yeah so the crawling video would NOT work for ANYTHING! so here's another equally cute one of baby eating mashed potatoes.

eh?

i've been trying for two days, unsuccessfully, to upload a video of the baby crawling (or at least her version of crawling). dang technology! the video will come soon, whether my computer wants it to or not...

bon bons

i made these fun little bon bons from a box today. chocolate covered peanut butter ones. woo betty crocker!!

gila valley temple!

today was the Gila Valley Temple dedication. what a beautiful time we had! President Monson was there, as well as President Eyring, Elder Holland, Elder Costa, and one other general authority (i wish i could remember his name). when we walked into the stake center, it felt so familiar. then President Eyring and President Monson both spoke about how going to the temple feels like going home, because all of us are children of God and all of us know what it feels like to be in His presence. i felt that. i know it's true. each time i go to the temple it's like i'm walking into a beloved and familiar home, and it's because of the feeling there. i've felt it before and so have all of us--pre-mortally. another thing that struck me was how much i love President Monson for just being himself. i realized that he's a man. he's just like us, really. he has a sense of humor and a past. i also know that he's a prophet of God. i don't know quite how to explain it but i'm just grateful for him and how he shows us his personality.



all in all, it was beautiful. here's some pictures of me and baby when we went to the open house.

love that love

i love waking up next to johnny and feeling like we just had a sleepover.

cutest thing of my life

katy laughs!!

motherhood, frankly.

i've been thinking about motherhood as i've watched my daughter and had Mother's Day yesterday. i've also had a strong desire to write my thoughts exactly as they come to my brain, so bear with me. the job of a mother is somewhat thankless. sometimes, i get sick of it. sometimes i ignore Kate crying out for me because I have something "important" to finish on the computer. how utterly, absolutely ridiculous!! katers turned 7 months old Saturday. i've seen the time fly by as if i blinked and then found myself in a completely new situation as my eyes flew open. more and more i realize that my time with her is fleeting. it sounds so cliché, but i think that clichés become cliché because they're so true! the other night johnny was watching kate sleep and he said, "She's never going to be like this again," basically meaning that each moment is unique. after it passes, we can't have it back. sometimes I would find that depressing but with all i've been experiencing and thinking about, i find that it's more of a revelation and a push to enjoy life in the moment.

kate gave me the best mother's day present possible yesterday. she's been teething and is naturally quite upset a lot of the time if I'm not constantly holding her. on saturday night i expressed my frustration at this: "i just want you to be happy and smile and laugh again!" so yesterday she was a complete angel. the fussing was at an all time low and she laughed several times. she smiled almost constantly and just seemed stoked to be here and alive. and she was unbelievingly patient. i know, without doubt, that there is a God in heaven that loves and cares about me and about kate and about johnny. i just know it! i also know that He cares about each and every person on this planet with the perfect love of an Eternal Father. because that's who He is. our Father.

fun blogs YOU should check out

hey guys!!
there's a really awesome blog called "just cook already". it's got tons o' recipes and i've gotten some sweet ideas from it (such as chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough in the middle...oh man...)! i put a link on my page. another fun one i like is called "The Creativity Clinic". check 'em out!

the last little while

well it's been a while since i updated everyone on what's been going on in our lives, so here goes. we love it here in Arizona! it's great to be able to go swimming in April--quite the contrast from Utah :) i've been pretty stubborn about turning on the air-conditioning. i just can't make my mind make sense of turning it on when it's only April! but i guess when it's 85 degrees inside the apartment, it's probably a good idea.
our ward is amazing! we've really been welcomed and befriended and it already feels like we've been here for a long time instead of just two months. we think we might be getting callings on Sunday, we'll update on that soon. the Mesa Temple is beautiful. it's like walking into the Garden of Eden, the grounds are so stunning. we went and saw the Easter pageant and it made both of us miss Nauvoo a lot :) but, as i said, we really love it here and are having a great time.
we feel very blessed. we've been served non-stop since we got here. every time i think we're not going to make it, some kind of income comes in or someone shows up with groceries or just to visit. one Sunday we actually had 3 people invite us to dinner! anyway, life is really good and we're making friends fast.
kate is growing like crazy! we started giving her rice cereal and she likes it okay. i'm going to try putting mashed bananas in there next time. she can roll like a pro now, from back to front, front to back, and now she often pushes up onto her knees. she hasn't got the arm strength to push herself up onto her arms for crawling so she just kind of sticks her butt in the air then falls over. it's really cute :)
johnny works part-time at DI and usually has an interview every week for various jobs that he applies to. we're praying for something to work, and know that whatever comes will be where we need to be. meanwhile, it's awesome to get a 20% discount on already cheaply priced stuff at DI. johnny's getting into the really fun classes at film school and as far as i can tell, he loves it. one of his teachers is LDS and it's fun to see how excited johnny gets after coming home from one of his classes. johnny serves me every day and i flipping LOVE him. he makes life full of color and fun and peace. we laugh often and love spending evenings together just being together and playing with kate. i stay home and hang out with kate most of the day and just bask in her glow :) well that's all i can think of now, but check out facebook for a video of kate's first rice cereal meal :)

at the zoo

This past week we had our friends come down from Utah and they took pictures and sold them for an ice-skating competition. Rachel, Johnny's friend's wife, came down, along with her kids. It was great having someone to hang out with while the guys were gone working. One of the days they were here we went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was awesome!! Rachel's friend Leslie had a membership to the zoo and could get people in free. We saw the elephants, the giraffe's, the monkeys, orangutans, zebras and flamingos. Very fun :) Below are the before and after videos of kate :)

updates!

well we are having tons of fun here in AZ. we moved into an apartment in Phoenix and we are in the Royal Palm ward. we love it!! kate is AWESOME, she says, "ma ma ma" and "bah bah bah" now. my personal favorite is the "ma ma ma" :) it's so adorable, and we caught it on video!! unfortunately the file is too big for blogger but you can watch it on facebook! johnny and i just catered for an event at an art gallery owned by the executive secretary in our ward. he's from England and it's so fun to hear him say things like, "jolly good" and actually be legit! haha! anyway, another cool thing that happened is that johnny cut his hair. it's extremely handsome. here's a video shortly after he came home from cutting it. he reminds me of don from napoleon dynamite, hehe...



oh and just for the record, johnny approves this video :)

tummy time!

