new york, new york

In case you haven't heard the news, Tyler was hired as a summer intern at Johnson & Johnson, so we are officially moving to New York City for the summer! Hallelujah! This is the best news ever for three reasons... First, we have always dreamed of living in New York since we went there together when we were dating way back in 2007, and now we finally get to see that dream come true, even if it's just for a summer. But the second reason it is awesome is because if he does a great job this summer, this internship might turn into a job offer next spring when Tyler graduates. And then we can live in New York forever! But the third good thing to come of this is that Tyler gets to leave Calle for good, which will be a huge stress reliever. Who knows what we will do for money next fall when we get home, but who cares? I would rather have him work as a garbage man at this point. He has been stressing over this internship for MONTHS, so to have it all set in stone is so exciting for both of us! We are going to have the most amazing summer ever, seeing the awesome sights, shopping at whatever store in the world we want to because everything is in NYC, eating some incredible food and making as many memories as we can. New York City, here we come!

saron: seventeen months

Saron with a "Pretty" in the bath.

Saron is becoming such a girly girl. She always has to have a "Pretty" on at all times. A Pretty can be a necklace, a bracelet, a hair bow, sunglasses, a tutu... pretty much anything that is frilly or girly. I found some pink Converse hi-tops at a thrift store for her and she went nuts over them calling them pretty. Too bad for her daddy, who loves to buy her shoes in the boys section haha. It's kinda hard to see in the photo above, but she got a black eye this week and scraped up her face pretty bad, too. She is super active, always climbing, jumping and running everywhere and she has a lot of falls. Poor thing.

She has started this mommy phase this month where she doesn't want anyone but me. It used to be that I was chopped liver as soon as daddy came home from school, but lately I have to be in her sight at all times. I'm in Primary at church and Tyler has been trying to get her adjusted to nursery and all she does is sit on his lap and cry for mommy the whole time. I have no idea where this has come from because her whole entire life she has always been crazy friendly and would always let anyone hold her. She loved saying hi and talking to random strangers everywhere we went, but now everything is all about mommy. At first it was flattering and cute because she has never been this way before and it was nice to finally be recognized for everything I do for her. Let's face it, it was a little discouraging at times when I had been changing diapers, cooking meals and cleaning up after her all day but when she would see daddy she wouldn't even look at me anymore. But now I would gladly trade back! It's tough being the only one she wants because lately she can be a little unreasonable. Dramatic little tantrums and fake tears are regular occurrences around here now. But I must say that I do love those sneaky snuggles that I squeeze in every now and then when she is sad. She still smells so good and I love her warmth in my arms. So I guess I don't want the mommy phase to completely end... :)

My sister Mara hasn't been feeling well lately so she has been coming over a lot to hang out and have some company. Saron loves this because it means that her cousins are over all day. She absolutely adores Mara's kids and can say all of their names She calls Luke "Guke" and Annie is "Nannie" and Mabel is "MayMay." It is so adorable how excited she gets when they walk through the door. And when they leave she talks about them all night and will say "Bye bye Guke, bye bye Nannie, bye bye MayMay" over and over. I love it! She and Mabel are funny together. Whatever one has, the other has to have and they fight over toys a lot. And yet... they love to be together. Funny how that is.

She is also really into babies these days. She has a baby Lucy doll from Pottery Barn Kids that she sleeps with and she loves to hold her and rock her and sing songs to her. Sooooo freaking adorable. And when she sees a baby at church or the store she goes crazy! It's hilarious sometimes though because she will often call someone a baby who is older than her, and sometimes the kid gets offended... "Mommy, she is calling me a baby and I'm not a baby!!" That has happened to us a few times haha.

She also has a ridiculous sense of humor. The other day my mom and I were watching something on TV in the kitchen and Saron was playing with toys in there by herself. All the sudden she started shouting and we looked over and she was walking like Frankenstein with straight legs with a box over her head and shouting into the box to make it echo around her. We were dying laughing at how random it was and how much she loved it. Then once she saw how much it made us laugh she kept doing it and peeking out from under the box at us to make sure we were watching her and still laughing. She loves to be funny and make people laugh!

Lately she is trying so hard to be a big kid and it's pretty cute. But she is still a baby in lots of ways, as evident by the mommy phase. And I think it's hard for her to be stuck in the middle, which is probably why she is having some emotional breakdowns lately haha. But aside from those little issues, she is so much fun and so funny and lots of fun to be around. She is definitely my little sunshine!

I am a blog neglecter.

Wow. I have been seriously neglecting my poor blog. I don't know if you feel this way, too, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the amazingly cute blogs out there. And then I feel like my life is so simple and boring that I have nothing to write about. And I am the worst at taking pictures. Or else I take a bunch of pictures and never upload or edit them. I am basically sitting on about a hundred and fifty blog posts worth of photos that I just haven't done anything with. Maybe someday?

But then I take a step back and look at my life, and I really am happy. And we have lots of fun in the moments that we can. I guess I'm just living my life for reals instead of sitting behind a camera and looking at it through a lens and posting only the cutest pictures so everyone will think my life is more perfect than it really is. Is that bad of me to say? When I look at some of these adorable famous blogs, I go back and forth between feeling slightly jealous of their perfect life and wondering what their life is really like. Because if there is one thing that I have learned in my own life, it is that life is never perfect. We each have our personal trials and disappointments that we don't always want the rest of the world to know about.

