Long summer, Anniversary, and Birthday :)

It has been a month and I have so much to tell you all :) So...The last few weeks have pretty much been a blur to me. I have had little time to do any blogging because I have been busy with family and my business.

The first weekend in Aug was busy. I had a wedding to do that weekend so I didn't get to spend much time with Nathan. Lucky for Nathan his super cool aunt and uncle took care of him. Tami and Jon were so helpful to me this summer. I am so thankful for them. Sadly he ended up getting sick and spent a couple of rough nights with an upset stomach. This was due to the fact that he cut his first teeth! He is now proficient at biting me:)

The next weekend came upon us with a vengeance because it was so busy. First off Jake came home late on Thursday night. We were super excited because it would be his last short weekend trip. Next Jon and Tami made the big move to their new apartment. They are expecting a baby here in another couple of months and they needed a little more room. We had a fun day helping them out and spending time with the family. The next day Jake and I headed to Burley Idaho to do another wedding. Jake was sweet because he didn't have to come but he wanted to spend some time with me and give me some extra help. It was needed. I was super tired by the end of the night and I can't imagine what I would have done if I would have been required to drive home at the end of the night.

The next week was pretty much a blur. Jake went back to finish his final 3 days of his internship. I had baby pictures, engagments, and 2 weddings that week. I spend Monday and Tuesday running all around the valley taking pictures and meeting people for business related things. Jake FINALLY CAME HOME FOR GOOD on Wednesday night! This was just in time for a 3 day stint of weddings. I was so exhausted by Saturday that I sadly got sick. Thankfully I have fully recovered but it was a miserable couple of days. Jake was my hero. He took care of me and Nathan all weekend.









During that week Jake and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Unfortunately we were not together because her was still in Elko. We have decided that we will have a night out together in a month or two to make up for it:)

After all of the craziness we spent a week of recovery and preparation for school. I have done stuff for work and I have picture sessions almost every week. Thankfully wedding season is over for me and I am now down to 1 a month. The money is nice but the stress was high. It is going to a good cause though. We are hoping to buy a house next year. This summer has surely set us on a good course:)

Last week we spent some time up at the cabin with some of our friends. It was really nice. It was our last summer getaway. We had a BBQ and played games late into the night. It was fun to do this since our summer was so caught up with both of our jobs. I can't believe I am saying this but I am happy school has started again. It means we are all together.

Alright so I started writing this post early last week and unfortunately I didn't get the chance to finish it up so this is super long. I am almost done though. The big event of this week was Nathan's 1st birthday. We had a wonderful party and We had a great time. We had a BBQ and I make cakes and cupcakes for everyone. Most all of our families were here. Sadly my mom has been sick and in the hospital so she could not be here for it. I am posting some pictures for her so she can see how the day went. Nathan...we love you. We are so happy you have come into our life. You are the sweetest little monster in the world:)








These are just a few fun pictures we have taken this past month. Nathan has started walking and talking. It has truely been a blessed few weeks.



Go Ute's

Some of July :)

So a ton of thing have been going on but I haven't been able to post anything. Between family, business and laziness I just haven't spent time blogging. So here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

First...July 4th...sadly I don't have much. We did new family pictures that day. I used the one of Jake and Nathan on the last post. That was the biggest thing that day. We spent the afternoon and early evening with the Cefalo family. Unfortunately Nathan wasn't feeling well and had an ear ache. As we were getting ready for fireworks he vomited all over me. So that made the decision to go home pretty easy. Thankfully he had been feeling much better and he recovered after a round of antibiotics.



The next week was a busy week for Nathan and I. Jake headed back to Elko for his internship but thankfully the week flew because I was working and we had 2 family reunions to attend. On Saturday morning we headed up to Logan with my mom and dad and Monty. We went to the Andrus family reunion. I was excited for this because I hadn't seen much of my extened family on that side for several year. I realized while I was there that the last reunion I attended was before my mission. It was funny because some of my second cousins didn't even know that I had been married. Here are a few pics of the day




Games




The Grandparents


Great uncle Alan


T-Guy

Me and the monster :)


The best part of the Andrus family reunion is the food...it was AMAZING!

In the afternoon we left Logan and headed to South Jordan. Grandma Ball turned 90 this month. The Ball family had a HUGE birthday party for her. I had the chance to get a pic of grandma and the whole fam damnly :)



Cute grandma Ball



The whole Ball clan.

The next weekend we had the chance to spend time with the whole Cefalo family. We headed up to Smith and Moorehouse and spent the night camping with the family. This was Nathans first time camping. I am happy to say he did very well. Jake and I were very proud of him. We spent some of our day down in Kamas at the city pool. It was wonderful. Nathan loves swimming. He enjoyed it so much that Jake even took him down the slide.



