7

7 years ago I awoke to a stormy morning, with the excitement as if it were Christmas. I was calm, but full of energy, and had a peaceful feeling, and knew with a surety that I was marrying the man I was to spend the rest of the eternities with.

I am not perfect. He is not perfect. Our marriage is not perfect. But, I sure have enjoyed the ride of trying to figure it all out to try and make it as perfect as we can. And I look forward to the many years ahead with my best friend by my side, helping me every step of the way. I love you Sweets!

paint...

does wonders! Ever since we bought the house one of the first things I wanted to do was to paint the house. From this picture you can't tell the true color, but it is kind of a peachy-yellowish-fleshy color. I didn't like it...

But now I LOVE it!! It feels like a new house. The color is 'connected gray', but it is a dark green color. And no we did not paint it ourselves. We thought about it, but our neighbor paints houses for a living and so we had him do it. No regrets either. He did an awesome job. The red door is my favorite part about it. I thought I would show the back as well, and show the planting we have done. All that was in our backyard before was just grass. So we planted along the back of the house. They are still just small little starters.

Then in this corner I HAD to plant something to hide the hideous electrical boxes. We also planted a maple. And on this side we have our garden. We have some corn, cucumbers, squash and tomatoes. We have only gotten 1 tomato from our tomato plants, and have gotten lots of squash and cucumbers. The corn is not quite ready yet, but we are ready for it. Then in the corner it kind of slopes down, and so Jon built a little wall. We haven't figured out what we want to do there yet, hence no plants. And then we planted a birch tree on this side.

Everything is starting to come together and just feeling more like our home. Now I can't wait until our counter tops come. :)

imagination

Livy has quite the imagination. Here she is playing who-knows-what, but the rug from the front door ended up being her blanket. Who knew a rug could be so versatile.

kindergarten

Today marks the day that Jon and I become parents of school aged children. Jaedon started Kindergarten today and couldn't have been more excited. Jon asked him last night what he wanted for breakfast. Jon gave him a lot of options like pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs..., but all he said he wanted was hard boiled eggs.

I would have taken the picture outside on the porch, like my mom would always do with us, but it was raining. So still in front of the front door, but just inside. Can you tell he is excited!? Sof is checking out his new shoes. They only had a half day for the first day. They have full day Kindergarten here. But he was still smiles when I picked him up. He told me his favorite part for today was when they got to dance around the room. This is his teacher Mrs. Doble. We have heard that she can be kind of strict, and didn't let the kids participate in some Christmas event last year. So we will see how this goes. From what I can tell she seems pretty nice. Jaedon did tell me though that no one sat in Time Out today.

things

Sofia learned a new word while we were out visiting family. My sister Caitlin has a Yorkie and it had puppies recently, and Caitlin had brought them up to my moms while we were there. Sofia was in love with the dogs, and I just think animals in general. I would hear Sof walking around though saying. "Da-di" I finally realized she wasn't referring to Jon, but that she was referring to the dogs. Soon after though it turned into "Da-di, whoo-whoo". I love the facial expression with her "whoo-whoo" She now calls every animal a doggy though.

One day the kids were downstairs playing on the Wii and after some time Jaedon was making some comments on how his player just kept jumping (they were playing Wii Fit on the balance board). Well, I went to investigate and asked if they had been jumping on the board. Jaedon told me they had, and I blew up at them. I put them both in time-out and told them it would be lucky if they ever got out. While they were sitting in time-out I would walk in and out of the kitchen and noticed that Livy had been in the same position for some time. Either she was really contemplating what she had done, or she fell asleep.

Yeah, fell asleep while sitting on the chair and leaning against the sliding door.

A few days ago Jaedon kept telling me he was ready for lunch and that he wanted a bologna sandwich. I told him he would have to wait for a minute until I was done doing whatever it was I was doing. Well later I walked down in the kitchen to find this... Jaedon was making a sandwich not just for himself, but for all of us!

Jon is the best dad in the world! I had painted my nails and Livy had seen me doing it, but I had to wait until my nails dried, but Jon stepped in and said he would do it. I was a little nervous how this was going to turn out... I think Livy was a little nervous too

But Jon actually did a really good job. Sticker decals and all!

to grandmas house we go...

I had good intentions of posting pictures each day of our trip when they occurred so that I wouldn't have a post with picture overload. Obviously that didn't happen and now you have to endure a big long post.

We made a last minute trip out to Utah/Idaho. My sister Rainee was out there and I figured I better go and see her while I could. Jon of course couldn't come so I made the drive by myself with 3 kids. Luckily my cousin James and his wife Laci live in Cheyenne and we were able to stop there for the night to break the driving up. The kids absolutely loved it at James and Laci's, and wished they could have stayed there longer.

On the first day at my parents we went to the Famous Preston Night Rodeo. There was a parade and carnival beforehand, and the kids were loving every minute of it.

At one point during the this ride, Rainee looked over at me and asked who was holding Sofia? I had no clue. She had been wandering around. After this ride we lost Sof again for a brief time, which of course all sorts of thoughts are running through my head. But then we found her just acting like an adult strolling around the carnival. After we lost 'Miss Independent', this is where she was for the rest of the night. Locked up!

There was a lot of time spent on the tramp...

and throwing things into the pond. (Sorry Dad) They even had a "Grand" Camp.

We went to Dinosaur Park

And there was lots of time playing with cousins. For some reason these hats with the wig under it was a big hit.

All of the grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa

And the rest of the family minus Jon and Doug

We went to Downata Hot Springs where Jaedon took off his tube in the pool and was struggling to stay above the water. I hate water.

Then down to Delta where there was more time spent on the tramp...

Having ice cream sandwhiches

More playing on the tramp

Making cupcakes

and frosting them...

or more like eating the frosting

We were watching Sponge Bob one morning, and so I drew him on this big doodle thing, and then Jaedon said he wanted to try...

Pretty Awesome. (Those flower things are Jellyfish) Millard County was having their fair while we were there too

These were Jaedon's favorite

Thank you to all of our families for taking care of us while we were there. We love you guys!