Author Archives: Meredith

About Meredith

Meredith is a native Texan who is currently living in Salt Lake City, UT. She graduated from the University of Utah in 2002 with a B.A. degree in Psychology and a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. She has been married for almost 10 years and has three beautiful children who consume most of her time. However, she started blogging in 2007 and has fallen in love with the idea of becoming a writer. She started scrapbooking over 10 years ago, and has become obsessed with that as well. She also dreams of the day when someone will pay her to scrapbook for them! When she is not scrapbooking, or blogging, she loves to people watch, and analyze what makes people tick. Meredith is proud to be a Mormon, and even served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where she fell in love with the Latin culture and learned to speak Spanish. Visit Meredith on her personal blog at www.fakingpictureperfect.wordpress.com

Loving Ourselves

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to write a post about Love. If we look around us, we can see evidence all around of love. As a Mom, it is easy for me to think of how much I love my children. It is easy to think of loving my husband. But, one thing I don’t think that often about is how much happier I would be if I would take more time to love myself. To love ourselves, I think we first must recognize our divine nature. We are all sons and daughters of God. He loves … Continue reading →

A Love Letter to My Baby

I looked at you today as you stood all by yourself smiling from ear to ear and got a glimpse of the little boy you are becoming. I wanted to scream, “No! Not yet!” But, instead, I smiled with you to show you how proud I was that you were standing all on your own. You fill my life with so much joy that it is hard to explain. Knowing that you are my last baby is hard on me sometimes, but more than anything, it helps me to savor each stage that you are in. Right now, you are … Continue reading →

When Mommy’s Away, Baby Will Play

This weekend, I’m going out of town for the first time and leaving my baby home with my husband. It is an exciting time for me because in the almost 7 years that I’ve been a mom, this is the first time I will leave my kids for an entire weekend and not have another person to look after. It is going to be amazing. And, very weird. In fact, I started thinking about how weird it will be for my baby. He pretty much has not left my side since I popped him out 14 months ago. He is … Continue reading →

What If I Mess Up?

In Relief Society this past Sunday, we had ward conference. I always love the opportunity to hear the Stake leaders come and speak to us. Our Stake President is 38 years old and has been the stake president for almost 10 years now. He has a great perspective on things, and is very inspiring. The Spirit is always strong when he speaks. He shared a story of teaching his daughter how to ride a bike last week. He spoke of how different she was from the three boys that they had taught how to ride bikes previous to her. The … Continue reading →

Baby Social Skills

One difficult stage in any baby’s life is the stage when they are more and more mobile, and still do not have the ability to communicate clearly. That is what we are currently facing with my 14 month old. He wants to be right in on the action with pretty much everything. He wants to be at our level while we are cooking so he can see what is going on. He wants to join in the fun with his siblings in their game of the moment. He wants to be able to communicate his feelings, but he just can’t. … Continue reading →

Things Just Got A Lot Messier

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My baby has decided that feeding time is all about control. Oh how I love/hate this stage. Parenting a baby that is transitioning into toddlerhood is fun, exciting, and takes a lot of patience. For example, I recently had noticed that my little guy had started to refuse some of the foods he normally loves. He would turn his head away from the first bite, or arch his back and shake his head no. I couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem until one day when I handed him the spoon. He was thrilled. Since then, he has desired … Continue reading →

Forget The Battle of the Sexes

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I ran across the article today, “To be happy, we must admit women and men aren’t ‘equal’“. It made a lot of great points about gender roles, and how the battle of the sexes has created confusion in our society. Her point in the article at last was, “The battle of the sexes is over. And guess what? No one won. Why not try something else on for size? Like this: men and women are equal, but different. They’ve each been blessed with amazing and unique qualities that they bring to the table. Isn’t it time we stopped fussing about who … Continue reading →

To Pacify or Not to Pacify. That is the Question.

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I’ve blogged before about how my first child was/is a thumb sucker, and my second loved his pacifier, but finally kicked the habit, and now we have my third that I feel we are at a crossroads with. You see,  he hasn’t been a great sleeper because of his tummy issues. We’ve always felt the need to continue night feedings with him. Well, now he is 14 months old, and starting to eat more, and it seems that he is fine going without food all night long. Sounds great, right? Well, my problem is that he seems to be getting more … Continue reading →

We Believe in Grace, Too.

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Grace is a beautiful word. It has many meanings. However, the type of grace I am talking about is the grace of God. Many religions believe that they are saved by grace. Some believe by simply accepting Christ into your heart, you are saved. Do Mormons believe in grace? The simple answer is, yes. But, maybe not in the same way that others believe in grace. However, I feel like grace is something that us Mormons forget about. So much so that sometimes, I think we forget that we also are saved by God’s grace. A book that changed the … Continue reading →

My Baby Has Started Hitting

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My little guy is almost 14 months old. In almost all aspects of my life, he is pure joy. I could do without the sleepless nights we are still having, and the screaming, but for the most part, I love him just like he is. Except for one little nasty habit he has started. Hitting. Really? I don’t remember either of my other two doing this at this age. Maybe time heals all wounds and I have just forgotten? But, in all seriousness, I felt kind of sad about it, and have been wondering what to do. After all, he … Continue reading →