MaY 2012

May has been a very very busy month and it has flown by for us.  We have spent many weekends back and forth visiting Taylor up in northern utah, and he coming to visit us in St. George.  We have also been going up North to search for a home (and ended up finding one...yippee).  We were originally going to build a home but at the very last second we decided to buy instead of build.  In fact we are buying a home from some of our really good friends from Law School.  I decided to text these friends of ours one night while debating on whether we buy or build.  I knew they lived in the same area where we were looking to build so I texted them to see how close they were to us.  To our surprise we were almost directly behind their house.  For a brief moment I was so excited to have a friend close to me, but like I said....it was brief.  They proceeded to tell us that they were selling their house.  Long story short.....their house is perfect for out little family at this moment, it was in our price range, and we felt it was TOTALLY meant to be......soooooo we ended up purchasing their home.  It is strange how things work out sometimes.

We have also been super busy with kindergarten graduation and end of year parties, preschool graduation and end of year parties, dance recitals, preparing for our annual Law School Reunion (which we happen to be hosting), and gearing up for moving out of St. George again and moving into our very own first home.  EXCITING!!!! 

Here is Kamryn at her Kindergarten Graduation.  She was a librarian, and her graduation was themed "When I grow up".  She had a cute little part she had to recite and she did a fabulous job.

Brynlee's preschool had a mom's and muffins tea party.  She gave me a cute little glass filled with mints and a card that said "You were MINT to be my mom".

We have been spending a lot of time at the pool.  It's been a very hot summer in St. George this year and we have had to spend lots of time swimming to cool off.  Ryker loves to sit by me and just chill, soak up some sun rays, and eat (and when I say eat, I mean EAT.  This kid could out eat any other kid his age....GUARANTEED).  He also is not the least bit afraid of the water and is working really really hard at trying to keep himself afloat.  It's pretty fun watching him learn to kick and move to keep himself above the water.

Brynlee's preschool had a Preschool Olympics party and Brynlee got 1st place in the relay race.  They raced 3 times to see who the overall winner would be, and she won 1st place in all 3 races.  She KILLED it!  It was fun watching her because she gets so intense and into it.

The girls at their dance recital.  We were sad to see the dancing year come to an end but they both did a great job and we are super proud of them.

We sure have missed our daddy lately and we snuggle him every chance we get too (which is only on the weekends).  Ryker especially loves to be with his dad.

Kamryn lost her 6th tooth.  Her toothless grin is adorable!

Brynlee's Preschool Graduation.  She did a fabulous job on her singing part and she got the "Top Scholar" award.  We were also sad to say goodbye to this preschool.  I could not have been more impressed and pleased with another school.  They are AMAZING and I don't know what I am going to do for Tayson up North.  My expectations are pretty high.

Ryker is growing and changing every day.  He is such a character and is such a sweetheart.  He has 6 teeth, and also has the most adorable blonde curly hair.  He loves his mom more than anybody or anything.  He thinks he is such a big boy and is running everywhere and goes down the stairs all by himself.  He loves to wrestle his brother and gives his sisters big hugs.  We all love this little guy to pieces and can't get enough of him. 

We are sad and hate to see May go by.  It was a great month but it was hard saying goodbye to kindergarten, preschool, dance, and friends.  We hate saying goodbye to the things we love and this change is going to be hard, but saying goodbye to our husband and daddy who we love the most has been the hardest and it is most definitely time to be a family again.  So it's time to put on our big girl panties and gear up for what's ahead.  Salt Lake City here we come....please be kind to us!

March 2012

March was a great month and we kept very busy by playing in the sun, playing with cousins, and packing our house.  We moved out of our house on March 20th so that we could have the freedom to move out whenever we needed to when we bought a home or got another job elsewhere and not be tied down to a lease.  Long story short, Taylor interviewed for Siegfried and Jensen in February and we thought we might have a chance and getting the job.  Come to find out a few weeks later they gave the job to someone else.  So Taylor and I decided that we would stay in St. George and purchase a home.  We shopped around and finally found the house that we really loved.  We put an offer on the house and literally about an hour later Siegfried and Jensen called and offered Taylor a job.  So we took our offer off on the home and we of course decided to take the journey up to Salt Lake.  Unfortunately Taylor had to start his job about a week after they offered him the job.  I felt it was very important for me and the kids to stay here and finish school and dance and then move up June.  Taylor loves his job and we are doing just fine here in St. George.

