Beautiful

I don't know if I have ever felt more beautiful than the day Kyle and I were married.  And it's not because my hair was done perfectly or that I had new high-end makeup on or because I was wearing a wedding gown that I loved so much.  Don't get me wrong - thoses things definetly helped, but that's not why.  I remember walking up the spiral staircase in the Nauvoo temple feeling and thinking this is the most important thing I'll ever do in my life - get married for to time and eternity in the Lord's house, in the Lord's way.  I felt so much love.  I felt so, so blessed.  I knew I was doing the right thing, the thing that my Heavenly Father and Savior wanted most for me.  And it made me feel beautiful.   For a moment, I saw and felt how They must see and feel about me.

After I got my gown on, I headed around the corner to meet Kyle.  He was standing there waiting for me.  Most of that morning, I hate to admit, is kind of a blur.  I remember bits of pieces of it, but it happened so fast and there was so much to asborb.  But the one thing I remember most was the look Kyle had when he saw me when I rounded that corner.  I'll never forget it - I saw the love he had for me in that look.  I saw what he hoped our life would be in that look.  It was tender and loving and I once again felt more beautiful than I ever have or probably ever will. 

Today is our 8 year anniversary.  Kyle is all the way in Delaware for work.  It stinks.  However, its given me some time to reflect and remember that perfect, beautiful day 8 years ago.  It hasn't always been perfect these last 8 years, but when I think about that day everything falls into perspective and I think how incredibly blessed I am to be married to Kyle.  He's the best.  He makes me better.

Love you babe.

Grady's Blessing

Grady's baby blessing was this past Sunday.  He was pretty happy about it.

For those of you who may not know what a baby blessing is - it is when a baby is given blessings and his/her name during a special prayer performed typically by the father and other priesthood holders. It's a special day for the family.  Some of the things Kyle felt inspired by the spirit to bless Grady with were these:

• Continued health, contentment, and to grow strong
• A knowledge that your Heavenly and Earthly parents love you
• The knowledge to know that you are a Child of God
• A desire to seek wisdom
• To be a support to your mother and brother
• To seek guidance from your mentors
• To seek knowledge and learning (epecially of the gospel)
• A knowledge that service in the Lord's church leads to happiness
• To serve a full time mission
• And to be sealed to a worthy companion in the temple for time and all eternity

It was a beautiful blessing.  I feel very grateful for these things.  I felt so much love for Kyle, my family, and for my Heavenly Father and my Savior.   It was special day and I'm thankful that Kyle's family was so willing to come and be apart of it.

P.S.  And a special thanks to my SIL, Candy, for taking down a few notes

of the blessing so I'd be able to look back and remember it.

Life Recently

Oh man.  I wish I had more time to blog.  I always have cute things to post about and the best of intentions of doing it, but it never happens.  Life around here has been a little crazy.  I never realized how much busier I'd be by adding another munchkin into the mix.  I really should be doing something else - one of the million things on my list, but I thought I'd do just a quick post about life recently for us instead.

Kyle passed his last actuarial exam!  Hooray!  We're so happy.  We found out about a week ago.  However, Kyle had to start studying for the next one.  But there's only one more!  One more and he'll be done.  Life will be glorious again and I'll have a husband again. 

Leon is so funny.  Today, he wanted to color.  He colored one little thing and then asked me to finish it.  He just sat there and watched me and then said "Good job, mommy."

It is also Day 3 of Leon's potty training.  Yesterday, it took every ounce of will power to not put him back in a diaper.  It still hasn't clicked with him yet, but I can tell we're getting close.  I've bribed him, squealed like you wouldn't believe when he does go, and done just about everything I can think of to help the process.  The problem is that he won't tell me he needs to go before he goes.  He'll start going and then say "uh-oh.  potty."  So, we just have to get him to understand that he has to listen to his body and go pee and poopy in the potty chair.  

I'm ready to start doing some portraits again.  However, I'm not sure where to begin here.  I don't have time to do a lot of editing.  The weather is disgusting so I'm limited in that area.   I still haven't found a lot of great locations here and I don't have the time or means to go exploring right now (you know, because I have a toddler and a 2 month old)  This part of life makes me REALLY miss Lafayette. 