This is the slide they went on. He is a brave little boy:)












We have had several other adventures that I will try to talk about. It is now after 1:00 in the morning and I need to go to sleep. The last thing I will do for you all is post some of my favorite pic I have taken of Nathan lately. I usually go out a couple of times a week and take pics of him...I know...but at least his life will be well documented.

P.S. Sorry about the different pic sizes. Some were already uploaded to photobucket and others were not. I didn't want to spend the time uploading pics :) Love you all.

My Boy's

So as many of you know I am kind of living the single mom life right now. Jake has been making a huge sacrifice and he has been working out of state for the summer. This has not been easy on any of us. We are making it through but I am not going to say I have liked a single moment of it. I think it is easy to forget how important family is. When you see each other every day you kind of go through the motions. When you are apart you realize what the other does for you. It is dramatic how different life is each day.

The biggest difference this summer has made to our family has been Nathan. He realizes very quickly when his dad leaves. There have been a few difficult fussy and clingy insecure weeks. Usually our mornings begin with Nathan waking up around 6:30 or so wanting to eat. Being a late night person I drag myself into his room and bring him into our bed. There he nurses for a few minutes and then we snuggle in for another hour or so until he wakes up for good. That is when he starts to move around to get our attention. He will jump onto my stomach and make his way over to Jake. There he will begin to slap Jake's face. Some mornings I will take Nathan out and we will play in the living room until dad wakes up. Other mornings dad has been taking him out so I can get a few more minutes. Usually this ends when Nathan gets fuzzy and wants one of us. Then we bring him back onto the bed and wake the other one up. This usually turns into a game where one comes running in with a squealing baby trying to scare the other. The saddest thing in the world is the morning after Jake leaves. Nathan wakes up and notices that his dad isn't in bed with us. He usually looks out the bedroom door expecting Jake to crawl in and attack. When he realizes this isn't going to happen he starts to play with me. But every so often I see him looking over towards the door hoping to see Jake.

Bed time has changed too. This can also be attributed to him teething right now (yes he cut his first tooth this past week:)) He had gotten so good with our nighttime schedule that I would just lay him down in his crib and give him a Binky. He would roll onto his side and call it a night. Now he just fights it. I have had several nights where I am sitting in the living room with an unhappy baby at 10:30. The other night he was so tired but he wouldn't go to bed. I finally put him in his room to cry it out. About 10 minutes later he stopped crying and I went in to check on him. He was asleep but it was the saddest thing in the world. He had fallen asleep sitting up. He was slouched over partially leaning on the side of the crib. He was totally asleep. I moved him onto his back and he didn't even make a peep. This happened again tonight but he had leaned all the way forward with his head leaning forward. I can't believe he sleeps like that. As soon as Jake gets home things seem to get a little easier. He goes down pretty well. I think this kind of stuff will continue as long as all of this change is happening.

I am not writing this for any pity. I recognize we a so blessed. We are so luck to be working and supporting our family. In a year we hope that we will be setteling into a new home in a new town. We have so much to look forward to. I just want you all to know how thankful I am for all of your support. I want Jake to know that I love him so much. I can't wait until he is home for good. I want Nathan to know that even on the worst days I can't imagine my life without him. All of the things I have ever wanted in life have been given to me. I want to thank the Lord for all of these wonderful blessings. Even for the lessons being learned at this time. I know we are stronger for doing this. I know there are others with much bigger problems. I am thankful for my simple and truly happy life. I love my boy's.

My Baby

Nathan is now 10 months old. I could never have imagined what this part of my life would bring me. Between dirty diapers, late nights, tantrums and crocodile tears I never would have thought I would be so happy. Little guy I want you to know that I love you so much. Even on your worst days life is better than it was before you were her.

Hearts,

Mom

Humburrgarrr

So this past Thursday I was really excited for Jake to come home for the weekend. I wanted to do something fun and special for him but I couldn't figure out what to do. Well as many of you know I am a total blog stalker and I spend way to much time on the internet. This usually prevents me from getting anything accomplished but the other day it helped with my dilemma.

My brother-in-law Jon came down to visit (he lives upstairs) and we were just chatting. That is when I went on to Bakerella. As soon as we saw her most recent project we just had to try it. I had actually see it before but Jon got so excited when he saw this that he said he would help me bake these little tasty treats for Jake. That way I could greet him with something fun when he got home:) So Here you are. The cutest hamburgers you have ever seen. They were actually super easy to make. I strongly recommend you try it.

Naughty Nathan

Someone learned how to scoot around this week. He also learned how to ope the drawer
This the the " oh crap I got caught" look
This is the "I am so damn cute I can get away with it" look :)
This is the stinker still laughing
This is just a cute one that I had to post because he has that little skunk smile that is up to trouble.


So if you couldn't tell Nathan is into a lot of mischief lately. He doesn't crawl but he scoots around on his cute little but and gets into all sorts of trouble. I am afraid of what my future holds with this child. I love you Nathan :)