More pictures

I wanted to add these pictures to that last post but my computer was being weird.

Kenzie turns one on Wednesday!!!  I can't believe it, it feels like yesterday she was born.  Time has flown by so fast.  We are going to be driving to Yellowstone on her birthday so Joe and I gave her an early birthday present (in the picures it is the little car thing she is on).  I need to give props to Joe he picked out the present while I was at work, I shouldn't claim credit, but he did a great job.  Owen has struggled with it being hers and not his.  Oh growing up.  Please excuse our mess in the pictures as you can tell we are getting ready to go camping.  My life would feel incomplete without these two amazing kids.  I love them so much.

Here are a couple pictures on took on my phone of the house.  They were taken a couple weeks ago so I can say the house is completely framed, they have put water in, working on electrical and heating, ventilation and A/C.  I am excited, but now this means I have to start packing.  There are joys to moving and there are unfortunate things to moving. 

The first picture shows that on this side of the house is the garage on the ground level, the next level is the kitchen/dining area and the big open area is where our balcony will be. The third level will be the kids rooms and bathroom.

The second and third pictures show the entry way on ground level, the family room on the second level and the third floor on this side is the master bedroom.  We are super excited.   

Picture overload

I figured I would add some pictures since it has been a long time.  Some I took (I took them on my phone, so you will know which ones I took) and others Adrianna took (I stole them from her blog). 

Kenzie has a little temper on her.  When something happens that she doesn't like it is immediate tears and she does this cute thing where she just kicks her legs when she is mad.  It cracks me up.

 

Owen has two ways to pose: kissy lips, which I DID NOT teach him and his hands in front of his face.  It is so cute.

In mourning

Okay, I must admit that title is very melodramatic compared to what I am in mourning about. 

In my previous post I talked about Joe waiting on another job and if he got a certain one I could possibly quit work (which, lets be honest I would much rather be at home then working, my dream has always been to be a stay-at-home mom).  Well the good news is he got the manager position that we were really hoping that he would get.  The bad news is they did not offer enough money for me to be able to quit.  I would still have to work part time even with him working this new job.  I was ok with that.  A little bummed but part time is definetly much better than full time.  So last Thursday I told my boss that I would be going part time, and let me tell you it felt fabulous.  It felt liberating!

So why am I mourning you might ask?  Friday (remember this is the day after I told my boss I would be part time) Joe found out he missed the time to sign up for benefits.  I currently am the one who gets the benefits.  There is no way that I can go to part time until January when his benefits will kick in.  Now I have to go and tell my boss "Just kidding, you thought I was going part time and so did I BUT not so".  Now I have to mentally prepare myself to be working this much until January.  It is really hard.  Especially since I was so excited to cut down on my hours.  Oh well.  I know that life could be worse.  At least I have a job. 

Waiting

If anyone knows me, they should probably know that I am the most impatient person in the world.  Patience is a virtue that I do not hold, nor do I ever have hope of acquiring. 

Heck, I'm so impatient that when Joe and I were dating I had told him that he had to propose to me by a certain date.  When I want something, I do not want to wait.  But we all know that that is not the way that life rolls.  There are so many times when we have to wait for what we want.  We are told that it builds character.  Well screw character.  I don't want to wait.

You might wonder what I am waiting for....well, a lot.  For starters, Joe and I are buying a house!!!  Yay!  I guess I should clarify we are buying a townhome.  But it is still better than living in an apartment.  We are moving to Daybreak and I can't be more excited.  From the first time that I visited the Daybreak community I fell in love.  I knew that if Utah was going to be our home that is where I wanted to live.  It is being built right now and was supposed to be ready Aug 1.  Since the house isn't even framed yet there is no way that it will be ready in Aug.  We are really hoping it will be ready before Sept 21 when our lease runs out.  I want to be out of our apartment NOW, I want to have a place that I can truly make our home and feel settled. 

That isn't even the thing I'm anticipating the most.  The thing that has me in a tizzy is Joe's job.  In order to really explain this I feel I need to give some background.  We have always thought that Joe would go to grad school.  In order for him to do that there are things that he needs to do to get into grad school.  In order for that to happen I needed to find a job that paid a lot more and I would work 40 hours a week to be the main provider for the family.  Back in Feb I started looking for jobs.  Since then I have had 2 job interviews.  Yes, only 2 and both times I felt awful and that neither was the job for me.  A little over a month ago this got us thinking and wondering if perhaps this was not the avenue for our family.  Maybe I needed to stay home and we put off grad school.  Once we made that decision we both felt so good.  We know that at this time I need to be spending more time at home with the kids and with Joe.

In order for this to happen Joe needs to get paid a little more in his job.  He had a couple of job leads within his company.  One is a senior analyst and another is a manager.  He has already been offered the analyst position and with that one I can go part time.  However, if he gets the manager position there is a posibility of me being able to quit my job all together (can I get a What, What!!)  Joe has been through 4 interviews for the manager position.  On Friday June 28 they told him that they would tell him if he got the job or not the next week.  Well on Tuesday July 2 the head recruiter told him that she was going out of town and would be back on Monday and he would not get an answer until Monday July 8.  Yesterday, (Monday the 8th)  Joe talked to the recruiter and she told him he would find out either by that night or at latest today.  Well, it is almost 5pm and we still haven't heard anything.  WHAT THE HECK!!!!  If he isn't going to get the job, just let us know.  I am sick of being strung along right now.  If he is getting the job, I don't understand why they can't tell him.  I'm so sick of waiting, I just want to know.  I want to be able to move on.  For someone who has VERY little patience this is driving me CRAZY. 

