Spring Catch Up

It's been a busy month!  Here is a REALLY long post with lots of pictures to recap it...

We had a big barbecue at the lake with lots of friends after the guys finished a big test (that's about every 3 weeks around here)  These are the things that help us survive the long days and many hours of studying!

Oaks loves to swing!

 The weather was warm enough to play in the water!

 Oakley and her buddy West

I have probably said it before but weekends are the worst for me in med school.  During the week we have exercise group, Say has preschool, dance... we have a routine.  Saturdays come around and in normal life you have a husband around and you usually get to do something fun.  Ty studies EVERY Saturday and sometimes its from early morning to midnight.  The girls and I try to make it a fun day but sometimes there is just nothing to replace Dad.  One particular Saturday I was having a really rough day and I almost drove to Iowa by myself because there was a tulip festival I really wanted to go to (I was being a little bit dramatic) Ty could tell I was needing to get out of town and he came home from studying at noon (this NEVER happens!) and he drove up to Iowa with me and the girls to spend the day at the tulip festival.

Ty and Oaks at the parade

 It was quite the impressive parade for such a small town!

 Loving Daddy time (I think the girls get sick of just having me all the time!)

 In the giant dutch shoes!

 The tulips were beautiful!

 We waited in line for almost an hour to get some delicious pastries at the bakery

 Sitting in the giant chair

 My mom and my nephew Skyler came to visit this month and the girls loved having their cousin and Grandma to play with!

My dad always cooks the most amazing meal on Mother's Day so Ty really had pressure to make something delicious because my mom was here too!  He did amazing of coarse.  For breakfast he made us french toast kabobs with french toast and strawberries, so delish!  At church Saylor got to sing with the primary (I've been so excited for her to be old enough to do this!) My mom was sooo incredibly nice and took my nursery duty while I went to relief society.  Can't remember the last time I sat through relief society uninterrupted (I was called to nursery just as Oaks was old enough for nursery) After church we got to skype with ZACH  from Mexico City at the same time as my dad and Kirstie & Kys.  It was SO fun to talk to him and he sounded amazing!  Can't believe he'll be home in 6 months!! For dinner Ty made us more kabobs with grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, strawberries and pineapple.  SO yummy!  For dessert we had tuille cookies with ice cream, strawberries and shaved chocolate.  We were definitely spoiled!  It was so fun to spend Mother's Day with my mom.

Playing with playdough and Sky dressed as Minnie Mouse

It was so insanely busy while my mom was here that she spent a lot of her time watching my kids which I was so grateful for because Ty was pretty much living at the school leading up to finals week.  I threw a baby shower, went on a board retreat over night with the new board I am on and had a final board dinner with the board from this year.

This is the group of girls I served with on the board this year.  I LOVE these girls sooo much!!!  They are all amazing and I will miss serving with them!

This is the group of girls I will be serving on the board with next year.  I'm excited to get to know them better and make my last year in Kirksville the best ever!

 My mom got to be here for Saylor's preschool program and Say was sooo excited!! Saylor was so cute!

Saylor and her friend Jade

Oakley was pretty well behaved.  It helped that they kept it short and sweeet!

We got up early to drive my mom to the airport in St. Louis so we could spend the day at the Magic House!  We had so much fun!!!  My girls literally could have spent the entire day there playing!

My mom and Oaks inside a giant bubble

Oaks and Grandma playing the pipes

Cute cousins

Oaks was so obsessed with these little bunnies haha! She carried them around kissing and hugging them.

Driving the big truck!

Saylor dressed up as a veterinarian

Scooping ice cream out of the pretend ice cream cart

Playing with water!

Endless things to do....

Ball pits...

Slides...

Pretend camp sites...

Oaks was very serious about her painting

At the Pizza Parlor

Say and Sky

We had a lot of fun  with this!

The night I got back from St. Louis these awesome friends rolled into town for Graduation!  It was soo great to hang out with our best friends from our first year in Kirksville!  Saylor and George played like they had never been apart.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the rest of our friends we got to see but we loved seeing them and I'm so proud of all of them for graduating!  Made me excited for Ty to graduate even though it's still 3 years away!

One of my friends that was in town for graduation took our family pictures.  She is an amazing photographer! Pictures stress me out so bad...trying to match outfits and make sure everyone looks perfect is a lot of pressure.  We all finally found the perfect outfits and accessories and I think we all looked pretty darn cute.  The only problem...Oakley was the grumpiest EVER!  Like we were seriously ready to kick her out of the family grumpy.  Hopefully she isn't screaming in every single picture!  Saylor was an angel though and could have posed all day haha.  She loves it a little too much!  We took her out to ice cream to reward her.

Lisa and I threw a bridal shower for our good friend Chauntelle who is getting married in a couple weeks!  We both love planning parties and I think we make a pretty good party planning team!  Chauntelle and Ernie are going to Italy on their honeymoon so we planned an Italian night. Here are some pics of how the shower turned out!

We made delicious Italian sodas!

We had Italian food for dinner...a pasta bar, breadsticks and salad

Chauntelle is going to be the most gorgeous bride!

Playing He said She said...

All the girls at the shower

Saylor and Kellen on field day

Saylor had such a great first year of preschool! Here are a bunch of the kids from her class having a pool party!

Goodness I love this little boy!  I have Hudson in nursery and I just adore him!

This past Friday Ty took finals and officially finished his first year of medical school!!!  I can't believe we are finally 2nd years!  I thought the day would never come...and it feels so good!  Medical school is rough!  While Ty got his master's degree here we watched lots of our friends go through it and we thought it looked hard and knew what was coming.  I don't think you can ever really comprehend or understand how hard it is until you do it.  The hours are long, the stress is intense, some days feel never ending.  There are times when I wanted to crawl in a hole and not come out until med school was over.  My girls are a lot to handle...they are intense and emotional and dramatic and crazy and busy and so so much fun but by myself it is a lot to take.  I NEVER could have made it through this year without amazing friends and the fact that I knew Ty would be home with us as much as he possibly could.  Ty took off every Sunday to spend with his family and we couldn't have done it with out one day a week to have him home. It killed him to spend so much time away from his family.  We tried to just support him the best we could.  This experience has truly made me and Ty grow so much as a couple and as a family.  I have become so much more independent and grown as a mom and a wife.  (I talk as if this experience is over, don't worry...we still have 3 years of med school left haha) Yes, it was hard but this year was also so much fun!  In between all the hard days we made sure to make the most of it and have as much fun as possible!  The girls would try to pass the time when our husbands were gone by having ladies luncheons, clothing swap parties, play dates, game nights (all with our kids of coarse)

We celebrated the last day of 1st year by going to Colton's with some of our awesome friends from this year!

 What a happy day!  It feels so unreal that I get him to myself all summer:)

 I have lots of amazing friends that helped me get through this year but I especially never would have survived without Lisa!!!  She is constantly watching my kids, baking bread with me, helping me plan parties, having dinner nights, watching our same favorite movies over and over, spending many long late nights with me while our husbands studied...I love her sooo much!  I know we were meant to be friends.

We are SO excited for the summer!!  Some things we have planned are Disneyland, my cabin, lots of 7 peaks and trafalga trips, Idaho....and just enjoying every second of Ty's last real summer ever!