Happy

Yesterday we went on our walk finally--the last few days/weeks it has rained the whole day! Then 6pm hits and it's dinner, baths and bed. So we were all pretty excited to get outside yesterday. Crew loves puddles so much. He brought a paper that he rolled up and claimed it was his "treasure." So he was pretty happy to be jumping in those puddles with his keys and treasure in hand. Oh to be little again. Miss Laney has been a serious grumpy girl lately too! I think that her teething and next to no sleep is starting to take a toll on her (all of us) so she was happy to be outside, but still whined during it. I love watching them play together, but mostly they are fighting. Laney can scream pretty loud and when Crew takes a toy away, she screams and looks at me as if she wants me to get in the middle of it. They can be pretty cute together too though. Crew can make her giggle so hard, and when she laughs, he giggles his head off. He still hates when she has to go take naps (which she is fighting so hard these days.) Why do my kids just not sleep that well? I'll never know. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Photography has been on my mind so much lately. I'm learning to become more patient with it. I know what I want my style to be and the end product...but getting there is taking much longer than I thought. I also picked a very expensive hobby so that's why it's taking forever too. Nowadays I feel that getting a dslr camera is so accessible and that everyone is trying to become a photographer! Which is great because we can all help each other...or I wish that's how more people saw it. I follow this photographer who posts all of their photos and then says, "feel free to ask any questions, this is not a competition." I just love that. I love that we have apps for editing pictures now, or millions of tutorials online to help us become better editors or photographers, but it also makes me appreciate the long-time artists or photographers who didn't have all of that back then. They had to learn everything on their own with next to no help from the internet or others around them. I'm hoping that once I get to Utah to visit my family that I will have a lot of time to practice.

We are selling our Utah house this weekend too! What a giant blessing. Everything is under contract and our old renters are moving out on Monday. A big part of me is a little bummed that I never got to fully enjoy the house or the darn island that we worked so hard to put in, but now we are a step closer to buying a house in Arizona within the next year. Hopefully. Staying in Arizona will mean that Alex will be traveling to Utah a lot, but it won't be as hard on me because we have so much family there now to hang out with. So so excited about that. I think about the job that brought us to Arizona and I am so thankful for that experience. Ever since we got married we knew we wanted to move back there and raise our family there. Things happened and we bought the Utah house, and were a little sad that we wouldn't make it to AZ quickly. If it wasn't for the job--we would still be in Utah and wouldn't have an exact timeline on when we would make that big move. So hooray for solar pulling us there! Alex is doing so much better this year in alarms and comes home excited to tell me about his day. This is the first year that we have done things "right" in alarms! Last year was a complete mess, and we were on the 3rd floor of the apartments so I had a bad attitude about that haha This year we are on the first floor and the apartments are a lot nicer. It's funny how things like that can instantly change my mood about the job. (and I'm not pregnant so that makes things so much easier over summers) When we went to Cancun we were around of a lot of couples who had older kids who did this job. At first I didn't think they existed...but they do! I obviously hope that we are not doing this job when our kids are older, but if that's the case, then we have some tips and tricks to help us get through the summers.

Crew is doing well with potty training still. He just cracks us up! He reminds me so much of his dad...they are both going to give me a run for my money when Crew gets older!

We fly to Utah on Tuesday for S I X weeks. Pray we make it that long, and pray that we make it during that flight. I paid a lot of money for a direct flight, so at least we won't have layovers. That would be horrible with the two kiddos. I am so excited to go though. My mom added me to her gym pass for those weeks so at least I'll have someone to make me work out! That will change the whole trip for the better. Ellie turns 13 (whaaaat!) when I am there so that will be so fun. I just can't believe how grown up all of my siblings are!