see Lorelai back on tv. But then the rest of the cast-amazing. The acting is so good. And really, I cry almost every episode. And then I cry again when I tell Juan about it. Just touching, real storylines. Love it. I'm loving Hattie and Alex right now.

 Community

I am a fan of Joel McHale on The Soup, so I love him in this. But I love the rest of the cast too, and I love how creative the episodes are. Like the one where they signed up for a pottery class to get an easy A. And the only way you could fail the class is if you re-enacted the pottery scene from the movie Ghost. Hilarious. 

Cougar Town

I know, the original idea of this show just screamed trashy. But listen, my sister got me to watch it again and I love it. Courtney Cox is not a 'cougar', she's dating a guy her own age. So the title doesn't even fit anymore. The characters are the best, and they all just sit around all day, as if their jobs don't exist. Love this one.

Anyone have favorite tv shows to share with me? 

My Perfect Mix of a Weekend

Last weekend was pretty fun. We started it out with a game night with 2 of my sisters:

Heather and Crystal, both looking super cute and colorful. Picture taken in September, check out Amelia's double chin.

Sami, Griff, and Judson entertained Amelia while us girls + Juan ordered pizza and played Museum Caper and Hearts. Amelia loves playing with her cousins. It was such a fun night. 

Saturday Juan had a study group in the morning, so Amelia and I went along to my beloved Provo. We went shopping at Forever 21 and picked me up some earrings for $1.50. It was so much fun shopping with my happy girl.

Then we met up with Juan and hit up Costco. Did you know they sell gelato at the Orem Costco? $1.50 for 3 scoops in a waffle cone. Heaven.

Next up was hanging out with old friends. Not only do we miss Provo, but we really miss our Provo friends! We ate at Sammies with Megan & Dave and Heidi & Nate. And Abby, H&N's little girl who is a month older than Amelia. We had good food, great conversation, and watched BYU lose (sad). Such good friends.

And we let Amelia and Abby entertain us thoroughly. Check them out:

I love Amelia's nervous chuckle. Aren't they so cute side by side? This was right when we got there, they warmed up to each other and were crawling all over and even crying together. Ha ha.

We finished off the night with Juan's church basketball game. He was awesome and Amelia LOVES cheering him on every Saturday night. 

Check out her excitement. And in case we're worried, Juan is getting a haircut this week.

Isn't that such a fun weekend? Family time, Mommy-Daughter time, Couple time, and Friends. I love it.

And we'll leave you a bonus picture of my baby girl looking like she's about 4 years old:

What I Know

I know I haven't exactly been brave when it comes to sharing what I believe. I just like to convince myself that everyone who reads this is Mormon also, but maybe that's not the case. And now I've added a button on my sidebar, linking to lds.org, so it's time to talk a little about the things that I know to be true.

I grew up in Utah and was raised Mormon. I received my own testimony that the church was true when I was around 15 or 16. That doesn't mean I've been perfect ever since. But I love the hope that the church gives me. And that I can always be better through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. When I was dealing with my miscarriage and infertility, it was my biggest trial to date. And I turned to the Lord in prayer. I received an overwhelming feeling of peace. It brought me comfort. That everything would be ok. I had to let go of the plan I had for myself, and put my trust in Heavenly Father's plan for me. I am grateful every day that we were blessed with Amelia, and for the journey we took to get her. She is our joy. Juan and I were married in the temple, and because of that, our family will be together for eternity. This is such a small fraction of what I believe: the atonement, prayer, revelation, trust in the Lord's plan, eternal families. All that knowledge and more is what makes me so happy.

I think it's so easy to feel like I am in the minority because I am a religious person. The media displays religious people as if they are crazy or extreme. Every tv show seems to have a token religious person who is portrayed as loony or judgmental. It's sad.

I am going to share my beliefs more. Because I am happy to be Mormon.

Lazy Days

This is what I've done today:
I watched The View, The Talk, Ellen, and Oprah-which of course led to tears.
No joke. Not every moment of every show, but that is a whole lot of daytime tv.
And let me just say this. This half-sister of Oprah's, she is a good woman. She is deserving of having a surprise billionairess sister, yes?
I did take care of my child amidst all the tv. Although minus the feedings and diaper changes, this girl basically takes care of herself.
I texted my sister about NeNe and how annoyed we were with her on Real Housewives of Atlanta last night.
We ran to McDonald's to return our redbox dvd.
We (as in Amelia and I) shared a vanilla cone.
We went to the library and Amelia sat in on a lovely mother's story-time with her children. Ha ha.
We went out on the swing for 4 minutes until I decided it was just a little too cold.
And now we are counting down the minutes for the Bachelor to start.
And even more, we are counting down the minutes until Juan walks in the door.

Lazy days to me just lead to more lazy. You know. And I get needy. Last week I had a breakdown because Juan did not text me the second he got out of work. That irks my pride, I have too much pride to be needy. Or I guess not.

So here's to tomorrow. It will be a productive day. Bathroom, dust, storage room, exercise, read scriptures. Those are days that really make me happy.

And for a pick me up, I always can play crawl tag or dance to our song with this girl:

Her hair is looking SO long in these.

I need to start doing something with it.

I tried a ponytail. Juan didn't love it. And can you tell she does not smile for pictures anymore?  That is so for 8 month olds.

Finding Ways to Stay Entertained

Amelia has this down. She can be entertained by anything. She'll lay on her back and kick her legs as fast as she can. She seriously gets out of breath, and when I ask her what she's doing, she just laughs and keeps going.

Her latest, the door. It doesn't stay open, it hinges halfway closed. And Amelia is not having it. She will spend up to 10 minutes pushing that door open, only to have it swing back at her. It's quite fun to watch, especially when she gets really enthusiastic and pushes the door real hard, only to have it fly back at her with equal gusto. And that is how I stay entertained.

Yesterday we had a glimpse of the outside world. Amelia had forgotten about the swing. Although she very quickly warmed up to it again and would not let me take her out. She loved the geese and would wave to them as they flew away. It felt good to get some fresh air.