The paper is FINISHED!

This morning Matt turned in his dreadful paper he has been working on for months!  We got back from spring break (he spent every day on it there) and I thought he was finished...ha.  He spent all week on it, Saturday from 8-7, break from 7-830 and back again until 3:30 a.m.  This morning he woke up at 4 and headed out to finish it!  We are excited to have him back in our lives...hopefully :)

Last week was Great though, thanks to the great friends that I have here in Moscow.  We went on walks (the weather has been SO nice) and went shopping, and had a baby shower for Alyssa!

Here are us girls at Wingers for Alyssa's baby shower:  Paige, me, Rachelle, Lyndee, and Alyssa! (A few are missing, one of which had a baby 3 days before this!)

Alyssa's husband is graduating in May, and she is due to have her baby right when he is graduating!  Yikes!  Anyway, Alyssa is Kardynn's mom (kar-kar) and Colton is going to be SO sad when he realizes there is no more Kar-Kar next year...and so am I :( 

I feel so blessed that we chose to come up to Univeristy of Idaho for school.  I don't know if I would have survived this first year being pregnant, and having our second baby without great friends!  We had dinners brought to us the last couple of months and friends letting Colton come over and play, and just people to talk to when my husband is busy!  We have met some lifelong friends- it is just going to be sad to see some of them go!  Some are here for the long haul with us though! 

Anyway, I AM however, really happy that Matt will be able to spend a little more time with us-- until prepping for finals starts, which will probably be tomorrow :)

Ms. Mylee

I feel like I have written a lot about things we have been doing and that it has been a little difficult for me these first few months!  I had A TON of hormones going on the past couple of months (hopefully it's not a sign of how my sweet daughters hormones will be :))  Anyway, and the past couple of weeks, since Mylee was about 8 weeks- I am starting to feel "normal" again.  Not to mention the weather has FINALLY been nice, so going on walks and being outside makes life Wonderful!

Anyway, I need to write a little bit about this sweet girl we have been blessed with! 

She falls asleep in her swing...I love this!  I don't let her do it all the time so she gets in the habit...but if I am busy, its great!  Now...she only stays asleep for about 30 minutes--but hopefully that is just a baby phase!

I love her HAIR!  Since I have so much hair, that is naturally curly (kind of) I wanted my daughter SO BAD to have lots of hair, and kind of curly.  I definitely got what I wished for and more!

She loves taking a bath, no matter what mood she is in- if she hasn't slept, or has, if she is hungry or not, she relaxes as soon as she gets in that bath!  It's exactly how Colton was and now he loves the pool more than anything!

She will sit in a bumbo now!  Everytime I lay her down she tries to do crunches to sit up, so I got out Colton's bumbo (a little devistating at first for him, but I think he is over it) and she could sit in there forever!  I took a picture of her on my phone and Colton is trying to show her..haha.  He is slowly starting to show more interest the more interactive she is!

And my absolute favorite thing about her is her Smile :)  It lights up my day!  She is the smiliest little thing I have ever seen.  Even as she is falling asleep if I look at her and smile, she will grin from ear to ear!  She coos at me all day long and everytime I walk in the room and start talking she does an excited little giggle!  Although it's been a big adjustment for me having 2 kids...she is the sweetest little baby I could ask for :) 

Spring Break!

We debated going home for Spring Break basically since Mylee was born...was it really going to be worth the 10 hours of driving both ways having to stop to feed a new baby every couple of hours??  OH YES...it was worth it!  Matt and I (and the kids) are feeling rejuvinated and ready to take on the last 2 months of the first year of Law School.  We had such a great week spending time with family and having someone to play with Colton and to hold Mylee :)  Not to mention the weather (especially in Salt Lake) was incredible!  It was in the high 60's for a couple of days!! 

We first headed to Pocatello-drove the whole 8 1/2 (took us 10) in one day.  Mylee pretty much slept the whole time and Colton read books and watched movies (couldn't have been better, UNless we had a bigger car so Matt could actually sit in the front seat and not be jammed up next to the steering wheel--but we don't need to go into that!)  My nephews (Colton's cousins) stayed at Matt's parents house waiting for us-and Colton loved them!  This is the first time he has interacted really well with them, and it was so cute!

We had a great weekend in Pocatello, Matt's older brother had a surprise 30th Birthday party- no kids came-except for ours, and Colton danced the night away.  He kept walking out to the dance floor with Matts little sister Annie and cousin, Sara, and they were both sitting down and this girl was walking by and he grabbed her hand and dragged her down to the dance floor--hilarious!  My little shy boy was not so shy that night--sadly all the pictures are on Matt's mom's camera :(

We headed to Salt Lake for a little R & R (except for Matt, who began his studying at about 9 or 10 am until 5-still not half as much time as he spends up here so that was nice)

We headed to the zoo Tuesday as it was 65 degrees and sunny :) 

Colton is making his elephant noise in this picture!  Love it

  

Staring at the monkeys!  (P.S. He is the one who will not allow the hood to come down, he is obsessed!)

We did a little shopping the other days, but once Thursday came around-it was all basketball.

Grandpa and Mylee, I didn't get any pictures of my dad and Colton, but they spent the entire week playing, Colton would go get my dad's hand to play with him and he never turned him down even though it was ALL day long and by the end of the week, they were best friends :)

I love this little girls hair...although it is a bit crazy, I can already pull it into 2 pony tails:)

Love when I get them together in the same picture (doesn't happen very often)

 

All in all, it was a great week!  I think I say this every time, but life would be SO much easier if we lived close to parents!  However, I feel like it's making me "tougher" to have to do it all alone--at least that is what I tell myself :) 

Motherhood

Awesome video!

A year ago...

Last night I had a dream that Matt decided in between his first and second year of law school he wanted to return to Germany to play basketball for a year.  I was so EXCITED!  He has been staying up all hours of the night and waking up when Mylee is ready for her first feeding of the night (which isn't usually until at least 5..but still!)  This semester has gone by fast, but I feel like life is a blur sometimes!

A year ago, we were leaving Germany to return to the states.  We were leaving all of these wonderful friends that we met that turned into family for us!

And not to mention this incredibly beautiful country!

And our little town of Weissenfels!

A year ago, Matt would get to spend half the day at home everyday with no worries, no papers to write, no books to read...and when he had a day off it would be the ENTIRE day, not just an hour here and there in between reading....but that was a year ago :( 

     Now, I'm not writing this to say that I wish we could go back to that, but life was pretty good and although life isn't necessarily better, for sure not easier, it is rewarding!  We are now a family of 4 and life is a little bit crazier and busier, but luckily we have the most awesome friends in the world here too....friends that we (especially me) can talk to about the struggles of being a mom when husbands are so busy, AND that i can talk about the Joys of being a mom watching our kids grow up!  ANyway, I am trying to enjoy every day of being here, because there were definitely days in Germany that were HARD, and now I miss it more than ever.  There are days when having a little baby, and my husband in school, and a 2 year old are HARD, but I know I am going to miss this --so I better enjoy it while I can :)  Wonder what I will be thinking a year from now???