6 Years of Wedded Bliss

6 Eternal Blessings that are mine because I am married to you:

1. YOU--my best friend

Someone I share my life with including my good days and bad days. Someone who knows my weaknessess but chooses to only see my strengths. Someone who makes me laugh. Someone who is quick to forgive me. Someone I can always depend on and trust. Someone who loves me completely.

2. Austin
Because of you I am a mother--something I truly enjoy and love!! And because of you I am the mother of this cute little guy whose energetic personality and sweet heart remind me of you.

3. Mikayla

Because of you I am also the mother of this beautiful baby girl whose smile warms my heart and whose squeals makes me laugh.

4. Abby and Brady

Because of you I have two dogs. And although I sometimes complain about the dirt, the hair, Brady jumping the fence, and Abby's annoying bark...just thinking about not having them around brings me to tears. And since "All (good) dogs go to heaven" they must be an eternal blessing.

5. Family

Because of you I have gained a whole other family filled with moms and dads, brothers and sisters, neices and nephews. How wonderful it is to be a part of your family who give me plently of love, support, laughter, strength, friendship, and memories.

6. Eternal Marriage

Because of you I have an eternal marriage. How grateful I am to know that I will have you by my side FOREVER!!

Thank you Craig for 6 wonderful years of marriage

and for these 6 eternal blessings!!

9 Months Old

Mikayla has really grown up fast over the last 3 months. She is mobile now, crawling all over the place. She just made up her mind one day that she was going to start crawling and after a couple days had it down (unlike Austin who did the Army crawl for weeks). It is nice that she is able to crawl around and get to the toys by herself. Although I think Austin liked it better when she was stuck in one position and couldn't crawl after "his" toys. And if he takes something away from her she gets mad and cries about it. So she is helping us teach Austin how to share....somedays it is like pulling teeth but overall he is a good big brother.

About a 1 and 1/2 weeks ago she figured out how to pull herself up to the standing position. She is still a little wobbly at it but its funny watching her. She has two bottom teeth and is a good eater. She eats any kind of baby food (except green beans) along with other foods like bread, cheerios, crackers, etc. I am determined to make her a less picky eater than Austin by exposing her to anything I think she can eat.
Her sleeping habits have improved some over the last several months and she is more predictable. She will take one or two naps during the day (depending on what time she wakes up in the morning and the activites we do). At night I can pretty much count on her waking up once. But she takes a bottle and usually goes right back to sleep. She is finally starting to learn how to put herself to sleep. Some of her favorites are her bottle (of course), taking a bath, playing with toys, and her family.

This is probably one of her favorite toys. She loves to crawl over to it and pull herself up on it so that she can push the top for the music to play.

She is such a sweetheart and a blessing to our family.

We love you Mikayla!!!

The Best Dad Award

I really do believe that I have the best dad in the whole world!!!
And these 2 kids also have the best dad in the whole wide world!!!

"The joy of motherhood comes in moments"

Here are a few Austin moments:
Austin loves watching Little Einsteins. We have about 20 episodes recorded because we know he will ask at least once a day for "Einsteins". So the other day while he was watching, I heard the familiar lines "Pat Pat Pat.....June is patting, Quincy's patting.....Annie's patting" and as I walked into the room I see Austin patting his hands on his lap and then he shouts out "Austin's patting!"
A few days ago it was getting close to bedtime. I had been cleaning up the house and only had the dishes in the kitchen sink left when Austin came up to me saying "come on mommy." After being away from my kids all day that day I knew that the dishes could wait while I enjoyed some play time with my son. We went into his room and he cooked me food on his play kitchen and fed me dinner while I sat at his play table. Nothing more rewarding than watching your child learn and immitate the things you do. So then we got into bed, read some books, sang a few songs, I said "night night", kissed him on the forehead and then tried to quickly walk out of the room before giving him time to hollar out phrases to get me to stay longer.....phrases like "more books" or "more songs". Well he did hollar out something....which kind of sounded like "huuh" "huuh". After shutting the door I realized what he had said. I went back in, gave him the hug he was asking me for, and knew I had just spent the last 30 minutes of my time doing the most important things.
If you didn't notice in the other picture here is a close-up. Austin is sharing his fruit snacks with his "copters." He likes to keep his toys happy and fed.

Saturday evening we were enjoying dinner at my parents outside on the back patio. And while eating our food and not really paying attention, Austin starts singing. All of the sudden I realize he is singing the "Happy Birthday" song. When did he learn that?!? He had gone to a birthday party earlier that morning. But the funny part was the roll sitting on his plate with the corn-on-the-cob handles stuck in the top. It was his birthday cake!!!

The quote at the top was from Elder Ballard (click here for talk...it is a great one for mothers with young children).

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

So its true---birthday's definately get less exciting the older you get. But I figured I should at least celebrate in some way so I decided to do a few things today that are not a normal part of my everday life. First, I got myself out of bed early to go running before Craig went to work (definately something not part of my normal daily routine but really needs to be).

Then in the afternoon I went and got my haircut (my hair not in a ponytail---another thing definately not normal for me). Then me and Craig went out for dinner by ourselves (very not normal) for some yummy Mexican food. And to my suprise I ended up wearing a sombrero hat while the staff sang a birthday song to me. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that one--I'm sure I looked cute.
And thanks to Kelsey (my sister-in-law), I didn't have to make my own birthday cake but got to enjoy eating this one----mint and chocolate---so yummy!!

No Work and All Play

Gotta love coversations with a 2 year old.

Austin: Daaaaddy

Me: Daddy went to work.

Austin: Daddy play basketball. Play soccer.

I guess that is what he thinks Daddy does at work. If only.

Independence Water Park

I've been so excited to get out to the water park this year and last weekend it was the perfect weather---I think we hit 90 degrees.

Amazing the difference a year makes. Austin had sooo much fun and since he was taller he was able to move around in the water a little easier. He went down the kid slides all by himself and kept his head above water when he came out the bottom. But his favorite part at the water park is still the little splash pad.

Mikayla also had a lot of fun splashing around in the cold water (I was actually a little suprised). We were out there a couple hours before she decided it was time to go. And at this age, she's the one who calls the shots.



I'm sure Austin could have stayed there a few hours longer--he loves the water!!


But we headed back home--after making our traditional stop at Dairy Queen for some yummy food and a Dilly Bar!!

From Austin

So, I decided it's time to take down the Mother's Day art from the refrigerator door.
It's funny how a few scribbles on paper can brighten up my day.

Thank you Austin.