This has been a challenging and rewarding school year for us. I say school year even though I am not in school anymore because my husband's school schedule seems to rule our life these days. Boy, I can't wait for him to graduate already. Living with my parents has been really interesting, too. My mom is a warrior and such an incredible example to me. She is so clean, so organized, so devoted to her family and will work until she drops dead from exhaustion at the end of the day. I've really learned a lot from her. Free rent is cool, but it seems like we have been having our rent's worth of problems each month with car issues, school fees and Saron's growing out of everything the minute we buy it. That girl's feet grow a size a month, I swear! But the best part about living here is the special bond that Saron has with my parents and with her cousins. When we lived in Provo I didn't make the drive up too often, but living with my mom means that we have visitors almost every day. Sometimes just for a minute, other times for most of the day. Saron loves her cousins so much and talks about them all day when they're not here. It's really cute. She mentions everyone by name and jabbers on about them in her adorable little language. She is such a people person. Even at this small age, it's so obvious how much relationships mean to her.

Tyler spent a week in New York this month with his class and the director of his program at school. He totally fell in love with the city and had such an amazing time. It got us both really excited to hopefully live there this summer. He got his portfolio and resume all ready and interviewed at a couple of places, so we'll see what happens. No matter what internship he gets I know we are going to have a total blast this summer! And it's fun to see Tyler so inspired. At home it's mostly just work work work, so for him to take a vacation and soak up all the creativity that NYC has to offer was really motivating for him. It's good for him to see the real world and to see what's really out there. He hasn't traveled much and has spent most of his college career either married to his job, or married to his family, so it's hard for him to take time for himself. I really believe in him and think he is a fantastic artist, and I love when he gets excited about new ideas. Living in New York would be so great for his creativity and for our little family. It would push our limits and get us out more, which would be good because we are kinda trapped in Cedar Hills a little bit because it's not really close to anything. And I'm sure we'll meet a lot of really fun people out there and make some cool friends! And hopefully it will turn into a real job so that next year when he graduates we can move to NYC for good!

I keep making goals to blog at least once a week, but never do it. Maybe this post will be the kick start that I need. It's a kinda long one with lots of information, but hey, I gotta write all this down sometime!

saron: sixteen months

Saron and her cousin Bronwyn, playing in my mom's kitchen

I am a terrible blogger. I wish it was because I was too busy to spend any time on the internet, but if you follow me on Pinterest, you know that is totally not true. The truth is, I hate uploading pictures because our camera is too fancy and i have to edit the pictures and make them all fancy and it is a day-long project that I never feel like doing. And a blog post without pictures is just lame.

These days Saron is a riot. Sometimes literally. She can tear up an un-baby-proofed room like a full on riot. And she can dish up riotous fits of giggles at a moments notice. She has a very strong personality, which is fun but hard sometimes. She is stubborn and fierce and funny and silly. She RUNS everywhere she goes. Seriously, always. She still loves playing peekaboo, but not the baby kind anymore. She will really try to surprise/scare you, and I do it back to her and she loves it. Sometimes I get her so good that she actually gets really startled and screams and then we both roll on the ground laughing. It's one of my favorite things these days! And lately she has gotten all girly on us, to Tyler's great dismay haha. She loves purses, hair bows, tutus and necklaces. She is always wearing a necklace and has this tiny little pink purse that she inherited from an older cousin and she loves to put things in it and carry it around on her arm. Pretty! Pretty! Pretty! She loves that word. We read a lot of books these days and she loves to turn the pages and pretend to read back to me. She loves animals (especially ones that make noises, like farm animals) and will go absolutely NUTS if she sees a dog. She loves dogs! And babies. She says about 15 or so words I think (maybe more, now that I am counting in my head...) but a lot of them are unintelligible to anyone but me and a lot of them sound the same, but mean different things. For instance, Boppers (the name the grandkids call my dad) and diaper are basically the same word for her, which is sometimes funny. She loves to wrestle on the ground with her daddy and loves to be chased. She is also starting to really understand right from wrong, but still does the wrong things (making sure that I see her do it) just to get a reaction from me. Boy am I learning patience these days. I swear half the stuff she does is to get a reaction from me, and sometimes it works, but I am learning to control myself and guide her softly and consistently. And then there are days that when Tyler gets home from school I have to shut myself in my room because I am so aggravated and frustrated. But I guess that's just part of being a mom, right? Every day I learn and grow along with Saron.

I love this stage because:

• she can actually communicate lots of things with me instead of just screaming in frustration
• her personality is really developed and I can really see who she is and see her humor
• she is independent in a lot of ways. She can feed herself, climb up and down the stairs, etc
• she is a total sponge and is absorbing so much information and saying new words all the time

Things I will miss:

• She has made this little "goya-goya-goya" noise when she sucks her thumb and is super tired since she was tiny, but she hardly ever does it anymore. It is the cutest little noise and I am really sad to see it go! My baby is a big girl now...
• She is all done with bottles and I actually really miss that quiet time before bed when we could just snuggle. She never ever ever snuggles with me anymore.

how to be alone

My sister in-law Tiffany shared this video with me and I just love it!