Our First Garden

We planted our first "garden" for family night on Monday evening.  We made a little box to put it in, and planted 3 tomato plants.  We are excited to have some fresh tomatoes that we grew ourselves!  (That is if it will ever be warm enough for them to grow... we hope they survive this cold weather!)

Sydney planting her very own tomato plant

Cooper planting his very own tomato plant

Watering our plants

Sydney's plant on the left, the family (tall one) in the middle, and Cooper's plant on the right

In the Span of a Week

From Friday the 6th to Saturday the 14th (8 days actually)...

Matt worked at Comcast 4 days

Matt worked at the greenhouse 3 1/2 days

Courtney and I took the kids to the zoo (while our husbands worked at the greenhouse)

Matt's parents were in town for 6 days

We went shopping twice, 

out to eat 4 times, 

made tamales, 

had a homemade steak dinner together,

visited friends,

and hung out at Nana and Papa's house a bunch

Matt and I attended a session at the Draper Temple with my cousin Kourtney, who was going through for the first time... (wish I had gotten a picture with Kourtney!)

We celebrated Mother's Day with breakfast-in-bed,

visiting with both of our mothers  

(a special treat since we don't usually see Matt's mom on Mother's Day), 

visiting with two of our grandmothers, 

attending sacrament meeting and listening to Sydney sing, 

and talking to our brother's Tim and Alex for the LAST TIME while on their missions!

We enjoyed a couple days of nice weather... 

Courtney and I let the kids play in the back yard, in their swim suits, most of the day Friday... 

(while our husbands worked at the greenhouse again) They loved it!

We went to Nate's birthday party and got to see a bunch of old lifeguard/ high school friends along with their spouses and babies!

We went to a baby shower for Courtney and hung out with her and Kate A LOT  

(while our husbands worked at the greenhouse... ha ha.  And yes, I stole your picture Courtney!)

We had a VERY BUSY week, and almost every night ended with the kids asleep in their car seats, at a much later time than their normal bed time.  

Growing Up

One of the big decisions we've made lately, is for me to teach preschool next year.  It was kind of a last minute job offer, and a last minute decision for us, and I was totally unprepared for it.  I had previously decided not to put Sydney in preschool next year for a couple of reasons.  One being that it's expensive, and another being that I really wanted to enjoy another year as a mom of young kids not in school.  This job offer, however, was really an answer to our prayers.  It gives me an opportunity to help out with our income, and not have it be a sacrifice to our kids, and it gives Sydney an opportunity to a free year of preschool.  I have made arrangements with family and friends to have a babysitter for Cooper, so he will not have to be in a daycare, and it really won't take up too much of my time (about 6 hours a week) so it really is a win-win situation and something that I just couldn't pass up.  I really am looking forward to it.  I think it will be a fun adventure for both Sydney and me, and this opportunity couldn't have come at a better time.

As exciting as it all is, there is one little, or maybe big to me, thing that tugs at my heart.  My baby girl is growing up.  She will be starting school this fall, and will never be mine all the time again.  Luckily, we will have a few years of part-time school to get used to the idea of full time school.  It kind of breaks my heart to have her leave me... I can only imagine the kind of wreck I'll be when she leaves me for college.  I can hardly believe that this past year was the last year of my life to not have any kids in school.  I think that was the hardest thing emotionally about this decision... that I wasn't really prepared for.  Sometimes I wonder why time passes so quickly, and how I got so old all of a sudden.  Sydney is growing up to be such a wonderful little girl.  I know that she will do a great job with school, and that she will thrive in that environment.  But I really do wish that I had a little more time with her as my sweet little Sydney.  The other great thing about this situation is that I will be Sydney's teacher, so that will probably help me transition to the idea of having her in school... hopefully.

