Individual Worth!

Ok, so I am keeping up with my Personal Progress. I finished Faith, and I am currently working on my Faith Value Project. I have decided that I am going to make an arrangement of Hymn No. 185 "Reverently and Meekly Now". This hymn is my favourite because it is the only Sacrament Hymn that is sung in first person from the Saviour. When you realize that and you go and read it I guarantee you will cry. That hymn has become so powerful to me, and it really is my favourite one.

I was starting on my next section and realized today when I finished it up that I skipped two pages on accident. So I'm going out of order, I felt silly, but then I wondered if it was actually meant to be. Many of you who read my blog know about my fight with my Postpartum Depression. It enveloped my whole soul (you can read about that here and then here) and it was the worst time of my life. Those of you who have experienced any kind of depression know how it makes you think the absolute worst about yourself. I know that there were many days that I just felt completely worthless. Even though I'm not really depressed anymore I still have those days where I just feel like I am a failure and I just have to go in the bathroom and cry for a minute- I don't count this as being depressed though, it's just called life. This value has been wonderful for me to have worked on these past couple of weeks. One of the experiences was about our Patriarchal Blessings, and I have to admit I was crying as I was doing my journal entry for this one. My Patriarchal Blessing is very special to me, and I love reading it especially if I haven't for awhile and I can see how all the blessings are just coming to pass every single day! There is something very cool about my Patriarchal Blessing, you see the signature at the top of my Blessing is the same signature that is on Jon's and my marriage license. I was 13 years old when I went with my parents to Patriarch Adams home, I was so young and so inexperienced in this world, and the blessings that I was given and the words that were spoken in his blessing prayer was very daunting to a young girl like me. Even now, I will read the words and be overwhelmed almost. I don't know how it came about but one day I was at my future in-laws home and I was talking to Jon's step mom and Sheri mentioned how the patriarch of my stake was now a temple sealer in the temple Jon and I chose to get married in. So I called up Patriarch Adams and I told him that he had given me my blessing, and then I asked him if he would be willing to perform the sealing. He said that he would be honored and so when I called the Ogden Temple I requested for him to be our sealer.
The other thing that I will talk about Individual Worth is that everyone is given gifts and talents from our Heavenly Father. Something a friend of mine said once that made perfect sense was that you cannot give a gift that you do not have. So the fact that Heavenly Father has blessed us with so much means that He himself must possess these gifts. With that being said, I'm pretty sure that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ make the perfect duet! I just imagine them with amazing voices! Cause- everything has to do with music in my world. Anyway, I digress... in the experience about talents and abilities/Gifts from God I was told to get a list of qualities that I have been blessed with from someone I know. So, of course, I go to my husband. I texted him at work and asked him to make a list of the qualities that I have been given and this was the list he sent back to me within five minutes:

Top ten qualities that my sweetheart Brittney Ann has been blessed with!

1. Her awesome disposition (you radiate awesomeness)!

2. Her innate ability to connect with others, and make friends!

3. Her ability to see good in those around her!

4. Her talents (scrapbooking, music, singing, and homemaking)!

5. Her ability to make others feel good about themselves!

6. Her optimistic attitude about everything!

7. Her ability to produce amazing offspring!

8. Her tendency to make her husband to smile and laugh everyday

9. Her awesome culinary skills!

10. She’s cute, funny, and talented, she was obviously made for me (:

I opened it and just started crying. How grateful I am to have such a wonderful husband who loves me so unconditionally. I am so in love with him! He also has started doing this cute thing where he will email me every morning with one reason he loves me. It has definitely been a blessing because when I'm feeling down I look at my emails and am just reminded of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful man by my side.

Updates from The Mosher Home!

