4 Years

Today is Mark and I's fourth anniversary.  And even though I am incredibly sad that we are spending another anniversary apart (remember last year) which now means that we have spent just as many anniversaries apart as we have together, this is still a great day.  

I love Mark so much.  This last year has been difficult in a lot of different ways but I feel like it has made our relationship all the stronger.  He is my best friend in every way.  There is truly no one I would rather spend forever with.  He makes me feel special and loved every day.  He understands and supports me.  He is a wonderful father and our children are incredibly lucky to have him.  He always makes time for his family and puts us first - which means a lot to me.  I love that he reads to me in bed while I fall asleep (one of the things I am missing the most).  I love that he strives to do his best in all aspects of his life.  I love that he is a hard worker.  I love that when he gets home he always comes right up to me and gives me a kiss before he does anything else.  

I love that we can celebrate our family starting four years ago.  

And I love that we have forever to be together.  

I love you. 

Hogle Zoo

Yesterday, Melina, Megan, the kiddos and I went to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.  It was a beautiful, crisp day.  We got there first thing in the morning and it was perfect.  Jacob, of course, loved all of the attention he got from his aunts.  And Sarah, unfortunately, just cried most of the time so that was a bit of a bummer.  

But it was nice to get out of the house and see the animals.  Jacob was most excited to see the giraffes and we were so bummed when they weren't out when we first got there.  But we checked again as we were leaving and he was able to see them.  Happy boy.

Cutest picture of the day!

 

P.S.  I promise Sarah did come with us - she was supposed to be napping and so no pictures were taken!

Solo Parenting

So I have re-written this post several times.  Sometimes I struggle with what to write - wanting to be "real" so I can remember this time of my life and what I was really feeling but also not wanting to be too personal either.  This is one of those posts that definitely falls into that area for me.  

I am now nearing the end of my second week of "solo parenting" as I like to call it.  It's gone better than I thought it would.  Most days I am actually pretty positive - well, maybe positive is too strong - but I am definitely not moping around either.  I continue to find ways to be productive and in a lot of ways my everyday happenings haven't really changed.  

I don't really like to talk about Mark being gone and all of my thoughts and emotions about it.  Maybe that's not healthy but I don't feel like I am completely bottling it up inside me either.  I pray a lot.  My Heavenly Father has to listen to all of my cares and worries, which almost always involve some tears, but I feel stronger and comforted by the end.  And that's all I can ask for.  

This definitely isn't how I imagined things to be.  I never thought Mark and I would be separated for this long.  Ever.  Maybe that was foolish but I truly never saw that coming.  I thought having a husband who was going to be a pharmacist pretty much guaranteed me a husband who would be home every night.  

And I know that day will come.  

I think the hardest thing, other than Mark being gone of course, is the fact that I feel like I am living in limbo right now.  I feel like everything in my life is at a standstill.  I don't feel like I am moving forward.  It's hard and frustrating.  Whenever I think of a way to try and move forward in some aspect of my life it feels like everything always falls through.  

I know that things are hard right now.  That is just how it is going to be.  I also don't think that when Mark gets his diploma in three months that we will be granted a bag of pixie dust and our world will become one giant fairy tale.  I know that life is filled with ups and downs and right now we are just in a down.  All of my focus is on enduring, just making it through this.  This is just one more sacrifice on the path to Mark's career and I am 100% willing to do that so that Mark can be apart of a profession that makes him feel fulfilled.  

So we are doing okay.  Not great.  But okay.  

Luckily, I get to spend all day with the two greatest kids.

Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  We wanted to keep things light and not dwell on the fact that it was our last day together for a long time.  

Mark and I decided that we really want Valentine's Day to be a family day because it is so close to our anniversary so we have that day to really focus on just the two of us - plus we love our little family like crazy so love celebrating that love too.  

We had an amazingly yummy breakfast, went on our hike to the "Y", snuggled and relaxed, ate a delicious dinner and then opened our love notes to each other.  We each made big envelopes and put them on our bedroom doors and have been putting love notes in them.  So after dinner we sat around and opened all of our notes.  It was so sweet and I loved every second of it.  Then Mark and I put the kiddos to bed and snuggled up with a movie.  

It was a perfect day.  

I love my little family. 

Hike the Y

For Family Fun we had planned to go snowshoeing but seeing as we have absolutely NO snow we decided to go and hike the "Y" instead.  Mark and I both had never done it before and always wanted to.  It was a beautiful day.  The weather was perfect.  But holy smokes, the hike itself was rougher than I was thinking.  Although it doesn't help that I forgot water AND we were both carrying kiddos.  But it was still lots of fun and we made it to the top.  

Even Jacob hiked the last three turns PLUS hiked the entire way down - what a champ!  And Sarah was awesome too especially since it was right in the middle of her morning nap and she luckily fell asleep on the hike down.  

The view is absolutely incredible and Jacob picked up some rocks at the top and carried them all the way down in his pockets so that he could have something to remember it by.  He was really happy about his rocks and had to keep checking they were still there.  

It was a perfect morning and we loved spending some time together. 

 

Pears

This little munchkin had her first taste of some solid food.  I think we are still pretty unsure.  Maybe a lot unsure.  She was a lot more excited about putting her bib in her mouth than the pears - but hopefully that will change with time ;)

Before we started...

First taste...

 

 

Love you little one.

 

 

5 Months

This little sweetie turned five months old on Wednesday.  Where is the time going?!

Sarah is growing way too fast!  She definitely surpassed my expectations when I measured her.  She is now 26.1 inches tall (86% percentile), 18.0 pounds (95%), and 42.7 cm head circumference (77%). 

She is now taking two naps a day and still sleeping all night.  WOOT WOOT!

Have we mentioned that Sarah is the wiggliest child ever?!  She is.  That girl is a mover and a groover.  She loves to pivot her body around.  And, in the bathtub, it is ridiculous.  She is constantly trying to wiggle further into the water.  It is actually quite amazing - if it weren't so scary!  But who can blame her, she has quite an active older brother that she gets to watch all day so she is ready to join him. 

Sarah is also laughing now.  I tell you, baby laughs are the best sounds in the world.  I love them.  Her Dad is the best at getting her to belly laugh.  Blowing raspberries on her tummy and playing peek-a-boo are the surest ways to get some giggles. 

Sarah is just the sweetest little girl.  When you go into a room and she sees you her whole face just lights up and smiles and she makes you feel like the best person in the world.  She is just such a sweetheart and pretty much has everyone in the family wrapped around her little fingers. 

Speaking of fingers, Sarah loves her fingers, or anyone's fingers!  She loves to suck on her hand and fingers or anyone else that's around.  She is a big fan of her binkie as well.  We are definitely entering the drool phase and everything goes straight into her mouth and the almost-constant drool on her shirt. 

Sarah is also getting a lot more interested in the world around her.  She definitely is interested in her toys now and her favorite seems to be her elephant (it was Jacob's favorite too!).  She is also more interested while we read to her and I can tell is more engaged in the pictures.

We love our sweet girl.