a 3 year old

Well the birthday curse was in full swing this past weekend. Evaleigh turned three on Saturday and a few days before: she started throwing up just like her second birthday. It's been a whole year since she had gotten sick like that and as luck would have it on her birthday weekend she was sick again. Luckily on the actual day of she felt well again. We went out as a family to downtown Monroe and let her pick out some treats at a bakery and the Cottonwood Cafe, played in the pocket park, had some treats, went to the store to get her birthday gift, then came home and put together her birthday present.  We got her a pink tricycle and while she took a nap in the car John put it together for her. When she woke up we played outside until it was dinner time then we had pizza and birthday cake and she blew out her candles. At the end of the night she and I snuggled on the couch until it was bedtime.  A good day indeed.

Evaleigh Joy is such a blessing in our lives we love her so much. She is so funny and so sweet. When we asked her where she wanted to go on her birthday she told us, "Mexico".  One of my favorite things she says a lot right now is, "what's the plan dear?"  She loves to sing and make up songs she is very organized she loves to do puzzles and spirograph.  Although she loves her little brother he's tends to drive her crazy at this age.  She says the sweetest prayers and has the most tender moments I can tell she's very close to her Savior at this very young age.

Happy birthday to the little girl who made us parents.

a resolution

My New Years resolution this year was to read The Book of Mormon as many times as possible.  Knowing that I can count on two hands all of the books I've probably ever read I knew this was a big challenge for me.  I read the Book of Mormon cover to cover once in college and it took over a year.  But two and half weeks in to the new year and I am already 1/3 the way through.  I can't wait to keep going.  

I love this book and I know it's true. I love how it works together with the Bible and it testifies of Jesus Christ and brings peace and joy to my soul. It prophesies of Christ before his coming and I know the things that it teaches are good.  I love to read its counsel and pray and ponder and wonder about it. It helps me to be a better person.

Our Sunday school teacher asked us to email her our scripture study goals for the year and I shared my goal with her. She responded and asked me if I had ever read the book of Mormon in a week!??  I had never even had the thought to do that before. It made me wonder if that would be something I could ever do. With teaching seminary and two kids that I am raising during the day reading it in a week is not quite possible for me but I'm going to try my best to finish it before the month of January is over.  Reading the book of Mormon this quickly is giving me a new perspective that I've never had. I love getting all of the storyline in a much quicker time. It's a beautiful book with a beautiful message about our Savior and I'm so grateful for it and what it teaches me.

The past two weeks

The past two weeks have been fun.  Last week John took Avett off to Colorado by himself, his grandfather passed and he went out for the funeral. (Obviously that was not the fun part)  Grandpa John will certainly be missed. ❤️ While Evaleigh and I were here at the house we had so many dates and did so many fun things together. I enjoyed being with her alone so much even though I was missing the boys. We made cookies did glitter nails went to target and bought a few new toys went on a movie date and to party city for birthday supplies for this weekend and read a lot of books and snuggled together for naps.

Sunday night I went on a midnight run to the airport to pick up the boys. I was so excited to see them and when they got here I got a huge surprise. John's Mom came for a visit! We were so happy to have her here since we don't get to be with her very often. We had a great time together and the children enjoyed her so much. She is the most incredibly helpful and wonderful Grammy! 

Last night was her last night here and John played guitar and we sang music for a couple of hours. It was so good to hear him play and harmonize together. Of course he played my favorite Avett Brothers song, Murder in the City.  I always tell him that I want him to play that at my funeral if I go first. If not somebody else better do it! 

"Always remember there is nothing worth sharing like the love that lets us share our name."

My mom and her husband left on their mission to Independence Missouri. We are so excited for them and so happy that they get to go off on this adventure and serve the Lord. We will miss them terribly but are keeping up with pictures and videos and face time.

family pictures

It has been forever since I have had the time to blog!  To be honest I miss it a lot. I really miss writing. 

This year has been one that I think we will look back on and wonder how we ever survived. We've never been so busy. Between John having full-time school and a job and me with seminary and two little kids to take care of we've hardly seen each other. But it's made the moments that we do have time together even more special. 

This year has been a year of growth for all of our family. I have really loved teaching my early morning seminary class and getting to know all of the seminary youth in our ward. I love many of them like my own and I love learning about the gospel together every morning.

Evaleigh will be three next month and I can hardly believe it. She is such a sassy responsible and joyful little girl.  She walks around saying sweet things to us like "Merry Christmas!" And "I love you mommy you are beautiful!". She is such a sensitive sweet little soul.  

Avett is our little explorer.  He climbs all over the place and especially all over us. I've never seen a little boy love his mother so much and I love that about him.

 John is trucking along with school and doing a great job at it. He is a very good student and studies a lot. He also works with the men at church. We are both loving what we are doing and even though we are busy we are happy and very blessed.

the fastest

Our boy turned one last week.  That was officially the fastest year of my life.  And even now I'm feeling a bit weepy about it.  I love him.  We love him.  

It was a simple day.  He spent most of it chasing a bouncy ball around on the back porch.  He was so happy.

He is just the most perfect suprise.  I remember when I was pregnant with him and we found out he was going to be a boy.  John threw his hands up in the air, yelled out loud, and couldn't contain his joy.  

Me? Well I was terrified.  Girls were always something I thought I'd be great at raising. But a boy...a boy was something that I just didn't feel confident going in to.

