Getting caught up...

Here are some random, recent highlights from our life:

My baby will be 1 in five days! Say what?! Last year at this time I was emotional, very pregnant, and nearing my due date, which made me feel overdue because I totally consider myself full-term at 37 weeks. Next babe I won't expect anything until the due date. Lesson learned. Ev is a mostly official walker. Dude's been taking steps for MONTHS, mostly between family member's arms, but the other day he finally let go of a toy and walked across the room to the couch. Now it's a regular thing. That little boy brings so much happiness to my heart, even if he did wake up at before 6:00 this morning.

I am going to take Kelly on a shopping mom/daughter date for her birthday. Saturday we were at Old Navy and she came into the dressing room with me. The compliments began immediately: "Mom, cute garments!" "Mom, I like that shirt!" "Ohhhh....that's cute!" And when I told her that one shirt was too big, she knowingly nodded her head and said, "Oh, yeah, that's too big." Every shirt I didn't like after that got the same thing, "Oh (emphatic nod). Yeah (emphatic nod). It's too big." Then she wanted to try things on, but we were in a hurry. So that's what we'll do for her birthday. I'm excited! This daughter business has some fun perks. Another perk is watching her twirl when she's dancing. There's this whole head shake that she feels she must do and it makes me so happy every time.

Perfect Kelly picture - a doll in one hand, a staff in the other because she's pretending to be David (the one who killed Goliath), hence the mean expression

Max to the Max is awesome. He's getting so old; brother is going to be 5 in May! He's really into superheroes these days. Last week for the class I am taking, I had to write a paper with a metaphor for my family and how we interact and work together; I chose the X-Men. You would have thought I was the coolest mom in the world, he was so thrilled and proud. He told everyone who called on the phone or visited for a few days and had me read the paper to him several times. I assigned each person in the family an x-men identity and so he insisted that we each "be" our respective x-men identities when we played. He says the funniest things and is such a smart little fella. He's my bud, for sure, and loves a good snuggle.
Tyler and I celebrated our 6th anniversary at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was su-weet! At 2:00 a.m. the morning after Christmas we loaded into the car and started our 17-hour drive to California. My wonderful momma and sister drove to Cali to spend the night at the hotel with us and then take the kids back to Vegas the next morning. It was SO NICE of them! At Magic Mountain, Tyler and I decided to purchase a Fast Pass and Ty went through the line on his own. I stood outside, waiting, reading about the different levels of the fast pass and the prices...I totally knew he was going to come out with a more expensive option than we'd planned on. Sure enough! Ty is really frugal on almost everything, but this is the kind of thing he'll splurge on. I laughed and shook my head at him, but it was awesome! The only line we waited in all day was the one roller coaster not on the fast pass list. We went on everything once and several of the roller coasters twice. Tatsu, Goliath, and X2 were the favorites. Lots of running from coaster to coaster to make the very most of the day. We joked about how spending our anniversary on roller coasters was a good representation of our marriage...lots of ups and downs. That made us laugh because it's not true. Sure we've argued and been frustrated with each other, but we have a solid, happy marriage and it's been that way from the beginning. So we decided our marriage is more like a thrill ride (which we love) and that's why it was appropriate to spend our anniversary there. :) Then, because of my wonderful parent's taking care of our kiddos back in Vegas, we got to stay the night sans kids. Heaven. I really, really love my kids, but trips like that are super rejuvenating. I loved driving without kids the next day too and then seeing them when we got to Vegas was really fun.

I know I say it a lot, but I really love my husband. I am sure that life is going to hand us some big challenges and I am so thankful that he is going to be by my side through them. I am extremely grateful that our marriage is not one of those challenges. I do remember what life was like before I met Tyler. I was confident, social, and felt good about my life and knew who I was...but I also knew that I wanted to marry a good man and be a mother. Those two things were my next step; I was ready for them. I wasn't looking for anyone to complete me, but for someone to add to who I was and hopefully someone who had strengths where I had weaknesses. There were a few guys I thought I could marry, but I was wrong because very shortly after I met Tyler I knew that he was everything I wanted in a husband. No drama, just a lot of searching questions to make sure we had the same ideals, lots of kissing because we had serious spark and couldn't help ourselves, and 11 weeks after we met we were married for time and all eternity. Maybe our marriage has been so good because Tyler had to wait until he was barely (he likes to emphasize the barely) 27 to marry me. Patient, patient man. I'm so glad he waited for Neal Clark Warren (e-harmony founder) to help us find each other.

The second-to-last roller coaster of the day...such a great day!

For Max, in front of the Batman sign

Pictures for the kids...Wonder Woman Mom

Superman Dad

We had a really great time in Vegas. A family Christmas party, a visit to the Old Mormon Fort and the M&M Factory, my two oldest nephew's baptisms, lots of cousin time, girl's night IN, a morning in the SNOW (yep, in Vegas!), and then the kids and I stayed an extra week while Ty went back to work so that we could all attend my Granny's funeral (she passed away on our anniversary) in Utah the following weekend. It was a wonderful visit with my family. These always make me realize what we're missing living so far away and it's hard (but good) to come home.

Kelly finally joined the cousins after some shyness and REALLY worked Just Dance on the Wii. It was so cute!

Jack with Haden & Ethan (who were both baptized on this trip...I cannot believe they are that old!)

Cousins opening presents from Grammy & Papa

Blurry picture of Ev, but isn't my dad so handsome? Such a great Papa too.

Kids doing the hand puppet nativity

Max and Jack at the Mormon Fort

You bet I make him pose for pictures!

Crafts with cousins

Hell froze over...errrr...it snowed in Vegas

Cousin movie time

M&M Factory

3-D Movie at the M&M Factory

We're back to the school grind, but with a light at the end of the tunnel for Ty. He graduates in June!!! We were totally crazy last semester to each take on one more class than normal, so he's back to two and I'm back to one. He's still gone 3 nights a week since he's doing Young Mens one night, but at least the kids see him that day for a bit (dinner and then he helps put them to bed). I almost took the semester off completely, but decided at the last minute to just keep going since it's going to take me forever as it is. I think the memory of two classes was still too fresh in my mind and I forgot that one class is more manageable.

And that's that. Thanks for stopping by!