The big 2-7

Happy Birthday McKay! (FOUR days ago) Yes this post is late, but I DID remember to wish him a happy birthday ON his actual birthday. But guess what?! that was ALL I did in terms of birthday celebration for him on his actual day. (shame on me I know) I have BIG plans for next year, or I HOPE to have big plans for next year, that is my goal since I totally failed this year. Life around here has been pretty crazy and we actually haven't been home very much in the past few weeks, so there is my excuse. Between trips to lava, Utah, and wyoming that are happening EVERY weekend we barely are getting unpacked from one before we head out on another one. But it is all in the name of fun so we will try to not complain too much. :) So last Sunday on his actual birthday we were in Utah at a baby blessing for our new darling nephew. Luckily, his mom was sweet and brought a cake for him so he did get to blow out some candles. Then on monday I did the traditional special dinner and dessert. It was wonderful and I have especially enjoyed eating leftover cake all week :) For his cake he requested spice cake for the second year in a row. Spice cake? I never even ate spice cake as a kid so I just found a box and made that one, but if anyone has a good spice cake recipe I am on the look out for one so I can impress him next year. Here are a few pictures of my sweet husband at his birthday dinner
his first birthday as a daddy :) And in honor of McKay's birthday I thought that I would share a few pictures that he has taken of Adalyn recently. Sometimes I just shake my head at his random humor, crazy daddy... Up first Adalyn's snot bubble. You should have heard the story that I heard about this bubble last night after I got home, apparently it was epic. lol
Second- One night after drinking her bottle Adalyn had a few drops by her eye, McKay thought they looked so cool. I forgot what he compared them to, indian war paint or something like that. He did say though that it looked better in person and that the camera didn't do it justice.

The last one is after her first time trying sloppy joes and it is the classic wash cloth on the head. Not too exciting, but still picture worthy. Love her double chin. :)
Welp that is it. McKay, Adalyn and I love you thanks for being the man of my dreams, I sure do love our life together! Happy Birthday! Have a great day everyone!

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!