Learning to Love my role

We just got home from a beautiful weekend. Full of family, food, and... rain? (and lots of it) My favorite moments eating delicious food and watching these three cuties play

Adalyn LOVED the water. It was her first time in a pool and it was a hit for all parties :) McKay and I sure love making memories with our sweet little girl. Look at that cutie in her little swimsuit...

Also while we were there I read a really great book that helped me put a few things into perspective. The book was Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson. She is the author of Nie Nie Dialogues A VERY quick over view of the book is the story of her life before and after a tragic plane accident that left her and her husband burned severely. She is the mother to five kids and lives in Provo Utah. The book explains all of the ups and downs that they went through and also shows the many miracles that have occurred. Like the fact that 80% of her body was burned yet she was still able to have another child three years later (seriously amazing!) She is a very grateful woman today even with all of the pain that she has to suffer through daily. Before the accident Stephanie's main wish was to be a stay at home mom and raise lots of children (that sounds familiar to me) Today that is still her goal, but she has had to work SO very hard for it. Her life before the accident was beautiful and perfect and though she didn't take it for granted she maybe didn't realize just how wonderful it was. None of us probably do. I know I don't. Today I am living the dream that I had for myself since I was big enough to carry my dolls in a carseat. seriously. SO why am I not over the top happy? Why do I find myself wanting more to life? I love being Adalyn's mom, she is just what I wanted and I love having the title of mother. And this book helped me realize once again how blessed I truely am to have my health and be able to stay at home with Adalyn. I may still (actually I know I will) dislike the dishes and cleaning the house but I am going to try a little bit more to enjoy those too. This is what I wanted, and though it isn't the most glamorus job out there it is the most important. I have more thought about this topic, but I can't seem to find the right words or explain exactly how I feel in the right way so we will just leave it at that. But you should all go read this book. It is beautiful. Also here is a mormon message that tells her story.            Well that is all for tonight, more on our trip later. Have a great night!

Garden

This weekend we planted our first garden. Sadly, I tried to resist. I was already stressed about the sprinkler system and then grass (that we have only just started) and I REALLY didn't want to add in a garden, but our stake president has already asked us multiple times to plant a garden (to teach our kids how to work... don't you think Adalyn is still a little young?)So McKay basically had to force me into it. But it is now planted and we are just praying that plants grow soon. The rest of our yard may be dirt, rocks and weeds but hopefully we will soon have cute little vegetables growing in the corner. We planted carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, and lettuce. Hopefully all goes well, but we also know that this may just be a learning year and nothing will grow. :( Here is our cute (homemade planter boxes with scrap wood) little garden... Oh and in the future we plan to make it much bigger, but we thought we would start small this year.

And ofcourse our little helper. She may or may not have just made her appearance for this picture after perfect timing of her nap/planting of the garden by the parents. :) But I am sure she will be "helping" a lot more next year. Can't wait :)

Have a great day!

Flying Solo

So a couple weeks ago Adalyn decided that it had just been too long since she had gone to Salt Lake so she talked me into taking a a quick random trip there for a few days. McKay stayed home to work so it was just the girls this time. Luckily she is a pretty great baby so it wasn't too hard on this momma (might have been a little hard on daddy to be all alone at home) But the trip timing worked out perfectly because Larissa was only going to be there for one more night before she headed Back East ALL summer for an internship. Before she left we thought we would grab a quick picture,here we are "trying" to take a picture together...

But we were being alittle crazy together (sisters get that way when we haven't seen each other in awhile) so most of them turned out like this...

We enjoyed the time we got to spend with family and Adalyn enjoyed exploring a new place.

While we were there we gave my mom her mothers day gift. We decided to frame in a shadow box the blessing dress that all four of us girls were blessed in. My mom has been wanting to do this for awhile and we were happy to finally make it happen. My sisters picked it out and set it all up and I think it turned out beautifully.

On our way home we stopped by the cousin's house and Adalyn had a fun time playing with Bailey, Kimberley, and Skyler and I enjoyed chatting with Michelle. Adalyn hasn't had very many play dates yet so it is good for her to get to interact with other kids. We enjoyed our little get away and I think it will help me when McKay is gone this summer with the scouts on multiple camping trips. :( Have a great night!

6 month Photos

So I know that these are older, but I just got the disk of Adalyn's 6 month photo shoot from my sweet Aunt Heather and they were SO cute that I thought would share some of them. Adalyn was being a little pill (a cute one ofcourse) the day these were taken, fortunetely Heather was still able to capture some cute pictures. Thanks Heather we love them!

Don't you just love them! Especially the ones of her shoveling dirt into her mouth? yeah priceless :)

One Year

This is random... But we have now offically been Idaho residents for one year. McKay told me that that makes us old. oh man :P But then again nothing like having a baby and buying a house to make you feel old (or broke not sure which one...) We have enjoyed our time here and look forward to many more years of it. Though it is not the most exciting place on the planet it fits us really well and life is good. Though I do have to say I am glad the transition of moving to a new state is behind us. :) It was not very fun at times when you don't know anybody or where anything is. McKay and I also learned a lot about each other and ourselves (as we seemed to spend A LOT of time together those first few months) He is MUCH more outgoing than I am. But even with the trials at times we discovered once again that there are good people everywhere and we have enjoyed meeting new friends. I am really looking forward to the day when we have lived in one place for 5,6,10+ years, it will be awesome to know lots of people! So here's to many more wonderful years! Hope you are all having a fantastic/great weekend (ours is busy and I am ready for a nap, hope I get one tomorrow)!

