Blessings

Not too much has happened this week. It's amazing how much you just stay at home when you have 2 little ones who nap at different times. This week I have been feeling very blessed. I have been following the example of Elder Henry B. Erying (a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). He gave a talk in General Conference almost a year ago now, entitled O Remember, Remember. In that talk he mentions that every day he writes down how he had seen the hand of the God blessing his family. I have been doing that for over 6 months now. I'm amazed at how God helps me with even tiny things. Writing these blessings down everyday has helped me gain a greater testimony of the love our Father in Heaven has for us. He knows us. He watches out for us, and most importantly, He sends help when we need it.
One of the blessings I've received this week is help at the grocery store. I was carting around 2 little girls (11 months and 4 months). Clara was in the cart, while I was carrying Addi in the baby bijorn. I hadn't gone grocery shopping in about 2 weeks, so there was a lot of needed items to get. By the time I was in the check out line, I had Clara crying because it was her nap time. Addi had fallen asleep, but she was getting heavy, and Clara was pulling on her so that I would put Addi down and pick her up. All of this was going on while I was trying to unload the cart. I'm sure those with more than 2 kids are laughing, because I would imagine trips to the grocery store get worse as you add a kid. Anyway, at the end of the line, the bagger asked if I wanted help out. That usually doesn't happen anymore, and I about started crying tears of gratitude right there in the store. I accepted his offer, and I was able to get the girls buckled up while he put in the groceries. I felt so grateful for that bagger.
Another blessing I received this week was the gift of going to the temple. My wonderful friend Aubrey left her busy schedule last Saturday and came to babysit Clara for 3 hours while Jeremy and I went to the temple. I love going to the temple. It gives me the rejuvenation I need when I am feeling worn out. I came home wonderfully happy with life and my little family. Thanks Aubs for being willing to watch our little Clara for us!
Another blessing this week is a wonderful husband. Jeremy is a wonderful husband all the time, but one day this week I was feeling particularly down. I am realizing that I still haven't lost any of the weight I put on during pregnancy and Clara will almost be a year old. I was getting frustrated with myself for not being able to fit into very many of the pants that I own. I was near tears all day. At one point Jeremy, out of the blue, told me I was beautiful. I again broke down in tears of gratitude. I am so grateful for a husband who sees my inner beauty (and my outer beauty) and not the pounds or stretch marks I've gained. I am so lucky to have Jeremy as my husband.
Of course another blessing for today is a wonderful little girl. Every time she smiles at me, she makes me happy. My life would not be fulfilled without her.Something she has learned how to do is undo the Velcro on her shoes. She doesn't know how to take her shoes off yet, but she loves to play with the Velcro on them. However, that means that the shoes fall off as she crawls around. As you notice in the above picture, Clara has one shoe off and one shoe on, but is still loving life. One of her favorite things to do now is push her swing. This is what she was doing when I grabbed the camera. But she loves the camera too much to keep doing what I want to take a picture of. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Jeremy

Jeremy celebrated his birthday this week. I love how excited he gets for his special day to arrive. His eyes light up and tries to get out of going to work. Since it was his birthday, I just wanted to share some things about Jeremy.Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Fruit: Strawberries
Favorite Drink: Sobe Black and Blue Berry Brew
Favorite Hobbie: find or tell fun facts about movies
Favorite Person: It's a toss up between Clara and I
Favorite Store: Graywell
Favorite topic of Conversation: Movie Quoting
I love you Jeremy, I hope you had a fantastic birthday despite getting sick.

And of course since I love our little Clara as well, I had to post some pictures of her. At mutual this week, Ciara (a YW leader) brought her camera to take pictures. She got some great shots of Clara here is one of them.Clara gave Addi hugs and kisses this week. However, as I tried to capture it on camera, the moment had come and gone, but here's a picture of the two of them anyway.And I promised pictures of me horseback riding, so here is one of that.

