Ten Happy Years

Today marks our ten year anniversary!

Over the past 10 years we've:

- lived in 7 different homes
- lived in 5 different states
- been blessed with 3 wonderful children
- earned 2 degrees - 1 bachelors, 1 PhD (+my bachelor's degree 4 days before our wedding)
- managed to complete 8 years of (seemingly never-ending) schooling
- had 0 fights

Ok, I'm lying on the last one, but we can say 0 fights that haven't been resolved, and that's what matters, right :)   Here's a little timeline of us over the years...

2003:  We met at a Taco Party through a mutual friend early in the year and were married in August:

(this was the night we met)

(our engagement picture)

2004 - Lived in Alaska for the summer; we went on a helicopter ride to see and walk on glaciers:

2005 - We became parents:

2006 - Mike graduated from BYU; we moved to Vegas for a year:

2007 - We became a family of four!  We moved to Texas to begin 5 years of graduate school.  This picture was taken the first month of graduate school and we were just realizing what we were in for!

2008 - Still in Texas.  Survived the first year of grad school.  Celebrated our 5 year anniversary with an overnight trip to Dallas to go to a Stealy Dan concert (I informed Mike on this trip that I would be in charge of our next milestone anniversary, which I was):

2009 - Still in Texas.  Somehow surviving grad school with 2 kids.  

Here we are at Steve & Ashley's wedding:

2010 - We became a quintessential American/Canadian family and adopted a dog.  This was a great year for us: school was relatively stress-free, the girls were pretty independent (meaning potty trained and talking), and over all just a fun year:

2011: We became a family of five! 

2012:  Mike (finally!) graduated with his PhD.  We moved to Maryland.  It was the first move where I felt like we had really established some roots as a family, and it was probably the hardest move I'd made since moving away from Calgary at age 15 (and I'd moved on average every year until moving our move to Texas 5 years previous).  I had this overwhelming feeling during that move that I was so glad that we were doing it as a family and that despite everything else changing, the five of us stick together.  It was a good feeling :)

2013:  10 years together!  We have a job.  Three kids.  A dog.  A house to live in.  And many many blessings.  10 years has brought us so many great things.  I'm also glad that we got a weekend away (pictures to come) to celebrate.  I am a lucky girl:

I love that picture of the two of us and will always remember what a beautiful weekend we had celebrating 10 years together.  But in reality, my life right now isn't sailboats and weekend vacations - not yet, at least :)  This picture below shows our current life a little more accurately, and characterizes the best things that these past 10 years have brought me.  I am thankful for the man that I married and the wonderful family we have together

(June): Elaina Gymnastics

Elaina and her friend, Kate

Bridges

Elaina and Kate on the last day

cute little gymnast!

waiting for her turn on the beam

(June): Erin Gymnastics

The girls have really enjoyed doing gymnastics this year.  It's their second year - their first was in Texas.  Both had a friend in their class, which made it fun - and easier for me since we could carpool!

My Nana was able to come watch one day

Erin and Neive at their Spring Fling Demonstration

At the Spring Fling parents were able to come watch them do a routine on each piece of equipment.  I'm including videos for grandparents' sake :)

(this one got cut off half way through)

(June): Author's Tea

Second Grade focuses a lot on writing, and so at the end of the year, they had an "Author's Tea" where the students would present some of their writings for their parents and classmates.  They could choose to share their autobiography, samplings of their poetry, narratives, or a research project.  Elaina chose to share her research project, which was about her favorite animals, dolphins.

It was fun to spend the afternoon with her at school

(May): Rock Creek Park

Memorial Day was the perfect kick off to summer for us!  A pool party & bbq in the morning, a hike through Rock Creek Park in the afternoon, and smores over the campfire at a friend's house that night!  Here are some picture of our hike at Rock Creek Park.  It is so pretty!  We're excited to explore that area some more.

(May): Road Construction

This was better than Disneyland - we had street pavers in our neighborhood all month long!!!  Isaac couldn't get enough of it.  He loves cars, trucks, trains, and anything that moves.  When they were working in front of our house, I had live entertainment for him out the living room window, and it was great!  When they were in other parts of the neighborhood, we'd go find them and just sit on the grass and watch, or sometimes we'd bring a picnic.  Isaac was in heaven.  The construction workers got to know us really well and would always wave, high five, and honk their loud horns just for him.  At one point one guys let him come and stand on the back of one of the machines as it moved along the street, but that was too much for Isaac, and made him nervous so he chose to just stand on the grass and watch from a distance instead

