Leaving

Two days ago I posted about how excited I was that we were finally done with this dreaded first year. Three days later we are getting ready to head out for the summer, and have already seen friends go, and as excited as I am to go see family- I could cry (okay, I already have) 

I feel like since Matt and I have been married, it has been an adventure.  With Matt playing basketball all throughout college, Colton being born in the middle of it...

Then, we headed off to our adventure in Germany.  

This past year, we headed up to Moscow, Idaho for Law School, and had our sweet Mylee in the process.  Oh how I wanted for Matt to go to BYU law and us stay in Utah, closer to family, but I can't help but think of what we would have missed up here:  Our incredible friends that we have met that will always remain some of our greatest friends because of these experiences we have gone through together, and how they have become like family to us, our ward that we Love, how Matt and I have learned to rely on eachother through all of this, and we can't forget the beautiful rolling green hills of Moscow :)

I feel so blessed thus far in my life with each new experience I have been given, how much it has helped me to grow as a person, a wife, and a mother. 

And I sure am glad for my husband who has brought me on all these "adventures" with him!

So, although we are SO excited for this year to be over, we will miss our friends and memories that we made this year!

Here are some of our family pictures as a family of four!  A girl in one of the wards up here took our pictures, and I love them! 

Schools Out for The Summer!

And we are SO HAPPy!! 

I have never been more proud of Matt. He put in SO many late nights and early mornings so he was able to spend a little bit of time with Colton, Mylee, and I.  He is SO hardworking and yet the best husband and dad we could ask for!

If you can't tell from the pictures above--Colton LOVES when his dad comes home. 

And to make things even better...it has been beautiful outside this week! 

The first year of Law School is Finished.  1 down 2 to go!

Bring on the SUmmer :)

MoMs

"The Days are Long, but the Years are Short!"

 I have been thinking a lot about Mothers- because Mother's Day is tomorrow...and how much work they (we) put in on a daily basis.

The next little bit of my post you really don't have to read...but I want to look back and remember what my life is like right NOW:)

I don't have a lot of big things I have to accomplish on a daily basis (besdies raising my children, taking care of the house, cleaning and putting away the clothes and buying and preparing the food)...but I feel like I am really busy all the time.  My day consists of waking up, feeding Colton (and myself), changing Colton, getting Colton dressed, getting myself ready, feeding Mylee, changing Mylee, getting Mylee dressed, playing with them both, putting Mylee down for a nap (45 mins-1 hr), tidying up the house, playing with Colton, Mylee wakes up- feeding again, changing again, playing some more, feeding Colton, putting Colton down for a nap, putting Mylee down for a nap-- and here I am BLOGGING while they both are sound asleep :) (Colton has only been taking a nap about 5 out of 7 days a week, and they are getting shorter, and Mylee usually wakes up 3 or 4 times to cry for a second and fall back to sleep, sometimes needs her binky put back in (and yes I do it))  The evening is about the same as the morning, except for somewhere in there Matt comes home for an hour or 2 and we have dinner and he gets to do the playing with Colton.  But there is more feeding, and changing, and bathing, and bed time at about 7:45ish for Mylee and 8:30ish for Colton.  That is when my responsabilities for the day are over...and I can clean up the messes from the day, go exercise, come home and shower and watch my shows and relax...well until 1 or 2 when Mylee starts her grunting and unwraps herself from her swaddle- so I wrap her back up, get back in bed, and then again at 4 do it again, and then at 6- feed.  Get back in bed at 6:30, Matt comes in to say goodbye at 7 (he has been on the couch lately with Mylee's newfound unwrapping herself during the night) and go back to sleep until 8 when Colton wakes up (I know, he does sleep in until 8 or 830- so I should count myself lucky :))

Basically, the majority of my day is doing things for my children, not for myself.  I am not the only person whose day looks like this...  There are girls in my ward who work all night and come home and do this, or have more than 2 children to look after.  The majority of my friends here do not live near family that they can drop their kids off when they need a break, their husbands all have to study 12-14 hours a day, and we go about our lives taking our kids everywhere we go, doing everything for them almost by ourselves...but Loving every second of being a mom.

I think of my own mom, who moved across the country from her family, friends, all she had known when I was 3 years old.  She raised her family of 4 without the help of her family, and now I see how hard that must have been for her. And Matt's mom, who not only raised her own 4 kids, but has had a daycare for the past 20 years and does an incredible job! So- to all the mom's out there, especially my own wonderful mother and mother-in-law.  You are amazing. 

"The noblest calling in the world is that of mother. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece or who can write a book that will influence millions deserves the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will be exerting an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give"

.-David 0. McKay

And what would be a post about mothers without pictures of my two sweet kids that I have been blessed with.  

 Colton thinking if he wears his dads shoes...maybe he can go with him to schoool :)

And my sweet Mylee :)

Easter

We had an awesome Easter this year!!  (Yes, I am a little late posting it)  I swear the older the kids get, the more fun they are during Holidays :) 

Since I am in the Stake primary presidency, we have been planning our Stake Easter activity for a couple of months now!  It turned out SO fun.  We had a carnival in the gym with an egg toss game, bowling, golfing, face painting, pictures with the Easter bunny, etc. and then had an easter egg hunt afterwards.  I didn't even take my camera out because we were pretty busy, but I did get a few pictures from friends :) 

Here is Paige, Katie, and I and our cute kids Jay, Cash and Colton (they will all be here next year--Hooray!!)

