Thankful!

As I sit here looking out my window as the first snow falls and covers the earth in white and my babies are sleeping all I can think about is how extremely thankful I am for my life.
This morning I had a screaming baby that wouldn't stop and a little girl that wanted to help mom and ended up pouring a bottle of gripe water everywhere. Paislee has literally destroyed the house and Rickey has puked on everything I own (I'm doing laundry right now so I can have something to wear). But within all that chaos I find joy. I love my life even if it crazy. My house isn't clean all the time but my kids are happy most of the time and they know they are loved. Life isn't always easy but it is so worth it! I wouldn't trade this life for anything.
I love this quote: "Motherhood is not a job, it's a calling. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in, it is what God gave you time for."
Neil L. Anderson

Cozy Day Inside

Yesterday we woke up to lots of rain and gray skies. It rained most of the day and then it turned to snow. Instead of being sad that it was snowing in June Paislee looked out the window with such excitement and joy. It made me so happy and helped me to realize that it was a blessing that we were getting so much moisture. 

So we stayed inside all day and played with dolls and princesses, we read books and sang songs, we cuddled on the couch and watched a movie, and enjoyed being cuddled up in a blanket. 

Plus it was nice to not be dying of heat. This pregnant momma is already super hot all day long and it isn't even really hot outside yet, wish me luck for July and August! Andrew did get a ceiling fan put up in our room so that was good. 

We are starting to get the nursery ready. We are cleaning out the guest bed and cleaning out the closet that was storage. Where are we going to put everything? We found a crib that we both love. 

I am starting to freak out because it seems like these last few months will go by so fast and I'm just hoping we will be ready for this little man's grand arrival.

P.S. 25 weeks today!! YAY! 

Just another day….

Today started out just like every other day. Woke up and fed Paislee breakfast we both got ready for the day. Went to the store got some groceries came home made some cookies for a friend. Put Paislee down for a nap and cleaned up the house a little bit. Then I took some time to finish reading this book I have been dying to finish. It pulled me in on the first page. I highly recommend this book. It has helped me to want to be a better wife and mother and a better member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It helped me to remember what is most important in life, and to be thankful for the little things. Our lives can change in a moments notice and that honestly scares me. I am so blessed. I have a loving husband who provides for our family, a beautiful spunky daughter who makes me laugh everyday and fills my heart with so much joy and then I have this beautiful miracle kicking around inside of me reminding me that I am a Child of God and that I get to assist him in making this little human. How amazing is that!?! I don't want any of that to change but I also know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us all and that we need to trust in his plan and let him guide us through this life. I hope that you all will take the time to read this book….it will bring the spirit into your soul!!!

You can also go to her blog at nieniedialogues.blogspot.com 

Now Paislee and I are off to cook dinner for our main man! 

(Ignore the boxes in the back we are starting to get this room ready for our little guy! Oh and today was  an embrace the fro kind of day for Paislee's hair) 

Update

It has been so long since I updated this blog, I'm sorry. I love to look at all my friends' blogs and stay caught up with what they are doing and how their families are growing. One of my dear friends that I don't get to see very often at all called me and asked me if I would start updating my blog and I told her I would. So she is my incentive all the way from Indiana!!
So much has happened. We stay pretty busy around here. Especially now that Paislee is walking. She loves to be down and exploring the world around her. We are so happy that it is warm enough to be outside and enjoy the nice weather. I think Paislee would live outside if I would let her. She recently turned ONE. She was so much fun at her birthday. Andrew and I made a cake for her to smash. She was in heaven, her facial expressions say it all. She has started to talk more and more everyday. I love to watch her grow and develop it truly is so amazing to me. Kids are so darn smart. She is sleeping through the night finally and takes a pretty good nap in the day (naps are what keeps me sane, just a little me time in the middle of our crazy day). She loves all food and wants whatever we are eating although we have discovered she doesn't like eggs. I'm going to keep trying with the eggs to see if she doesn't eventually start to like them. She truly is such a happy and sweet little girl. We are so lucky to have her.
Andrew is still working at Exxon Mobil and is still on his 8 on 6 off shift, which I absolutely love. On his days off he is either hiking, fishing, or doing something with Paislee and I. We are planning on finishing our deck this summer and putting in a new sidewalk this Summer. Andrew and my dad are going to Lake Powell at the first of June, hopefully they can catch some fish. Other than that our Summer plans consist of camping, going to Bear Lake, hanging out with family and enjoying the warm weather.
As for me I stay at home with Paislee, clean the house and cook dinner. Which is the best job a girl could ask for. I have had a lot of people give me grief for not going back to work when we got Paislee because why would someone go to Nursing school and not use her degree?! Andrew and I feel so strongly that it is important for me to be at home with our children and honestly I LOVE it! Don't get me wrong there are hard days but I love not missing a thing with Paislee. I love that we get to cuddle in the morning and watch Doc Mcstuffins. I love that we read books and sing songs together most of the day. I know that it isn't for everyone and I give props to those moms that can work and be a mom. You are amazing!! But being a stay at home mom and wife works for me!
In other news we found out in January that we are pregnant and expecting baby #2 on Oct. 1st. We couldn't have been more surprised if we would have woke up with our heads sewn to the carpet but we are so excited and feel extremely blessed. I had a rough 1st trimester with bleeding, cramping, nausea and vomiting but once I hit about 14 weeks most of the subsided. I'm almost 21 weeks now and doing great. We are having a boy! Andrew is excited to have a hunting buddy! I can feel him move all the time. It truly is an amazing feeling. I had completely written off ever getting pregnant and I had come to terms that I wasn't going to be able to feel a baby kick inside of me and I was fine with it. But apparently Heavenly Father had other plans for us. We were actually getting our papers ready for another adoption when we both had a feeling that we needed to wait, we didn't know why but it was such a strong feeling that we couldn't ignore it. We called our social worker and told him that we would have to put off our home study. We had no idea why but a week later we found out we were pregnant. We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go through the adoption process and now to experience pregnancy as well. This is definitely not how I pictured our life going but it is better than anything I could have imagined. Heavenly Father knows what is best for us we just have to have faith and trust in him.

