3 years down an eternity to go.

Three years ago today I was sealed to my eternal companion in the Columbia River Temple. I remember it being a great day! We had the sealing then afterward we had a luncheon for our guests and later that night a reception. We went to Utah for our honeymoon. Exciting right I know, but it was great we found this little resort tucked into the mountains, and it was quiet and away from everything. It had everything we needed in the resort so we never had to leave. It had a fabulous restaurant, hot tub, pool, sauna, and we did couple massages. It snowed everyday we were there and had a great view looking out into the snow. We also took advantage of all the wonderful temples in Utah. We did a session at the Logan Temple and Salt lake Temple. In fact in Salt Lake we were the WITNESS couple! It was a great experience, but I am not going to lie I was so nervous seeming how I haven't even had my endowments out for a week yet!
Some days it feels like we have been married a lot longer, but I also can't believe its already been three years. 4 moves later and one special sweet little boy I am so happy to be where I am right now, with Rich and to have the gospel in our lives.

My beautiful sisters

cake

Our wonderful Parents

I have the best friends ever!

Right out of the temple

FREEDOM

Freedom from what you may ask???........BOTTLES!





I have finally done it Lytton is bottle free and I want to shout it to the world. I am only 3 months behind my scheduling, I wanted to have him free of it by a year, but I guess we took our time. I am just so glad I finally buckled down and got to business. He takes his naps and goes to bed on his own now he doesn't need a bottle as a crutch, and since he never took a pacifier I don't have to worry about that. Everyone is sleeping better and its awesome. Yeah us!

This is Rich when he was little he was so darn cute! (and still is)

Today is a day to remember our Veterans and everything they did for us to live in this free country. Today is also my Husband's birthday, and he is also my hero. He is a great provider for us so that I can stay home and raise our son, which is a great blessing! He also is a great help around the house whether its putting Lytton to bed or clearing the table after dinner is done and working hard on the dishes while I finish eating. Last night we had family over for root beer floats and cupcakes to celebrate his birthday, and we had a great time. I hope everyone has a great Veterans day, and Happy Birthday Babe!

Finally!

Well we are all moved in and feeling cozier than ever here in our new house this fall! The downside to moving is getting everything re hooked up, and unfortunately the internet has taken a while to make it to our house. I can not believe October is already over. We had a great Halloween and are loving the cold dark nights where we can snuggle up together in our OWN house! Finally! Have a great weekend!

3 days and counting....

Our house is done and we move on Friday! At first I though this day couldn't come fast enough. Back in June we decided that living with my parents would be best while our house was being built. Our lease in our apartment was up that month and having to pay rent and save up for a down payment just didn't seem realistic. So my parents agreed and we moved in on June 9th! Well back then if you would of asked me if I was ready to leave I would say yes in a heart beat. Now well I am not so sure. Of course I am ready to move into our nice new house, and get organized cause lets face it we don't have much space here, but I am going to miss my mom a lot! she has been such a big help while we have been living here. She has babysat Lytton I don't even know how many times, shopped for the groceries, and been good company for me while Rich has been working. So this weekend is going to be bitter sweet for everyone!

Tagged!

I have been Tagged by this WONDERFUL lady!

1. I am absolutely terrified of birds! I was tormented as a child by my big brothers who would kill birds and chase me with them. It obviously had lasting effects!

2. My husband is 14 years older than me.

3. I am border line OCD. I have never been diagnosed, but I am a MAJOR neat freak!

4. I have to have the laundry hamper empty. I will do a load everyday just so its completely empty, but the weird part is I hate to fold it so it will sit in the laundry basket piling up right next to the hamper!

5. My junk piles have to be "organized" a certain way. My husband can't disorganize my pile!

6. I love, love, love to read.

7. I love shoes. I don't care what kind I am a hoarder of shoes.


I Tag Ashley, Danyelle, Marilyn, Emily, Sonda, Nan, and Heather

Getting Close

After 90 days, 3 carpet and linoleum changes, 10 gallons of our OWN paint, and a wrong paint color on the outside of the house that they had to re-do we are finally approaching our closing date. We close in about 2 weeks. Everything is done except for the little details. They have a LOT of cleaning to do and they need to finish up some trim, cabinets, and doors. We are getting anxious and excited. Here are the latest updated pictures.

