Life's Lessons Learned

I've been doing A LOT of thinking lately about my life as a mother and in general and I realize that over the past year, I have learned some very important things:

Good friends are irreplaceable!

I have a bad habit of taking friends for granted. Since moving away from all of my friends, I've learned that I need to cherish my friendships more and be a better friend too!

Ryan is my BEST Friend!

I've known this since I was 16 or 17, but it has become more evident over the last year and especially in the (almost) 6 months since we moved. I've learned that a marriage (and a friendship) is something you work on every single day and that it takes work on both sides. I'm just beginning to realize how much I need to work on, but one day I hope to be the kind of friend/spouse that he is to me!

And lastly I've learned...

My babies are miracles!!!!!

I have SO MANY regrets when it comes to my kids. I regret every time I rolled my eyes and whined when one of my babies woke me up in the night. I regret all the times I haven't played with them or simply just held them. I regret every time I have complained about them to friends, family, or whoever would listen. (I know that I will continue to complain because I am only human I just hope to do it less).

They aren't babies any more and everyday that passes they grow bigger and more independent. I have been wanting a baby for a year now and it just isn't happening. So much of this experience has been difficult for me. I hate that I constantly feel the need to justify why I am so upset about not being pregnant. While it is true that I do have 2 beautiful children, the prospect of not having more is still hard for me. For me, my two kids are the reason I want more. I love my kids more than any mother has ever loved her children ( I know every mother feels that) and I can't even begin to imagine not experiencing the miracle again. I know, I know, I'm being selfish when so many in this world don't have ANY children. I want to not feel this way, I want to feel satisfied, but I'm just not :). So I guess what I am trying to say through all of this rambling is that I've learned to cherish EVERY single moment I have with my kids because I might not get the chance to do it a third time.

Disclaimer: I don't mean IN ANY WAY to minimize those people who have real infertility problems. I will NEVER know the hurt that those women have gone through and I don't mean to put myself in the same boat as them. My doctor is optimistic that I will be able to have more. I am by nature an impatient person and that is my problem and I hope I haven't offended anyone with this post!

Disclaimer #2: I don't usually post these kind of personal things because I don't want you all to think that I am throwing myself a pity party, as I mentioned above, a lot of my hurt and frustration stems from my personality flaws (impatience, drama, anxiety, etc.) I simply felt the need to vent since part of moving included missing out on my weekly venting sessions (aka playgroup).

Carter is 4!!

How time flies!!! Carter turned 4 a couple of weeks ago and I can't believe he is already that old. Seems like just yesterday we were anticipating his {late} arrival. Now he is so independent. He is 4 going on 16 and it is such a bittersweet feeling for me. He has been my little buddy who makes me smile every day for so long and now he has decided that he doesn't need me around all of the time. It's sad to think that he might be the only little baby boy I get and he is so grown up, but at the same time it's so fun to watch him grow and learn. Happy Birthday Carter! I love you more than you know!

Carter's "birth" day

His new Buzz Lightyear bike!

Dinosaur legos!

Lego birthday cake

Birthday breakfast-pancakes yummy!

Another Update!

Nothing new or exceptionally exciting going on at the Lloyd household, but here are some little tidbits.

My baby girl turned 2!!!!! I can hardly believe it's been 2 years since this little princess joined our family! She is every bit the fiesty little girl she was born to be :).

Other than Rylee's bday, we haven't really done anything spectacular. Ryan's sister's family visited from Texas, but for some reason I don't have a single picture of the fun things we did. I am really bad at that.

Mostly we've just been hanging out at home...

And taking the occasional trip to the park.

The kids get bigger every day I swear and they regularly remind me that they are no longer babies. In Rylee's words, "I not a baby mommy, I Rylee Danny Lloyd!" They are so cute and fun and I am SO GRATEFUL for them and for Ryan!!!

Side note:I know some people have requested some pictures of our new house, but I am being selfish and waiting until we paint to post any.

Finally- AN UPDATE!!

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting a post from us, so here it goes :)! These pictures are backwards because I can't figure out how to rearrange them the way I want!

We spent the 24th of July with Ryan's parents. We had a BBQ, let the kids swim in her kiddie pool and then did sparklers. The pictures kind of speak for themselves...

We went to the fabulous Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. It was way hot until the sun went down, but it was so much fun!

Mostly since we moved, we have been spending A LOT of time at Bear Lake...

We have been having a great time this summer despite missing all of our friends like CRAZY!!!!! I didn't realize how much it would hurt to leave everyone, but I am trying to adjust and I love love love our new house and yard and I am trying hard to love our new ward too!! We are nursery teachers now, so we have made many friends under the age of 3! Hope everyone is having a great summer!!

PS Ryan and I ran our first 5k last weekend!!! WAHOO!!!!!! It was so fun and we will be doing it again.

Mother's Day and Moving!