Now here we are at his year mark and the love he and I share is unlike anything I ever expected.  Maybe it's that he loves me so fiercely but the bond I have with my son is one that has been one of the most unforeseen blessings of my life.

His favorite thing to do is run full force in to my body while I'm sitting on the floor with his arms outstretched as he comes at me.  He loves to follow his sister around and touch what ever it is that she is playing with.  He also loves to lounge back on us whenever John or I are on the floor.  He smiles a lot.  Big gappy toothed grins that take my breath away. He puts himself to sleep for naps and night time.  He loves to play in the trash, unroll all of our toilet paper, and if we've forgotten to put the lid down he can always be found near a toilet bowl.  He is incredibly strong.  He loves leaping off of high surfaces in to our arms.  He has a new wrinkly nose face accompanied by a fake cry that we don't particuarly like but it's growing on us.  He can throw a mean bouncy ball and practically pick up a gallon of milk.

Avett, you've added so much to our lives and you put a smile on your dads face that only a son can.  We can't wait to see who you become. 

My kids are growing so fast.  I know that when I was younger I always heard that time would speed up the older you got.  Being in the throws of young motherhood is sometimes a blur for me.  It's filled with all sorts of mundane tasks...mealtimes, diapers, toddler breakdowns, naptimes...rinse repeat.  Sometimes I wish the clothes didn't have to be clean and that we never had to eat so I could sit back and take in the view of my little ones growing. Or better yet climb into an indistinguishable mound of bodies with them and giggle on the living room floor until it was bed time without a thought of to do's.

I love them both fiercely.  I can't put in to words how Avett makes me feel when he spots me from across the room and a smile displaying his gappy toothed grin spreads across his face and he walks over and fumbles to me and forces his body straight in to mine from a standing position with the most innocent trust that I'll always catch him.  We hug for the grand total of 2 seconds if I'm lucky and then he squirms to get loose because everything must be explored.  He's just starting to babble nonsense and when he does John and I look at each other as if it's the best inside joke we share and then we laugh about it.

Evaleigh gets smarter everyday.  She will correct me if I'm wrong and will say things that I had no clue she even knew.  She loves to make us laugh and the other day at the dinner table she called me a "plate of cookies" and told everyone to eat me up.  She is getting more and more beautiful and is finally getting some hair to speak of, it's a big deal for us. 

Kids are just really really fun.  A lot of work and a lot of messes.  But all around just pretty fantastic little people to share your life with, even when it's a blur.

breaking the radio silence for an update

It's been quite a while since I've had time to blog. Life is been very busy lately for me and for John. Over a month ago I received an assignment at my church to be an early morning seminary teacher. So each day during the week I wake up at 5 o'clock and I am at the church by 6am to teach a group of 19 teenagers about the gospel of Jesus Christ for an hour before they head off to school.  By the time I get home the children are most likely still sleeping so they never even know their mama has been gone.  It has been such an incredible experience for me. I am loving immersing myself in gospel study and learning how to better listen to the spirit and how to improve my ability to teach and express gospel truths and my testimony to them.   I love all of those students so much. I find myself praying for them and worrying about them more than I do my own children sometimes.  I really love this opportunity to learn from them and to spend our mornings feeling the spirit and talking about the gospel together.

John is staying very busy going to school full-time at the University of Georgia finishing up his degree and his masters of accounting. He also works and stays very busy with Apple.  He loves his job and every time he finishes work he comes upstairs with a huge smile on his face and tells me how much he loves his job.  I'm so grateful he is able to have a job that makes him happy and to work from home now.  Our schedules are very crazy but we get to see him in between when he come home from classes and work breaks.   Most days I feel like we get to say hello and goodbye and squeeze and a kiss here and there.  When we finally do have some time together as a family we are trying to make the most of it by playing and wrestling with our kids on the floor and making them laugh and watching them grow and learn.

At the beginning of this year we both made personal goals to try and raise the bar in our lives and do things that had more meaning and substance. I believe the Lord heard our goals and prayers and has trusted us with a lot of responsibility and new things to do in our lives. Although we are busy we are very happy and very blessed.

This week I had the chance to go into Atlanta to Atlantic Station for a sneak peek screening of the new film produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints called Meet the Mormons.  This film features the stories of six different people from all over the world who are members of the LDS faith. Each story is unique and drew me in and I fell in love with these people as they shared details of their lives.  It is a must see. It is emotional, powerful, inspiring, moving, and charming. You simply can't walk out of that theater without either tears in your eyes or a smile on your face...and I had both.  I got to take one of my seminary students with me and I loved sharing that experience with her.  Afterward we were interviewed on our thoughts about the film. 

It was such an incredible film from the music and the stories shared to the filming and aesthetics.   I honestly couldn't pick which story was the most moving to me or my most favorite. I suggest this film to everyone.  It shows a lot about the diversity of the members of the Mormon faith. It is a great film for anyone whether Mormon or not.  One of the main features in the film is a man named Jermaine Sullivan.  My husband served with him as his executive secretary in the Stake Presidency in Atlanta last year.  It was incredible to see such a humble and simple yet powerful and kind family.  The way that his wife gracefully handles their three spirited boys while her husband goes about the Lords work is such an inspiring example of the kind of simple yet rewarding sacrifices we can make.  It is not overly religious however it is very inspiring and spiritual.  I will undoubtedly be seeing it again when it officially hits theaters October 10th!  There will be two theaters in Georgia that will be showing it.