The "Busy" Syndrome

At the first of the year a member of our bishopric challenged us to become an "expert" at something new in the gospel. I loved this counsel!  I decided that I wanted to become an expert on General Conference by seriously studying the words of our living prophets.  We are so incredibly blessed to have modern day revelation from true prophets.
I have come to really love President Uchtdorf.  Ever since I was a little girl Henry B. Eyring was my "favorite" apostle (Be honest, you all have one!), but I feel like President Uchtdorf is crowding the "favorite" stand.  He's getting right on up there!  I feel like he just has such wise counsel for our every day lives.  I loved his talk last year counseling us to just "stop it" and to not judge others for "sinning differently" than us.  I know I still have a LONG ways to go, but I have really tried to apply that to my life.  And then last night, he hit me all over again with something so important.  Nate and I had reviewed this talk in our institute class last semester but I really loved reading it last night, it is titled "Of Regrets and Resolutions" and everyone should go read it right now. Seriously.  He talks about a nurse who cares for terminally ill patients and how she asks them what their regrets are in life.  There is much to learn from all of them, but one in particular stood out to me.
One of the most common regrets was "I wish I had spent more time with the people I love".  But the part I love is this, he goes on to say "Isn't it true that we often get so busy?  And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of superior life. Is it?"  Wow!  Seriously, is it??  NO!  That brings to mind another talk from that same conference, "First Observe, Then Serve" by Sister Linda K. Burton.  She talks about a day when there were "too many to-dos on her list" and she felt too busy to attend the temple.  At the moment she had that thought she stopped everything and went to the temple and was blessed with a wonderful experience to serve (read the talk to find out what that was!).  She was 100% right to stop everything.  It is fine to be busy, but what are we busy with? Is it the things of the world, or eternal matters?
Are we too busy surfing the internet to spend time with our family?  Are we too busy watching TV to call up a friend?  After I read this talk last night, Nate and I got talking about the busyness of the world we live in.   We had tried to plan a game night with several friends and only Nate's brother was able to come.  Now I'm not saying they didn't have legitimate things to attend to, because I'm sure they did!  But what we were discussing is how times have changed.  When I was a little girl my parents had a group of friends that they had regular "Dinner Parties" with.  Then it just slowly fizzled away as everyone got "too busy".  In one of my classes we discussed a study that showed this exact thing.  Over the years, the amount of people engaging in dinner parties has declined dramatically.  Have things changed?  Nate and I decided that other things simply took their place. We now have a ton of electronic devices that can be entertaining so who needs people and games, right?  Wrong!  At least in my opinion.  I am a truly social being. I love being with people.  Especially my people (remember how we all have our own people?)
And then President Uchtdorf drives his point home even more.  He says this, "I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished.  I can't see it."  Well said, I completely agree.  Do you think the Savior ever rushed anything? No.  He took His time with everyone and let them know of their importance and His love for them.  In my quest to be better, I resolve to strive for that!  To not be "busy", but rather take the time every. single. day. to do those things of eternal importance.
I love this gospel and the wonderful things we learn from it!!  I am amazed that I still learn so much.
So, if anyone wants to get together for dinner, or games, or just to catch up, give us a call!!  I'm sure we would love to :)
And seriously, go read this talk!  Both of them for that matter, I love President Uchtdorf's so much, but Sister Burton offers an inspiring message as well!  And then tell me what you think, I'd love to hear your opinions!
Have a great day, and don't let it be "too busy"!

Lovin Life with Lil Miss

Our Lil Miss is seven weeks old!

I cannot believe how big she is getting.  Time is going by way too fast!  She is the happiest baby ever and I can't get enough of her smiles!!  There is nothing better than waking up to her adorable little dimple in the morning.
She is still just such a great baby.  She has outgrown her newborn clothes, which is really sad but so fun at the same time because now she has a LOT more options!  Which we are lovin :)

The last seven weeks have been so crazy!  We spent awhile at my parents house for Christmas which was great!  Baylie went through this phase of not knowing when to stop eating so she would projectile vomit ALL over.  It was really sad, but totally hilarious at the same time!  For example...

Funny story here.  She ate and would NOT burp.  I tried, my mom tried, and then Nate came over and said "I'll do it, I'm professional."  So he set Baylie up on his lap, tapped her back ONE time, and she threw up ALL over him.  Totally got in his mouth.  SO funny. Instead of helping him, we grabbed the camera!

