5 Years

I can't believe that it has been 5 years. It honestly doesn't feel like it has been that long! But then I look at all we have done and accomplished. 

- We have two Bachelor Degrees under our belts.

- Kyle took the DAT and rocked it!

- Kyle interviewed at 4 dental school and got into 3!

- We have moved at least 10 times (at least it feels that way)

- We moved to Colorado!

- We have had two beautiful daughters. Its been so much fun to be parents. I didn't think I could love Kyle any more, but seeing him as a father melts my heart. 

- We've been to Africa

- We've been to Dubai

- We've been to the Caribbean

- We've been to Disneyland more times than should be acceptable

-We have been surviving dental school

- We have been on a million road trips

- I ran a half marathon!

- Kyle has played a lot of softball and won a lot of championships

-we've made some amazing friends

-we have laughed so hard we can hardly breath

- Kyle rocked the boards!

- almost 2 years of dental school

- lots of awesome callings

Kyle has taught me so much. Like how to properly peel a banana and use siri. But almost as important he has taught me how to laugh at myself and not take myself so seriously. He has taught me patience and true Christ like love. He is so selfless when it come to me. All of my needs come first. It constantly pushes me to be a better person. I just want to make him as happy as he had made me. 

In the picture below Kyle was recovering from his incredibly illness in 2010. That was a scary time for us, but we survived it and it has made us stronger. 

We had so much fun just the two of us. We had so many adventures together.

But none of those adventures compare to the ones that we have had since Abby joined us. She was a little bit of each of us, and she really made us a family. 

Then we found out about little Juliet. I was so nervous when I found out I was pregnant again. I mean they would only be 19 months apart! We were moving to Colorado. Kyle was starting dental school! What would he say? Would he be happy? The look on Kyle's face when I told him I was pregnant was one of the best reactions I have ever seen. His face lit up with pure happiness and joy. All of my apprehension melted away. He has that affect on me. He is the calm in my crazy life. I know I can count on him to always support me. 

And then the 3 of us became 4 and there couldn't have been more love in our family. It was amazing how much love and joy this new little spirit brought to our home. Those next 4 months were some the hardest of my life. I had a rough time emotionally after Juliet was born. Kyle was there for me. He sacrificed so much to make sure that I made it through and that I was strong. 

These past 6 months have been amazing. We have really be exploring Colorado and having a blast with just our little family. Even though Kyle is in his hardest year yet at school we have been surviving in it. And we are actually having a lot of fun. Its has been so much fun to watch our sweet girls grow up. They bring so much joy and laughter to our home. 

I am truly  blessed. Kyle is more perfect for me than I could have ever imagined. Not a day has gone by since we got married that I haven't said a prayer of gratitude to my Heavenly Father. I don't know where I would be today without Kyle. But I know I wouldn't be as happy, strong and faithful without his love and support.  We have both changed a lot since we got married. But have changed and grown together and have built such a strong relationship. We still love to spend as much time together as humanly possible. He is my best friend and we still stay up super late just talking and laughing. Nobody knows him better than I do, and nobody knows me better than he does. That is such a good feeling to know that he understands me and loves me no matter what failings I might think I have. I am grateful that my girls have such a good example of what a husband and father should be. 

Happy 5 years Kyle! I can't wait to see where we will be and what we will have accomplished in the next 5 and in the eternity to follow!

I love you. 

Halloween!

This Halloween was so much fun! It was a couple weeks long celebration. This second year of dental school has been really busy for kyle. We don't see him very much, so we really cherished the time we were able to spend with him celebrating Halloween! 

We started everything off with a trip to a pumpkin patch! There was this one pumpkin patch that everyone had told us about that was supposed to be a lot of fun. It was about 40min away but we decided it was worth it and woke Jules up from her nap early to trek out to Bloomfield. On our way out there I had the impression that I needed to check to website to see if the pumpkin patch was even open (we had a fiasco with showing up to a closed pumpkin patch that was supposed to be open last year). Even though the day had been absolutely beautiful, it had snowed a couple nights before so I was worried that might cause the patch to be closed. I jumped on their website on my phone (how I LOVE modern technology) and saw that the pumpkin patch was indeed closed. So I hurried and looked up other pumpkin patches and it turned out there was one even closer and the exit for it was the very next exit. Talk about perfect timing. It was such a testimony builder to me that the Lord knows us. He knows our needs and wants. I knew in that moment that he cared about me and my desire to take my Abby to a pumpkin patch. This one was open and was perfect for what we wanted. Abby was in heaven with all the pumpkins. She picked one out for herself and for Juliet. And she carried that pumpkin around everywhere for the next few weeks. It was so cute. 