Iron staircase with maple wood

Hickory cabinets

outside of the house

Dining Room

Carpet and linoleum

Kitchen with appliances

Busy Fall!

Some of you may be thinking that I have fallen off of the face of the earth because I have not posted in so long, but for some reason my life in the last month has gotten crazy and I have had no time at all to post! Even though I have tons of pictures! They will be uploaded soon enough, they haven't even made it off of my camera yet.

Schedule:
6:30 Wake up
6:40 Medynn drops Aiden off
7:30 lytton wakes up
8:00 Breakfast for lytton
8:15 Bath for lytton
8:30 Breakfast for Aiden
9:00 Clean up kitcken
9:20 Vacuum and dust living room
9:30 Clean my bedroom and make my bed
9:40 clean lyttons room
10:00 Start a load of laundry
10:20 Take a shower and get ready
11:00 Give the boys snacks
11:30 Medynn picks aiden up
12:00 Take NAPS!
3:00 Run any errands and stop by the house
4:00 Start Dinner
5:00 Serve dinner
6:00 Clean up dinner
7:00 Give lytton another bath
7:3o Put lytton to bed
7:31 Put mom too bed!

As you can see no time to post! I am running around crazy busy all day. We have also had family in town and my dad was able to come home for a couple of weeks before leaving to go on another job. The house is making nice progress as well we close in a month, and we are checking it out everyday. I will have pics soon of that too! Everyone have a great rest of the day!

Cold turkey!

Well as you know Lytton is one now. I decided on his one year birthday that I would cut him off of bottles. I know some people like to go longer, but for me I decided that I am sick of being a slave to a bottle for him at bed time and nap time. So its been a week and a half since he turned one and today is the day! I am really going to do it I have procrastinated long enough, it is time! So I am probably going to try a sippy cup first and if that doesn't work then I will just let him cry it out today at his nap until he goes to sleep. So any words of encouragement would be nice or other moms with better tips on getting rid of that dang bottle! So wish me luck here I go nap time is in 5 minutes!
On a side note also we close on our house on October 16th! We are super excited, they are sheet rocking today so I am sure I will have pictures up very soon!

Birthday fun

We had a blast at lyttons party! We had a big blow up play house for the kids is was so much fun, and everybody had a great time. Lytton dug right into his cake with out hesitation it was awesome, although he was quite the little mess to clean up.

Happy Birthday Lytton!

I can not believe my baby is one! This has been the fastest, but best year ever! Lytton turns one today, and in celebration of his first birthday we are going to have a fun backyard BBQ with friends and family.
Rich and I started talking last night about the day he was born and what we were doing at the exact time it was a year ago! Its amazing how much we still remember, I better write it down now so I don't forget 5 years from now. So here are some of the memories from lyttons birth. I went into the hospital on the 14th to be induced. My veins apparently aren't visible enough because it took 4 nurses and an anesthetiologist to get my pitocin started. I have never had so many bruises on my arms from all the pokes they took at me. By the time they got everything started it was late afternoon about 5 or 6 and I had gotten there at 11am! After that everything went pretty fast or so I thought. I was dilated to a 6 by 8 o'clock and then I wanted my epidural. I had my epidural in by 9 and then was to a 10 pretty quick after that.
Rich and I watched a video of me after my epidural was in place and I was feeling pretty good at that point and I had said that they baby would be born by 10:30. Little did I know i still had 5 long hours ahead of me! I stared pushing around 9:45-10:00 and things seemed to be moving along just slowly which I hear is normal for your first birth. Now I have to add in here my mom was there with Rich and I the whole time. She was on one side and rich on the other trying to help me push this baby out. Also a side note to is that the 14th is my parents anniversary. My mom wanted this baby born on the 14th to share her day. So by 11:45pm my dear mother is holding one of my legs for me and is telling me to push as hard as I can because I only have 15 minutes left to midnight. She said that every five minutes until midnight, I almost kicked her out! Not really but she was kinda persistent on that baby being born on the 14th. So I pushed until about 1am which was three long hours of pushing. The doctor decided I wasn't making any progress so they decided a c-section would be best. Lytton was born at 3:06 am on August 15th. I guess he wanted to come on his own terms and have his own day! Lytton is such a blessing for Rich and I. We wouldn't know what to do without him he lights up our lifes everyday. He is growing up so fast but he is getting so smart. I teach him things and I love it when the light bulb goes off and he gets it. It took a lot to get him here, but I wouldn't change it for anything we love him more than anything. Happy Birthday Lytton!