This video pretty much sums up all of kate's newest talents--i was lucky enough to catch them all in one video! She can hold herself up now(even though she doesn't want to all the time), blow bubbles, and roll from her stomach to her back.

kate's olympic medal

Exclusive video of Kate Eklof's gold-medal-winning spins in the Baby Spin competition.

kate on the swings

We went to the park and Kate had a go on the swings. She is our FAVORITE PERSON!!

this video was at a guitar concert for Johnny's 2nd cousin in Mesa. Kate is showcased doing her new thing, grabbing her clothes and trying to pull them over her head :) It's really short but really cute.

more pictures :)

family right before we left

kate and dad

on our drive down to arizona

kate in the cutest outfit ever

So cute...it's scary.

kate and one of our friends here in arizona

johnny and i about to go to the Mesa Temple

cutest baby EVER!

 

 

 

kind of zombie-ish in this one, but oh well

kate doing tummy time

kate's buff...
 

 

 

arizona or bust!!

hey all!!  for anyone who hasn't heard, we moved to arizona!!  we are super excited. it's so warm here compared to utah.  a couple times we've had to keep the windows rolled down or even turn on the a/c!!  it's nuts!!  kate's having a ball, she loves not having to always wear all these clothes all the time.  she's starting to really gurgle and sometimes even laugh.  it's ADORABLE.  johnny's looking for a job and we're both looking around for places we could live.  right now we're staying with some friends who are awesome enough to feed us and house us for a little while.  here's some recent pictures of kate, johnny, and i (we just bought a dinky camera for 80 bucks, so it's not quality, but hey! it's something) :)  we are excited for this new chapter in our lives!












johnny looks JUST like his mom--kinda crazy actually!

thinking about conference

i just listened to Elder Holland's talk from this last General Conference. what a powerful witness!! if you don't feel the Spirit bear witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as you listen to this, then you at least have a burning desire to find out for yourself if it is true. i know it is true. so does johnny. here's the link to watch the talk :) click on "sunday pm" then scroll over to Elder Holland's talk. amazing!!

this is the life!!

ok seriously, being a wife and mother is the BEST thing in the world. i've been thinking about that a lot lately and it just amazes me how many people put it off. i think we all get freaked out thinking about the responsibilities of marriage and family (which are a big deal, don't get me wrong) and lack the faith to take that step. i remember when before getting married having the attitude like, "i don't want to get married young, and even when i do get married, i'm going to wait a while to have kids." i think everyone has different circumstances and different things work for them, but it seems so sad that so many people almost cringe at the thought of marriage and family. it's almost looked down upon, even in the BYU environment. we were listening to a talk given by Sister Julie B. Beck to seminary and institute teachers and she talked about how a lot of youth/young adults today don't have faith in the institution of marriage because they don't feel that they can be successful in marriage. she talks about how marriage and family is a "faith-based work". when she and her husband got married, they had a grand total of $3 and they lived with her grandpa for awhile!! but they knew that what they were doing was right and they had faith that Heavenly Father would help them out as they worked hard for it.

i know that everyone's situation is different and i'm not trying to tell people what to do, i just hope that this gives hope to anyone who's afraid of marriage and family--it is the BEST EVER. don't ever doubt it!! having a family is the most important thing we can do in this life and is the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's really quite glorious. this is the life!

baby kate :)

well the newest edition to our family is finally here!!! kate emma eklof was born on october 8th at 3:31 pm at orem community hospital. she's so awesome!! we hang out pretty much 24/7. babies are so amazing, especially when they're yours!! kate is like a little johnny-lindsy person, but with her own personality. i'm so glad we made the choice to bring her into the world. i know families are ordained of God and that without them, His plan would be frustrated. having a family is the biggest step we've taken so far in our lives, but it's by far the best.

so on october 8th, i was just chilling at home, reading my scriptures on my bed, and i kept falling asleep. so i just decided to lay down and take a nap. about 10 minutes later, i woke up feeling a pain kind of like period cramps. then i felt a trickle run down my leg. then another. that wasn't normal, so i stood up and it felt like a bucket of water dropped into my pants--my water broke!! i screamed and johnny's little brother richard (who was sleeping in the other room) jumped up wondering what the crap was going on. i told him my water had broken and he said, "oh my gosh!! do you need to go to the hospital??" i was like, "yes, yes i do." ha! so he drove me to the hospital because johnny was at school. i called johnny, but he didn't pick up. a few minutes later, he called back and i told him what was going on. he was so excited and said he'd get there ASAP. it was perfect timing--he was just about to walk into his next class :) anyway, we got to the hospital, my pants soaking wet, and i checked in. the nurses kept thinking that richard was the dad and asking him questions hehe. soon enough johnny got there and then my mom and then my dad. i wasn't really having contractions, so they gave me petocin, which got me going. as soon as i started to feel pain i got an epidural, so the next 5 hours or so were pretty comfortable. then kate's heart rate started dropping with every contraction, so i had to start pushing. that was probably the hardest thing i had to do. it felt like my head was going to pop off!! but kate came and the doctor said, "oh! you've got a little girl!" wow. amazing. since then it's been a crazy ride, but a good one. we're looking forward to all the days ahead :)