After the pumpkin patch we went out to dinner. It was the first time we had taken both girls to a sit down restaurant in a really really long time. They both did great. And of course we had to bring the pumpkin with us. She was so cute with that pumpkin.

The next festive activity was the ward trunk or treat. It was pretty fun. They didn't start dinner until 5:30 and the line for dinner was 40 minutes long. It was ridiculous. So we didn't start the trunk or treat until 7 and it was dark and freezing by that time. We couldn't see anyone's costumes so that was a bummer. But our costumes turned out so cute! I made Abby's cop costume. It turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to. She looked adorable. So we were bank robbers, Abby was a cop and Juliet was our bag of money. It was great.

This picture didn't really turn out. It was so dark by the time we got our trunk set up that no one could even really see how cool it was. So we had our bags of "money" and we handed out 100 grand bars. That was Kyle's idea and I loved it!

All of Abby's candy. She was in Heaven. She loved trick or treating. The next morning I heard her downstairs with Kyle saying "Halloween I love you!" as loud as she could. It was hilarious.

Juliet's first sucker. I think that had she not been so cold she would have enjoyed it a lot more.

The night after the trunk or treat we went to the Seller's house for a spooky dinner. I am so sad that I didn't get any pictures but it was so fun. Abby had a ball. We didn't even see her the entire time. She went straight downstairs with the kids and had so much fun playing. I love that she is becoming her own little person.

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins with friends. This is one of my favorite halloween activities. Not really because I love carving pumpkins but because I LOVE pumpkin seeds. So Kyle carved the big pumpkin and I carved the little mickey pumpkin. The only thing that could have made the pumpkins better for Abby was putting Mickey and Minnie on them. She was thrilled with the results. I love Juliet's face in this. Classic.

Then it was finally the big day. For Trick or Treating Abby was a cheerleader. And Juliet was a baby trying to keep warm in the freezing cold wind. Sorry Juliet for the lack of costumes on you. It was more important to keep you warm!

Abby loved trick or treating. She knew what we were about to do and she was so excited. In the picture below she is telling me "candy!" She didn't want to take anymore pictures, she wanted to get started. She would march right up to the doors and start knocking. If they didn't come fast enough she would knock again. When they would answer she would hold up her little pumpkin as high as she could. Then say thank you and run to the next door. We were all laughing so hard. It was too cute.

Clark Kent and the cheer leader. These two are so cute together.

As much as I enjoy Halloween, I am always really happy when it is over because then the REAL holidays can begin. And yes we are already listening to Christmas music. And I am so ready to put up the Christmas decorations. I think this is going to be the best Holiday season yet!

Life Lately

So these pictures are stories are from all over the place. But I wanted to get everything down! 

We have been loving fall this year. The weather has been beautiful and we have loved being outside and seeing the leaves change! Its such a fun time of year.

 Last week the weather was perfect so we seized the opportunity and went to the park with friends. It was a lot of fun. Abby loves, loves, loves her friends. Its so sweet to watch her interact with other little kids. She is a funny little kid. 

Abby randomly fell asleep on the way home from running errands. The she stayed asleep when I got her out of the car. I had to take a picture because this has never happened before. I wish I could have snuggled her all afternoon.

One morning Abby pulled out every single book we own and she read every single one. It was adorable. She was having so much fun.

Abby loves to hold Juliet's hand when we are in the car. Its really sweet, except for the fact that Juliet doesn't like to hold hands. Sometimes she will tolerate it for a little bit. I love their little relationship. They love each other.

This sweet little 10 month old is getting so much personality. We can't get enough of her. She is always happy and smiling. She is crawling around everywhere! She loves to follow her sister around and they play so cute together. She is cutting around 5 teeth right now. Its been rough on her poor little body. We have missed our happy Jules.

Kyle's softball games ended last Wednesday. They were the undefeated champions! It was fun to get to go watch him almost every Wednesday night. This particular night was freezing cold, but we had fun anyway.

Juliet trying to get her big sister. They have so much fun together. They are just so much happier when they are together.

A couple weeks ago Kaity and I ran a 10k. It was just a little bit south of where we live at a small reservoir. It was so beautiful! It was freezing cold, but totally worth it. My knee has really been driving me crazy so I wasn't my strongest. But it was still so fun. I hope we can do it every year.

Taking a walk to play in the leaves. Abby loves to kick the leaves and crunch them when she walks. I'm so glad she gets to experience these kind of things.

This is the view from our front yard. I don't ever want to forget this. Its so perfectly beautiful. I love it!

The trees outside our house. Seriously fall rocks. I love it. 

