I love being a mom!

Wow!  Being a momma is great.  Lizzie is just progressing by leaps and bounds these days.  Three months are really a charm.  Here are some new updates on Lizzie:

• She takes longer naps and if she wakes up, she mostly just gurgles delightfully in her crib and then goes back to bed. 
• She talks a LOT, Paul and I adore it
• She has a new playmat that her grandma - Mami Vicky - gave her and it's awesome!  It stimulates her a lot.  It has a lot of fun things gadgets and a mirror too.
• She is excelling at tummy time and turns her head as she props herself up on her cute lil tummy
• She stays up longer during the day
• She grabs her hands together in the cutest way
• She smiles so much

What a happy baby!  Yesterday was July 4.  Can you believe, I just lost ALL my pictures on my camera??? Boo hoo!  I accidentally erased them.  I had a cool picture of Paul and me and Jared and Dave looking at the fireworks from the top of Dave's building.  We actually got into trouble and we had to leave the roof but it was fun for a few minutes.  I had no idea July 4 was kind of a pill if you have a new baby.  We stayed at Paul's mom's home but even so it was noisy as can be.  Poor Lizzie didn't sleep well but today is a new day and she is doing great! 

Also, my mom came to visit for a few days to help me with Lizzie and to give me some time to sleep and it was so helpful.  Lizzie, I have decided, is an angel in our lives.  She has brought our extended family much closer together during the baby blessing and she has brough my mother and me closer together too.  We love to talk about her and it's always positive when it centers around her.  Makes me happy.   

I was thinking last night that I have some special wishes/hopes for Lizzie.  I will go ahead and post them here:

• I hope you always befriend the left out kid at school and make him or her feel welcome
• I hope you always know your parents love you so much and believe in you
• I hope you always give whatever you do 110%
• I hope you are always proud to call yourself a Latter-day Saint
• I hope you know and understand that if you mess up or sin you can make things right again.  As Elder Christofferson says, repentence is our gift to the Savior.  It's really the only gift we can give (see his talk Becoming Converted).
• I hope you feel like you can do and be anything you want to be
• I hope you strive for excellence
• I hope you turn to uplifting music when you are sad, it makes such a difference (There is Sunshine in My Soul today is a good one).
• I hope you shun criticism and gossip and always see the positive in people.  You will always feel better about yourself if you say good things about people.
• I hope you know what it is like to work hard and to pay for something all on your own.  Nothing can make you feel better than paying for something (school, a car, a bike) all on your own.  You will treasure it twice as much than if it were given to you.
• I hope you enjoy nature and go on good hikes and bike rides and excercise
• I hope you walk through a farmers market and don't really buy anything but just take it all in
• I hope you listen to a really good version of "Georgia on My Mind" and just take it all in.  Such a great jazz song.
• I hope you stare at the stars when you are camping and wonder at our Creator and His marvelous works
• I hope you take some time to really pray to the point where you feel and you know that someone really is listening. 
• I hope you listen to a conference talk when you are bored sometimes.  Much better than most things out there.

Wow.  This is making me emotional.  Well, I may continue this later or maybe every year I'll add some.