Lucy Turns One

Every time one of our kids has a birthday we make them a slide show of their year. Here is a look at
Lucy's first year.


 
New Project - Large from brian nye on Vimeo.


I can't believe my little girl is one already, she is beautiful and I have enjoyed every day with my little girl.

Happy Birthday Lucy

Love,
Daddy

Goodbye Teacher!

After 8 wonderful years of teaching, I am changing careers; or rather, getting rid of one of my two careers so I can focus on the most important one. 

My days will now be filled with runny noses, laundry, milk spills, grocery stores, naptimes, dirty dishes, walks to the park, snacks, doctor checkups, time outs, and bills.
And I couldn't be happier about it!

A part of me will miss teaching. But I'm so glad that I had this past year to try to teach full-time while raising two small kids . . . because I think it cured me from ever wishing that I could do both! This past year was pretty difficult. 

So I am D-O-N-E. School finished last Thursday (May 30th). I said goodbye to my students at our end-of-year school dance:

And we said goodbye to our sweet babysitter:

On Friday, I officially checked out with the principal and I got the last few things cleaned out of my classroom . . . with some help:

Brian was there helping too-- he just didn't make it into the photos. And that's not all MY stuff in that photo, by the way. Another teacher was already moving into my classroom. I was pretty proud of how much stuff I was able to give away and throw away. I have one stack of boxes in our basement (floor to ceiling!) and one well-stocked pre-school corner in Porter's room. The other 90% of my teaching stuff is gone. It felt so nice to throw so much stuff out!

And while I am so happy about moving on to the next phase of my life, I couldn't help but tear up a bit when Brian gave me this on the morning of my last day of school:

It was a great 8 years!

Picky

When Porter was a baby he ate whatever whenever. He's a bit pickier now. He knows what he likes and is not very open to trying new things.

Here's his current list of favorites:
yogurt, mac & cheese, oatmeal, plain rice, plain spaghetti noodles, plain bread, cereal, peanut butter, waffles, pretzels, chips, crackers, strawberries, fruit leathers, fruit snacks, juice, milk.

He doesn't like to venture far from those items.

This week he was mostly into yogurt. The sneaky boy tried to pack his own lunch a few times!

St. George

About a month ago, we decided it was time for a new car. We found one we loved in St. George and decided to drive down and make a weekend out of it. We bought a car, hiked, shopped, napped, visited the temple, and ate yummy food. We only stayed over one night, but it was so nice to get away from our regular routine. Porter and Lucy didn't love staying in a hotel but overall, it was a good weekend.

I forgot my real camera, but luckily I remembered to capture some of our moments with my phone.

Here's our hike. Porter got to pet three horses on the trail and became fascinated with finding horse poop the rest of the time.

The following picture was taken just after his time-out for kicking dust at all the people we passed.

Porter's become a little photographer. While we think he's playing a game or watching a movie on our phones, he often goes to the camera and snaps a few photos for us. This one happens to have people in it. That's a blessing because we usually just discover twenty consecutive photos of his legs or the floor! This photo was taken just after we bought our new car. Way to help out with my goal to document every little moment, Porter!

Porter loves temples so we thought he'd enjoy eating lunch on the temple grounds. He did love it. It might not have been very reverent, but he ran and ran and ran all around the grounds. And since we had spent the entire morning driving and filling out paperwork, he definitely needed that!

Lucy was there too. You'll just have to trust me on that!

And here's our lovely hotel room. Porter and Lucy both were fussy about sleeping away from home. And truth be told, I didn't especially love sleeping in this hotel room either. But it was worth it to have some quality family time . . . and a new car that's not on the verge of death!

Brother-Sister

Porter and Lucy love eachother. He adores her. She idolizes him. I took this picture with my phone the other day as we were rushing to get to the babysitter's house. I know it's blurry, but it melts my heart each time I look at it!

Helpful Porter

During one of our crazy mornings last week, I asked Porter to give Lucy some of her "Lucy snacks" to help her stay happy while I tried to finish my makeup. Luckily I didn't take too much longer because when I went to check on Lucy myself, this is what I found:

Porter is a very helpful boy!

easter day

(I'm only putting this picture in to prove that Lucy did have a cute coordinating flower to go with her outfit . . . and shoes too, even thought they're not shown here. Unfortunately, we forgot all her accessories at home when we went out & about and this is the only photo to prove that she did have the whole ensemble!)

Easter day started with an egg hunt at home and a special Easter breakfast-- German pancakes with strawberries. Unfortunately, Porter had already filled up on candy and wouldn't eat a bite of breakfast.

After church, we headed up to Brian's parents' for their annual Easter dinner and egg hunt. Lucy was showered with tons of attention, Porter got to play with Toby-Dog and all of his cousins, Brian got to hide Easter eggs for his nieces/nephews in incredibly tricky spots, and I got to eat yummy food and soak in the nice sunshine. All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon!

The traditional cousin photo:

My favorite thing from this photo is cousin Carter turning around, making faces at Lucy to get her to stop crying. I love that our kids have cousins that are so sweet with them.

Lucy's egg hunt:

All eggs in a row, Aunt Kirsten (aka, the baby whisperer) helping her out so I can take pics.


 Porter AND Lucy loved the egg hunt. Lucy was so fascinated with the eggs!

Brian's mom usually does a coveted "golden egg" with money in it. But this year, to make sure no one felt bad, she made a "golden egg" for each grandchild. I was shocked to turn around and see Porter and Lucy exchanging cash!

And here's my favorite picture of the day:

happy easter

Our Easter festivities began yesterday with an egg hunt,

a terrifying visit with the Easter Bunny,

and dying and painting Easter eggs:

We were lucky to have Grandma & Grandpa and Uncle Derek join us. I've been so busy this week with teaching and conferences. It felt so nice to finally take a moment to focus on Easter. We had a fun day!

thirty

Source: here

Today I am 30. How on earth is that possible? I used to think thirty sounded mature and distinguished. However, this week has brought other thoughts. I remember my mom when she was in her thirties . . . and now I'm in that decade.  It's so strange.

I do admit that turning thirty isn't actually all that bad. I love the phase of life that I'm in. I love being a mommy. I love being a wife. I love being experienced in my career. I guess there are perks to being a real adult.

And since serious reflection is inevitable with such a big milestone, I have to say I'm grateful that I took advantage of each stage of life I've had so far. I've always tried hard to appreciate each age that I've approached and not waste time wishing I was in a different stage. Now I can look back and know that I fully appreciated and took advantage of each age. That's a nice feeling.

And while I may be approaching thirty with some trepidation, I do look forward to enjoying every moment this decade has to offer me as well.

I would have to say my goal for my thirties is to keep a better record of my life. I know I've loved and appreciated each stage, but I'm surprised how many details I've forgotten from my first 30 years. I certainly don't want to forget anything about these precious years I have with my sweet babies. So record-keeping is definitely my goal.

So here we go.

Yikes!

3 Days of Birthday

Back in January, we celebrated Porter's 3rd birthday. Since we had a 3-day weekend over his birthday, we decided we should celebrate for all 3 days. It was fun, but exhausting. We definitely won't do that again.

Saturday: Build-a-Bear and birthday dinner with Gma & Gpa Sudweeks & Aunt Dawnia.
Sunday: Nye family dinner- Gma & Gpa Nye turned it into a mini bday party for Porter, spent the night at Gma & Gpa's
Monday: Birthday breakfast, Childrens' Museum

After three days of celebrating, we were so happy to tear down the streamers and pop all the balloons. Three days is a long time. But we certainly love our sweet little 3-year-old.