Baby Hazelnut

Well this year has already started to slip through my fingers! It seems like it is going by so fast and with Hazel fast approaching 6 months, I'm feeling all the emotions.

She has been eating baby food for a little while now and feel in love with oatmeal and bananas until Pete gave her an orange. She quickly said goodbye to bananas and has not looked back.

However little Hazelnut got clogged up since I wasn't introducing new foods/fruit fast enough and her only wanting to eat oatmeal. Poor thing, but alas she is back to normal now and still her happy smiling self.

Since then I've been trying really hard to introduce new fruits and veggies into her daily feedings, which I've increased to 3x per day. So far she hates prunes, apples and sweet potatoes. Refuses to eat them even if I mix them with banana or oatmeal. Luckily while grocery shopping 2 weeks ago I found some fruit/veggie pouches for 50 cents so I bought a few and she eats them! Yay! She wasn't so sure at first but she's been liking the sweet potato, carrot, mango and banana one. Which is good since those are basically Pete's favorite fruits and veggies.

Sometimes I find Pete sneaking her some of his food and on Sunday he gave her some strawberries, cream and waffles. Sadly she had a little reaction to either the dairy or the strawberries. Hopefully she outgrows that!

She has been doing better with her sleeping too. Only waking up once between 10pm and 7am to eat, it's magical. However getting her to take 3 full naps is starting to become more difficult. That last nap of the day is only 45 minutes to an hour and then she's done. Luckily all I have to do to keep her happy while I make dinner is to turn on some music and take dance breaks with her. She loves it!

I swear she's going to start crawling before I know it. She's always pushing herself up onto her arms, kicking her legs and scooting herself in circles/backwards.

She loves her Daddy! She perks right up and starts squealing as soon as Pete walks through the door. They have so much fun together, especially during bath time. She loves to splash him as he's making her laugh. She is incredibly ticklish on her tummy, backside and armpits. We love getting them so we can hear that adorable laugh!

I haven't a clue what she weighs or how much she's grown in the last 2 months, but she's still chubby and growing out of her clothes so fast! She has her 6 month appointment on March 3rd so I'll let you know when I do.

She's adorable and I love her. I've been having days where I don't want her to grow up and stay my little baby forever. Then other days I'm wishing she was a toddler so I can sleep uninterrupted and actually do things during the day.

Luckily we get to FaceTime Em and the girlies about once a week so I get adult talk and Madelyn and Lily jokes. While they get to look at a baby. It's a win/win situation. Also, Lily says Hazel's name in the cutest way and Madelyn is always saying, "I want to squish her!". It's the best! I know they're all going to be great friends.

Here's to 2017

We might be 10 days into the new year, but I wanted to recap 2016 and share some of my goals/resolutions for 2017.

2016 was by far one of the hardest years yet. Being pregnant and sick for most of it was awful and so many doubts and fears clouded my mind most days. Too many times I'd call my mom crying because I didn't want to be sick or pregnant anymore and she'd always ask, "did you pray?"

My mom has one of the most genuine and sweetest testimonies of prayer and I've always loved and admired her for that, but too many times I solely relied on her testimony to pull me through whatever I was going through.

There were times she'd just tell me to pray and had to get off the phone. So there I'd be lying on the bathroom floor praying because I hadn't been able to keep anything down; but as soon as I prayed and put my trust and faith in our Savior I was able to get up and eat or accomplish whatever I needed to that day.

However I often would forget the help and strength I was given during these times and have to rediscover how much the Lord is there to help me and to love me. 

Then Hazel was born and all of those doubts and fears surfaced and ate at me every day. So there I was again, calling my mom when I should've been praying. 

Before we left for Christmas I wrote down all of the things I wanted to change and improve on with myself and my relationships this year. Some of them are silly and some are really personal.

-Go visiting teaching! I've been terrible at this ever since I had Hazel. Which isn't an excuse, but I've used it as one every month.

-Go to the temple once a month. I also became terrible at this while I was pregnant and after Hazel was born. I'm hoping my new temple dress will help :)

-Enjoy church and my calling. Not gonna lie, I don't like either of them these days. Church just stresses me out with a baby. The blowouts, the feedings, the not sleeping. It just really throws Hazel and I off. Then my calling. Making the Relief Society bulletin should be easy but it's not. Trying to communicate with everyone involved and getting different answers for things every week and then trying to print everything off before church (which never happens), I end up missing all of Sunday school and no one even looks at it since they send out an email of it every week. I definitely haven't grown where I've been planted the last 2+ years.

-Write in my journal. I was really good about this up until I started dating Pete and then I just stopped. I've written a few things down the last 3 years, but definitely not every day.

-Find opportunities to serve. I've always wanted to be better at this, but have never felt comfortable actually doing it. Comfort zone issues, I blame you. My Relief Society however is really big into giving people in the ward meals when they're going through anything. So I just need to share some of the food I love to make. Serving and sharing my talent- Win, win!

-Be more patient. Patience is definitely a weakness of mine. I'm so easily flustered that I just get annoyed and end up wanting to quit. Which my parents taught me never to do. This one is going to be super hard for me and will take more than a year to master.

-Love myself. And Pete and Hazel more. There's been to many days I beat myself up over the smallest things and that just needs to stop. I'm only human, I can make a few mistakes.

-Take more pictures. Because I know I'll miss this stage of my life.

-Follow my budget! This is a big one for me. With Pete going back to school we really want to save as much as we can.

-Get alone time every week. Walking around Target shouldn't count right? But it's just so peacefully at night with no baby in tow.

-Go on dates with Pete. We watch way to much Netflix these days that sometimes we hardly interact because we're both just drained. We just need to actually plan something! Plus it helps we have built in babysitters, gotta love those aunts and uncles.

-Workout 3x per week. I've actually been doing really good at this! At least so far and I've noticed I'm not nearly as tired. Definitely appreciating this body I was given.

-Eat less sugar. I eat way to many sugar cookies from sodalicious, it's a problem.

-Smile and laugh more often. I feel like ever since I had Hazel I've taken life so seriously. I mean her and I will smile and make faces at each other, but I want to be better at finding joy in everything I've been given and that surrounds me.

-Read more. Starting with Harry Potter since Pete always says I need to read it on my own.

-Call my grandparents more often. I want to always be able to remember their voices and laughs.

-Bare my testimony. I haven't shared my testimony in church since November 2010. I know I have one, but sharing it has never been easy. The pulpit just terrifies me. So once this year I'm going to do it.

-Don't get pregnant. I'm not ready for that yet ha.

This might seem long, it kind of is, but I just really want to focus on myself this year. I want to be the best wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend to those who are apart of my life. I want to notice and enjoy all of the little things and share my happiness with others.

Thanks for reading. Here's a cute picture of Hazel. She just kills me with that smile!