Saying Goodbye to our friends

 Shortly after we moved to Meridian, we met the Cardon family and they quickly became our best friends! It's not often that you meet a whole family where the kids get along and the husband and wife both enjoy the other couple's company too. Lauren and I would get together once a week for a playdate with our non-school aged kids during the week and twice a week in the summer. We'd have playdates at each other's houses, visit every park in the city, go to the river, play at the library, etc. We've gone to the zoo, the birds of prey center, and Sandy Point as families on the weekends. We created annual traditions of Halloween and Christmas parties, as well as a double date to the pumpkin patch/corn maze every fall. Our kids have grown together and so have we. 

As many people are experiencing, including Nic, the work environment changed during Covid and some businesses closed their doors and made the transition to working from home a permanent one. This is what happened with Spencer's job which opened the opportunity for them to live anywhere they wanted. Their dream has been to have land and fruit trees so they bought a home in Shelly and we helped them move on Friday. Not before one last Saturday spent together at Sandy Point the weekend before though ...

Our two Liam's together! 

They chased the geese with squirt guns all morning! haha

And even found some tadpoles in the shallow water ...

Liam was determined to unearth this root until he realized it was connected to a whole bunch more and went a lot deeper than that tiny shovel would allow him to dig to very quickly ...

No falling off the turtle today which is cause for that big grin on her face! She doesn't like getting wet unless it is on her own terms. haha Boy will she have an experience at her first swimming lessons this next week!

Lauren and Griff on a kayak ride together ... our kids are begging us to get one of these!

All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth!

Lyla did fall off the kayak while riding with Ephriam ... she didn't understand that she needed to keep her body weight in the center and kept leaning to the right. She was NOT happy!

Super dad to the rescue! He pulled her around while she laid on the back of the kayak like this instead ...

Like a big kid on that tube with a paddle! haha

Nic also made this cute fish with a moat around it for the kids!

Man I'll miss this girl! It's friendships like these ones that are the worth every bit of the extra effort when you live long distance. Time to make new traditions together. <3

June

 Well, thank goodness for semi-waterproof phones these days because I dropped it in the lake this morning and fingers crossed, it is still working! Especially because I haven't gotten all of the videos and pictures from the last month off of it yet. 

Here are some June favorites ...

 Lyla suddenly became obsessed with wearing Uncle Brendan's old football jersey. It goes down to her ankles and is the cutest on her! She is my coordinated athletic one and has the best hand-eye. Can't wait to get her in her first soccer season for the fall and maybe she'll be interested in trying flag football in the next year or two?!

More puzzles on a Sunday afternoon. ;)

From a hot morning at the playground ... this particular one has cool animals and critters carved into the rocks to find! 

Man she's cute!!!

Passed my dreaded glucose test last month! It always feels so good to check off that box of pregnancy. It gives me the worst headache and shakes afterwards. 

This year versus two years ago ...

I took a three credit professional development class for my teaching recertification in May and June and man did it teach me to be so grateful that Nic and I finished our degrees before having children. It took a major toll mentally and emotionally on me until I got it completed. If I tried working on it after the kids went to bed, it kept me up all night thinking about the task I was working on but if I tried to work on it during quiet time, I was interrupted every 5 minutes for snacks, potty help, switching a movie, etc. and I never really made any real progress. So thankful to have it behind me! One more class sometime in the next year and I'll be good for another 5 years. Just need to get over my PTSD before I start the next one. haha

The sweetest neighbor brought me this vase filled with beautiful peonies from her garden! It lived on my counter for one day before everyone in my family noticed spiders coming from the petals and crawling across the countertop and it was banned from the kitchen. haha 

We finally went back to church in person after watching from home for over a year! Liam grew so much his tie is a foot too short and Lyla is no longer in nursery anymore! 

It's amazing what a small change can do to a space ... I got these citrus stems from Target and they make me smile every time I walk past our entryway!

New birthday slippers have been heaven for my pregnant swollen feet!

Our Christmas Card & Letter 2020

I didn't send a Christmas letter with our card this year but if I did this is what it would have said. 

Merry Christmas!! We hope during this crazy year that this note finds you healthy and well. Like many of you, 2020 definitely looked different for our family but it taught us to cherish the one thing that is most important in the world, time together. Liam's last year of preschool was cut short in March and I became a full time teacher to two at home through the end of May. Our classroom was filled with walks and bike rides around the neighborhood having the hardest time not going to the parks while they were closed, doing Cosmic Kids Yoga in the living room, learning letters, numbers, colors, and shapes at the kitchen table with endless art supplies, experiencing virtual Disneyland rides on YouTube, building towers with magnet blocks, and so much more. The crazy thing is, I had prayed for just a little more quality time spent with Liam before sending him off to Kindergarten ... I didn't know what that would look like or what I was actually praying for in the moment ... but I learned it was this. It was getting to teach him his last few months of preschool and having him home every day with me. It was an answered prayer in the hardest but best way. 

In the summer we took our annual trip to Pocatello and Bear Lake. It is always one of the highlights of our year! Both of our kids have asked many times since when we get to go back. Other than that, summer was quiet. No swimming lessons, Roaring Springs passes, Children's Museum, etc. Instead, we spent many days with our blow up swimming pool splashing in our own backyard! We also transformed our yard this summer into a space we all love! We added a cozy sectional out there, a fire table for s'mores, a swing, beautiful flowers, trees, and shrubs we planted with our own two hands. We had a cement pad poured on the side of our home with our hand prints etched in it. 

In the fall, Lyla started her first year of preschool. She LOVES it and wishes she could go more than 2 days a week. She got her first haircut (bye bye baby mullet and hello baby bangs!), learned how to ride her hand-me-down balance bike like a champion, and was completely potty trained night and day by the end of the year!! Proud of that girl of ours!

