Remember When...

Our house in Richfield officially sold and we are all moved out. It was quite the emotional day when all of our stuff was gone and we just sat around in an empty house.

Remember when our house was just a hole in the ground?

And now it looks like this.

 Remember when our kitchen used to be full of family and friends?

And now it looks like this.

 Remember when it was just the two of us sitting on the front porch?

 And now there's three.

 Remember how there used to be decorations on the wall that made it seem like a home?

 And now the walls are empty.

Remember how Makayla's room was decorated so cute?

And now nothings in it?

Is it weird that we are so emotionally attached to our house? Maybe everyone goes through this when they move, but a few times it had me thinking that we had made the wrong decision. I just hope the Jepsons (the new owners) love our house as much as we did.


Tyler's new company hired a moving company for us, which made our move a whole lot easier. They showed up in a 26 ft trailer that was about 10 feet high. We didn't think there was anyway we would even fill it up.

The moving company even did all the packing. The one guy is giving a thumbs up sign, but I think he felt differently after he had individually wrapped all 200 of my glasses and plates

 It would have taken us WEEKS to move all of our stuff, but they had it all done in 8 hours and didn't even take a break!

Makayla didn't take any breaks either. She just played with her toys the whole time. I did manage to get her down for a few short naps, but if this little girl thinks anything exciting is going on, she refuses to sleep.

Remember how I thought all our stuff wouldn't fill up the 26 ft truck? I was wrong.

 NOTE TO SELF: You have a lot of stuff... maybe you should get rid of some of it.

 In the end it doesn't really matter where we live or the house we have. All that matters is that we're together as a family and that our little girl is happy. And she certainly is!!

South Jordan here we come!!

Oneida Narrows Family Trip

My family has a new tradition of heading to Oneida Narrows in Idaho for my Dad's birthday. Can you believe he is 65? You wouldn't know it by this picture! Happy Birthday to the best dad we could ask for!!

 

We went to Oneida Narrows for the first time last year and we all couldn't wait to go again! Things were a little different this year, and because of Tyler's new job, he couldn't make it up until Saturday. We still had a lot of fun! We got to Oneida on Wednesday afternoon and were able to get two camping spots right next to each other. We set up camp and then headed to the lake. The kids had a blast jumping off the dock and playing. This was Kayla's first time camping, and I was a little worried how I would do it all by myself, but our little girl is the b.e.s.t. baby ever! She just chilled most of the time. All of her cousins played with her and gave her a ton of attention, so she was happy! I didn't get a ton of pictures of our trip, but here's a few cute ones...

 Last year, I was prego so I couldn't go skiing. I didn't know if I would be able to get up again, but I got up on my first try. I forgot how exhausting water skiing is. You wouldn't know I was exhausted by the looks of this picture.  Sometimes I think I'm funny...

 My water skiing skills are nowhere near my brothers. Here's Ryan showing off his skills.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Darren wake boarding because our boat broke down on the third day. Our luck ran out again when Darren lost the fins to the wake board. Even though the boat broke down, we still had a lot of fun floating down the river, catching crawdads, sitting by the fire, telling stories, and laughing. I absolutely love being with my family! I can't wait to go again next year!!

Family, Fireworks, and Fun!

Happy 4th of July!

I love the 4th...not as much as my birthday or Christmas, but a close 3rd! This year things were a little hectic because we've been spending our weekends searching for our new dream home (I think we found it... but more on that in another post!). We didn't make it up to The Land until late Saturday night. Even though we didn't have a lot of time, we still had a lot of fun with our families!

Carson, Colton, and Makayla had fun together

 We spent a good portion of the weekend painting the garage. Carson and Colton even helped with the big task.

 Makayla, on the other hand, just chilled in her chair. It's tough work being an adorable baby!

 We did find some time for playing, eating, and laughing together.

On Monday we had a BBQ with my side of the family. My camera was dead, so I didn't get any pictures, but the kids had so much fun playing together and doing fireworks when it was finally dark. I absolutely LOVE being back in Salt Lake and spending time with our families! Even though our move has been tough for us, we love being back up here!!

P.S. Just thought I would post this picture of The Land taken a few weeks ago, just to show how much snow and rain we have had this year. This is over Wolf Creek Pass on the way to the Land. It has been kind of scary because of flooding this year, but I think now the worst of it is finally over!

Crazy, huh?!

Summer So Far

June is almost over, which means our little Punkin is 5 months old today!! Things have been very crazy the last few weeks, but I did manage to get a few cute pictures from the month of June...

Every little diva needs sunglasses

 Makayla is getting good at rolling over from her stomach to her back. And she is getting really good at grabbing toys and playing with them. All Makayla needs is a diaper to make her look cute!

 She still loves bath time. Here she is chillin in her robe before bed.

 We have started Makayla on rice cereal. This is her first time trying it... and she LOVED it!! All this kiddo needs is food and she is a happy girl!

 I probably shouldn't post this picture because it is definitely unflattering, but it is cute. Sometimes in the morning when Tyler gets up for work, Makayla wakes up and I let her fall back asleep in our bed. Tyler took this picture before he left for work. I guess we sleep the same way.

A few other things about our little girl at 5 months...

