MITT.

Anyone who listens to Pandora knows Obama is blowin that place up. NONSTOP OBAMA ADS! Even Obama himself said he's sick of hearing himself say "I approve this message."

Well, I'm listening to Pandora and I just heard a ROMNEY ad!

He did not mention Obama once...

He did not put awkward pictures of his opponents in black and white with depressing background music...

He talked about his plan and what he going to do to help the country and there was pleasant background music and a nice video clip of a woman and her small business.

I know has ads like that, but I liked this one. It was nice. He's definitely much classier than the other guy.

Now, back to my song (Gary, Indiana) and making dinner hours in advance... yeah!

still obsessed...

this very moment [yesterday...]

I looked over at Dan as I was driving him to school and he had a little grin on his face. I said

"What are you thinking about?" 

"Oh, nothing..."

"Tell meee!"

"I can't!"

"Come on...."

"I saw that flower shop and was thinking how I wish I could buy you a whole bouquet of flowers. Then I thought that maybe they could just give me the scraps..."

I'm sure I squealed. Then I unbuckled my seat belt, climbed up onto my seat, and gave him the biggest hug ever the rest of the way there. He doesn't even really have to get me flowers, just catching him in a sweet thought like that is enough for me. I love so much how it brought a smile to his face. :)

peace.

What a wonderful day. It started off wonderful. Then got even better. Then was lovely. And is currently delightful. And so it goes...

God is aware of me and my heart's desires. We are soo blessed. One may ask, "Well that probably would have just happened anyway. How do I know it was God's hand in my life?" or "It's just a coincidence."

There are too many times in my life, an innumerable amount, of times he has taken care of my the way only an all-knowing Heavenly Father could for me to deny it. Only someone who knows my circumstances perfectly, figures me out even when I can't, and knows my future could allow my life to unfold the way it does. Time after time, I am right where I am supposed to be. Things work out better than I ever could have dreamed myself. Because He knows me, and loves me, and loves to bless me. I think about my sweet baby and how I want to love him and make his life wonderful all day long. My Heavenly Father's love for me is even more than that. He is itching to give us so many wonderful things, we just have to do a few things on our own to show him we love him back.

But he blesses us even if we don't do those things. And then we get prideful and think we earned these blessings and we are smart and such a hard-worker, thank goodness. We are silly. We should know better. We should see the way the salmon swim upstream every year and the way a freshly-born child is absolutely and utterly perfect despite so many imperfect circumstances and how we somehow find that person who is the absolute perfect puzzle piece match for us and how we meet the most wonderful friend and the time we need them the most and how we don't get one job that we reallly wanted because there is something so much better around the corner and how we turn a key and we are suddenly moving really fast in a big piece of metal and how we push two buttons and we are chatting with our sweet mother across the United States like we're in the same room and how life is sooo hard sometimes but we look back and are so thankful we went through it... we should see these things and know so clearly that they are all from Heavenly Father. From a loving Heavenly Father who wants us, his "sweet babies" (as I refer to mine) to have joy.

I have the entire universe right here. Sleeping so preciously in his little brown and blue pack & play and studying so diligently in the next room over to provide a bright future for his family. I know my blessings come from God. I know it's hard to remember him in the completely confused and manic world. But I know if we do we will have peace at the end of every day and when we are all alone with nothing but our own thoughts, we know everything will be okay. And we will have that peace that is longed for by so many.

And a few snippets from this delightful day of ours...

always the best posture.

"yes, mother?"

loves. the. shower.

I can't express how happy he makes me. 

He thrills me. 

He makes my breathing heavy and my heart feel like it's way too big for my chest and my eyes squint and blink to hold back the tears just by being him. 

And mine. 

It's magic.

"how many roads must a man walk down?"

"... before you call him a man?

how many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"

this is our most recent guitar song dan (or should i say "we") are all learning... compliments of bob dylan.

dan playing the guitar is one of jude's favorite things ever. he b-lines to the guitar whenever in site, and gets so giddy when dan pulls it out. tonight he was singing and dancing his heart out and it was just heart melting.

&a quick cell phone dump...

salvation army trip. first time in the cart (no cover///gross i know)

our pet carlisle

he looks monstrous in his swing!

gettin dirty.

awwwwww...

peas!!

Jude after his bath all ready for bed in his Roll Tide outfit! He fell asleep soo well tonight without a peep or a cry!

We had a picnic out on the deck. Jude was playing with ice cubes on his bumbo tray and chasing them all around. He loved it but I think was a little frustrated at how slippery there were!

sunday outings.

Sundays are our days. Our greatest, best, most enjoyable and lovely days. We always enjoy church to the utmost. We've been getting there about 15 minutes early so Jude can eat and then he is soundly asleep in his little pram carrier before church even starts! And since 9:00 is his nap time, he can sleep as long as he pleases. It's much better than we trying to wait until after the Sacrament and Dan or I missing most the rest of the meeting trying to get him to sleep. I am a member of the Relief Society meeting planning committee! So fun. And Dan is now the second counselor in the Young Men's! So he is over the sweet, precious deacons. I love young men. And especially deacons. They are so incredibly adorable. Since Dan doesn't study on Sunday's, it is our day to go on an outings or do something really fun as a family. Yesterday we went to a wildlife nature preserve in Spartanburg. After that, we had a friend over for the most wonderful dinner- pot roast, corn, mashed potatoes, homemade bread, and homemade cake and frosting! That friend we had over is soo nice and we thoroughly enjoyed his company! Oh, we are in the choir so we had choir practice after church and it was also wonderful.

photo compliments of the artistic stylings of dapper dan

I spy with my little eyes... Jude's eye!

After admiring the beaver dam

A bird had the NERVE to drop his droppings on Dan's head. Five minutes later we noticed he also hit our babe! Now that is just taking it too far...

crawl, sit, stand, walk.

all of the above!

This boy is relentlessly on the move. He is either scooting with his little right leg push, crawling, sitting-intently examining one of his toys, pulling himself up on everything and anything, holding on with one hand, letting go and balancing himself for a moment or two, then plop! back on the ground he goes.

He is crawl-crawling now, coordinating hands with knees and all. I'm so proud of my strong little child. He really is strong. The other day we were all laying in the office and he stood up using Dan to help him stand, he would stand for a second, then fall, and Dan and I would clap and cheer. He did it about 15 more times after that and would wait for the clapping and cheering... he was loving it. :)

He only does it with certain things he's playing with, but he will sit on the tile and scoot his legs and go around and around in circles.

He is my absolute joy. He will be playing on the floor and I'll be doing dishes and our gaze will meet and he will smile at me so big and my heart just swells. Ohhhhh, I love him. I love him. I LOVE HIM.

Whenever we go somewhere people always ask "Is he always this good?" or "Does he ever cry?" He is so easy going and independent. He is perfectly content entertaining himself.

Dan is working so hard in school and I am so proud of him! He is so dedicated. He gets up at 3:00 to study most mornings. I am so thankful for the time we get together during meals, when he gets home, and getting ready for bed and getting him off to school in the morning (that's pretty much it). Even though he is soo busy he is still always interested in what I am doing and is so sweet. He is soo precious to me. I wish I could help him more with his studying, maybe just take one class for him?!

I love my boys.