Another Week Has Passed

Sorry that this is going to be a long post. A lot has happened this week that has allowed me to reflect on so many things. I want to share some of those thoughts with you. If you don't really want to read all of it, feel free to skip to the pictures at the bottom of the post.
This has been quite the week for us. Last Saturday we had the opportunity to attend the baptism of our nephew, Johnathan. I love going to baptisms. It helps me to remember my own covenants that I made so long ago. It also helps me remember my special day. I still remember being upset with all the other kids who were playing and being loud after the program was complete. I got upset because I just wanted to sit still and be quiet to enjoy the reverent atmosphere and they were ruining it. It wasn't until years later that I realized that I was feeling the spirit of the Holy Ghost and wanted to just enjoy that special feeling. Johnathan's baptism had the same spirit there. It was a sacred and wonderful event to be able to be a part of.
Saturday night was our adult session of stake conference. About half way through the session, I thought to myself, "I haven't enjoyed a meeting like this in so long. I wonder why the spirit is so strong tonight." I wondered if the baptism earlier in the day had effected it, but then I realized our wonderful little distraction wasn't with us. It has been such a long time since I didn't have Clara in a meeting. Thanks Genevieve for watching her that night. I really appreciate it because I actually listened to the whole meeting!
Jeremy started his new job this week. He started it yesterday, but doesn't finish his old job until tonight. That means he has been working 16 hours a day plus doing homework and travel time. He only got one hour of sleep Wednesday night, and last night he got 4. He works so hard to be able to support his family. I was watching Clara play on Wednesday. She was crawling from one end of the room to the other. When she saw something she wanted to play with, she got really excited. She let out a squeal of delight and then crawled as fast as she could to it. In that moment I realized how lucky I am. I have a husband who is willing to give up sleep and personal relaxation time just so I can have the privilege of watching our little girl laugh and play. I am so grateful to Jeremy and all that he does so that I can stay home with our little Clara.
Of course Clara isn't always playing and giggling. Yesterday was a rough day for me and her. She cried almost all day long. With all of that crying came mountains of gross snot. Of course she wanted to cuddle with mom, and as hard as I tried to keep her nose away from me, it didn't work very well. I sat there after I finally got her to sleep and looked at my shirt now crusted over with the clear runny stuff that came out of Clara's nose. I looked like a mess, but I realized how blessed I am. When Clara is upset, the first thing she does is want a hug from Mom. She can find such comfort in just laying her head on me. There are times when I don't know what is wrong and thus can't fix the problem so I have to just let her cry. In those moments I realized that snot can be washed off of clothing, but the comfort I can give Clara will never go away. I was so grateful that I have a little one to comfort and to relish the time we do have together, especially those times where she wants to give me "loves." Needless to say, when she woke up from her nap, I was a lot more willing to just hold her and snuggle with her.
Finally at about 5 pm I decided to take Clara for a walk. She loves being outside, and I hoped it would cure the tears. Luckily it did. I was able to drop Clara off at a babysitters so that I could go to mutual that night. Thanks Sherry for watching her! Normally I would take Clara with me to mutual, but we were doing something extra special and I didn't feel comfortable taking Clara. We set some goals for our Young Women to complete certain Personal Project requirements. If they completed all that we asked, we would take them horse back riding. Only 2 girls and 2 leaders completed the assignment. One of the girls couldn't go that night, so the 3 of us headed up to Alpine. We had a blast. We learned how to put a saddle and bridle on, and then we got to ride for about an hour. It was Stephanie's first time on a horse, and she did great! You can see the slight hesitation in her face to begin with, but by the end of the night, she was a real pro. Amber took pictures of me on the horse, so I'll add those in when I get them from her. But for now, here are a few pictures of the evening.

Random Happenings

We had some fun and exciting things come our way this week. Monday evening, we met up with an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen since high school! Her and her husband now live in Taylorsville, so we got to visit with them. They took a great picture of our family, but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of them. Sorry Karalene!Clara turned 11 months old this week too. I know I say this at almost every post, but I can't believe how fast she is growing up. I cried on her "birthday" this time because 11 months is so close to a year. She's no longer a baby. It makes me so sad. However, she has started a new "game" with me. It's starting to get cold in the mornings, so after I feed her breakfast, her lips are blue and she had goosebumps all over. Even though I dress her in warm clothes, she still shivers. So our new "game" is one where after she's done eating, I wrap her up in a blanket and we cuddle. She loves it because she gets warm, and I love it because I can still cuddle with my baby. Many of my friends are having a hard time because their children who are Clara's age no longer want to cuddle with them. I am so grateful that Clara will cuddle with me every morning.Clara has started playing peek-a-boo with me. I will pull her blanket up over her face until she pulls it down and then I say "boo." She has now started pulling the blanket up herself, but she doesn't do it far enough to actually cover her face. However, she still gets the biggest grin while she's sitting there with the blanket raised. Then she laughs as I say boo when she puts it down. It is so fun to watch her grow.
Clara loves to play with Addi. I'm just not sure if Addi likes Clara to play with her! As soon as Clara sees Addi, she has to come see what Addi is doing. It's pretty cute, but I do have to watch Clara carefully! This picture was taken on the day Clara turned 11 months old.Jeremy accepted a new job this week. His hourly wage is the same, but he gets to work during the day instead of nights. They are willing to work around his school schedule, so Jeremy is very excited to start this new job in 2 weeks, after he can stop working at his current job. There are a few cons, which makes me nervous. But we feel the Lord's hands in our lives, so we get to build our faith through relying on Him for help. This new job doesn't offer medical benefits, but we have looked into getting independent health insurance. We think we've found some that will cover us fairly well for a fairly good deal. It's definitely not a permanent solution, but hopefully it will get us through until Jeremy graduates.

Zachreson Family Reunion

For Labor Day weekend, we went camping with my family. It was fun to see those siblings that I only see once a year. Many of Clara's cousins had never met her and it was fun to see them take such good care of their little cousin. We were at Rockport State Park, which was a great little campground. My brother Matt decided he wanted to sleep in a hammock instead of a tent. The hammock became the kids' favorite thing to play with.On Saturday we left our little campsite and headed to Lehi to visit the Dinosaur Museum. The kids had a blast. Clara loved being able to get down and crawl to things. She also loved the puzzles she could play with.There were many things for the other kids to do as well.They would run from one exhibit to the next. It was fun to see their excitement.After the Dinosaur Museum we came back to the campground and got to go swimming.This is the littlest one there. Garrett is 2 months old.We spent our Sunday at Temple Square. We took family pictures in the South Visitor's Center. Here are all my siblings families, except for my oldest brother's family. We were taking pictures of them with their camera, and so we didn't get any on our own. Their two boys are the ones in bright orange in the dinosaur museum pictures.And of course, Clara loved being outside with her Daddy.As we were leaving Temple Square, a big rain storm came through. There was thunder, lightning, and even some hail. We were all planning on heading out Monday morning, but the storm was so bad that we all decided to leave Sunday night instead. It made for a quick camp take down, but at least we weren't soaked. Jeremy and I got to have a good night's rest, but the rest of my family had a long night of traveling ahead of them. It was fun to see everyone, and I'm glad the rain didn't come on Friday!