For the time being, I am holding on for dear life to every sweet moment I have with her.  I have been laying with her longer when I put her to bed, and am loving having those moments of just mommy and daughter.  Her bedtime routine is always the same.  First we read the BOM and say a prayer as a family.  Then Matt takes Cooper to bed and it's just Sydney and me. "Do ABCD's on my back Mommy," she'll say.  So I trace the abc's on her back while singing the alphabet.  Then we sing a few more, usually primary, songs.  I used to leave her to fall asleep after this point, but lately, she has been saying, "let's talk now Mom!"  I never thought hearing that sentence come out of her mouth would make me so happy!    Night after night, we will talk.  We talk about our favorite parts of our day, and speculate about Daddy and Cooper's favorite parts.  We talk about what we will do tomorrow.  We tell jokes and giggle, and tell stories.  I wish it could last forever.  Then we give hugs and kisses, and tuck her in tight so the "wiggle bugs" can't get her.   Right now those moments are the most precious moments in my life.

I know that Sydney will grow up with time.  Someday she will have her own children to take care of.  There is a cycle of life that we all must go through, and I am learning to try to love my life exactly how it is.  Because I can't rewind or slow down time.  I can't change anything about it, and if I don't enjoy it, it will have passed me by and will be something I can't get back.  I am so happy to have had the opportunity to be a stay at home mom, and mother my darling children.  We have had to sacrifice a lot of things so I can do it, but it is worth it.  I wouldn't have it any other way!

Change is the Only Constant

Life has been throwing us some curveballs lately, as it likes to do.  So, please excuse me as I work through my thoughts a little in my journel...uh, er.... blog.  I am not really a person who loves change.  I'm always the mom who wants my kids to stay little.  I've always been the kid who didn't want to move.  I'm always the one who wants things to stay as they are.  Unknown things scare me a little bit.  They are hard to predict, and I like things to be predictable.  I like schedules, I like to-do lists, I am a very practical and organized person.  And it is hard to prepare for things when you don't know where you will be next year, or what you will be doing.  We have so many unknowns right now, that it's hard to get past them.  

We have moved pretty much every year since we've been married, some years more.  The change of moving is so consistent, that it really is predictable.  The only thing that isn't predictable is where we will be living.  I have become very attached to our life in this house.  I love the house, the garage, the space, the backyard, the frontyard, the kitchen, the granite countertops, the big island counter, having 3 bedrooms... all of it.  But I would give all of that up if it meant we could stay in the same ward.  I'd live in the smallest apartment we've lived in again, if it meant I could keep the friends I've made; if it meant I could keep the play dates, the lunches at the park, the relief society activities, the people to talk to in church, the friends for my kids.  Those are the things I've really come to love and appreciate.  In our five years of marriage, I have not had one friend at church until we moved here.  In the past 4 wards we've been in, even with being totally active, we have moved away not knowing more than 5 people's names in each ward, each time.  We've always been labeled as "transient" and we learned to live to fit that label.  

When we moved here, people welcomed us.  They brought us cookies and introduced themselves.  I got a calling that didn't put me in the corner, behind the piano, unable to meet anyone.  Ward members treat us like we'll live here forever.  Neighbors invite us to playgroups and to the park.  We were visited in our home by the bishopric and relief society presidency for the first time in our marriage.  My kids have had friends to play with for the first time.  We received neighbor Christmas gifts for the first time.  We knew dozens of names in our ward  within the first month of moving here.  The people here have changed my life.  They have made me a happier person.  I am so grateful to them for being so kind and for reaching out to us.  I really needed it. 

It breaks my heart to think of moving this fall.  But, I do know that everything will be ok.  Even with all the unknowns, we are a family and we have each other.  When I'm feeling down, I like to look through old pictures, because it reminds me that we have been so blessed.  Even through all our moves, and all our "friendless" years, we have been so happy with each other.  We are a close, strong family, and I am confident that we will continue to be.  So here's to the future, unknown as it is.  I am excited to continue to make memories together and to love one another!  I really do know, that things are not only going to be ok, they will be good.