Grady is sleeping great and I'm so thankful for it!  He gets up 1-2 times to eat but always goes right back to sleep.  He's got the sweetest smile.  He loves to watch me.  He loves to gaze into my eyes and it's so sweet and sincere when he does it.  Here's some pics of him sleeping with Kyle:

We've been trying to think of ways to revamp our evenings.  We've been in kind of a rough rut of doing nothing and feeling blahish.  Kyle and I are usually so dead by the evening that we eat dinner and just watch TV or cartoons (so we don't have to mess with Leon).  It's terrible.  We're going to start exercising... hopefully.  We've been trying to bust out the games.   We also thought we'd start doing some ABC and counting things with Leon.  Do any of you have fun things you do as a family in the evenings - on just a typical week night? 

We'll Grady just woke up, but there's a few of the billion things floating around in this head of mine to tell you all about.  Hopefully, I'll get better about blogging.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had our tradtional fancy dinner.  This year we grilled ribs and shrimp and made yummy virgin pina coladas. We made then made cookies for santa, watched Polar Express, and then told the nativity story using our new Little People nativity.  It was a good evening!

Grady being mezmorized by the Christmas lights.

Leon's card to Santa:

Sneaking one of Santa's cookies:

Later on Christmas morning:

It was a good one!

Photos by Kim Davis

I'm very, very fortunate to have photography friends.  We could be bitter rivals, but instead we've made our love of photography into something else - a friendship where we encourage and help each other out...and on the occasion do photo shoots for one another.  It's wonderful and I'm grateful for them.  One of my photography friends from Lafayette, Kim Davis, came down to visit her family and take some beautiful portraits for us.  Take a look at some of my favs:

I have this theory that every mother needs beautiful photographs with her children.  I cherish mine SO much.  Motherhood is an incredibly, beautiful thing - it's one of my favorite things to photograph.  Kim did a beautiful job capturing these photos for me.

This is a fun one.  I love it.  It may become the new (and much needed) header for this blog.

Thank you so much Kim!  It means the world to me!

I am Thankful for...

this guy.

This man I married is one of the best guys in the whole world - one the best husbands.  I couldn't have asked for anyone better to love, marry, create a family with, and to spend the rest of eternity with. 

Kyle finished his exam on Friday.  We're both so relieved.  The pressure and stress that has been waying on us has lifted.  We're eager to find out the results, but we have 8 weeks until then so we're not even worrying about it right now.  Kyle has spent almost every free moment studying for that crazy exam so to have him back is wonderful.  But,  this is what is even more amazing about him:  Instead of thinking "Oh, I just took all this time working, I deserve a break"  he has jumped right in to help me with whatever I need.  He's been giving me breaks.  He's contantly playing and laughing with Leon.  He cleaned pretty much the entire upstairs last night with barely any help from me (I'm not really that helpful right now even though I'd like to be).  And then before we went to bed, he gave me a much needed massage to help me relax.  Tonight he is letting me have a Ladies Night Out.  He is taking most of his vacation time to spend that next two weeks after the baby is born to stay home with us.  I feel blessed.  He could be going fishing or playing video games or trying to restore his old '55 chevy Truck that he's had stored in his parent's garage for years, but he chooses to be a husband and father first - and a good one at that. 

I love you Kyle!  Thank you so much!

You CAN Dew It!

Leon and I went out to the store today to get Kyle some "study" food for tomorrow.  He is taking the day off of work so that he can study all day for his next big actuarial exam that is taking place THIS Friday.  I know that he likes to have some snacks when he studies and I thought it might be a good way to keep him motivated throughout the day.  These exams are a big deal and they're pretty crazy hard.  I don't think anyone can really grasp how terrible they are unless they are taking them or if your a spouse of someone who is taking them.  I try to explain to people what it's like, but no one seems to really understand unless they've been there.  It's recommended that for every hour of exam you take that you should study for 100 hours.  So, a 6 hour exam should require 600 hours of studying in preperation.  Yeah.  600 hours!  Kyle spends alot of his free time studying for these exams.  He's been gone alot.  However, there is good news!  This is his second to last exam.  If he passes this one, then he only has one more!  Hooray! 