Have a great weekend!

He has grown so much!

house

The house is coming right along....

Framing

They started the framing this week and its been awesome to see it actually start looking like a house. This week has been a busy, busy week. Lytton and I have enjoyed days around the pool, and I have been reading up! I am almost done I only have about 75 pages left and its killing me to know how its going to end, but when you have a little one you get interrupted quite a bit. Rich and I are going to be staying out at his parents house this weekend while they are gone on vacation so its going to be nice to get away for a bit, to spend time just with our little family.

Have a good weekend!

Breaking Dawn!

Ok so for all you Twilight fans Breaking Dawn the 4th and final book in the series is going to be released tonight at midnight! I can't wait, my wonderful husband is going to go to hastings with me tonight so I can get my copy right away and dig in. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day, cause I bet I am up most of the night reading it, I have been waiting in anticipation since I finished the third one in April.

Well friends have a great weekend!

WOW THAT WAS FAST

So last week we signed and we figured it would take awhile to get the foundation in. Thursday the dirt was moved around and by Tuesday (4 days after the papers were in order) the foundation was in and poured. We are so surprised and excited at the same time that the house is moving along so fast. At this rate we well be moving in by September...JK.

Our future home!

Alright well AHO moves fast! We signed our papers on Wednesday and by Friday they already had the dirty ready to pour the foundation, which I suspect will be sometime this week. This has been one of the funnest and hardest experiences of my life. Picking colors for our house has been quite the challenge. First deciding on what we BOTH like then making sure it matches everything else. Thank goodness AHO has been patient with us and given us plenty of time to make up our minds which has changed 4 times! Not kidding. We have gone through and changed flooring, colors of the outside, carpet and the garage door. Every time we had to sign something new to make our change, so they have been outstanding! We finally have it done now and are very pleased with our choices. We went and took pictures of our dirt, and the address of the house, but when we went the office was closed so I don't have pics of our choices yet but soon!
I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Our Driveway

Our Address

Its official we are going to be homeowners!

Well we signed our contract today! I am so thrilled we actually have a address now to our new home and it feels so real now! They will be pouring the foundation in about 2 weeks so I will have pictures very very soon! I can not wait and I wanted to share with everyone my excitement! I hope everyone has a great day!

Busy, Busy moms listen up!

If your household is anything like mine, summers are just crazy busy! Dinner is the last thing you want to think about especially when in the evenings are usually the busiest. So as a new mom I have some tips to help ease the pain of thinking about what to make for dinner. Now a lot of you may already have this figured out, but to me its all new. Ok so my first tip is to make as much as possible in the morning as you can. The afternoons get so hot and its usually when we are the busiest. I like to make my salads in the morning like a pea salad or macaroni. In the summer we always eat fresh vegetables and fruit. Cut up watermelon, cucumbers , onions and corn on the cob are always on hand cause they make the easiest sides! For a main dish we almost always BBQ. Lately BBQ chicken is a hit around here. I cook the chicken in the morning for 1 hour then put it in the fridge until later to BBQ. This way all your doing is heating it up and its really fast. If your husband is anything like mine he will always call and let me know when hes on his way home. This way I know I have 20 minutes to throw together dinner because most of it is already done! Let me know of any other great tips or dishes for this summer. What is your family eating this summer??

How much more redneck can you get??