Liam's school year started 100% online until slowly he went back every other day, to eventually the elementary schools opening full time. He is thriving in Kindergarten ... reading above grade level and making all kinds of new friends! His dream of riding the bus came true, too! He learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels this summer and is the such a good example to those around him at school. We are so grateful for him!

Nic has spent the better part of a year working from a home office! It has not come without its challenges but we love getting to see him more often and spend every lunch together! He has helped the hospital in so many ways through Covid and is officially the first member of our family to be vaccinated! He is always our rock emotionally and physically and he is helped complete more projects around our home this year than he probably cared to. haha We adore him!

Then there's me. Sometimes I struggle to see the difference I make around here until I get sick or something and see many of the plates I keep spinning in the air fall. Then I realize one of my truly greatest strengths is juggling ... schedules, schools, laundry, meals, emotions ... haha! It's a real art! ;) Jokes aside, I our kid's schooling and our home were my labors of love this year. I transformed our kids bedrooms into places that make them both smile and gave me a creative outlet that I really love to express. I finally found answers to the source of the headaches and pain I'd been experiencing for over 2 years and feel relieved to say that I now have coping mechanisms in place to keep it really well managed. It has been a huge blessing!!! 

So you see, 2020 really was filled with a lot of blessings. No matter how many things were canceled or closed, times when we couldn't see family and friends, masks we had to wear, or bottles of hand sanitizer we went through to try and stay healthy. I hope you can see the blessings from your year too. They are there and I know it is thanks to a Savior who is watching over all of us, especially during hard times. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We love you!

Nic, Meagan, Liam, and Lyla

Boo's & Boom's of September

Hi!!

I currently have 8 drafts of posts I want to share ... so many things and so little time! Lyla naps about 30% of the time now and when I do get down time, I usually spend it with Nic, getting lost on Pinterest with fun house projects swimming in my mind, or in the case of this month, making our Halloween costumes (which I can hardly wait to wear for the first time next weekend! I love a good family theme and I got everyone to agree on one this year!).

October is flying by which makes me so sad because these have been some of the best weeks of the year! I am thankful that our family is healthy and we can enjoy our favorite fall activities because September wasn't always the luckiest month for us this year. Ear infections, the flu for everyone all in one week, colds, etc. We stayed home a lot of the month and I never once pulled out my big camera, just my phone for a few pictures here and there.

One of my favorite bloggers used to do a post on the boo's (bad things that happen) & boom's (things to celebrate) in her family's life and our month of September fit perfectly into this theme so I wanted to give it a try ...

B O O ' S    O F   S E P T E M B E R

I've heard great things about the supplement tumeric and am willing to give anything a try for my headaches at this point but I bought the powder version from Costco because it was cheaper thinking I could just mix it into green smoothies and not only does it have an incredibly strong taste but it dies anything it touches STRAIGHT ORANGE! I was worried about our teeth so I had plans to return it to Costco. The day I attempted the return line was out the door and I absolutely wasn't waiting in it with 2 children so I bought the capsule kind and brought it back home to return another day. As I was carrying in the groceries, Lyla came along and knocked the pile of groceries over and a box of applesauce crushed the container on my kitchen floor. It died my floor, my door, my walls, my baseboards, my hands. There were tears, lots of scrubbing, painting of the wall, door, and trim, and a container that never got returned ...

The sickness I mentioned above combined with no sleep and trips to and from preschool made for ROUGH car rides. I got the genius idea of bringing along her blankie and melted over these sweet and silly faces she gave me ...

But most of the time it was screaming or this (only to get home and have her not transfer well resulting in a 10 minute nap for the day) ...

Then Liam got sick too and fell asleep in the car with her, poor babies. I sat in my parked car in the garage for 30 minutes to give me them some rest after a loooooong day.

One of a couple trips to the doctor for the month ... this one was for her 2 year wellness visit and we were back the next week for her 3rd ear infection this year ...

Man she's cute!!!

Kids are so hard to get to slow down, even when they are sick, but I did soak in extra snuggle time when they would get tired enough and give in ...

Then there was the week of the family flu ... I have no pictures from that week but I'll never forget it and I'm sure it won't be the last time I experience it either. Liam started throwing up Tuesday night at 9 pm and it happened every 10 to 30 minutes all the way until 4:30 am the next morning. I felt so awful for him, it was so sad to see him so sick. Lyla got it the very next morning. I had it by Thursday night and Nic got it Friday. It's so hard to take care of kids while being sick yourself but we survived and am so thankful to be saying goodbye to that part of September and back to school season!

B O O M ' S    O F    S E P T E M B E R

A little girl at church has a birthday the week before Lyla's and had a tragic event happen in her family so they wanted to make it extra special. They filled the nursery with streamers, balloons, and cupcakes, and Lyla came out beaming as if she were the birthday girl!

Seeing her joy as we set up her baby doll party ...

Being silly with my little momma! haha

Giving her one of her favorite things on her birthday ... a ride down the drive way in daddy's "beep beep"!

Feeling well enough to visit the park and enjoy the last little bit of nice weather ...

Taking her baby and puppy for a walk!

Knockin' 'em back!

Decorating for Halloween a little early with the kids ...

Having a piano in my home ...

Hanging family pictures on our walls ...

Lyla's pony tail ... will by my favorite FOREVER!!!

This cutie and his love for his glow-in-the-dark ghost sweatshirt ...

Having 2 toy rooms at home to play in together and to store everything ... HEAVEN!

Giggling at each other with silly Instagram filters on our faces ...

Bath time!