Ty's Graduation

It actually happened, Ty finally graduated!!! It's funny how you wait for something for so long and then when it comes you kind of wish it wouldn't. Of coarse I'm glad Ty graduated but that means our time in Utah is over and we must move on to a new chapter of our lives... which is great, change is just hard.

Ty and Saylor

Our Happy Family

Ty with all his friends that graduated in Exercise Science

Josh, Tyler & Mike...Ty has spent endless hours studying with these guys, especially Mike

(Mike is going to Missouri too)

Ty's family

I'm so glad Ty decided to walk. Graduations are long but it was worth it to see Ty in his cap and gown and celebrate his achievement. Graduating from college is a big deal and takes a lot of work, it's definitely worth celebrating. I'm so proud of Ty, he even got straight A's in his last semester! He has worked so hard and has become a way better studier than I've ever been.

Saylor was actually so good during the whole thing.

It helped that her cousins were there to play with her. Jess and Say are always hugging each other, they are just so cute together!

While they were playing the graduation music and Ty was marching in I pointed out Daddy to Saylor and she waved the whole time.

Thanks to everyone who came to support Ty!

Polka Dot Twinners

These two little girls were destined to be best friends so of coarse we have to dress them up alike...

These little polka dot dresses are just too cute!
Saylor has become very motherly lately and tries to "take care" of Ester. Sometimes she's even nice enough to take out her binky when Essy is crying and try to put it in her mouth.

Best Friend Mama's

Saylor trying to give Essy a hug...she looks a little nervous because Saylor tends to be a little rough sometimes...she just gets so excited! Saylor needs to watch out though, Ester already weighs 12 pounds at 2 months which is what Say weighed at 4 months.

Saylor was done taking pictures at this point
Matt, Sarah and Baby Ester moved today :( They are coming back in the fall but we will already be in Missouri by then. We are going to miss these guys terribly. I love how they have totally become a part of Ty's family. Matt was on Ty's family basketball team and they were often in attendance at sunday dinner, weekly dinner nights, and all the other fun things we do. These guys are the only ones we know we can call at the last second and they are always down for whatever whether it is longboarding in the canyon, game night, picnics, a kickball game or any other spur of the moment thing we come up with. There's just no one else like them:)

Baby Animal Zoo

To celebrate Morgin's 1st Birthday we took all the kids up to Thanksgiving Point to see the baby animals. I made these cupcakes for Morgin:)

Saylor LOVES animals so much so of coarse she had a great time going around checking out all the animals. She had no fear and reached right out to pet them and let them lick her fingers!Wishing the gate wasn't there so she could just go chase the animals around...
Saylor reached right in to pet that little pigggy
The highlight of Saylor's day was definitely when she got to ride a pony! It was worth the one hour wait (well actually Sean's one hour wait while we looked around, thanks Sean!)

Say felt so big riding all by herself!

She couldn't stop smiling, she would have stayed on that pony all day long!

Looking cool like Daddy in her sunglasses
We failed to get a picture of everyone that came...but here is part of the group enjoying the nice sunny weather
A video of Say being her normal spazzy self...

What We've Been Up To...

After one year I don't think you're supposed to give monthly updates on your baby anymore but Saylor is 13 months and I had a whole bunch of cute pics of her I wanted to share, plus just some stuff we've been up to...

Say still LOVES her baths

Me and Ty got to go to the Jordan River Temple last week because Ty's aunt was taking out her endowments. It was really special to be there and especially because we were there with Ty's parents and brother and sister. Being in the temple with family makes it that much more meaningful. It was my first time at this temple which is cool because this is where Ty's family was sealed when he was a baby.

With the weather finally getting nice we've been having lots of BBQs. We had one with all Ty's friends at school that are graduating in Exercise Science. We had delicious steak and played some fun badmitton.

Saylor discovered her love for watermelon that day...

For dinner night we had a fun trip up the canyon which included tin foil dinners, dutch

oven cobbler and one sweet kickball game.

