What I Have Figured Out

I realized that all it took to get me to make my bed each morning was to buy new bedding that I love. Serioulsy as clean and organized as I feel I am, I never ever make my bed. And now I can proudly say that I have made my bed 10 days in a row!

I get bored easily and usually change up my hobbies all of the time. But I realized that I don't get bored with hobbies that you never can truly master. And that is what photography has been for me. I look at my work from 3 years ago when I first starting messing around with it and I thought it looked good at the time, but let's be honest..............it looked like JUNK. I learned it all backwards. I learned photoshop first. I thought you could just photoshop a bad exposed, bad-everything photo and make it awesome. Oh was I wrong.

Well over a year ago I made the ceremonial change from AUTO to shooting in MANUAL. Not easy at first, and often my exposure was off, but now I am feeling so much more confident in Manual. Just takes practice. Anyways, it is amazing how much I have learned in the last 3 years, so I can imagine I will just keep on learning with this hobby.

I realized there are 3 things you never should go cheap on: A good bra, flattering jeans, and your health. When we lived in Hawaii, I swear I was always sick. But we were dirt poor college students and we ate toast for breakfast, PB and J for Lunch and Rice n' Cheese for dinner with lots of icecream. Well the ice cream thing hasn't changed, but now I don't care about what I spend on groceries, because my health is more important. We rarely ever get sick. It's amazing how great I feel right now, I've never felt stronger. (part of that is thanks to BODYPUMP). I don't care that you can get a whole hamburger for the same cost as 1 tomato. Spend the money on healthy foods and you will save lots more money down the road.

I realized we will never have a garden. I've wanted one forever and we put one together despite the fact that our patio gets barely any direct sunlight. Well I guess 'sunlight' is a major factor in growing a garden......IMAGINE THAT!

What kind of mama misses her babies 1st birthday?

I asked that the girls come home on Tay's birthday, but unfortunately they couldn't make the flight and I missed her birthday. I did get to skype with her. So we celebrated her birthday the next day with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts, Ryan's sister's family, and Tay's bestest babysitter and her daughter.

Tay and K with the Lytle kids and Atianna

Eating her cake. I love how she always tuck her little toe up on the tray! Love little toesies.

I didn't even ask her to, but my fabulous babysitter Tonya made Tayvlee a birthday cake. She chose a frog because Tayvlee always plays with a toy frog when she comes to babysit. I love that she took the time to make butterflies, ladybugs and bees too. She is so great to us.

Opening her presents.

This isn't from her birthday, but we took this the week before at our pool party/BBQ with the Ferdmans, Shewells, and the Whites. All these babies were born within 3 months of eachother.

I guess I should also note that Tayvlee walks now. And I don't know if other babies develop this way, but she has two upper teeth on the left side only, but none on the right. It looks kind of funny! Now if she could only GROW SOME HAIR!!!

first vacay without mommy and daddy

My mother asked if she could fly out to Cali and have me meet her at the airport with Kennedee to get right back on the airplane and take her to Utah and Idaho. I had no problem saying yes. Then my sister Megan asked if she could have Tayvlee, too. That was such a hard decision.........after much hesitation I let her go too.

Her they are in their PJ's getting on the plane.


They went near Preston, Idaho to the Bear River to go camping with my extended family. They have been camping at "THE RIVER" for well over 30 years annually. We float down the river on innertubes.


Tay just got to sit in the manmade pool with Aunt Megan. (Megan is in trouble, where is a lifejacket for Tay?)

Tay got a bath every night!

Tay slept in the tent with Aunt Megan and K slept in the back of the truck "under the stars".

Tayvlee loves the puppies!!!

And Kennedee loves Gramma Bo!

Thanks for taking such good care of my girls and getting them safely back home after 6 days.

Well what did Ryan and I do while they were gone. I'll admit I was pretty lazy at first. Caught up on the to-do list...........then we celebrated our 8th anniversary. We went out of town and went to the lake, enjoyed some kayaking, and race car driving. Sorry no pics.