Last weekend was both moving weekend and Mother's Day weekend. What a crazy/exciting weekend it was! We loaded up the moving truck and hit the road. It was REALLY sad to leave all our memories and friends behind. We unloaded our truck and then we began the unpacking process! Where in the world did we get all this stuff!??? Sunday was of course Mother's Day. Ryan spoke in our old ward (of course he did a GREAT job) then we headed to our "new" home where Ryan and the kids napped and I unpacked some. Later we had dinner at Ryan's parent's house and went to visit his Grandma Lloyd. It has been a crazy week, but hopefully things will get back to normal soon. We love our new house (sorry I haven't found the camera yet to take pictures) and we have met some of our neighbors. Thanks to all who have helped us in the moving process! We couldn't have done it without you!!!!

Side note on Mother's Day: This was my 5th Mother's Day since having kids (if I count the year I was pregnant with Carter). What a life changing 5 years it has been! Being a mom is both the hardest and greatest thing ever. I am so grateful for my mom and Ryan's mom and for the years they have devoted to being mothers. Until I became a mother myself, I didn't understand what a sacrifice it is! Thanks to all those moms (and moms to be) out there for being amazing and sticking with it!!

More Easter Pictures!

Here are more of our Easter pictures. They are in random order because I hate rearranging them :). We took lots and lots this year. We had a fun-filled weekend. It all started Friday. We headed up to Davis County for the inspection of our soon-to-be new house and stayed for the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Lloyd. We had a picnic on their lawn for dinner and then Grandma and Carter made Easter sugar cookies. Saturday morning we went to an Easter egg hunt with some of our playgroup friends (thanks to Jen for planning it). Saturday evening we colored Easter eggs. Carter loved this, Rylee just wanted to drink the dye :)!! Then Sunday morning the kids discovered their Easter baskets and after church we headed to Aunt Erika and Uncle Mark's house for Easter dinner and another egg hunt (courtesy of G & G Lloyd) with some of Ryan's side of the family. I had a hard time getting Carter to understand the true meaning of Easter, but I tried, maybe next year?!

Rylee in her Easter dress at Mark and Erika's.

This is her signature "cheesey smile"

Carter finding eggs at Mark and Erika's house

The finished products!

Coloring eggs with dad (notice Rylee's cute little stinker hand reachin for the cup of dye).

The Easter Bunny came!!!!!

Making cookies with Grandma Lloyd (notice Grandpa in the background making frosting for the first time! Good Job Grandpa!)

Eating the candy after the playgroup egg hunt

Some of our playgroup friends!

Rylee just wanted to swing

Some Easter Pictures!

These are pictures from our Easter Egg Hunt we did with our playgroup friends. It was FREEZING, but the kids had fun anyway! Rylee's little bottom lip was shivering the whole time. There are more pictures to come!!!

Change is good right??

Hey all! Just an update on the house situation. We "went under contract" on our condo last Friday. If all goes well (keep your fingers crossed), we will close on April 28th!! This means that we had to find a house within a week in order to have somewhere to go. Monday we headed up to Davis County and looked at 3 houses. The first one was ok, the third one was NOT ok, and the second one was "THE ONE"-- well at least we hope it is. We are waiting to hear if they have accepted our offer if they do, we will close on the new house on April 29th and we will be moved by the first of May! Are we excited? YES! Are we sad? YES! I've yet to figure out how to deal with having these two emotions at the same time, but we'll work through it and learn to love our new house, ward, neighborhood as much as we love this house, ward, neighborhood. Change is good, or at least that's what I keep telling myself :)!!!

Funny Things Carter Says...

Still nothing exciting or new to report, but I thought it would be fun to post some of the silly things Carter has said lately.

One day I was looking at houses on the internet, Carter sat down next to me and this is how our conversation went:
Carter: Hey mom what 'cha doin'?
Mom: Just looking at houses to buy
Carter: We should by Grandma Lloyd's house it's ALWAYS clean!

Ryan's mom recently gave Carter a cute new pair of shorts. When she pulled them out of the bag to show them to him, he responded with "Wow! A new skirt!"

One night at bed time he asked me if he could keep coloring and I responded with "actually it's time to go to bed." He looked me in the eyes and with a very adult-like voice he said "ACTUALLY it's not time to go to bed!"

He is so funny and keeps us on our toes everyday!

Just an Update

I haven't posted in a long time because we haven't really had anything exciting happening. Our condo is still for sale. We have had people looking at least once a week, but nothing yet. I am trying to be patient and think of the good things about living here: we love our ward and our friends, I love my wood floor, the park is really close by, etc. Carter is getting smarter every minute. He can sing all the words to "Eye of the Tiger." He also started Sunbeams in January and loves learning the new songs and coloring (he is AMAZING at coloring by the way). Rylee will be 18 months this Sunday. She has already started nursery and LOVES it, which is a relief because she is such a mommy's girl I didn't think she would go without me. She learns new words everyday and loves to boss people around! She has a little best friend named Sean and she loves to tell him "no no no Sean!" Ryan is still liking his job. I am keeping busy attempting to keep our house clean and entertaining the little ones. Hopefully next time I post, I'll at least have pictures to entertain you!!