  Cash, Kardy, and Colty (Kardynn won't be here, I could cry!)

Saturday morning, the fun didn't stop.  Our neighborhood had a breakfast and Easter egg hunt, and it just happened to not be raining!!  It was actually chilly in the morning, but ended up being one of the most beautiful days yet!  Colton realized from the night before that there are "treats" in the eggs.  You better believe he was hunting those things down!--Hilarious!

Sunday morning, we had Stake Conference so Matt got to stay home with us and help us get ready for church--WONDERFUL!  My mom made a little dress for Mylee (yes, she made her blessing and Easter dress, wow!)  Anyway, and found a matching shirt for Colton- I think they turned out sooo cute!  We are actually taking family pictures in them as soon as the weather is nice :) 

Sunday after church, we had another Easter egg hunt with Colton, and then had a big ham/funeral potato dinner with a bunch of friends!  It was the perfect day :)

But it wouldn't be Easter without the real meaning of Easter.  I am so grateful for our Savior, I have loved teaching Colton about "Jesus"  It is funny, Colton doesn't pronounce his words all that great, but he definitely can say Jesus.  He will sit on the couch with me and watch hours of any kind of video that shows Jesus.  And when he is up on the cross, Colton will say, Ow, Jesus, and kiss the computer.  Nothing Colton does makes me more proud.  It melts my heart to think of this little 2 year old who knows Jesus is something special because he was just with him such a short time ago. 

Anyway, it was one of my favorite Easter's yet!  I hope everyone else enjoyed there's as well :)

Basketball

Colton loves Basketball, as of 2 weeks ago. Matt has been "practicing" with him every night, and they will play on his little hoop in the living room for hours. - no joke. When they are done, Colton's face is bright red and he is sweaty, I think Matt is in heaven, except for the fact that Colton sobs and sobs when Matt is "too tired" to play anymore.  Colton even likes to watch it on TV. The NBA playoffs are going on right now, so yes, it is on our TV every evening. If we turn it off, or change the channel, Colton wants "Ball" back on the tv! He will stand in front of the TV and when they make a basket, he says "Wow" It cracks me up his little fascination with it just recently because he has been into animals and cars and toy story and books, but NEVER has been into playing ball...until now, we'll see how long it lasts :)

Summer is near :)

Our first year of law school, and first year in Moscow is almost over-in 3 weeks!  I have been looking forward to this since last August.  And now that it is almost over, I am SO sad!

I have met some of the greatest friends I have ever had, Colton has had some Great little friends that we will miss SO much!

This last month (now that I am functioning normally with 2 kids-ha) has been a lot of fun.  Even though the weather has been bad, we have found stuff to do!  And even though I am so relieved that we survived the first year, I will miss it!

We will be moving to Pocatello for the summer where Matt has an externship. It will be WONDERFUL to be closer to family for a couple of months!

And all our family gets to enjoy these sweet kids..I love them!!!

Miss Mylee is 3 months old!!  When she was born, I thought she was this little angel sent to me, when she was about 4 weeks old, I wondered where my little angel went.  She had to be held 24/7, she was never content if she was awake, and she wouldn't stay asleep for more than 30 minutes (except for at night--she has always been pretty good)  I was having a hard time there for a couple of weeks- we went to visit family for Spring Break and my mom held Mylee the entire week, it was JUST what I needed, a break!  We returned home to Moscow and I was rejuvinated and not stressed about her sleeping/fussiness.  I decided at every nap, I would lay her in her bassinet and walk out of the room and not stress.  It took about 3-4 days, and she is my Angel again :)  I don't know what happened, maybe she could sense that I wasn't stressed out anymore--haha, but she is the sweetest, happiest little baby.  I could talk to her all day long because she doesn't stop smiling!

 When Mylee was first born, well, I posted the pictures, Colton did NOT like her, or he was scared of her or something.  However, if you have met Colton- he is the sweetest little boy.  This broke my heart that he disliked his sister so much.  It has taken him a couple months, and everytime she wakes up he starts smiling, he loves to give her kisses, and although he doesn't smother her (which is fine by me) he definitely is aware of her and is so sweet to her.

Colton's favorite person (especially this past week) is his dad.  He went through a phase where he was attached to me after Mylee was born, but he is back to his dad :)  Colton loves to cuddle after his nap, and normally Matt is never home after he wakes up from his nap- so one Saturday he was and they cuddled forever!

I LOVE this picture!

Colton Loves to dance! (If you can tell in the next couple of pictures that he is dancing)

This is Colton every morning, he has Cold hands and feet just like his daddy!

I tried a photo shoot of these 2 after church, but after church is probably not the best time.  First of all, it is lunch/naptime for Colton, second of all, I am exhausted from Sunday morning with no Matt :(, and third, Mylee is especially exhausted because she will only sleep in her bassinett and not in my arms at church!  But...we tried it.  The following 3 pictures are the first 3 pictures I took and then I gave up :)  Wow.

 

His new love for his sister also includes helping with bath time :)

Love this Cheeser!

We have been playing on Matt's Mac computer...Colton thinks it is the greatest thing in the world.  Sometimes I feel like this is what Mylee's hair really looks like--and I don't know what to do with it?!!

P.S. Random post, but I had too many cute pictures not to post!

Look-Alikes

So..the older Mylee is getting, I am thinking she looks SO much like Colton.

2 1/2 month old Mylee

2 1/2 month old Colton

Wouldn't they have been cute if they were born as Twins ??  HA!