I know that was a long post but I am determined to do better at updating this blog!

Lake Day!

We went to Bear Lake and had a lake day with cousins, Aunts and Grandma! It was such a fun day. It was actually Paislee's first time at the lake, she loved it. She loved watching all the little kids running around and playing in the water and sand. I know she was just thinking how much she wanted to get down and play in it. After we were done playing in the lake we went and got shakes and ice cream cones to top off our day. 

Love this stylin little girl in her yellow polka dot swim suit! 

It was a fun day with lots of great memories! 

We Can Be More Sensitive

I'm sure you have seen this
So.....When you gonna have kids?
roaming around Facebook lately. I wanted to just comment on this and say that this is something very dear and near to my heart. As you all know Andrew and I struggled with infertility for 4 years before we adopted Paislee (and no adoption doesn't cure infertility, it just cures childlessness) we may never be able to have biological children and that is ok. We are so happy right now we are pooping rainbows but that is beside the point.
This post from a husband's POV is very refreshing. It is raw and honest. It is something that I think everyone needs to read. Most people go through infertility silently, so we don't know who is trying to get pregnant, who has just had a miscarriage, who is in the middle of IVF or who is trying to adopt and honestly is it any of our business? I really liked the way this husband put it in his post:

A word on procreation and family planning

Let’s take a break from my story and think about how personal the subject of family planning is:

Procreation itself not only involves the highest level of intimacy and the most private of private parts, but all kinds of other highly personal factors. From the very painful ones such as infertility, impotence, or miscarriages, to awkward topics like finances, or perhaps the contention that could arise from one spouse being super ready while the other is dragging their feet. We’ve all heard that each couple has that one recurring argument–and differing priorities on family planning can be one of the most sensitive and raw arguments a couple can have.

Now think about something that is super personal to you maybe it is how much credit card debt you have do you really want to live that publicly? Do you want people coming up to you and asking you if you've paid your credit card bills this month or not? I don't think so, so next time you have the thought to ask a couple whether or not they want kids or why they don't have kids or when they are going to have kids think about if you want them to ask you something so personal and share it publicly. 

Now I don't want to sound rude or mean I just don't want people to be ignorant about this subject anymore. So I ask please be sensitive to those who don't have kids yet, there are so many other topics to talk about. If they want to bring it up that is their decision, feel grateful they feel comfortable enough to confide in you about such a personal thing. Also this doesn't just go for infertility this goes for anything else that is just too personal to just ask someone in regular conversation. Let us all be sensitive to those around us and be there for those who confide in us. 

1st Family Campout!!

We had our first family campout this last weekend. Andrew, Paislee, Ruger and myself went up the mountains to enjoy the outdoors and eat some good food. Paislee had a great time. She loves being outside and especially loves to watch Ruger play fetch with dad. Andrew made us some yummy dutch oven food. We had chicken bbq pizza for dinner with a peach and raspberry cobbler. Then for breakfast we had dutch oven potatoes with eggs and cheese quesadilla and of course we had some smore's! Paislee slept through the night and was such a good girl. We woke up early to go see if we could see some animals. We ended up seeing about 400-500 elk. It was a really fun experience. 

Ruger loves his little girl and so does daddy!! 

All in all we had a great time and I would deem our first campout a success!