If you could please say a little prayer for Kyle, I would appreciate it so much.  It's been hard the last couple of months.  I don't want all his hard work to go to waste.  Also, pray that this baby doesn't decide to come tomorrow or Friday.  That would just be terrible.  I'd be having a baby all by myself ;)

6 Years

Tomorrow, Kyle and I will be celebrating 6 years of marriage.  They've truly been the best 6 years ever. I love this man more than I ever have.  I'm so grateful and so blessed to have him as my best friend and husband.  I love you babe!

2005:  Our Wedding Day

2006: 6 months

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Playing Catch Up

Oh man, this week has been rough.  Lots of things I could say about the week but I'll give you the "short", easy version:

We had an ultrasound on Monday because I was measuring 6 weeks bigger than what I actually am in this pregnancy.  They wanted to make sure nothing serious was going on in there.  I wasn't nervous or worried until Sunday night came and I started freaking out a bit.  Thankfully it appears that everything is fine - the baby is a tad big and I just have lots of fluid, but it doesn't appear to be a problem.

Leon has been a pistol.  2.5 is hard.  It's like having a moody teenager - one moment they're happy, the next they're not.  I can't tell you now many times I've said "no" or "stop it".  We haven't had to do many time-outs lately, but this week canceled it all out.

I got some sort of big bite or something on my inner thigh last week.  I figured it would just go away in a couple of days.  It didn't.  It got worse - hurting and swelling and getting bigger - until I got so worried that I called the doctor.  They made me go in.  They ended up cutting it open and draining it.  Sorry, I know that's gross.  I've been hobbling around the last few days.  It hurts like H.E.L.L.  and I can only take tylenol.  Luckily, when I went in yesterday they said it was looking really good. 

Because of all of this, Kyle had barely gotten all of his study time in.  His next acturial exam is the beginning of November.  He's stressed about it.  I'm trying to be very supportive.  This week I blew it.  Luckily he still loves me and understands. 

I haven't cooked dinner once this week, but I'm making up for it tonight with one of our favorite meals.  I'm burned out on our usual foods - anybody have any good recipe blogs they really like?

Anyway!  I've put up a few new posts in the last couple of days in my attempt to catch up.  Please take a look!  One day I'll be better about blogging.

1st Baseball Game

Florence, the city where we live, has a minor league baseball team.  Kyle started going with some work buddies every now and then.  We decided that we'd go to the last home game of the season together as a family.  It was a good time.  We got in for free - someone didn't need there extra tickets.  We ate hotdogs and drank colas.  Leon, of course, wasn't too interested in the game but I he still had a good time running around with us.  I love the experience of going to a good ballgame.  This place was so family/kid friendly.  It was fun to have a carefree night doing something new with our little family.

p.s. Leon now has a baseball hat and loves wearing it.  He says "i'm cool" everytime he wears it.

EnterTRAINment Junction

We found out about this cool train place in Northern Cincinnati and we knew we'd have to take our train-loving munchkin to it.  They were having a special exhibit with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, so we thought we'd take advantage.  The place was cool.  Leon was so entrawed in it and was so busy taking it all in while we were there that he didn't even take a moment to smile.  However, I know he LOVED it. 

The place is big for a train musuem and it has amazing models of train history.  Some of it looked so realistic.

Included in our tickets was a pass to the kid friendly fun house which Leon loved just as much.  It was so much fun to watch him try to go through the mirrored hallways and the funky unbalanced rooms with us.

It was a good time and I'm glad we've been able to discover a few things with our little guy before this next little one comes.

How we are doing...

