Calling. :)

Alright, so I don't know if many of you know this, but I play the piano. I took lessons for around eight years and then stopped and just played off and on since then. I would play in seminary or institute and I was pretty good at hymns, I have never really liked playing in front of people because of my insecurities and nervous OCD tendencies under pressure so I never really worked REALLY hard to develop my talent. So, then I got married and NEVER played. EVER. I didn't even practice at all. For like three years. This last Christmas I was at church and the Relief Society President asked if I could play any of the hymns because they were desperate since our regular pianist was a no-show that day. I told her I could probably do it but to not expect anything too fantastic because it had been awhile...anyway...I chose a couple of songs, the first one went really good, I was surprised because it had been so long! Then, the bishop came and sat down for the lesson. I played the closing hymn with only one or two unnoticeable mistakes and as I was leaving afterward he shook my hand and said, "Sister Jarvis, I didn't know you played the piano, that was great!" I was like "Oh, thanks...it's been awhile...ha. ha." and left real fast. I didn't want him getting any ideas. After that our little family wasn't at our ward for five weeks in a row because of weddings and holidays and all that good stuff, but the Sunday before I got back the Bishop called and asked if I could speak. Of course I said yes and so I prepared a talk and was all nervous ALL week long. I gave my talk and felt like a million pounds had lifted off my shoulders...but then...I was asked to meet with a member of the bishopric after church. I thought maybe I was getting released from a calling or something so I wasn't too worried. But when I showed up after church and stepped in to the office, I felt that million pounds come right back to my shoulders and thought I would have a heart attack when I heard what the counselor asked me. "Sister Jarvis, I have a sort of...two-fold calling to extend to you...we would like to call you as the ward pianist and we would like you to learn the organ too." I almost barfed. really. it was right there. I have N.E.V.E.R. played an organ!!!!!!! I was like, "seriously? Are you being serious?" Probably with a crazed look in my eye. He looked a little scared. I just lost control and started going off about how I hadn't played in years and how I could only play a few of the hymns and blah blah blah. He was like, "it's okay, you can play the same hymns every week, we don't care, as long as someone is playing." That didn't really help at all. I was so surprised by the calling that I said yes and left. When I saw Jeremy and my mom out in the hall I must have looked pretty awful because my mom was trying to hold down a laugh and said, "it couldn't have been that bad..." I was like, "guess." as we walked out to the car and as they guessed I progressively returned to reality and felt tears about to burst from my eyes. I finally just blurted out what had happened and Jeremy busted up laughing. yeah. didn't help. That sweet, tender, loving husband of mine. I acted all calm but when we got home and I had Bridger down for a nap I curled up on the couch and bawled my eyes out. Jeremy just sat there...not knowing what to say because I was being such a turd about everything. I just kept yelling that I was going to call back and say "no, I can't do this. I'm sorry, but I just can't." I kept trying to think of excuses of why I couldn't do this, but mostly I knew I was just scared out of my mind. I didn't say no, I don't believe in saying no to callings and that is the reason I said yes in the first place. So, Jeremy gave me a blessing and I read my patriarchal blessing and I knew that this is what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. So I did it. I practiced for hours and hours that first week and on Sunday I played the piano, it went amazing! The second week I got a five minute lesson on the organ and that was it, but I played it on Sunday anyway, and other than a few mistakes and sounding a little "choppy" I did really well again! Thanks to Heavenly Father, I give all the credit to Him. :) Last week was a little rough for some reason (that could be a whole nother post in itself...), but I hope this next week is better. Pray for me. ;) lol. 

This was and continues to be an extreme testimony builder for me...I just remind myself that I can do all things with the Lord. :) 

Just wait for the story about last Sunday...lol. 

(Late) 1 year pics. :)

Last weekend we were down in Hurricane and I surprised Jeremy by taking him to the Parade of Homes (he had never been and wanted to go for a long time). We had so much fun, and I have SOOO many ideas for our dream house. I hope someday that Jeremy and I can build our own house together, I love the little tiny details and I love creating things, I think it would be so fun. Bridger got to spend some quality time with his Grandma Brown and Aunt Bri while we were gone and I think he had a blast! Oh, and over the weekend I read the Hunger Games series...yeah, can you say weird??? That girl was so confused the whole time that I  couldn't decide if I loved or hated the books! I'm leaning more toward...dislike? I don't know, they just weren't really my style. I was surprised though because it seems like everyone is like freaking out about the books and movies so I was really expecting something amazing. Don't get me wrong, I thought they were well written and the author had some great ideas but...not my favorite, to each his own I guess. :)

Moving on... :)