• Liam is officially walking! He doesn't do it all the time because he knows that crawling will get him wherever faster, but he will walk. It's actually super cute to watch him wobble unassisted. 
• I may have a little drummer on my hands. Liam loves to drum on things using his hands, spoons, anything. He loves rhythm and loves to bob up and down to music.
• Liam's top teeth have officially popped through!! He now has four teeth! Gone is his little gummy smile! He loves to use his toothbrush that Grandma Sheri got him for Christmas and he is learning that we brush our teeth everyday- next stop DENTIST! YIKES! 
• Liam knows how to turn on his tv and push play to watch his movies. He also will stop the movie if he's bored with it.
• Liam LOVES food! He will eat anything and everything.
• Liam has learned how to throw tantrums. It's really quite amusing, although I can't laugh til later about it because I can't show him a reaction. But the other day I took something away from him and he screamed/babbled at me, then charged into my shins, and then when that didn't work he threw himself on the floor face first, kicked his legs, and cried. It took all of my will power to not laugh hysterically. 
• He has now seen his 3rd musical: Rachel and Matt couldn't watch him for one of our rehearsals and so I just took him with me since it wasn't my cast and he watched our rehearsal happily.
• Jon and I are in Pirates of Penzance opening this Friday May 31, (I don't perform til the June 1st matinee showing) 

New List! How to Not Make Mama Bear Angry!

I've written down several different lists that I have found, one being the list about the 9 Deadly Words used by a Woman and the list for The Non-Pregnant People of the World well I found a new one that I really enjoy!


How to NOT make Mama Bear Angry!
1. Do NOT, under ANY circumstances believe that it is ok to call any child that you personally did not conceive, carry, labor, deliver and raise: "my baby". This is a big no-no and will make the mother who did conceive, carry, labor, deliver and raise the child, not want to let you see her child. Unless you are the woman who did all of the above tasks or the man that helped her achieve this you do NOT call the child your own. It can be any of the following: "my buddy", "my grandson", "my grandbaby". But the child is not yours, and therefore nothing will anger a mama bear more than for someone to belittle everything she's gone through by taking away her title.

2. It is not ok to badger the mother or father of the child you want to see, by telling them constantly that you want to see *shudder* "my baby". (Revert back to #1 as to why that is a no no). Mama and Papa Bear are busy people, and I guarantee that they are not ignoring you. Let them be a family! Allow them the time that they need to figure things out. This is especially true for a family with a new little one. Parenthood is a big deal that has thrown the whole course of life upside down and it's not fair to guilt either party for time with the child. When they are ready they will come to you, and I promise they will. Whether it be friends, family, or grandparents, trust me- if the parental units have not explicitly said that they don't want you to be a part of their child's life they want you to be in his/her life.

3. Don't force the child to do something he/she doesn't want to do. The only person who should be allowed to tell a child what to do is their parents (unless you are given instructions to or if danger is coming upon the child.) And this isn't about discipline, this is about silly things, Such as toys! Toys are a wonderful thing! They really are, and they are fun for little kids to have a new toy. But if you give the child a toy and he/she doesn't play with it right away, don't force the kid to play with it. He/She will find it eventually and start playing with it. A child is a person with their own personality and if they don't want to do something they won't. Nothing makes a mama bear more upset than to see someone trying to force something on their child. 

4. In the day of modern technology; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all wonderful tools to share stories, updates and pictures with friends and family. When a family member or friend downloads a picture and puts it up on their personal account as their own Mama Bear will get real mad. That picture is theirs and not yours. It is NOT ok for you to take a picture and place it on your account. There is such a thing on Facebook that is called the "share" button. You can share the picture all you want, but nothing makes the steam come out of Mama Bear's ears faster than the moment she sees that you have put up HER picture of HER child on YOUR personal account. Don't do this... Otherwise she will consider letting pictures be the only way you see the child in question.

5. Last one is Food. Just because a child is old enough to chomp on food does not mean that Mama Bear wants her little one to eat whatever. If you are about to feed her child something, stop and think about the dangerous path you are crossing and the repercussions of that path. If you have not seen Mama Bear (or Papa Bear) feed their child the food in question then you had better put whatever it is down and not feed the bears. This especially goes for anything super sweet, sugary, sour, and whatever else isn't wholesome for a child to eat. Allowing new foods is the parents job, not the friend's or the grandparents; and you are crossing a big red line with sparkles and ribbons if you continue to go about it.