 Most of my posts so far have been mostly in the need-to-know, what we've been doing, new baby, or Leon catergories.  But I thought I'd sit down and share a little more about how we're actually doing.  We'll start with the most important:

Leon

Leon had a pretty rough time adjusting to this move.  It really didn't go over well with him at all.  However, I'm happy to say that after 2 and half months he is finally getting more and more comfortable and adjusted.  He went to nursery at church today without crying (HORRAY!) for the first time since we got here.  He doesn't have to be right outside the shower when I shower - he'll play in the playroom or in my bedroom.  He's not afraid of his massive closet anymore.  He actually went downstairs all by himself today to play (I was in the shower and when I came out I started to panic because I couldn't find him anywhere - I went downstairs and he was happily playing with his trains).  His speech has really taken off.  He surprises me daily with the words/phrases he picks up and the sentences he puts together.  He's become very observant - On our way to church today, he saw McDonald's and shouted out (with joy) "french fries!".  A few weeks ago he started calling me "Mommy" instead of "Momma".  He is very gracious - he says "thank you, mommy"  just about everytime I compliment him or give him something.  His temper tantrums have declined signficantly since we moved.  He now can count up to 5 and knows most of this colors.  AND, when I ask him if he wants a baby he usually says "Yes" while shaking his head up and down.  It's adorable.  I love the kid and every time he does something cute or sweet or funny I wonder how on earth I was lucky enough to have this little boy be my son!  He's just awesome.  The one bad thing we're still working on is getting him to sleep in his own bed throughout the night - he just gets worried without us there with him.

Kyle

Kyle has been having to make a lot of changes when it comes to his work situation.  His commute is much different - driving into the big city requires a lot of dealing with traffic and rush hour.  He is getting used to how different the work enviroment is at this new company, but I think he's liking it.  It's different but not bad.  He's got another one of his crazy actuarial exams coming up right before the baby is due.  His study schedule is pretty intense which isn't so enjoyable.  However, there's light at the end of the tunnel - if he passes this one he only has one more and then he is done!  Forever!  Yay!  He's told me that he really likes the area and the people he works with.  He is also enjoying having a yard that only takes 20 minutes to mow instead of 2 hours and having a house that doesn't have an endless list of improvements to work on.  Despite his busy work and study schedule and the stress that comes with both, he's been so awesome.  He's been helping me with all my house projects and with Leon.  He's making life around here great.

Me

I miss home - mostly my friends and family, my favorite photography locations (I haven't had much success with scouting places out here), and the convience of just knowing an area for so long.  However, I do like the area for the most part.  I've been making friends with ladies from church and they're great.  I joined their book club and have been invited to a couple of ladies nights which have been a lot of fun.  I really like our new house.  I love that all I have to do is paint and decorate and keep it clean.  That's ALL!  It's really starting to look like a lovely home for us.  I can't wait to show more pictures.  Most rooms are very close to being photo worthy.  As far as the pregnancy goes, I'm already very uncomfortable.  I'm huge and I still have 12 weeks to go - people keep asking me if I'm having twins or their eyes get really wide when I tell them the baby is due in November.  I'm not usually too offended when this happens because I agree with their thoughts - I'm big and I know it ;)  I'm already having contractions which stinks.  But luckily everything else is going great, so I'm not going to complain too much.  I miss taking photos.  However, I'm not feeling to creative while being big and it's nice having the free time.  I'll start things back up in the spring.

Baby #2

He's nice to me.  Well, other than the whole making me huge thing, giving me contractions, and being up in my ribs most of the time.  He lets me sleep when I need/want to and he lets me get things done.  I appreciate it.  His room is going to be so stinkin cute when it's gets done.  We are still are debating on names.  We've got a list going but we just can't decide.  Here are some of our options (the ones I can remember at least):  Owen, Oliver, Ollie, Greyson, Griffin, Charlie, Ray, Ethan, Everett, and James.

P.S.  Check out our little adventure of feeding the ducks at a nearby lake here.

Totally Worth It

When I found out that our county 4-H fair had a $8/person admisson I was pretty ticked.  Seriously, $8????  We really wanted to go (for the fair food and the demolition derby) so we decided we'd chance it and hope that the $16 admission would be worth it.  It TOTALLY was and here is why:

Watching Leon hold and eat a corn dog.  He's not much of an eater so this was a big deal to us.

Seeing Leon's mouth turn blue as we shared a blue rasberry-cherry snow cone.

Seeing Leon's reaction to the demolition derby. 

It was everything from concern to gittiness to totally getting into it to cheering with the crowd.

Leon is yelling "car craaaaash"  in these photos.

And having a really wonderful evening with my family.  We had so much fun.