Disneyland 2013

Oh my goodness this was such a fun trip. I was so grateful we were able to go. Kyle missed two days of school, but due to record rain and flooding in Colorado school was canceled so he didn't miss as much as we thought he would. 

These pictures are kind of all over the place! 

This one was as we were walking to Fantasyland on Thursday. There wasn't a line for minnie so we jumped in and got a picture. Abby was excited, Juliet was terrified. 

The first day that we got there was Wednesday evening and first thing my dad bought Abby a balloon. She loved that thing!

Me and Abby and Juliet hanging out in Carsland while everyone else went on Radiator Springs Racers. One of my favorite things on this trip was the stroller pass. Everyone else would go wait in line (a really short line) and I would stay out with the girls. I didn't have to stress about leaving them for a long time. As soon as everyone else was out Kyle and I would go on the ride again and not wait at all! It was awesome!

Abby inhaled 100 of these Capri Suns.

Kyle texted me as soon as they got on the ride and I waited so I could get a picture of everyone in the Car.

Halee (8), Tragdon (6) and Abby (2). I love these little ones. They are both so good with my girls and my girls just adore them. Juliet would laugh so hard at Halee. It was adorable.

Abby has a special place in her heart for "poppi". She just adores him and wanted to spend most of the trip in his arms. She bawled her eyes out when he had to leave to head back early to Arizona. He is so sweet to her, it is one of the most special things to watch my dad and my little girl together.

Abby was a rockstar the entire trip. She only napped for all of 15 minutes on the last day that we were there. But she was happy and sweet when she was awake. She was good in her stroller too. I was so grateful.

This little baby was a dream. She still took two short naps each day and slept pretty good in the hotel room. One night she wanted to sleep in bed with me which was fine. I would take her to the mothers room to nurse and it was so nice to sit down in comfy chairs in an air conditioned room to nurse her. She loved those quiet breaks too.

We took Abby, Halee and Tragdon to Playhouse disney and they all loved it. Bubbles, fake snow and gold dablooms fell from the ceiling and we got to see Mickey, Sofia the first, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland pirates. It was a really cute show. We also took the kids to see turtle talk with crush. Tragdon was determined to not say it was cool. But he loved it, he even got to ask crush a question.

Lacee was so fun with the girls. They both loved her so much. I'm so grateful for all of her help.

Abby loved the carousel this time. My mom took her on it and she would wave to me every time she passed me. So cute.

Kyle took her too. She loved it!

Classic Abby face. She knows how to work the camera.

Sweet abby with my dad. Love these two!

My mom and Halee.

Dumbo!

Ya thats me and Iron man. I'm cool.

Playing games!

Kyle played this really hard baseball game and he won.

This. He won this. I was thrilled. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) I don't know how many people had won one before. Everyone kept asking us where we got this thing. Even the cast members said they had never seen it before. Pretty funny. Abby loves it, and I'm actually planning on recovering it and making into a cute cushion to watch movies on.

One of the biggest bummers this year was that Carson wasn't there because he is on his Mission. Carson always wears these nasty purple basketball shorts that my mom just hates. I felt like we needed to do something to honor Carson on our trip so I went to WalMart and that being the classy place that it is had purple basketball shorts. I bought some and had Kyle wear them to breakfast our first morning. My family all got a really big kick out of it. It felt like Carson was there for a second!

Again Lacee is the cutest aunt. She got Jules to sleep and kept her asleep for her morning nap. It was so sweet.

Abby's first time on Autopia! She was actually tall enough to ride, it was so fun to put her up to the measuring thing and have her head touch the bar. I can't wait for the years to come as she gets to ride more and more rides.

Classic Abby face again and my awesome parents. I'm so grateful they let us tag along.

I just loved this picture. Tragdon the entire time just wanted to go back to the hotel and play with his toys. He was a way happy camper when we decided we were heading back to the hotel each night.

This guy just made me so happy. What a cute dad to dress up as peter pan! His son was a little pirate.

All of our many creative ride pictures.

Space Mountain  has the best stroller pass. You get to go through the exit and you don't wait in line at all! Its awesome. It took us all of 5 minutes to walk in there and get on the ride and then walk back out to the family.

This was my favorite of all the ride pictures was this one. I love Tragdon's face. Pure terror.

This was our last ride of the trip. My dad had already to left to go catch his flight. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and Juliet fell asleep in the line in my arms. I loved it! It was the perfect ride to end the trip on.

Its family tradition to always eat at this restaurant every time we go to Disneyland and we always get a picture. Its so fun to watch how our family grows each year. I can't believe I have two kids in this picture!

This trip was a blast. It went by way to fast and I can't wait to go next year!