I couldn't even get him to take his eyes of the trucks for a picture.  It was so fun to see him get excited about all the trucks.  He would just point from one big truck to another, saying "whoa!!!  WHOA!!"  Even now when we drive down the street, he likes to point out the big trucks and say "WHOA!!"  It's pretty cute :)

(May): Happy Birthday to my little buddy

Isaac turned two in May, and as soon as that milestone birthday came along, he started showing it!  I actually mean that in a good way.  My Mom has always reminded me what a great age two is and it is true.  They want to be independent and start to really want to do things the rest of us can do, and I feel like something comes alive in a child at this age where they realize what they're capable of...but not really able to do it all.  And they realize that too.  Isaac still doesn't say very many words, so it's frustrating for him that he can't communicate what he wants.  But in his little eyes I can see that he realizes all the fun things that he can get into do.

Isaac loves his big sisters and wants to imitate them and be apart of what they do.  When I would pack lunches and help get backpacks ready in the morning he would grab a little lunch box and hand it to me to make one for him.  He just wants to carry around a lunch box, like his sisters.  He also wants to join in on everything the girls are doing with their friends and as soon as they run out to play, he grabs his shoes and wants to follow.  Since we don't have a fence, unfortunately he can't go unless I'm there, so sometimes he has to settle with just watching them from the window.  I know he sees himself as just as capable and independent as they are, but he's just not there..yet :(

He's decided he doesn't like a sippy cup, and wants to drink out of a regular cup, like the rest of us.  However, if he gets upset or doesn't want his drink anymore, he just dumps it upside down.  When he's mad he knows it will irritate me - and he's right!

A few things about Isaac:

TV Shows/Movies: 

Thomas (the Train) Movies, Cars (just a short film on Netflix that he watches over and over again), Blues Clues
*Isaac can't say much, but these are the only three shows he watches (they're on Netflix) and one thing he can tell me is that he wants to watch a show.  "Vroom" means he wants to watch the Cars movie, "Arf" means he wants to watch Blue's Clues, and "TaTis" means he wants to watch a Thomas movie.

Favorite toys:

Cars.
Trains.
Balls.
And that's about it.
(occasionally a puppy toy, blocks, or any variation of those two vehicles in the form of puzzles, stuffed animals or books)

Words Isaac could say at his birthday:
(not very many, and he actually just qualified for Speech Therapy, so that will start in a few weeks)

Tatis (Thomas the Train)
Arf (puppy)
Rawr (for anything that roars, and really any animal that isn't a puppy - turtle, monkey, elephant....)
MaMa
GoGo (this is what he calls Mike, and we're not sure why - he used to call him DaDa)
GoGo - this also refers to a motorcycle - because he thinks every motorcyclist is his Daddy
LuLu - this is what he calls Elaina
Lala - this is what he calls Erin
Na - cup
NaNa - Goodnight
Bubbo - Bubbles (and also the white dandelions that you blow - he thinks those are bubbles too)
Poopoo (when he has a poopy diaper)
Woawoa - Laura, his little playmate
Tata - Megan, his other little playmate
Nana - he has a Nana, but right now that's what he calls anyone that isn't one of the people whose names he can already say
Ca - Duck or Bird
Uh-Oh

Oh, and of course "Ni"...which means "No,"  We hear this one a lot.

He's a great little helper, and can do the following chores when asked:
"put your shoes away"
"throw this in the garbage"
"go get Millie's leash"
"let's go get in the car"
"close the door"

(May): Camping, Round Two

The day after we got home from our last camping trip (where we got rained out, and poured on all night long!), some friends from church approached Mike about going camping that upcoming weekend.  My response to Mike was, "I can't even think about another camping trip until I have the laundry finished from the last one!"  Well, luckily Monday is my laundry day, so it gave us 5 days to gear ourselves up for round 2!  Luckily this time there was no rain, and we went with two other families from our ward.  It was a lot of fun!

A cute two year old boy with a bucket on his head

Packing up!

Monkey in the trees

Elaina and Erin with their friends, Laura and Alyssa

The girls were great helpers with Issac.  They all had fun exploring

Why does every Dad have to do this?  Does it freak out every other Mom like it does me?

Hiking at Cunningham falls

Our family at the falls

My friend Sara took the girls up closer to the falls.  You can't tell from the picture, but they were up really high - it was quite the little hike for them!

Searching for rocks to throw into the stream

Isaac and his friend, Laura.  Right after this picture they both tripped and took a tumble.  He wasn't so smiley and flirty after that! :)

The kids wanted to do a silly picture at lunch.  What goofs!

All the kids.  3 families.  10 kids.  2 dogs.  We had a blast!