Saylor and Morgin just loungin in their lawn chairs

Saylor got sooo dirty and she loved it!

Ester just hung out in her seat all bundled up while we played kickball

On Sunday we went up the canyon for a nice afternoon picnic...Matt and Say talking to each other on the phone
Ester enjoying the scenery on her 1st picnic

Say still has such a fascination with babies and just kids in general. She wanted to check out why Essy was crying.

Saylor loves her Aunt Autumn!!Just some random cute pics of Say...

Some things about Saylor at 13 months...She is obcessed with bananas and is always saying "Nana, nana" cause she wants to eat them all the time. She is turning out to be just like her dad because she is super accident prone! She can hardly make it through the day with out some kind of injury. Saylor is just clumsy and when she falls she doesn't really try to catch her self and she just flies into things all the time. She is always getting bumps and scrapes. At Autumn's track meet last week she slammed into some bleachers and was gushing blood from her mouth. She cried for a second about the actual injury but then she was just crying because I wouldn't let her get back down to go play again when there was blood going everywhere. Saylor has no fear and will run and run and isn't bothered if she can no longer see Mom and Dad. I am always chasing her everywhere. She still loves dogs and she's still the cutest thing ever. Me and Ty both agreed that the best sound in the whole world is listening to her laugh. She definitely keeps us on our toes but we love it!

It's Official!

So I have kind of been putting it off but I should probably post about the fact that we are moving across the country in a short two months!! After much fasting and prayer we have decided to move to Kirksville, Missouri. Never heard of it? Neither had I. It is a town of less than 20,000 about 3 hours from St. Louis. While I am very sad to be leaving family and the comforts of familiarity, there are some reasons that I am excited...(and I'm really trying my best to focus on these)

-Kirksville is only 2 hours away from Nauvoo (me and Ty have never been!)

-We get to live in a house!

-The house has 3 bedrooms and that means me and Ty will finally have our own room, Saylor will have a room and we will even have an extra bedroom to use as a craft room/play room. After living in a one bedroom basement apt. for 4 years it's gonna feel huge!

-The house has a big kitchen which includes a dishwasher! (Washing dishes is so my least favorite chore)

-The house has a huge backyard-a whole acre!! They provide us with a riding lawn mower to mow it which means it will take some time but it also means endless hours of badmitton, ultimate frisbee, football, barbequing, volleyball or whatever else our hearts desire

-The house also has a big living/dining room area, a washer and dryer and a garage (as you can tell the house is a lot of what we are excited about)

-Students and their families get free passes to the Aquatic Center which has an indoor and outdoor pool and is in walking distance from our house-The wives of the med students have a club that does things like crafts, cooking, working out (if you spend one day watching kids, someone will watch yours so you can work out 4 days a week) and they just do fun stuff to stay busy while their husbands study all day and night

-Ty's two good friends also got into ATSU so we will at least know a few people

-Tyler and I have never lived away from family so it will be a chance to meet new people and really rely on each other. It will be an adventure!

A few of the things I'm not so excited about...

-It is a 17 hour drive to visit Ty's family and 22 hour drive to visit mine :(

-The closest normal airport is 3 hours away from us so even flying home will be kind of tough not to mention expensive

-The closest mall is an hour and a half away...Kirksville has a Wal-Mart and a JCPenney, guess I'll have to start online shopping

-Kirksville has occasional tornadoes and ice storms, scary!

It's still not really real to me that we are actually leaving. I hated Utah for a while after we moved here and now I love it. So, I decided to just love Kirksville from the beginning because everyone says you don't want to move there but by the time you graduate you don't want to leave. I'm going to try so very hard to have a good attitude, love it and have fun and enjoy this experience in life. I have to do it anyway so why not just be happy and enjoy it? Much easier said than done I know but when else do you have a chance to move somewhere totally unfamiliar and new and meet people you never would have had the chance to meet? I did always want to serve a mission so maybe this will be my own little mission-type experience.