Mini Flashback

These pictures are kinda old but as I was going through pictures on my computer I thought they were too cute to skip so I'm going to add them any way! :) These were Myra's first year pictures that we got done at Fotofly in Draper. I highly recommend them if you're lookin' for a place to take your family.

 These first pictures turned out so great! I was worried that Myra would be clingy and wouldn't let me put her down but for the first backdrop she did great! She was laughing and giggling and had everyone Ooo-ing and Ahh-ing.

When we were ready to move to another spot I told the photographer that since she's starting to walk that I wanted to try to get some walking pictures. So we moved to the next spot and instead of me putting her down I could feel her gripping tighter! Her legs, her hands, her everything! I could not let her go! We tried everything and it all ended up in this-tears!

We got lucky with a couple other shots but none of them were of her walking, standing, or even smiling really. And I was next to her in all of them and the photographer kept them close enough that I obviously wasn't in them. *sigh* Thank heavens the first shots turned out so adorable!

 This was her last shot and it brings tears to my eyes every time. Love my sweet little girl...even if she did stress us all out for thirty minutes! :)

Look Ma, no hands!

As a Mom I say it over and over again, they grow up so fast! Pretty sure I said it just the other day as Myra stood up with no hands and then took six steps before she toppled over! Seriously, my baby, walking? Pretty sure I just brought her home from the hospital! But nope, sure enough it's been 11 months since that day came and gone. Now we're just 3 months away from that 12 month mark! 3 weeks from her own cake and ice cream, 3 weeks from her first big celebration, 3 weeks from no longer being my baby...3 weeks away from a lot of change! 

 Since Myra started taking all of those sweet little baby steps I have been trying desperately to get a picture of her standing on her own. Problem is she's either holding onto me so she's too close to take a good shot-

 Or, she's moving so much it's all just a bunch of fuzz-

 or she's got something' in her mouth! This one isn't too bad, she is clearly on her own two feet with no hands! Seriously, they grow up so fast (couldn't help it, it had to be said)-

 Other day I was giving Myra a bath and combing her hair and was realizing how long it was...long enough for maybe even little ponies? It took me some time to get them in but sure enough her hair is definitely long enough for ponies-

Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of her with the ponies in either...today's mission!

Finding a new me

This is me, you all know me. But I wanted to share something that has been on my mind for weeks now and I've just gotta get it out! So I felt like it took all of my college years to "find myself", figure out who I was and what kind of person I was. I found myself, accepted myself, and even grew to love myself. I enjoyed being the type of person I was. I continued to grow older, have more experiences, got married, did more years of college; I moved out of state, twice; had kids, bought a home, and started a small business. Most of you know that I started selling Mary Kay recently. It has been an amazing experience that I have really enjoyed. I have gotten to know so many amazing women and I am so grateful to have them apart of my life and helping me succeed! But on this new path I have heard them describe me and say what kind of person and personality I am and it had me shocked! It wasn't necessarily bad or wrong things but I was saying to myself, 'no, that's not who I am', 'no, I am not like that', 'really, this is so unlike me'. And it had me sad that they saw me as someone different than I saw myself. 
  I came home one day from a full day saying, 'who am I?' It had me really frustrated, it's been on my mind for weeks! I feel like as I've gotten older and had more responsibilities placed upon me (kids, house, house payments, etc) I have kind of lost myself as a person. Is this normal, does anyone else feel this way? Am I still the same person but have lost a bit of myself or have I changed all together? I realize that we're constantly changing and evolving but am I totally different person now? Can I still be the person that I accepted when I was in college or do I need to re-find myself and accept and fall in love with the new me all over again? And if that's the case how often do I need to do this? Talk about exhausting! It was hard enough to do in college on my own and now I have to do it all over again?
  Now I feel like I'm almost forcing myself to be the person I was to help find the person I used to be. I want other people to see me how I see me, but now I feel like I'm working too hard. I'm heartbroken that I'm nearing 30 and am feeling so lost. Any thoughts to share?

they're so big!

I don't know how it worked out so nicely but this fall when we went to get family pictures it worked out perfectly because Cason is just about 3 years old and Myra is right on 6 months, how awesome. We decided since our children are more beautiful and interesting than us to just get it to the kids and boy am I glad that I did. They turned out amazing! I wanted to post them all but knew it'd take too long so here's some of my favorites and I think I'll post the rest on Facebook. Enjoy!

 The best one of both of them-

 What a stud-

 Melts your heart, right?

 If that one didn't turn you into mush the next few will-

 Absolutely love and adore my beautiful children!



Lately-

Why is it so hard to blog? I have no idea! I always have good intentions to empty off the SD card onto the computer and then blog about stuff but it just never happens. "Blog" stays ono the to-do list for days at a time. *sigh*

Here's what we've been up to lately and some pictures that I've been dying to show off-

Can I just tell you how much Cason and Myra love each other? When it's time for Myra to wake up Cason comes in with me to get her every time and then after a diaper change he asks to hold her, every time. And Myra's sweet face lights up with a huge smile every time she sees Cason. And whenever he's being crazy and loud she watches him to see what he's up to. It's so fun. Here's an awesome shot I got of Cason reading to Myra. I love it because Myra is actually looking at the pictures (oh, and the little "lamp", as Cason calls it, in front of the book is on)-

 One day it was raining and Cason asked if he could get out the umbrella. By the time I went in a found one it had pretty much stopped raining but he still had fun walking around with an umbrella. Hopefully next time I'll be a little quicker...or the rain will last a little longer-

 Why do pictures do this?! It's always the best ones too so even though it's sideways I still had to include it because the picture is so adorable-

 Can you believe Myra is 6 months old now? She seems so big. Tummy time is no big these days and she's sitting up like a pro!

 As of right now she loves to eat. She makes a huge mess every day and most of her adorable outfits now have green and orange stains on them but as long as she's eating I guess, right? We've been adventurous and have given her watermelon, carrots, and also soft things. Here Trav decided to try a peach. She loved it! And practically sucked the thing dry-

 Like I said, sitting up like a pro-

 Cason started preschool. Here's the best shot I could get of him before we headed to the car for his first big day-

 Myra loves feeding herself. Here she's eating a Mum-Mum which she totally just loves. Every time I give her one I think 'This'll give me a good 15 minutes to clean up' but no, she finishes these things in just a couple of minutes-

 I started out having a hard time figuring out where to feed her at since she wasn't sitting up very good on her own. I tried a couple different places and by the time I was done figuring out the best place for her she was throwing a fit. I couldn't it help it though, I had to take the shot-

She was not happy with me and I even felt a little guilty about it but don't worry, I gave her lots of love as soon as I put the camera down. Instead of Cason taking a nap during Sacrament meeting on Sundays he now does it after church, which we've decided we're more than okay with- 

 While cooking dinner Cason makes 'towers' out of the cups and bowls from the cupboard and then he waits by the small window for Trav to come home while repeating, 'I see Daddy come home from work'. It is adorable-