Summer Loving

It was about this time six years ago that I moved in with a few of my friends to the Sparks II apartments. It was my first time staying in Provo for the summer and it was so much fun. The weather was great and there was always someone to do something active and outdoorsy with. It started with some impromptu doubles tennis games with a boy I wasn't super interested in. Then this boy started tagging along with me and a couple friends on our early morning runs. It became completely apparent that he was chasing me when he pushed his way to the front of the line at 7-11 to pay for my Slurpee after a group of us went country dancing (ha ha we still laugh about that one;) ). But it didn't take me long to realize what a great catch he was, and we fell in love quickly and spent the summer together with many a tennis match, volleyball game, hike, round of golf, dip in the pool, and even a half marathon. So when the weather starts to turn and I can feel summer in the air, it always takes me back to that first summer together. So on Friday night I was so excited that some friends of ours hosted a kickball game in their backyard, and when Josh had a couple hours to spare yesterday I struck a babysitting trade with my friend and we snuck out for some tennis. And Josh still has it- the ability to cream me and simultaneously make me realize how much I love to be with him.

Then we picked up the kiddos and stopped off at 7-11 for some Slurpees.  Only now that we live in Saginaw, we have 15 different ones to choose from (I'm not even exaggerating, I just googled it out of curiosity ha ha)

Love you babe!  Can't wait for many more summers to come!

It's A Good Thing...

It's a good thing Marissa LOVES cars because we sure have a lot of them around here:)

It's a good thing Shane can ride his trike now because he is so happy and proud of himself (next step- bike!)

It's a good thing it is so nice out now so that when daddy has to be at the hospital all night we can while away the time outdoors.

It's a good thing he only has two more weeks of surgery left, because getting to the hospital at 4 am every morning is just a bummer (he is working with a different doctor this month who is nice but is a workaholic).

It's a good thing berries have been on sale lately because this little girl is OBSESSED.  I have learned I have to visit the produce aisle last because she is tortured walking through there with the sights of all those fruits!  It is so fun to see the different personalities in your kids.  With Shane I have to make him eat a fruit before he can eat anything else for lunch and that is the only way he would ever eat any.  With Marissa, she would choose berries over pretty much anything else and I have to cut her off so she doesn't have too many digestive issues!

It's a good thing this little boy is so sweet in real life because he is always pretending to be a bad guy!

It's a good thing with digital cameras you can take as many pictures as want- or is it;) 

P.S. that is her signing "eat!!"  It was almost 7 and she realized she wanted some dinner!  And that adorable top she's wearing- 50 cents at a garage sale! (Along with Shane's trike for $6) This town is like a garage sale mecca!

She Walks. She Eats.

I have been looking forward to this day for awhile- Marissa took her first steps yesterday! She has been standing up randomly on her own for a few weeks now so we've just been waiting for her to take the plunge.  It was the cats next door that got her to do it last night.


And because I talked to a few of you who got a good laugh out of the gerbil food fiasco, I thought I'd document just a few of the things I have pulled since then from her "jaws of death" as I like to call them (teeth #13 and 14 are breaking through, which is probably why she feels the need to put all this stuff in her mouth- at least that's what I'm hoping anyway!)

-a bag of wipes
-a birthday candle
-sidewalk chalk
-a dandelion
-a roly poly
-a beetle

Do we have a mouse in the house?  Nope, just a Marissa :)

P.S. Shane was pretty excited about her walking too.  We've been talking about how he is learning how to ride his bike and Marissa is learning how to walk and he's been praying for both of those things every night and when I asked him if he was proud of Marissa for walking he said, "Jesus doesn't need to help her walk anymore!!!"

Just Another Day in the Life...

There are lots of cute moments every day, like cuddle time in mom's bed in the morning,

which of course involves kisses.

I put Paco in this cage to clean out his glass one and Marissa was in heaven watching him scale the bars.  (If you are keeping tabs, we did have two, but Pete got sick and died a couple months ago.)  This is her doing her sign for gerbil.

and trying to give him his food we had just gotten from the pet store.  Cute, right?

