As Shelby's 3rd birthday has rolled around of course it has made me think about her even more than I normally do. She has been one of the biggest blessings in my life! I can honestly say I would not be as strong a person if not for her and I would not have the knowledge of the Gospel that I have. I know with all my heart that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only true church on Earth. I know that Joseph Smith restored the Gospel and he died an innocent martyr. I know the Book of Mormon is a true book, that those people lived and that I can learn from their lives. I know there is a Prophet of God on Earth today and his name is President Monson. But most importantly I know the atonement is real, that Jesus Christ died for our sins and it is because of him that I will have my daughter again some day. My family is an eternal family, the blessings of the Temple can't be numbered. I can't look at Riley and not think of the fact that she just left her Heavenly Father to come here and that I'm responsible to teach her all of the things that I know... pressure! I love my family and am so grateful for them!
When Shelby passed I made a scrapbook of her life the next day so we could take it to the services and on the last page Travis and I wrote letters to her. I want to share the letters we wrote because I don't think I can put in better words how we feel about our oldest daughter...
Shelby,
Your mom and I love you very much. We were very blessed to have you and we know that we will hold you again one day. Through the Lord you will receive your body again, this time without the infirmities that troubled you in life. you are a choice daughter of God, who was meant to stay here but a short time. you will be remembered and cherished by all who met you. I want you to know that the Lord loves you and gave His life so you can live with Him in glory. I know we are sealed as a family and your mom and I will live in such a way as to be worthy of you.
Love Daddy
And I wrote...
Shelby,
I love you so much! And I miss you with all my heart but I know you are happy and safe where you are. I feel so so very blessed to be your mother and amazed that our Father in Heaven would entrust you to me. I have all my life to work to deserve you. You made me a better person and have built my testimony of the restoration so much. I can't wait to hold and kiss you again. We love you so much and thank you so much for coming here and enduring all that you did. I know it was more for me than for you, I needed you! Thank you so much!
Love Mommy
I just realized that I forgot to mention how proud I am of Travis! He is amazing! Talented, hard working, a wonderful husband and a great father! All of his hard work has paid off! I can't imagine my life with out him, he makes me a better person. I love him and again can't say how proud I am of him!
So I know I haven't posted in awhile... a lot has happened! We have been staying at my parents sense T graduated in December because we didn't know where we were going. Well during that time we had to make the decision whether we were going to get a Masters or get a "real" job. We decided that we were going for the job so we turned down the U of U(that T got early acceptance to!) and T had many interviews and was about to be flown to Colorado for a job interview and offered a job.... well Heavenly Father decided that that was not the right decision, T received a phone call from his counselor at the U and he was told he was given their scholarship and assitantship (the only one they offer for the MACC program) that he hadn't applied for! T said he had turned them down and that he hadn't applied for that scholarship, the guy said well we read your entry essay and decided to give it to you and if you want back in I'll get you in.... So long story short we are going to the U in fall!
After all of this we still had to figure out where to live during school, I applied for the student housing on campus but after living almost 5 years in 2 bedroom apartments I wanted a 3 bedroom. And as most of you probably know in most student apartments 3 bedrooms are hard to come by and go very very quickly. Mom and I happened to be SLC so I asked if she could take me to the student housing, well guess what... we got the only open 3 bedroom the had and they even said how unlikely it was that there would be one open and if I hadn't of gone in that day we wouldn't have gotten it! I'm pretty excited! They are old apartments but have a lot of character and it's 1100 sq ft! The only thing is we have to move in in 2 weeks! They have about 1 1/2 to 2 ft wide floor to ceiling windows in each room and even more windows in the living room, its hard to describe but once we get settled I'll post some pics.
Riley is doing good, rolling over, sitting up by herself and just being adorable as usual!
This is Riley with her cousin Baen who is actually the exact same age, when Riley is actually about an hour and half older. She loves playing with her cousins, mostly watching the two older girls run around being girls! I can't imagine what I have to look forward to!
EEW, boy cooties!
There's never enough room on the mat!
Went to Rexburg the end of January and visited with friends and their cute babies!
Cole had already gone to bed so we didn't get a pic of that cute little boy!
IT'S SO FLUFFY! Riley will stop whatever she is doing to watch my moms cats, I hope she doesn't become a crazy cat lady!
We were able to go to Colorado with my parents and we got to go see Grandma and Grandpa Attkisson for the first time, she had so much fun!
With Uncle Scott
Her favorite thing in the world to do it stand, she even moves her feet up and down and tries to walk... adorable!
She loves baby food, the only problem is she thinks she's old enough to feed herself!
What a cute mess!
Bath time has been interesting... she used to love them but then I took her in the shower with me and that ruined it, all she wanted to do was have me hold her. So we thought we would try on of these bath chairs and she actually likes it despite the worried look on her face!
This is just a cute Sunday outfit... I now I'm her mom and I have to say it but man is she cute and I love her so much!This is R eating rice cereal for the first time! She loved it! She insists on holding the bottle herself and once she saw the spoon she thought she needed to hold that too!
I know I posted a lot of pictures but I didn't really give any info. So here we go... TRAVIS GRADUATED! I know I mentioned it before but I mean come on it's a big deal! Granted he's still going for his Masters but that wont start until September. We're staying with my parents sense we left Idaho and it's been really nice to have no rent and Riley already recognizes her grandparents and let's just say that my mom is loving having her around all the time, pretty sure she could care less whether Travis and I are around as long as we leave Ri! Most likely we will be here through Master's Trav is really hoping for the U cause he likes their program the most but BYU and Weber are other options. He's working doing taxes but also keeping feelers out for something better.
Now on to the important stuff... Riley, she is adorable, of course, but spoiled! Honestly though I could care less, she'll grow out of it. It sounds like she has a lot of things in common with her older cousin Sarah! She's actually a really good baby, she sleeps 8 to 8 at night and takes regular naps. She's rolled over once from her back to her stomach, and sense she hates tummy time, she keeps getting close to doing it again but then realizes "oh wait I hate this" and then rolls back. She does love her floor mat with all of her toys and she's great at grabbing them and they go straight into her mouth. Besides the mat you can't get her to lie down, if there is anything going on she wants to see it and be a part of it if she can! She is stubborn and a screamer but so cute! She has the cutest dumbo ears, don't think I'm mean for saying it, I know she'll grow into them but right now they are just adorable!
So pretty much things are going great Travis is good, working and waiting for school to start again. I love staying at home with Ri, I never really understood what I was missing, I always wanted it but now I know I couldn't live with out it! Riley great, healthy happy and spoiled, what else could you ask for!
