Its a hard life...

It has been mighty warm around here, and these poor little ones just are not use to it. Luckily we have AC, but it still seemed really warm in our place today.


They were EXHAUSTED by bedtime, and both fell asleep looking so darn cute don't you think?

Happy Friday!

Old Town

I realized after I took these that my lens was really dirty, so excuse the blury spots on the pictures.  I can't find my nicer camera's charger, so I am stuck with my old point and shoot.  While it is not my first choice, at least I am still able to take pictures!

We are under an extreme heat wave right now, but despite that, we decided to venture out a bit this morning.  Some friends in our ward were heading to a museum in Old Town, so we decided to go a long and to see the historic area.

This is such a cool place, and when it is not so hot, I hope to go back to explore it some more. We live in a pretty cool area!

The Marina

He brings a toy everywhere he goes. This morning it was a beaver because he watched a show with a beaver in it.  His toys match the shows he watches. 

We found ducks!

Feeding the ducks his lunch

Trying to get in on the action!

It was fun to go out, but it was also a lot of fun to be home in our apartment with the AC going.  Bless that invention!

Splash Park!

Since we moved from Rexburg, I have really missed their awesome splash park! But we were happy to learn that is an awesome splash park not too far from us!

We went there last week with some friends and had a great time! The only down side is that there is hardly any shade, and with our complexion, that equals a wicked sun burn.  I did lather the kids with sunscreen, but these kids are so fare that sometimes that doesn't even do the trick.

We had tried to go the week before, but there was a big line to get in because they were at their max capacity.  We waited for about 20 minutes, and as we got to the entrance, they closed the park because a little kid had an accident on the splash pad.  Try to explain that to a 3 year old! Needless to say, I am glad it worked out this time!

I am surrounded by crazy!

Under the Shaded Tree

I can be a fun mom!

Every once in a while I feel like I get inspired with fun things to do with the kids, but for the most part I feel like I am a pretty boring mom.  I try, but I just totally lack creativity and all that artsy stuff that most "fun" moms possess. 

But despite my short comings, we still have fun; just in our own way.

On a day that was promising to be quite warm, I took the kids outside for the morning to bask in the "cooler" sun.  We tied up some cars and went for a walk around our place. It was quite a lovely morning for a unfun mom like myself ;)

I was holding a set of keys, and he wanted to steal them from me.

Parking his car

Kayden getting a turn on the 4-wheeler

He is on the move!

Telling quite the story!

Throwing rocks

Checking our a bug or something together

Sharing! A VERY rare thing in our house :)

Deagan asks all the time now if we can go "driving" outside, so it must have been a huge hit with these two! :)

Kayden's First Hair Cut

As you can tell, he hated getting his hair cut!! He hated have hair all over him, like in his eyes, mouth, and on his hands.  He was so sad, but it was kind of funny how upset he was!

He looks so much older now! Where is our little boy going??

Playtime Is Such Fun

Everyday I am amaze how fast our kids are changing.  They have grown up so much in such a short time it seems; especially since we moved here! 

I have noticed the biggest changes in Kayden of course since he is still so young. He "talks" much more.  He likes to try to imitate things that we say which is so cute! He plays right along with Deagan, and they have become best friends.  I love watching them play together.  

A cute thing that Deagan does is he calls Kayden "little buddy" whenever he is trying to get his attention or if Kayden is sad. I just realized today he calls him that because I call the boys "buddy." I never really noticed that until today, but these kids really pick up things we say!

Here are a few pictures of the kids playing! (This is mostly an update for grandparents:))

And just like that, June is over!

It is so crazy that June is over! Wow! We have officially lived here for over a month now even though it feels like we just moved here.  Time really needs to slow down!!!

I have a lot on my mind right now, so bare with me as I try to put into words what I am thinking.

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I have felt extremely homesick for the Syracuse area and people since we have moved, and I realized I took for granted just how great we had it there.  While I was in the moment of it all, it was easy to see the hard things about being poor grad students, but now that we are out of that I only really remember the good things.  Of course I remember that we had no money, that we had some crazy neighbors, and that it snowed almost 200 inches of snow this past winter.  But those are just memories and experiences that I feel like have really strengthened me. Syracuse became our home and the people there became our family.

When we started our time there, I remember feeling like those 2 years would be so long, but then I blinked and we moved on.

Here is a list of some of the great things and memories of our time in Syracuse:

-Even though we had some crazy neighbors and our apartment was kind of ghetto, we lived in such a great area! We lived by such a great park, pond, and had the best library seriously in our back yard.
-We made some fabulous friends who feel like family to us! I miss them!
-We had a lovely YMCA that was seriously AWESOME! They based your monthly payments on how much you made, and since we made close to NOTHING, we payed hardly anything.  I never realized just how spoiled we were to be able to go to such a great facility with so many great things! It is close to impossible to find something like that out here, but I am still on the hunt!
-Our sweet little Kayden was born in Syracuse.  That right there makes Syracuse one of the greatest places to me.
-We lived in the birthplace of the Church.  We lived just over an hour from Palmyra and all the church history sites out there.  What a blessing it was to live so close to all of those wonderful places.
-We grew so much as a family and as a couple.  Living so far from family really forces you to figure things out on your own!

The list could go on and on.  Syracuse will always hold a special place in my heart along with all the people there.

But home is where your family is, so I am determined to make this new place our home. It already is starting to feel like it, but I think time and experiences will help us grow our roots here.

Here are a few pictures of our life here so far:

We have visited the zoo MANY times! :)

Look how big he is getting! 

Visiting some sights in downtown DC

Celebrating the 4th of July!

Life is good; hard at times, but good.