Not so cute when she tries to eat it herself.  Oh dear.  I was making dinner and it wasn't ready fast enough apparently so while I had my back turned she bit a hole in the bag and went crazy.  Luckily Shane tipped me off before she could eat much (he walked in the kitchen and asked me in a worried voice- "Mommy?  Are you happy?" ha ha).  And you know, sometimes you just have to take that half second to take a picture so you remember to laugh instead of freak out.  (P.S. it is NOT bathing suit weather here, just had to try her new one on ;) )

I did not, however, take a picture of Shane and the entire bottle of corn syrup he accidentally spilled on himself and the kitchen floor while playing "grocery".  Needless to say, they both got baths tonight, and I got a good laugh out of Shane teaching his "boys and girls" how to jump.  "Bend, and jump!!" 

Just another day in the life, folks.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Living the Dream

I have heard several older and wiser people say that the early days of their marriage where they were scrimping and saving on a tight budget are some of their fondest memories. Granted by the time we are in a position to not be scrimping and saving, it won't really qualify as "early days" of our marriage anymore, but I think I still believe them. Because tonight we had corn tortilla pizzas for dinner (can you tell we're getting to the last couple weeks of our loan check;)?),

walked around Home Depot for entertainment,

and used a coupon we just got in the mail to get concrete mixers at Culver's

and you would've thought it was the best day of our kids' lives. As for Josh and I, it is just a treat to have a Friday he's not working or studying all night and we relish them when they happen. And in all honesty, when I do look forward to the day Josh will actually be done with med school and residency, it's not as much about the fact that we'll actually be making money as it is the fact that we'll get to spend more time with Josh. (Thank you Josh, for wanting to go into family medicine!)

The Little Things

    Being a mom of a 1 year old and a 3 year old has its moments.  Sometimes you may even let your daughter pull out a whole box of wipes because the five minutes of peace is totally worth it.

 But when I do get a minute to myself I can't help but think about how cute they are and all the things they do that make me smile.  Like how Shane wants to kiss me and when I tell him he needs to close his mouth he puckers up like this.

Or how Marissa begs to brush her teeth anytime anyone is near the bathroom or says the words

Or how Shane will ask you for something and then give you the response he wants- "Mommy would you like to read this to me?  Say 'sure! I would love to!' " 

Or watching Marissa love on her baby doll

If you have talked to me in the past few weeks you probably know I've been working hard with Shane on getting him to jump off the ground with both feet.  I know, I know, that's old news for most kids his age but he would just jump with one foot and do this kind of gallop thing and he really thought he was jumping.  I knew he was capable of doing it he just has never been good at taking verbal directions and applying it to his body. Poor kid was doomed, anyone who has ever tried to teach me how to bowl knows where he got that from!  Anyway, when he realized he wasn't really jumping it was pretty sad for a few weeks there, we would practice and he would say "I just can't jumpppp.  I have a hard time!  Not today, not tonight, not tomorrow!!"  I tried not to be too much of a drill master but sometimes he was just sick of it and when I would ask him to do it he would sometimes say, "No!  I'm just hiding from jumping!"  But we practiced on steps a lot and pretended that he was a scary monster who would jump off the step and get us and it became fun again.

And all that hard work payed off because tonight he jumped for real!!!  Hallelujah!  We're so proud of you Shane!

The Festivities

With my birthday on Saturday and Marissa's birthday and Easter on Sunday, and Josh actually home, we had a fun filled weekend!  On Saturday we took the kids to two egg hunts.  There was a little one at Walmart and then a big city one in the afternoon. 

Check out all those eggs waiting to be found!  He is usually a "tiptoe through the tulips" kind of boy, but he knew what was at stake here and got quite a few!

Marissa had cracked open an egg at the first egg hunt and figured out in a matter of seconds what was in them so when we had to wait for the start those eggs were taunting her and she was frantically signing "more! more!"  and trying to get to them.  Needless to say they are without of her eyesight at home now :)

"Look at all this loot!"

The Easter bunny was there which thrilled Shane and petrified Marissa.  I have never seen her so scared of something!

That night we dropped the kids off with our friends and went to Birch Run for dinner and a little birthday shopping.  They have the best deep dish Chicago style pizza (for me) and gluten free thin crust for Josh. 

After we picked them up we let Shane stay up and eat cake with us.  He had been talking about it all week!

The next morning the Easter bunny came and we checked out the goods,

then went to church. 

That night we had our friends the Walpoles and Hepworths over for Easter dinner and had a little egg hunt in the backyard for the kids

and cake for Marissa's birthday.

She took longer to get into it then I thought she would (and by that I mean more than 5 seconds...)

but loved it and was even eager to share:)