Tuesday, April 17, 2012







i haven't gotten very many pictures of babyk and i together. partially for vanity reasons on my part and partially because i can't stop clicking pictures of her myself. but craig was a doll and took these for me. i want her to have something to look back on to see us together so that she knows i loved squishing her little face. look how chubby she's getting! two months already. i can hardly stand it.

2 months











look at that smile! i can't believe how aware kahree is, and neither can anyone who meets her. craig and i are just amazed at how soon she learned to push herself up with her arms. she doesn't roll over and she doesn't LOVE her tummy time but we try to make sure she gets enough of it. little babyk is such a joy, she still hardly ever cries except for when we're changing her clothes or her diaper and then she never fails to voice her discomfort. she eats and sleeps like a dream but her little imperfections are just as enjoyable. i adore her little fuzzy ears and i almost secretly wish the hair wouldn't fall off of them and they could just be hairy forever. i don't think she'd appreciate that as a teenager though.

oh man. a teenager. i wish it would never come.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

come quickly

my dad knows everything. he's a wealth of spiritual knowledge. one of my biggest regrets in life is not talking to him and listening to him more growing up. so now when i go back to visit i love getting to spend time with him, i learn something precious every time. seeing him meant even more this time around when i got to bring my own daughter with me and learn amazing things from him about her. seeing them react makes it so easy to have an eternal perceptive, to remember where we came from and why we're here. he said to her how it had been a long time since they had seen each other. i love how when i'm with my dad all of our pre-mortal experiences don't seem so fairy-tale and distant. talking to him makes things of the spirit more real than things of the flesh. that's how things should be, i just forget about it during regular day today life. that's why i'm so grateful for times like this with my dad to inspire me.

we named kahree after me, "kahree" is the name my dad picked out for my middle name. and i can't believe i never asked him what it meant until this weekend. i think i assumed it was just something that sounded neat that he made up, like all my other sibling's crazy names. but i still knew that my sibling's names also have some spiritual meanings. maybe all of them do, i just never asked. it wouldn't surprise me if the names my dad came up with for his 10+ children were all spiritually inspired. some years ago my dad told me that my name means "Christ" because it's the feminine version of "Shiloh," which is another name in the Bible for the Savior.

on Easter morning i was rocking kahree and talking to my dad and i asked him where kahree came from. he pointed upwards. i wasn't sure if he knew i meant her name, not just her, so then i asked him what it meant. he said it means "come quickly." he said he didn't know that's what it meant until a little while after i was born. so my name altogether means "Savior, come quickly." And my daughters name is an echo to that.

Savior, come quickly, come quickly.

this really strikes something in my heart. all growing up i was a very stressed out young thing, i used to get ulcers when i was little worrying about finances or poor children in third world countries. one of the things i worried most about was the end of the world. for some reason i was worried that it would happen too soon, before i'd get to grow up and have a family. now that i do have a family i had kind of forgotten about that fear. now i wish i had never feared for that at all. i should be eager for the second coming of my Savior. my name is a praise to His return. i have so much desire now to live up to my name. i want to live my life in a way that makes me and my family prepared to see Him again. i want to inspire those around me to stand in holy places and look forward to His coming.

that was my wonderful Easter experience. i know Christ lives and i know he will come again.

Savior, come quickly, come quickly.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

easter weekend

we were so happy to get to spend easter with my family again this year, this time with little babyk! we flew up to spokane on thursday and flew back home on monday. it was such a wonderful trip. we're so glad we ended up flying this time, it was a little more expensive than driving but so much easier and we had more time to spend with my family. thankfully kahree was the BEST little traveler. she was either quiet or sleeping for the whole time during both flights. i didn't get to sit next to craig on the flight there which was a little stressful, i was really nervous having to feed her in between a couple strangers but they were really understanding. i love nursing but i try to still stay modest and not to do it in public but when a baby is hungry feeding her is probably the right decision. or so i've heard.

[rocking the portland airport]

i love how family friendly airports are! they let me leave her in the carrier while we went through security so i didn't have to wake her up and on the way home we got to board really soon and get a spot together because we had a little one under five. my fears of flying with [not even] two month old have been erased! it made us a little too bold maybe. when we got home we actually took her to her first movie. really we just wanted to see a movie and we decided to try to take her along. another fabulous success but i think we got lucky.

[spokane airport]
spending time with my family was so wonderful. i missed them so much and we had such a good time that i didn't want to leave. i'm really glad kahree got to meet so many of her aunts and uncles and cousins and meet her grandpa and great grandpa. she even recognized my mom when she saw her in the airport, she was being really quiet and solemn when we got off the plane but when my mom walked up to her she smiled so huge and gave out the biggest squeal! she loved her grandpa so much and they spent a lot of time together. i love how much my little brothers and nephews adored her, they were so sweet and gentle. kahree even got to see her "aunties" bethie and sierra [she's really sierra's cousin but sierra asked to be an honorary aunt, cousin just doesn't sound epic enough] who showered her with fancy clothes. kahree was pretty stylish all weekend long.


when we went to visit my grandpa craig took some four generation pictures of us. they are some of my favorite pictures ever now, i love that we had that opportunity. my grandpa is very dear to my heart and seeing him hold kahree was an amazing experience. i've been feeling more and more lately that family is even more important and wonderful than i ever knew. it's what this whole life is about. this little family that i wake up to every day means everything to me. craig and kahree and all my future children are what i live for.


[snuggling in grandma and grandpa's bed. she slept ridiculously well every night!]






[visiting great grandpa]


 [spending time with grandpa]


[can you tell they're related?]

[she loves her grandma]