Quite franckly I think Joe is sick of hearing me talk/nag him about when we are going to find out.  I don't know how to just let things go and not get uptight about it.  So I am stuck, and I am driving my husband crazy in the process.  One day we will have an answer, hopefully tomorrow, but I shouldn't count on it.  Until then, I will just keep waiting............     

Burdens

I work at Huntsman Cancer Hospital in the ICU.  I am not a nurse.  I am what is called the Health Unit Coordinator.  Even though I don't work directly with patients I see them every day, I hear their stories.  There are a lot of deaths here at work.  Most of the time I am able to stay disconnected, but not today. 

I came into work to find out that not even an hour after a patient was admitted, she died.  She was in her mid thirties.  She had been here before and I recognized her husband.  She was traveling from a ways away and was coming into the hospital today to get chemo.  Instead a routine visit turned into her last day of life.  Cancer sucks.  What really got me was when her family was finally able to get here (hours after her passing), she had young children.  As they were leaving her son probably about 4 or 5 said to his dad "we were just saying bye-bye to mommy".  I must admit I started crying.  No young child should be saying good-bye to their mommy.  I thought of my own children, I thought of Joe.  I thought, what if that was my family.  How can a father explain to young children that mommy has just died? 

My heart aches for this family that I don't know.  I pray that the father will have strength to bear this burden.  I pray that those children will know that their mommy loves them.  I know this because I know of the love that I have for my children. 

We all have burdens.  Mine are different from yours but we each have something that makes our heart heavy.  I don't understand why some have to bear certain burdens but I am comforted in my knowledge of our Savior.  I know he lived and died for us.  I know that without him there would be no hope.

(This doesn't even show what I am truly feeling but I had to write something right now, while I am feeling it.  My emotions needed to be written.)     
 

I have a blog post in the works but it is taking a little bit longer to write.  It is something that I need to make sure is written well and I can't just do that on a whim.  To hold us all over, I am going to post some pictures that Adrianna has taken for me.

 I love this picture of Joe and Owen!  They are both so handsome. 

 Cutest little pigtails ever!  This is a fairly decent family picture.  It is nice to get those, especially as the kids are growing up so fast.  I love Owen with his baseball bat, I think he has a future!  At least he already knows how to pose with the bat. 

 Grandpa Keyes loves to take the kids to the dollar store.  This is from my birthday and Owen is checking out his options.

I just love Kenzie's smile.  I truly am so lucky to be blessed with these two beautiful children. 

Joe= Awesome!

My last two posts were about my beautiful children.  It only feels fitting to make this post about my wonderful husband.  I feel that I often nag and don't give him the credit that he deserves.  I tell him, I want him done with school, I'm sick of waiting for him to figure out getting into a master's program, we need to lose weight, we shouldn't be so hard on the kids, blah, blah, blah.  Enough already!  He needs to know that I apprecieate him.

Here is a short list of why my husband is wonderful:

* About once a month (sometimes more) he will bring dinner to me while I am working.  He is so awesome to take the time out to do that so that we can see each other.

* He cleans the house more than I do!

* He is a great cook, he makes some great fajitas.

* He pays all of our bills (before we got married I told him that I am awful at paying bills and he has followed through and made sure to get those all paid on time).

* He folds the laundry.  I hate folding laundry and he will do it for me.

* The other night I was making dinner and he asked me if the kids had had a bath that day.  I told him no and the next thing I know he has both the kids in the bath.

* He gets up in the middle of the night with the kids even though he has to be at work by 6:30.

* Every night Joe lays with Owen so Owen can fall asleep (for some reason Owen will not fall asleep without someone laying with him.  Probably a bad habit, or he is really afraid of something but hasn't told us what it is yet).

* Joe is very patient

* He teaches me math and he knows that I expect him to teach the children math (I really struggle with math).

* He will rub my back even if he has had a hard day and needs it more, he will still do it for me.

* Joe gets the kids ready for church.  When Owen has nice combed hair, it's because Joe got him ready, not me.

* Every night Joe makes sure that he prays with the kids and reads scriptures to them.

* While working  and being a husband and father he was able to get his bachelor's degree in Psychology.  He still plans on getting a master's degree. 

*He goes along with many of my crazy ideas and doesn't complain.

*Joe spoils me.

* Joe knows that one of my biggest dreams is to own a house.  He is making that possible this year.  We are buying a townhome in Daybreak, UT.  I'm beyond ecstatic! 

* Along the same lines of the comment above, Joe knows what my hopes a dreams are and he has helped fulfill many of them.  He knows the secrets of my heart. 

* Joe lifts me up when I am down.  He loves me like no one has ever loved me before. 

These aren't the only reasons why he is wonderful, but they will do for now.