Alyssa is learning how to play with her rattle and other toys. Here is a video her daddy took while playing with her last night while I was at school. You can hear the microwave in the background. Watch her throw the rattle at the end. too funny :)

Here are some pics of my sweet girl Alyssa
aka: baby duck, duckie, bug, princess.
She is getting so big!

Shots :(

Alyssa got two of her immunizations yesterday. I am doing her two month shots in 3 sets of 2 instead of all six at once. I almost started crying with her when they gave the first shot, it was so sad to see my baby in pain. She cried really hard for about 5 minutes, then I changed her diaper and nursed her and she was happy after that. What a brave girl!

House of Order

Our Stake Relief Society is sponsoring a guest speaker named Marie Ricks. She is a BYU education speaker who has a program called "House of Order". The class is 8 weeks long and started last Thursday. After only one class I am motivated! She has such great ideas. One of my favorites is having a housecleaning plan. She talked about it only briefly but she had a sample that people could look at and it was such a great idea that I had to make one!



You use index cards, dividers, and an index card box. I made one tab that says "daily", a divider for each day of the week, and a divider for each month of the year. Then I took 3x5 cards and wrote different tasks on them. In the upper right hand corner write how often the task should be done (daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, annually etc.) For example: Read Scriptures, Exercise, and Straighten living room are daily tasks. Clean the bathroom, Vacuuming, and Dusting are weekly tasks. You can decide which days or months you want to do each task and then place the 3x5 card behind that divider. Each morning it is easy to know what needs to be done, just take the daily cards out as well as the weekly cards for whatever day it is. As you complete the tasks, place the cards back in the box.

I truly feel that when our houses are in order, it invites the Holy Spirit to dwell in our homes. I feel much better about myself and my life when the house is clean and having this plan is an easy way to organize the cleaning so everything can get done each day.

Back in Utah

We are now back in Utah and started school again at BYU on Monday. I only have 2 classes left to take this semester so Alyssa and I get to stay home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. School has gone well the two days we've been. Alyssa has been really good for me but a little fussy for Jim, hopefully she decides to be good for him too. Alyssa and I hang out in the Wilk a lot while Jim is in class because they have a great little mothers lounge. It's inside a bathroom but has two couches and two comfy chairs. I have gotten the hang of breastfeeding in public with a blanket and feel more confident about that after getting two nursing camisoles(that way I can feed Alyssa and still feel modest!)
Alyssa is 8 weeks today and has started to smile recently. It just melts my heart every time she smiles at me. I love being a mom. She is sleeping great and usually sleeps through the night. She goes to bed at 9 or 10 and sleeps until 5 or 6, eats and goes back to sleep for another couple hours. It's a great blessing because I do much better and I'm much happier when I get enough sleep.
Here are some pictures of Alyssa

Yes I am officially a slacker at blogging. The last post was over a month ago and that was from my sweet husband Jim and not even myself. Oh well, as a new mom there is always a long list of things to do and not enough time to do them all. Alyssa is now 5 weeks as of yesterday and doing great. I love watching her grow each day. I think she is starting to recognize my voice when I talk to her. Now I am just looking forward to her first real smile.
I just want to say that I have an incredible husband. He was so supportive during Alyssa's birth and the long, hard labor leading up to it. I really couldn't have done it without him by my side. He is also a great father to his baby girl. She sure loves her daddy and calms down easily for him. He is so good with her and so willing to help.
We only have 2 more weeks here in California. The first half of the summer went by slowly but this second half has flown right by. We've enjoyed spending time with family and we are glad so many of you were able to be with us for Alyssa's blessing. We plan on driving back to Utah on August 28th and then starting school on the 31st. That will be the next adventure in our lives and I am just hoping that our baby likes school and that I can learn how to calm her down quickly so we don't disturb all the students in the Clyde building.

Sorry there aren't recent pictures up yet. The internet here is not high speed and I haven't been successful in my attempts to upload pics. Hopefully we will get some up when we get back to Utah and high speed internet!

Alyssa Pics