Haha,
 I thought it was so funny.... and very true. There are so many things that bug me about what other people do with my child..... I'm kind of really protective of my baby. Because no one else knows what I've been through in this adventure. No one else deserves the title of mom or dad to Jon's and my precious Liam. And no one else deserves to call him "my little one" or "my baby" or "my Liam". Those words from anyone other than Jon is like nails on a chalkboard. But I keep my mouth shut and bite my tongue. Because I am nice... But this list really nails it on the head. I guess other mom's have had more problems than me. Haha. 



On another note: Liam was totally walking around today. Not a ton of steps but he was walking to get from point A to point B. Pretty sure he will be walking by the time this week is over. Also, his top teeth have broken through, and he took it like a champ. I've been sick for the past week with a wicked sinus infection and I think I gave my nasty cough to Jon and Liam, but apart from having a hacking cough he is still my smiling happy boy! I am so grateful for all the people in our lives, because Liam is sure loved by everyone! And I am grateful for the support that Jon and I have from our family and friends.      

Liam's Cake Smash!

Yesterday was rather fun for me! 

I'm making invitations for Liam's birthday party with the Mosher side. We are going to have a fun little BBQ with Jon's side of the family! And I had been looking online at different invitation formats and whatnot and I really liked the idea of the cake smash for the first birthday. So yesterday I set to work and started making a cake, because I didn't want to pay for someone else to make it. I made a layered yellow cake with vanilla pudding in between the layers. Then I frosted it and covered it with fondant that I made and decorated it. It was interesting, considering that I've never made a cake like that before... I just tried to remember everything that the Cake Boss does. It was a pretty fun event. Not going to lie. It took me about six hours to make this cake. I ran out of powdered sugar and Liam had just barely taken his nap so I couldn't leave so I had to run over to my neighbour Glen and ask for powdered sugar. But it was a really fun experience! 

The beginning of my cake. I made three rounds to stack up and only one didn't break off the bottom.... yeah. I'm awesome

After I spread the buttercream frosting on the cake

After rolling out and placing the fondant. It was a rather difficult process, and it was hard to pick up the fondant after rolling it out.

the finished product. It's not perfect but it's all good. It was my first cake.

After finishing my cake it was time for us to take pictures of Liam so that we could put them on the invitations. I searched for a photographer who could take photo's that was in my price range, but I just couldn't find anyone. Everyone was so expensive and so I decided that I would take the photos myself. So I did. And they turned out pretty cute!

 I think we all had fun yesterday. Liam sure looks like he enjoyed his cake. And I know that I can actually make a decent looking cake for my kids. And take their pictures/edit the pictures. I can't believe that my baby is going to be turning one. How crazy is that? Two months to go and I will have a redheaded one year old on my hands. I am the luckiest mom ever! I love this little boy!

We Are Daughters of our Heavenly Father, Who Loves Us, and We LOVE Him...

 ....we will stand as Witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all Places as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Integrity, and Virtue.

So, I have started something that I have wanted to start for a long time: Redo my Personal Progress. The Personal Progress program is this program that is instituted in the LDS Church for the Young Women from 12-18 to do. I finished mine 10 years ago when I was 13. I worked very hard in that year to accomplish it, and I did. The program was based off of 7 Values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, and Integrity. A couple years ago a new Value was added to the list: Virtue. I wanted to start this up two years ago after hearing about the new value, but I was in the midst of getting married, school, then having a baby, and I never had time to start it. But I found my old book while we were cleaning out our office and flipped through the pages remembering all of the requirements and projects that I had done and it was fun to reminisce about. Then I was cleaning out my Mustang and found the new Pink book that I had bought many years ago and decided that that must be my sign to start it up again. So I have started from the very beginning, with Faith. Yesterday was the first day of my Personal Progress. About a year and a half ago, right after Jon and I were married, he went and bought me new scriptures with my new name on it (complete with my ! ) and they were so nice I didn't want to start marking them... so I didn't. I love my old scriptures because they have been marked in since I was 8 and I felt like all that progress would be lost if I just started all over again. I have found the opposite to be true. I have a new understanding of the scriptures, and I feel like they are my "married" scriptures and so everything in them will be related to me as a mom and a wife, whereas my old scriptures were my "single" scriptures so everything in there was me growing into a mom and a wife. I love that my new scriptures are going to be Christened with my Personal Progress though!
So my first required value was reading Hebrews 11; Alma 32:17-43; Ether 12:6-22; and Joseph Smith-History 1:11-20 and two General Conference Talks on Faith. Then establish a habit of Prayer. I will admit that I am not the best at morning and evening prayers. I am constantly talking to God though and listening to the Guidance that He sends to me though, so I haven't felt bad about it, but I have officially started having personal, on my knees- official, prayers, and already I'm feeling a difference. I just started this yesterday. It's amazing how great of a difference personal prayer makes. Some of my favourite scriptures with this first one are:

