Rayla's Thoughts on All the Same-Sex Marriage Drama

This has been on my mind a lot lately and I wanted to get my thoughts out somewhere.

A topic that has been hotly debated lately is the issue of same-sex marriage and the way Christian and LGBT people treat each other. I know that my views are very different from many(maybe even most) of my family and friends, and I think that is okay. My hope is  that everybody, no matter which side of this issue they fall on, will treat each other with love and respect and consider whether their words and actions actually express the love and respect they profess to.

The official teachings of my church(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is that any sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sinful. Frankly, I don’t think what I or anyone else believes to be morally or spiritually wrong matters much in THIS situation. The USA is a country where personal liberties are highly protected(even if some people seek to destroy them) and people are allowed to make their own choices, whether or not we agree with them. I don’t believe that it is the right of any group to impose their moral and spiritual beliefs on an entire nation of people, and our constitution does not allow for it.  The exceptions to this are actions which cause people to be victimized(murder, rape, theft, etc….).

But what about the family? Isn’t protecting the family what this is really about? If protecting the family is really our main objective, why are we singling out a group who may be a very small part of the problem with the modern family? Why are we not trying to pass laws outlawing common law marriage, pre-marital sex, adultery, and most divorce? I believe STDs, broken families, and many societal issues come from these issues far more than from same-sex marriage. I think we are far better off to spend our energy living our lives to the best of our abilities and setting an example of joy rather than trying to legislate and force our standards onto society. Let’s not talk about sin and sinners, let love speak first lift and build those who need it. Change is going to come one person, one family, at a time, not with legislation and certainly not in the divisive political climate we live in. If you believe people are making mistakes, let them make mistakes. If it is not making them happy, they will seek change, and then you can be there to share what knowledge of life and joy you have.

My greatest goal is to live a Christ-like life, and I believe the best way to do that is to show love to everyone first, and let the rest fall into place with the Lord’s timing. I am not even close to perfection with this principle yet, but I am trying. I hope that in this Christmas season all of us will strive to lift those around us and live as Christ would.

PS-If you disagree with me in any way, I still love you, and I hope you still love me. I also reserve the right to change my mind and evolve my thinking on this or any subject in the future.

Emmett and the Hotdog

So Emmett had a hotdog yesterday. Instead of being a nice mom and cutting up his meat I gave it to him bun, relish, and all. I think he liked it.

What do you think?

6 Months!

Emmett is 6 months old today! He is such a big boy and I can't believe how fast he is growing up! I'm sitting here typing this post with one hand while Emmett is sleeping on my arm. His eyes are open just a crack and sometimes if I smile at him the corners of his lips will twitch and he'll flash a smile back at me for just a second.

He is still tuckered out from his well-check & shots this morning. Here are some fun stats on his growth the last 6 months:

             Birth:                                      6 mos.:

Weight: 7 lb, 7oz                                 18 lb, 5 oz

Height:  1 ft, 7 in                                  2 ft, 3 in

He is right around the 70th percentile in all categories, which is perfect! He has hit some other important milestones recently too; his first tooth just popped in a couple days ago and I think the one next to it is on its way too since he is still cranky and wanting to constantly have something to chew on.

His eye's haven't totally decided what color they want to be yet, but I think they are going to be green like daddy's. 

What do you think?

Emmett has also mastered his funny inch-worm crawl. As a matter of fact, he crawled right off our bed & bonked his head in the time it took me to grab a shirt from the dryer the other day! He cried for a few minutes and had a small bruised goose egg, but was fine otherwise. He loves heading straight for the tile or any cords/electronics that look like he might be able to reach. I guess it's finally time to get everything baby-proofed. 

Emmett also loves to see his daddy! When Craig walks in after work Emmett will look towards the sound of his footsteps and just lights up when his face appears! They have lots of fun playing together, especially peek-a-boo.

I love my boys!

It's crazy to think that it has already been half a year since Emmett came into our family. I can't imagine life without him! Happy Half-Birthday Emmett!

Sitting Up

One of these days I'll write about something other than Emmett, but he really is the cutest and most interesting part of our lives right now.

This morning I left Emmett on his tummy while I threw in a load of laundry and I came back to him sitting hands-free! He has been doing the half-sit for about a week and just figured out how to finish it, and I caught the second one on video!



Funny enough, I just had to go pick Emmett up because he did it again and got scared when he fell straight backwards. I love how when he learns a new trick he keeps doing it over and over!

Expressive Emmett

Today I made the mistake of letting Emmett touch my keyboard. He didn't break it(well maybe the 'h' key is a tiny bit skewed), but he threw a *tantrum* when I stopped  letting him send lines of random keyboard slam to his Dad. He was screaming and making faces that looked like this one(among other angry and sad faces):

Such a sad face!

On an unrelated note, can you believe how much he has grown? Look at this picture from just a few minutes after birth at the hospital:

So back to his expressiveness.... On Saturday I decided to let Emmett try some pureed zucchini(we have a lot of zuchinni from our garden so I made one into about 10 servings of baby food). I don't think he liked it, but I'll let you judge for yourself:



Oh well, hopefully he'll warm up to it someday!

And last but not least, I have some more laughs for you!



This kid cracks me up!

Belly Laughs

So Emmett has started belly laughing over the past couple days and I thought it was too cute not to share!




PS-If youtube asks you if you want to stabilize you ipod video, tell it no.

Emmett is really trying to crawl. He will get on his hands and knees and just squeal and strain and gets so mad that he is not moving anywhere. One of these days he is going to figure it out and we are going to have to move everything out of his reach.



He has also had a  hard time sleeping lately. He will wear himself out trying to crawl and then he will be crabby and it usually takes me 20-30 minutes to get him past the crabbiness and asleep. I'm hoping this is just a phase that will be over soon so we can both start sleeping better and being happy again!