Christmas Pictures...Finally!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. We didn't take that many because we mostly took videos, but here is what we do have!

Carter coloring with his uncle Cam!

Rylee hanging out with Aunt Erika

Future mommmy!

Carter enjoying his presents!

Opening the "car crasher" that I am happy to say he still enjoys playing with!!

2008 Top Ten!!!

These aren't necessarily in any kind of order. But here are the Top Ten things that happened in our family in 2008...

10. Ryan and I won a "Biggest Loser" competition!

I don't remember how much we lost, and frankly it doesn't matter because we're right back where we started, but it was great fun while it lasted :)!



9. We got to see Ryan's sister Jenni, her husband Todd, and their two kids Chase and Kayla 3 times this year (this is a lot because they live far away-practically in another country)! I guess Todd didn't come all of the times Jen did, but you get the idea :)!

All the cute kids together right before Christmas!

8. We remodeled our condo. This consisted of painting, new light fixtures, and installing laminate wood flooring in the kitchen, living room, and hallway. Unfortunately we have no before pictures, but here is my favorite one of a portion of the finished project. It's for sale now so hopefully part of my 2009 list will include moving into a house!!

7. Ryan's Grandpa Lloyd passed away. It was a very sad time for all of us but especially for Ryan and his family. He was such a great man who left a great legacy to all of his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

6. We had SEVERAL new members join both sides of our family this year. On the Lloyd side, Ryan's sister had a baby girl, Kayla, in March and his other sister married Mark in May. On the Nuttall side, my brother married Nichole in May, my sister married Allen in September, and my sister-in-law had a baby named Olivia in July. It has been quite a year for our family!!

5. Ryan got a new job working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a Project Coordinator! He is very happy and loves his job after many years of working at a job he hated, this was a huge blessing to our family.

4. We went on several family outings instead of doing a huge vacation. They included 4 trips to Bear Lake, 5 trips to St. George, Lagoon, and the zoo twice!!

3. Rylee turned 1 and started walking and attempting to talk. She can say a few words: mama, dada, der der (Carter), gama (grandma), gapa (grandpa), and a few others. Carter turned 3. He played itty bitty football and can talk 100 words a minute :). And I am pleased to announce that he is potty trained!!!!!!!!

2. Ryan graduated in April from UVU!! YEAH!!!!! I am so proud of him for hanging in there and working so hard!

1. We celebrated our 5th anniversary in June. I can hardly believe it's been 5 years already. Time flies when you're having fun!

(I stopped adding pictures to this list because I think it's a pain!! When I try to add one, it ALWAYS puts it at the top of the post and then I have to drag it where I want it and it ruins the formatting does anyone have any tips for me cause it drives me CRAZY!!!!!)

Gingerbread house??

Those of you who know me best know that I don't have many artistic talents.  I'm not creative at all but I tried to make a graham cracker version of a gingerbread house with the kids this week.  We affectionately call it our "Graham Cracker Shack."  The kids had fun and it's still standing.  It's a masterpiece in my opinion but I'm a little biased!!

5 Favorite Things

I was tagged by Lori to list my 5 favorite things. It's so hard to only pick 5 but here I go...
1. My family (all inclusive including extended and in-laws)
2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
3. A Really Good Book
4. Vacations!!!!!!!
5. Spending time with friends!!

I tag Courtney, Erika, and Jenni

Husband Tag!!

Answer the questions about your sweetheart…

*What is your husband’s name: Ryan David

*How long have you been married? 5 1/2 years (wow! he must be an awesome guy!)

*How long did you date? 5 years (counting the 2 years he was on his mission when I guess we weren't technically dating)

*How old is he? 27

*Who eats more sweets? both of us like them, but I LOVE them!

*Who said I love you first? I don't remember

*Who is taller? We are the same!

*Who can sing best? Ryan by far!

*Who is smarter? Ryan is again by far!!!

*Who does laundry? me!!

*Who pays bills? he makes the money, i write the checks

*Who sleeps on the right side? Ryan

*Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn, but if we did I'm sure it would be Ry

*Who cooks dinner? me most of the time, but Ryan is a better cook!

*Who drives? Ryan

*Who is first to admit they are wrong? ME! Because I'm usually the one who is wrong!

*Who kissed who first? Ryan I think it's been 10 years ago now!

*Who asked who out first? Ryan ask me out first.

*Who wears the pants? Ryan thinks I do, but I think he does, so you be the judge :)

LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH RY!!!!!