Ryker was introduced to suckers and it was love at first sight.

Tayson's latest obsession is Mario and Ryker LOVES to sit with him while he plays.  He evens busts out a little to some of the tunes he likes the most.

These 3 little cousins are all about the same height but in a much different age group.  Left: Mya who is 8 months younger than Ryker is just about as tall but weighs more than him.  Middle: Lailee is 4 months older than Ryker and is about the same height as him but weighs more than him.  It's crazy how much of an age difference there are between these 3 and yet how close they all are in height.

Cousins Maudi, Marlee, Malea, and Mya came from Arizona for spring break as well as did Lailee from Salt Lake.  So we of course had to have the 2nd annual "Tea with the Queen" tea party.

Ryker helping me pack up the house.

Ryker and Tayson snuggling and watching cartoons.

 

Kamryn lost her 3rd tooth

March flew by for us but we were ready for what April had in store.

April 2012

April was full of fun activies, beautiful weather, emotions, and lots of changes for our family.  I have had a little glimpse of what life is like as a single mother and it has been fairly peaceful and humbling.  I miss Taylor but it has brought us closer together and made us realize how hard we both work.  The kids miss their daddy tremendously and are excited to be a family again (their words exactly).  Taylor has missed out on a lot and it makes us both sad, but we are surviving and have made it almost one month and only have one more month to go.

In the beginning of April we headed to the cabin in Pine Valley to watch conference.  It happened to snow a little and Brynlee was so excited to get out and make a snowman.  She made this little snowman all by herself (literally).

The boys playing Mario again.

The day before Easter we headed to the Santa Clara Easter egg hunt with aunt Ashley, cousin Lailee, and Grandma Shelly.

Easter morning we looked for Easter baskets, then had a brunch with Grandma Shelly and Grandpa Mike, and Matt and Ash and Lailee.  Then we went to church with them all and had a mini Easter Egg hunt after church.  Later on in the day we had a picnic and another easter egg hunt with my family.  It was a fabulous day!

Tubby time

Kamryn is such a chicken when it comes to pulling teeth but is such a champ after the tooth comes out.  She had been working very hard on getting her two front teeth to come out but unfortunately she just couldn't do it.  So Taylor decided he was just going to yank it out because she was getting quite the snaggle tooth and he feared the other tooth was starting to grow in.  And he was right, the new tooth was already pushing it's way through.  She was stoked when it came out and loved the fact that she looked so different with a front tooth missing.

Ryker sucking on a Ring Pop like it's his binky.

Taylor surprised me with an early birthday present to a one night stay at the Palazzo in Vegas since he was not going to be here for my birthday because he would be working in SLC.  The hotel, our room, the view, and the shopping was wonderful.

On the weekends the kids and I travel up to SLC to see Taylor or he travels to STG to come see us.  For 3 weeks in a row the kids and I went up there to find a home for us.  We looked and searched and didn't find anything.  Finally our Realtor took us to a brand new subdivision to see if maybe we were interested in building.  Of course we FELL IN LOVE with the builders, the home, the area, and the idea (after lots of debate and discussion we decided it just wasn't in the cards yet, details to come in another post).  We put money down to save us a building lot so that we could get things rolling.  Our building lot happened to be just around the corner from the Disney UP house.  The kids of course LOVED it and had to stop to check it out.

To make sure the kids were good during the whole shopping for a home process we had to do a lot of bribing to keep the kids to behave.  Chuck E Cheese's was one of the bribes.  This was Ryker's first time and he was in absolute Chuck E Cheese heaven.  He was all over the place having a ball.

This is what happens when you have sisters.

Brynlee decided to get a little creative and color ALL OVER herself, Ryker,and Kamryn.  Needless to say, she isn't able to use markers without supervision anymore.

April has been busy, hectic, stressful and emotional but we survived it and are ready for what the next few months has to offer our little family.