About a week ago Rich wanted a haircut really bad because he had some corporate people coming into his office the next day and didn't want to look like a rag muffin! Of course if you know my husband he is quite the procrastinator he had known about these people coming in for about a week or two. So the night before they are to come he says oh man I didn't get a haircut. Of course by this time its 8 o'clock at night and there are no salons open! So on our quest we go to find some hair clippers and I thought oh of course I can do this. My mom, dad, and brothers didn't have any. I though to myself who around here would have hair clippers, immediately I thought of Jan because she is very creative and probably has everything. We walked next door and we were bummed to find out Jan didn't have any clippers. Then her light bulb went off being as a creative woman as she is, she said our dog which is a poodle has clippers Ed uses them on him all the time. Rich being as desperate as he was said ok and we took the dog clippers to give Rich a haircut! It actually turned out pretty good considering our sources and me behind the clippers! Actually Rich did most of it himself!

Wallowa Fun!!!

Well we had an amazing trip! Lytton was such a little trooper. He made the whole 4 hour drive with no problems, I was quite impressed because he can get impatient in the car just when we drive around town! He was such a good baby for us it was just amazing. Well we did plenty of fun things, I had never been to Wallowa lake before, but we had so much fun we plan on going back every summer. They had an amazing hiking trail we climbed and there was a waterfall at the top it was gorgeous. We drove go carts, rode on paddle boats which Lytton loved, except for the life jacket! They had horse back riding and a tram that took you to the top of the mountain! We walked down to ride the tram and it had broken down with people on it so they had to fly in a rescue helicopter to get them down. Thank goodness Lytton needed a nap first or that would of been us up there! We were kind of bummed that we didn't get to ride it, but I guess next year. We also were able to walk right up to deer and feed them, Lytton loved that! The last thing I wanted to share was something that I did that I have always wanted to do and for me it was very adventurous, I was able to go PARA SAILING! I loved it it was so much fun, and not even that scary I would defiantly do it again! Here are some amazing pictures from our trip!

Rich, Lytton and I after paddle boating

Lytton on the paddle boat

Lytton and Grandpa on our hike

Rich, Lytton and I on our hike

Getting ready to Para Sail

Up, up, up

Lytton an Daddy getting ready to swim

Lytton and Rich on our hike

Feeding the deer

Happy 4th!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July! For us we are going to be in Wallowa Lake until Sunday. We are super excited to get away for a bit and this will be our first vacation with Lytton, if anyone has tips for traveling with a little one and staying in a hotel I would greatly appreciate it! In other news we are going to start building our house this month! We are super thrilled and will be posting pictures very soon of everything that is going to be going on with the process.

Summer Fun Ideas!

The Children's Museum in the outlet mall is a perfect summer place to take your kids. I say that because it is super cheap, and they have tons of things there for them to do! We recently took Lytton and Rich's daughter Claire there for a birthday party and they both loved it! Kids from age 1 to 8 would probably really enjoy it. Anyways we took this picture of Lytton in one of those cut outs where you can stick a face in it, we thought it was hilarious and he looks so darn cute! Anyways I wanted to share it with everyone and enjoy, he sure does look silly!

My little swimmer!

This was lyttons first swim in the pool! He is so dang cute, and I wanted to share it with everyone. He is already 10 months old I cant believe it he is growing so fast! I love you lytton!

Update on Garrett

Well its already been two weeks since Garrett left and went to the MTC. We have been receiving letters pretty regularly from him and I thought I would give everybody an update. He absolutely loves the MTC. He has a companion that is from Connell right now and they are going to the same mission. Weird huh. He says hes not somebody he would usually hang out with but he says he loves him anyway. Big step for Garrett. He also was able to do a session at the Provo temple last week which he had to get up at 5am to attend. He said it was awesome and he loved it! Also very much not like Garrett he usually would sleep till 12. The MTC really changes people I can see that now. Garrett is turning into a perfect little young man right before our eyes and it is an awesome thing to experience as his sister. He likes the food he says its hit and miss. He leaves the MTC on June 10th to head down to Arizona. I will post pictures soon when I get them from my mom. He is doing really well and loves everything he is doing right now. So keep him in you prayers!

More Pics!

Sorry I accidentally Posted before I was done! There are a couple pictures Of Rich, Lytton, and I. Then theres one of Rich's Whole family! Theres one of Jenn and I and our babies who are only 3 weeks apart. Then theres one of just the girls. Rich's mom his two sister's and our two sister in laws. Enjoy!