9 Months Old

Happy nine Month birthday to Adalyn. Only 3 more months till you turn one (can't wait to watch you eat cake!) You were very busy this past month but with the help of a baby gate for the stairs and a fact that you aren't able to open cupboards or doors yet you stayed pretty much detained. Not TOO many messes yet. You did regress alittle bit in the sleeping department and I can no longer claim that you sleep through the night because you wake up once a night a couple times a week. You still only have two teeth, BUT you did learn some fun new tricks this past month. New Tricks: Learned to dance to music Undo your diaper when your clothes are off :P You started letting go of furniture and standing on your own Climbing up the stairs and over things (such as mommy's legs) Climb in the dishwasher Yell (she now goes around the house yelling all day long) give five Say mamma and is very close to saying dadda We love this new stage and can't believe how big you are. Something that mommy and daddy are really enjoying is that you are now to the age that we can leave you with a babysitter fairly easily. We are slowly finding young women in the ward and McKay's cousin that love playing with you and you loves playing with them. For the first few months after you were born we ONLY went to the temple once a month or on a rare date if we were in Salt Lake and grandma could watch you. I didn't realize how much I was craving a real date or just the freedom to get a babysitter if I needed one until AFTER we got one a few times. But I am sure loving the sense of freedom that it is giving us. You are SO busy and church is getting to be a weekly challenge to keep up with you. But as always you are SO social and love anytime that you can put on your charm. We love you Adalyn!

One of the activities that we enjoyed this past month was a family picnic at the park. It was Adalyn's first REAL time on a playground and though she can't do much I think she still enjoyed herself.

Also my dad came up for a quick visit a couple weekends ago to see his favorite (or his only) grandchild. While he was here we worked on the sprinkler system a tiny bit (it was FREEZING that weekend) and ate out. It was fun to see him, thanks dad for coming!

She obviously had tons of fun with him :) Well that is about it for today, hope you are all having a wonderful spring! Have a great day!

House Progress

Ok folks here are a few pictures of the house. It is definitely PROGRESS. Oh I have so much that I want to do still, but even with that being said I feel like it is much more live able than it was a month ago. First we will start with the living room. A few pieces of furniture are in need of paint and we are getting a new to us coffee table soon so there will be changes. Actually there have already been changes, I have recently added a old window with a wreath hanging over it above the piano. But these pics were already taken so we will have to show that later. This first picture was taken from the front door looking in. The living room is the first room after you walk in the small entry area.

Here are a few other shots...

Next up... the Kitchen. Nothing has really changed in this room besides the fact that we bought another bar stool, but I don't think I have posted any pictures of the kitchen yet so here you go. I am excited to get to it someday, thinking about painting my pantry door crazy?

I just realized that you can't even see the pantry in this photo, it is off by the fridge. Off of the kitchen is the dining room. This was my latest project and though it isn't completely done (at least needs some ribbons up to the rod) it is the closest thing to "done" in my entire house. Love that dresser. seriously.

Here is a quick picture of the Entry way. I don't think I will leave my cedar chest there because it takes up quite a bit of space in a high traffic area, but there isn't really anywhere else for it now so we will wait and see

The picture above the cedar chest is my FAVORITE picture in our whole house. A month or so before we decided to start having children I saw it at Desert Book and it spoke" to me. The caption under it reads "For this child I prayed" That was exactly how I felt about having children. It is the most important thing that I will do on this earth. I so desperately wanted to have the opportunity to be a mother and be a good example to my children. I prayed a lot before we had Adalyn to help me be ready to be a mother and to show me how to be a good one. It described my exact feelings towards the sacred responsibility of being a mother in a beautiful picture. I told McKay and about it and hinted like CRAZY and that Christmas (when I was finally pregnant with Adalyn) McKay surprised me and bought it for me. And I love it and am so happy to have it in my house! Here is a close up version of it from deseretbook.com

Now on with the house tour. Next I will show you Adalyn's room. The colors of her room will eventually be Aqua blue and Red. Things are getting there but I still need to get a new crib skirt, make a cute mobile, get a lamp, build book shelf, add frames,and add art above her bed. Thinking of painting a couple of canvas and adding vinal for the art above her bed... not 100% sure though. (sorry I am kind of being vague)

The last room on our house tour today (office isn't pretty these days) is our bedroom. Now this room is going to COMPLETELY change thanks to some friends that are generously going to give us their "old" stuff. King size bed is coming my way yay! It is only a couple of years old and is the best of the best. BUT we had made some progress on our bedroom as of late so I wanted to show you before we took it all down and put it away. Kinda sad because I was happy with the way things were turning out. But when a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a bed that you would never actually be able to afford for yourself comes along you gotta do what you gotta do right? Ok on with the pictures... We recently painted the walls Gray and then hung the canopy (all from Ikea) above the bed. Next were the nightstands and the lamps.

Oh those lamps have GOT to go, totally an eye sore. But for the sake of progress pictures I am going to show you a REAL eye sore. This is what the other side of our bedroom looks like.

Yep that is my ironing pile, the mirror that I LOVE but don't know where to put and three filing cabinets that will soon be the bottom half of our wall length desk for our "office" in the bedroom (romantic right) well the current office will probably one day be needed for kiddos so we are just planning ahead. (it will probably take us 5 years just to finish the projects we have) Well that is it everyone. Not very exciting, but we are working on it. Are any of you doing some household projects, or as embarrassed about parts of your house as I am about parts of mine? (don't even get me started on the basement) Well anyways, have a great day!