Lately, I just stare at Bridger and try to figure out how he got so big so fast. He seems like a little boy now, not so much a baby anymore. It's a good thing, but at the same time I'm a little sad. It seems like the day he turned one (or maybe the day after ;) ) he just all of a sudden got "big" ha ha. He is basically running everywhere now and eats all by himself, goes to sleep by himself, he brushes his teeth and combs his hair. He loves to watch Curious George and play the piano, he also loves his daddy's guitar. He knows what he wants and what he doesn't want and will make sure to tell you either way. His face is very expressive and he is such a chatterbox! He loves to call daddy or grandma during the day and holds the phone in front of his face while he just talks and talks and talks (he loves to use his tongue in his language too, it's hilarious). The thing is, I don't decide what he will do, or eat, or play with anymore, he has his own likes and dislikes now and his personality is really starting to show. I am learning everyday from him and hope that I can teach him the things he needs to know and feed him healthy and all of that stuff, it's a lot of pressure! But, I love him. :)

Ok, these are way late, we had a hard time getting a meeting with Andrea set up because we live so far away! We finally met up last weekend in Hurricane and chose our favorites, and she had them edited before we left! I am really happy with how they turned out, Andrea Stratton did them for us. These were taken a week after his 1st birthday. Anyway, I thought they turned out really cute. :)

 This is his favorite car. :)

 This little chair idea is so dang cute and so is my little cutie. I love it! :)

I still can't believe I have a one year old. He is so amazing to me. :)

L.O.V.E. Day :)

I absolutely LOVE Valentine's Day, I always have, even when I wasn't married or when I was single. To me, Valentine's Day isn't just for couples, it's a day where I can do something really special for ALL the people I love. I didn't get to see any of my other family members this year, but I have a lot of really fun memories from V-day growing up. My parents always bought those mini boxes of chocolate that are shaped like hearts with little cartoons on them and they would put our names on them, in the morning we would always run downstairs, knowing they would be waiting for us...I am totally passing the tradition on to my children. :) I tell my husband every day that I love him, but Valentine's is sort of like a mini anniversary for us ha ha, we go all out, it's a day we like to take to focus on each other and our marriage. When Bridger get's older, we will do something for him too, but at this point, he was having fun tearing up the stuff I made for Jeremy, so that was his Valentine. :) Anyway, I have been planning this Valentine's Day for a few weeks, so I was way excited. As many of you probably saw on facebook, I thought Jeremy had left for work early that morning and I was kinda sad, I fell back to sleep until Bridger woke up around 7:30, I didn't want to get out of bed but did it anyway and went and got him out of his crib. As I was stumbling groggily down the hall with Bridger in my arms to head downstairs I smelled something. Something delicious. All of a sudden I was SO happy and knew that he was still here! I immediately snapped out of my grogginess and practically ran downstairs to see him standing at the stove with his army pants on making delicious crepes for me! For a second the smile left my face, when I noticed that he was dressed for work, and I asked him if he was still leaving, he started laughing and said of course not, then I was happy again. :) He finished my crepes and put strawberries inside with whipped cream and cinammin sugar on top. They literally tasted like heaven, those combined with my sexy husband cooking was almost more than I could handle, I was like beaming light everywhere from happiness probably. After that, I gave him his present, I got him "The Incredibles" movie, which we watched that morning. He gave me "Beauty and the Beast" and some delicious chocolate, which I loved! For lunch he took me to Jimmy Johns and Smoothie King and then we took everything to the park and ate there with Bridger, it was cute but pretty chilly! Jeremy had physcial Therapy so I ran to the store while he was there and then we headed home. This year was my year to plan the evening, so I made some homemade spaghetti (his favorite food, plus, it's romantic...) with salad and garlic bread...he absoultely LOVED it! We ate in candlelight (which Bridger thought was pretty interesting...lol). I gave Jeremy a "love poster" with candy bars to fill in some of the words, he loved it and so did Bridger, he's still having a blast tearing the candy bars off and playing with the tape! Afterward, Jeremy gave Bridger a bath and got him ready for bed and I set up the rest of the evening which consisted of a scavenger hunt leading to our bedroom, so I hid the envelopes and got our bedroom all ready with rose petals, chocolates, candles, and some other unmentionables. When Bridger was in bed, the hunt began...They were way easy clues, but before he could read the next clue there was always a task, for example, one of them was "sweep your lady into your arms and dance to an entire romantic song before reading the next clue." We danced to our wedding song, "You're My Better Half" by Keith Urban, in the living room. Another clue was "Kiss your woman like you've never kissed her before," one was "make a toast and share some bubbly" or something like that and another was "share your favorite memory with each other." You get the picture, right? ha ha. It turned out to be way fun and romantic, he loved it! The last clue led to our bedroom, where he was left to eat chocolates while I...you know...changed (dang V.S., I spend all my money there.). Anyway, we both agreed that this was probably the best Valentine's Day yet, I hope they only get better!! P.S.-I found the scavenger hunt idea from the "Dating Diva's" blog. Here are some pictures from our fun day...    

 My super hott hunk of love and sexiness

.

 The light is weird in our kitchen, so these looked MUCH better in person. :)

 Bridger at breakfast. :)

 My present to Jeremy...

