Claire's Blessing Day

Yesterday was Claire's special day. Her dad gave her a beautiful blessing and my favorite part was that he blessed her to have a life full of happiness. After it was over and we were driving over to his mom's house for the get together after, he said that was all he really wanted for her. It was the sweetest thing and it just melted my heart. I never knew how much you could love two people.

Claire wore the dress that I wore almost 27 years ago when I got blessed by my dad. It was such a great moment. I love this four generation picture of me, my dad, Claire and my grandpa. You can tell that I look like that side of the family the most.
We loved spending time with our family and friends and having everyone out to celebrate Claire's special day.
XO
Caitlin

Claire: 2 Month update

 My Baby is 2 months old!!
 She turned two months old on Thursday Oct, 22 and I can't believe how fast time is going already. It has been so fun watching her learn and grow. She is doing so well and we had her 2 month checkup on Tuesday of this week.

She is now 12lbs 6oz and 23 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for both weight and height. They checked her hearing, her eyesight, her startle reaction, her legs, everything basically and the doctor said she is just perfect. She has red hair like her dad, and is basically his twin. It's the cutest thing ever.
She sleeps great at night, usually only waking up once at 2:30 am before she gets up for the day at 6:00 am. She is beautiful and so fun to be around. We are loving every minute of being with her. Tomorrow (Sunday) is her blessing day and I can't wait to see all our family and friends.

(this is how she really felt about taking her 2 month pictures that day)

(Lifting her head up so much now, she is so strong!)

(Matching mommy and baby outfits, this was a fun day, and you can see her red hair more in this picture! I love it!)

XO

Caitlin

New Design and Domain Name

I decided to get serious about this whole blogging thing. I really enjoy it and wanted to make my blog more professional. I have had a few of my articles, particularly the ones about college tips and organization, featured in some posts that have received a lot of page views. Because of this I have a lot of people looking at my blog once or twice and never come back. I think it is because I am not putting out content often enough and I need to do that. I have a plan and I am going to stick to it. I know November gets crazy with the Holidays but I really want to be better about updating my page. Part of this new motivation was getting a domain name, so I took the plunge and paid the fee for a .com address. Really the blog has paid for the fee itself already but I feel like when you have a .com address its easier to take you seriously vs a .blogspot.com address.
 Another thing I did was change up the design of my blog for a more professional look. I love that people are so talented and are great with HTML codes so that they can help me out in getting a look I really want and can enjoy. I designed my last blog template all on my own and it takes a lot of work so this time I sought out some outside help and it made a lot of difference. I hope you enjoy the new look.
 Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoying the blog. Please comment if you have any ideas of posts you may want to see in the coming future.
XO
Caitlin

Gospel Study Journals

Finally a post that isn't about my baby :) Although she's adorable and much loved around our house I have a lot of things I want to share about on my blog and the first thing is my scripture journals.
I love studying the gospel! Each time I read the Book of Mormon, talks from Apostles, and other church material I gain a deeper appreciation for our Savior. I have noticed over the years that when I write down what I am studying I remember it a lot better. Not only do I remember it a lot better but I internalize the message and really think about it.
My first set of journals are note taking journals:

I have done this method since 2011. I use notebooks from deseret book which cost me around $8. I always have one of these notebooks in my scripture bag. Now that I have Claire I just bring the diaper bag to church but I still put a notebook in the diaper bag every Sunday.
Since serving a mission I have learned how important sacrament meeting can really be to us. My mission president taught us that answers to our questions can be answered in sacrament meeting just like they can be during general conference. I take notes during general conference so I thought I should apply that same principle and start taking notes during my Sunday meetings. Here is an example of notes I took during a sacrament meeting:

Here are notes that I took during general conference:

I also do the same thing with sunday school and relief society. : I only get to go to sunday school/ relief society every other week because the other sundays I am in primary. Relief Society is the hour we meet as women of the church 18 and older and we discuss gospel topics. Because I can't go as often I would like, meaning every sunday, taking notes helps me to get the most out of the meetings.
I take notes by writing down highlights from the meetings and then my own thoughts as well. Sometimes the notes happen in forms of lists, or scriptures, or doodles.

Another method  I have for note taking is through marking my scriptures.

Most of the time while I am reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon I write my thoughts that come to mind in the margins of the chapter.

 As you can see it can get kind of messy but I really love it. I just get these blue Book of Mormons from Deseret book for $3.00 so I start with a fresh copy every time. I love to do this because each time I read the Book of Mormon I am in a different stage of my life and I find that the passages help me deal with what is going on at that time. Right now I am so focused on being a mom and raising a strong daughter that anything to do with families in the Book of Mormon I am paying close attention to.
Another way I mark my scriptures in a fresh copy is by writing my own summary titles at the top of each page. After I read a page in the Book of Mormon I will summarize it in the top margin like this:

I like to do this because it helps me remember what I read and I can refer to the top page really easily. Lastly another quick way I mark my scriptures is by color code and the page ends up looking like this:

 I will do another blog post soon on marking scriptures but at least you have a general idea of what I do. Sometimes I even combine all three methods into one.

Sharing the gospel is something I want to do more of so if you don't like these types of posts sorry, just keep scrolling ;)

XO
Caitlin

Updates

Hello!
It's been a while since I have given some blog updates here. Claire is doing great! She had her one month birthday 2 weeks ago and she is now 6 weeks old. It's crazy how fast time flies. She is using her eyes a lot more, looking around and is generally a really happy baby. She sleeps really well. She is good at falling asleep if I put her down when I feel like she is getting drowsy. She has a schedule now which is great for me. She goes down for her long stretch between 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm and will sleep until 1:00 am. 5 hours!! Then she is up for a feeding until 2:00 am. Then she sleeps from 2:00 am until 5:30 am or 6:00 am. She is up until 7:00 am and goes back down from 7:00 am until 9:00 am. Then she is up for two hours until 11:00 am and she will sleep from 11:00 am until 12:00 sometimes 12:30. Then she is up from 12:30 until 3:00 and at 3:00 goes down for another nap until 5:00. Then she is up from 5:00 until her bedtime. I feel like that is a pretty good schedule for a six week old. She is so close to smiling. She hasn't yet but I can't wait until she does.
She eats really well. I do formula feed her and she has been growing and doing great with that. She weighs about 11 lbs right now, we have her 2 month checkup in a couple of weeks and I'll post her stats from that appointment and her 2 month update when she turns 2 months. Zack loves being a dad and he is seriously one of the best dads. He is so great at helping out at home with Claire and he loves to take care of her. We are both so lucky to have him.
I have started a job working from home. It's with a group called Response Marketing and I really love it. I can work anytime between 8am and 8pm so I generally get my hours in while Claire is taking her nap. I am truly blessed to have been able to find a job that allows me to work from home. The hardest part is that the nursery is combined with the office since we don't have a separate bedroom, so during nap time she sleeps in the pack n play so I don't disturb her. Usually there is the washer going and the dishwasher so there is noise while she sleeps which helps.
I have more blog posts planned on different topics and hopefully I can get more of a routine going with blogging. I really do love to do it and I hope you enjoy reading it. Thanks so much for reading
XO
Caitlin