• Hebrews 11:1 "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"

• Hebrews 11:6 "...without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
• Alma 32: 17-18 "yea there are many who say: if thou wilt show unto us a sign from Heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe (18) now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it"
• Alma 32:23 "little children do have words given unto them many times which confound the wise and the learned"
• Alma 32:27 "if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith... ye can give place for a portion of my words"
• Moroni 12:6 "ye receive no witness till after the trial of your faith"
• Moroni 12:12 "for if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them"
• Joseph Smith History 1:15-16 "I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me.... thick darkness gathered around me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction...when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head"

How incredibly amazing it is to have faith. We are taught in the Primary Hymn of the same name that "faith is like a little seed. If planted it will grow" and there are so many times that people say faith is the seed. Faith is not the seed. Faith is an action, therefor the planting of the seed is faith. What happens after the seed is planted is your testimony, because your testimony is what grows.

The second experience that I did today was to read Alma 56:45-48; Alma 57:21 and "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" about a mother's role.
For those of you who are members and know which verses these are, you will believe me when I say that I almost immediately started crying. The versus in Alma that I was to read was the story of the Army of Helaman, Helaman had sent this epistle or letter to Moroni telling him how things were going with his troops, and it is probably one of the most heart warming scriptures.

• In Alma 56:47-48 Helaman writes "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers saying, we do not doubt our mothers knew it.
• Then in Alma 57:21 "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them."

Being a new mom, these scriptures now make me cry, because it makes me realize what a huge impact I have on my children. "We do not doubt our mothers knew it", how powerful is that? Especially if you have children of your own. I'm telling you, this is already a much different experience now than it was for me 10 years ago and I'm only on the second experience of the first Value. Lastly, I was to read The Family: A Proclamation to the World; I have a really nice copy that the Temple had given to us when Jon and I got married that is up on the little poster I made of our marriage license, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and then pictures of us from that day that is hanging in our living room. But reading through it today was even more remarkable for me...
Here are the points that really stuck out to me:

• 1st paragraph: "...Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children"
• 2nd paragraph:  "All human beings-male and female- are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual permortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose"
• 3rd paragraph: "Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally"
• 4th paragraph: "God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife"
• 5th paragraph: "Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live"
• 6th paragraph: "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities"
• 6th paragraph: "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."
• 7th paragraph: "We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets"

My absolute favourite part of that is in the first part of the 6th paragraph. There is a 'recipe' of sorts for a successful marriage that I hadn't ever noticed until today.  Faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities! How awesome is it that we have living prophets on the earth today. To teach us and guide us in ways that we can TRULY be happy. One more thing that I want to mention about the 'recipe' of a successful marriage is the fact that it goes for both your spouse and also for yourself. Dealing with my postpartum depression there are many things that I don't do on that list for myself, I managed to put myself into a deep dark place that Satan helped me along. I still get after myself for allowing myself to listen to his influence, but then it just puts me back two steps. The real recipe if I'm ever going to truly get past my PPD is the recipe for a successful marriage. Because if I am exercising these things on myself, how much easier will it be to practice these in Jon's and my marriage? Back in my post about My Battle I mentioned the word JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. These are how you find true joy by serving these people, and the recipe for a successful marriage is definitely a way to serve.