Bridger thinks this is for him...ok, it sort of is. ;)

 Dinner...we actually ate with the lights off and had just the candles but that didn't work out for a picture very well... :)

 Flower petals & chocolates for the scavenger hunt, I also had candles everywhere, I must say that it smelled delicious in there. ;) Oh, and you can't see it, but I made Jeremy wear this red velvety looking face mask bahaha it was awesome.

The love poster I made for Jeremy.

Bridger's Valentine party. He loves his baths. :) ha ha

Happy late Valentine's Day to everyone! :)

13 months. :)

So, funny story about my husband to begin. :) ha ha. I smile just thinking about it. We haven't trimmed his neck in a week or two, and his hair is gettin kinda long (to fit army standards), so at work when he took his patrol cap off he was like "man, my hair is getting crazy!" (he hadn't even done it that morning...) and this other guy says, "your hair looks fine, but your neck is pretty hairy." Bahaha, Jeremy was way embarrassed, so guess what he did. He went in the bathroom and used his electric shaver that he uses to shave his beard every morning (it has three circle razor things...you know?) and tried to trim his neck with it!! And get this, while he is shaving in the bathroom at work, the guy who said that walked in and saw him doing it. Bahahahaha. And guess what's even funnier. When he got home and told me, he turned around and asked me how it looked...and there were little patches that he had missed!! You should have seen his face when I busted up laughing and told him what it looked like, he thought I was joking. nope. no joke. :) ha ha I LOVE my husband. I love him. I love him. He is the biggest nerd, and I love him forever. He is so stinkin' adorable and makes me laugh every single day (whether he tries to or not). I am so blessed to be married to him forever. :)

Jeremy is the sweetest husband, and he is perfect for me, I love him forever. And he is so dang sexy. ;)



Well, my baby boy is now 13 months old. :) Bridger is growing so fast and is so fun. He is a total tease and is always making us laugh! Let me tell you a little about what he has been up to lately...his new thing is making the most cute, adorable, saddest face, with his lip puckered and his huge eyes all watery for like a full 10 seconds...(yes, the whole package, he knows how to work it) then, after we think he's going to start bawling he smiles this huge, cheesy grin and giggles while he runs away! Little cutie butt. I keep trying to get it on camera but he does it randomly so I will keep trying. He is still on a "phase" with his eating habits, the only foods he likes are yogurt...yogurt...sweets...yogurt...and, let's see. Um. YOGURT!! He has been throwing us for a crazy loop lately, (some of this is due to teething but...) he will occasional try something but usually only eats a few bites before he's done. I don't know what to do! We even went back to the pureed baby food (he will only eat the fruit ones, no veggies for this little sweetums) because that was the only thing besides yogurt that he would eat! I think we figured out the trick though, we bought him his own little plates, he has an elmo one and a cute little blue plate, and instead of giving him a fork we put everything in to pieces in their own separate parts and he has finally been trying new things and eating really well! (It seems as if he has picked up on this new "particular-ness" from his mother) I hope this continues. I really don't mind if he eats whole milk yogurt everyday because I would rather have him eat yogurt than drink whole milk (I haven't ever given him regular milk).

He had two more teeth come in this last month, the third upper one and another lower one...but he still has two more that are really close, hopefully they pop through soon!

Anyway, for sleeping...he sleeps really well unless he's teething, his bedtime has been 7:30 for the last six months (we love it and so does Bridger!) he sleeps until 3:30-4:30, nurses, and then sleeps until 7-7:30, so 12 hours. He also takes two 1.5 hour naps a day which is when I get all my "mom" and "student" stuff done. He nurses before both naps, and one more time before bed, then once at night, he is still LOVING his milk and I am totally okay with that...I will be sad for the day when he doesn't want to nurse anymore. :( He doesn't really care about saying words like "hi" or "bye", he only likes to talk in sentences. It's interesting because when he's asking a question he ends the sentence with a higher voice like we do, if you know what I mean, and he uses his tongue to talk, it's hilarious. Anyway, he makes three animal sounds..."ruff ruff", "hoo hoo ha ha" like a monkey (he learned that from Curious George I think, he loves that show) and "baaaa" like a lamb, ha ha it. is. so. cute. The lamb one is my favorite! His favorite toys are his cars that he drives on the ground while he hums to make the car sounds, and he also has a push popper toy that he likes to drag around with him, he loves to play ball and he loves to play with blocks (we call him Bridgerzilla because he always knocks over whatever we build, no matter what, we can't hide anything!). He loves to color/scribble on not only paper but toilets, bathtubs and...everything else, he's my cute little artist! One other thing he loves to do is go outside! He could just play out there all day if we let him, and he cries when he has to come inside. We had some fun today outside and I got some pictures, I thought they turned out really really cute, let me know what you think...I am trying to get good enough that I don't have to pay for pictures.

 I like this one cause I think it's cute how his whole hand only holds one of his daddy's fingers. :)

 Couldn't decide if I liked this one in color better...

My cute little man. :) He looks dang cute in skinny jeans.

Favorite. :)