• At her last check up she weighed 15.5 pounds (76%) and she was 26 inches long (91%)
• She is still the happiest baby. She smiles all the time. And if she is ever by someone whom she wants to get their attention and they are not looking at her, she will fake cough to get their attention.
• Sometimes the blow dryer scares her to the point that she bawls until I turn it off... that makes getting ready in the mornings a challenge.
• Last night she laughed out loud... cutest laugh ever!
• She loves to be outside.
• She won't sleep in her crib for nap time. At night she sleeps fine in her crib, but nap time she'll only sleep in her swing.

Father's Day

It's a little late, but happy first Father's Day to the best dad and husband we could ask for!

Makayla LOVES her daddy! Every day when he gets home from work she gets the biggest smile and squeals! It is the cutest thing. Tyler is the best dad. He is so cute with Makayla and she has him completely wrapped around his finger. We love you!

The Story of Us...

Boy meets girl

A year and a half later they got married

They built their dream home and started their life together.

They welcomed their first baby girl

and two years later they are still as happy as can be!

Happy Two Year Anniversary to us!!



Our First Home

It's officially happening.. We're MOVING!!

This has been a long and hard decision for both Tyler and I. Tyler moved to Richfield after college when he was offered a mining engineer position at the coal mine in Salina. He lived in apartments for a few years before he decided to start building a house. About this time, enter me. When we decided to get married we both knew that it would be easier for me to try to find a job in Richfield teaching than it would be for Tyler to find as good of a job in mining in Salt Lake. With that decision made, we focused on building our dream home.  For months Tyler worked day and night building this house. He was the main contractor, but he and his dad did a lot of the work themselves. This house became his biggest accomplishment, and that's why this house is so hard to leave.

We both knew that eventually we wanted to end up back in Salt Lake because both of our families live there and ultimately we wanted to be closer to them.  We didn't know it would happen this soon. We were both liking Richfield (maybe Tyler liked it more than me), we both liked our jobs, and we were just getting established here. Enter Makayla. Having a baby makes you realize how important family is. I missed our families more than ever after having Makayla and that was what sparked the discussion of moving. Tyler said he would put his resume out there and if the perfect job came along, we would look at it and decide. Well that perfect job showed up sooner than we thought. Tyler went in for an interview that ended up being 5 hours long. He came home from the interview and said that I needed to start looking for a job in Salt Lake because he had such a good feeling about this job. I started looking and found a few possible jobs in Jordan School District and found a part time job that I applied for. I had an interview there as soon as the school year ended here and was offered the job. About a week after that, Tyler was offered his job and we decided to make the move back to Salt Lake City.

As excited as I am to move, there are a few things that I will miss about Richfield: It only takes 5 minutes to get anywhere in this town, our neighbors (I have been quoted as saying that my favorite part of Richfield is our neighbor Brandi... Tyler has been quoted as saying his favorite part of Richfield is our doctor, Dr. Greenwood), but most of all I will miss our house. And that's what brings me to this post.

We absolutely love our house. It was our first house together and a lot of hard work when into it. We would spend hours talking about how we would do the basement, and how our kids would love to play in the backyard. We day dreamed about the future and growing old here. Most of all it was a house of firsts... the most important being that we brought our first baby home here. I know I will be bawling when we leave. 

You never forget your first house, but in case I do, I thought I would post a million pictures of our house so that I can remember it. Warning: Picture Overload!

Here's the front of our house.  

And the view from the back

This huge tree is in our backyard. We will never get a view like this again. One of the things I will miss about Richfield is the view from our backyard.

Our front door

And our piano room. I love sitting in here while Tyler plays the piano.

I love our family room. It is so big and open.

Our fireplace...

I think the thing I love the most about our house is the kitchen. The counter is so big and perfect for me to make huge messes when I cook, the cabinets were custom made just the way I wanted them, and the windows looking out over the sink are perfect when I do dishes (or I should say when Tyler does the dishes!)

This is the desk where I am sitting right now blogging.

Right off the kitchen is our half bath.

And off to the other side is our laundry room. Tyler said that this is where I should spend the majority of my day. I just laughed

This is the back door to our garage.

Going the other way is the hallway to our bedrooms.

This is the guest room. The in-laws stay here when the come to visit.

And Makayla's nursery. I love that she is sitting in the chair while I took pictures!

Next to Kay-Kay's room is her bathroom.

It just makes me smile to see her little robe hanging on the door.

Next is the master bedroom (Tyler makes me call it this because he said this is where the master lives... again I just laugh at him!)

What girl can't love the walk in closet?

My second favorite room in the house is our master bathroom. I love the double sink so I don't have to share with Tyler.

And I love our big tub, but I'll admit, it is a pain to clean.

Tyler has said before his favorite room in the house is the shower. He did the tile work all himself and it took a long time to get it just right. But the finished product is something amazing. I have such a talented husband!!

Our basement isn't finished, but like I said before, we had big plans for what we would do when we finished it.

This was going to be a theatre room someday.

And last but not least, our garage.

I love our house and Richfield and I am going to be so sad to leave it, but as hard as it is to move away, we are excited for our new adventures in Salt Lake. We're excited for our new jobs, searching for a new house to call home, and most of all  to be closer to our families, and to raise our family where we grew up.