Anyway, that's my fun update. I am really excited to get into this Personal Progress, already it's a much different experience than it was when I was younger. Before it was me growing into a mother and wife and now it's all about ways to become a better mother and wife. 

Birth is a Miracle!

You know what amazes me? The fact that I created a child. I was looking through photo's of before I was pregnant, during pregnancy, the couple photo's I allowed while I was delivering and then the first picture taken of my sweet baby boy.

In the short nine months that I was pregnant, I managed to create a tiny human being that had all of the functions necessary to live on it's own. I know that nine months doesn't seem like it's short in the midst of it, but when you are on the other side of the nine months, and your child is two months away from being one, it's a very short time indeed.

I was flipping through pictures and saw that picture of Liam for the first time. Eyes wide open, looking right at the camera with the look of, "What just happened?" in his face. It amazes me that babies are just so perfect. Even with their imperfections, the fact that they are born and able to look around right away is amazing to me. It truly is a miracle!

I am so grateful that I am the woman and get to experience the joys of pregnancy to hearing the heartbeat for the first time, and seeing the baby on the ultrasounds, to feeling that first kick. It really amazes me! Motherhood is the greatest blessing and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with one of his precious spirits. Liam is more than I could ever hope for in a child, and I want nothing more than to be the best mom that I can be for him and that I can always be a good example for him.

The miracle of motherhood is simply amazing!

Where the plus sign is, is the beginning of my sweet Baby Liam. It was a flashing dot that marked his heartbeat

In January, getting out of my first trimester. This is when we started to tell people about my pregnancy!

At 30 weeks, my amniotic fluid was low, so I was sent to McKay Dee Hospital to get a Non-Stress Test done to make sure Liam was doing ok.

Rachel and I making cinnamon rolls. My pregnancy craving for the week

I wanted to lay on my stomach so bad, but couldn't because of my belly, so I put pillows down and laid down

I am 38 weeks in this photo. We had just finished getting Liam's room painted and cleaned up

One of Liam's Newborn Diapers. Getting closer!

One of the only hospital photo's we have

Minutes after Liam was born

First time meeting my baby after my black out episode

Liam at one day old.

Motherhood is seriously the best. It is so rewarding.

My cousin, Rocky, writes a very interesting blog that you should check out. It is really cool to see the different insight that he has about womanhood and the functions of the womb. Check it out here at http://theveilworker.blogspot.com 

 

 

10 MONTHS!

Liam is now ten months old! WHA--??? How did that even happen? He is growing up oh so fast and I am just so shocked with how fast time is going.

10 Months:

1. Almost walking. He knows how because he has walked before but he chooses not to. Although he will walk in the grass. So we will walk around the yard and he will just hold my finger and walk

2. He loves food! Any and all food. And he will shove food in his mouth even if he isn't done gumming the first mouthful.

3. His bottom teeth have popped up! And we are still waiting on the top teeth, one of his top teeth has started to poke thru but it's still going to be a little bit before it comes in.

4. Bath Time has resumed being fun for him. There was a little bit when he was six months and he would freak out every time he got in the bath tub. But he loves it now, he enjoys splashing in the water and playing with his toys. And he absolutely LOVES when I put bubbles in it and he gets a bubble bath!

5. He loves getting out my pots and pans and banging on them with a wooden spoon. I might have a little drummer on my hands. He also loves to sit on my lap and play the piano!

6. His babbling is starting to sound more like talking. Jon went into his room the other day and said, "hi little boy" and Liam totally said, "What?" it was adorable. He also knows how to tell me "no" when he is done eating his food. 

7. He has gotten a recent fascination with the toilet... and I'm really hoping that this continues so that potty training will be much easier. He loves to pull the lever to flush the toilet. So hopefully when it's time to potty train he'll be ready for it. 

He is pretty cute, and I love being a mom. Jon and I got cast in Pirates of Penzance, and rehearsals are pretty late at night and run pretty late so it's hard being away, but my best friend Rachel is an awesome babysitter and comes over and takes care of him. But because Liam is so easy to take care of, he usually goes straight to sleep. He is such a good little boy. I love being a mom more than anything in the world. I know that this is what I was destined to do! And I love it!