Also funny.  We were decorating ginger bread houses for our annual competition and she was a bit fussy.  Pops volunteered to hold her.  It had been over an hour since she ate, but apparently that doesn't matter!  She threw up SEVERAL times.  Pops tried to "save" her outfit by holding her against his shirt.  Totally didn't work.  It covered her outfit, his outfit and got all over her face! It was crusted in her eyelashes!

But anyway... enough about that!  We had an awesome Christmas!  It was so different and fun with a baby!  I thoroughly enjoyed dressing her up!  Here are the results!

This bow was a bit big.. totally made her look like a present!

Mimi made her this outfit for Christmas Eve!  So cute!!

My personal favorite!!  This was adorable, if I do say so myself!

And of course she needed Christmas Eve Jammies!!  They had Santa on the butt, so cute.  

Christmas Eve was really special.  The boys went on their annual snowmobile ride so us girls got to have breakfast with my Grandma Great.  Baylie got to meet her Great-Great Grandma for the very first time!  It was amazing. I love her so much and to see her with Baylie was beyond precious.  She couldn't take her eyes off her!

We spent Christmas Eve evening with the Hyde fam at John's.  It was really great!  We decided not to do presents this year and just all said something nice about who we would have given a present to.  A lot of us were worried it would just be cheesy and lame, but it was awesome.  Really nice things were said and it was so much better than a present!

Christmas was so fun!  We started out at Nate's parents house to watch his niece and nephews open their presents.  What a blast! I can't wait till we have kids old enough to get that excited.  It really does change everything so much. Then we headed to my grandparents house for breakfast!  Grandma Great was there again so we got to snap a few more really great pictures!

Five Generations!!

She is the star of the show! 

Five Generations of girls!

After my grandparents we headed to my parents for some present opening!  We were spoiled!

I gave Nate a headsock for snowmobiling, of course he had to try it on!

I got a KitchenAid!  I was THRILLED if you can't tell!

Aunt Linds knit this ADORABLE elephant for Baylie!

We gave Baylie a swing!  I was so excited and she loves it, I'm one happy Momma!

We went back to Nate's parents for the whole Griffin fam present opening!  Again, so fun with all the kids!  Baylie makes 17 grandkids so it's a bit crazy!  We were spoiled all around!!  It was definitely a success! We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying family.  What could be better?

Nate enjoyin some snuggle time!

The results of the gingerbread contest!  Nate won this year!

Christmas family photo!

Life has been so beyond good!  Nate has been having a blast snowmobiling as much as he possibly can.  We also moved a couple weeks ago!  My awesome Grandma is letting us live in her house while she is on her mission.  She left the day after Christmas for the Dominican Republic Temple mission.  She is such a great example!  Love her!  So we are back in Kaysville and we are loving being so close to family and friends!  Moving is such a process, but it's worth it!

Nate started his first "big boy" job yesterday and is really excited to finally be a workin man.  He is working for England Logistics which is a trucking company and he will be filling the trucks, basically.. I think... let's be honest, we aren't 100% sure yet.  But he's really excited and it seems to be a great company so yay for him! We are so blessed that he was able to find a job so quickly. He worked really hard, putting out resumes and such, but there was definitely some divine intervention there.

Sunday we blessed Baylie.  What an incredible experience.  I was so excited and it turned out to be even better than I imagined.  Nate did an amazing job blessing her.  I am so lucky and grateful to have the priesthood in my home.  There is just nothing else like it.  Baylie was an angel and didn't make a peep!  It was also really special for me because she got to wear the same dress that I wore.  And on top of that, she wore some adorable little booties that were my Grandma Great's and she was wrapped in a beautiful afghan that my Grandma Great crocheted for her.  She looked adorable!

The beautiful booties!

We have a picture of me just like this!

Pops puttin her to sleep!

Cousin Wyatt!  Five weeks apart

Her toes kept peekin through the booties, then they came all the way through the blanket!

She was SO done being in that big fluffy dress!  

So many pictures!  Just can't help but share them!  Well I think that's the update for now!  It's only day 2 of Nate working, but I am LOVING being a stay at home mommy!  As I type this Lil Miss is sittin on my lap just a smilin away!  What could possibly be better??  Not a thing.  It's the best.

And for those who haven't seen, here's Baylie's birth announcement!  (Huge shout out to my Aunt Denise for helping me with it!!)