Some Pictures with Family

I thought Skye looked so cute sitting on the sink, getting her hair dried that I had to take a picture.
She loves playing on the lawn mower...

and in the car.

Here she is with Camille on Mother's Day, eating the sucker she got for my mom. My dad had asked her what she wanted to get Cookie for Mother's Day. After some thought, she said, "A sucker." So I let her pick out the sucker and in the following days, she kept saying that she hoped Cookie would share with her. And she did!

Papa finally took her for a ride on the lawn mower, but it was a bit too loud. She had her eyes shut most of the time with a nervous look on her face.

Rainbows

I think it was a couple of weeks ago that we saw this incredible rainbow in the sky. I've never seen anything like it.

A day or two later, we saw this double rainbow. (The second rainbow is pretty faint.)

Blogging Catch-Up

Life has been incredibly crazy and busy the last month or so. Even though we just got hit by some bad news (see previous post if you haven't already), we have been having some fun since we got to Utah, too. Skye loves going to Barnes Park to feed the ducks/geese/seagulls.
We've seen lots of cute, little baby ducks!

I got some pictures of seagulls, but decided they are actually pretty ugly birds. But this young one still had a hint of cuteness about it.

And of course Skye always has fun on the slides at the playground! The video below shows how loud and crazy those birds get at the prospect of a little bread thrown to them.

Deployment

Lance is being deployed to Afghanistan in January. I wanted to write my thoughts on the subject and why I'm so angry and depressed about it.

First, he's not even in the active national guard anymore. He's in the inactive national guard, also known as the ready reserves, and they're sending him off two months before he would have been completely done with all things national guard. I was always made to believe that they don't pull people out of the reserves unless it's an extreme emergency like world war 3 breaking out. This is where my anger comes from.

Next, I'm not just sad because I'm not going to see him for a year, but because it puts on hold all our dreams that we thought would be fulfilled after moving to Utah. We were going to buy our first house. We've looked at several and found some that we really liked and that we could see ourselves living in. I thought we'd finally be in our own home in a couple of months. House prices are still good and so are interest rates. Who knows what could happen in a year and a half.

Something else I was looking forward to was spending more quality time with Lance. Our relationship really struggled while I was suffering from postpartum depression and we knew we'd be getting more alone time together here thanks to the support of family and friends. We'll have a few months now and then suddenly he'll be ripped away.

The last things that makes me sad and angry is that it messes with our plans to have another baby. We wanted to try and get pregnant again next summer. We've put it off a bit because we thought that's what was best for our family, but neither of us want to put it off that much longer. And I certainly don't want to try and get pregnant right now so that I'll have a baby while he's gone. His deployment screws up all our plans and dreams. I think I have a right to be upset by this.

My mom reminded me of a talk Elder Wirthlin (I think) gave entitled, "Come What May and Love It." I know I can get through this trial, but I also know it's okay for me to be sad about it. Why does everyone think I need to just get over it immediately? It's a big deal. One of the reasons we were put on this earth was to experience sadness and sorrow. If we didn't feel those things, we wouldn't know what happiness and love even were and we be completely innocent like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. So let me feel sad for a little while and then I can know the happiness.

Sealings and Compliments

A couple of weeks ago, Lance's sister, Cori, got sealed to her husband, Dan, and they also had their daughter, Cami, sealed to them. I lost my temple recommend in our move so I wasn't able to be to the actual sealing, but Cori was glowing afterward! We are so happy for them! Here's a picture with more of the family.
Skye loved the flowers outside of the Mt. Timpanogos temple.

Of course, my favorite part of the whole experience was at my in-law's house before leaving. They had already left for the temple, but Skye and I were still there. Someone rang the doorbell so I decided to answer it. It was this young salesman and he asked me if my mom or dad were home! Ah, how I love to bask in that moment! Aparrently I look too young to have been the mom of the house! He he he he! Now that I'm getting closer to 30, I'll gladly take a comment like that as a compliment!

A Little Helper

Skye is a pretty good, little helper these days. She likes to help make food. She also loved helping Cookie plant flowers on one of those rare days it was actually nice.
She got to dig in the dirt and look for worms in the dirt. How fun is that?

She also got to carry the flowers out into the front yard.

And help put them in the holes she dug.

Oh yes, and of course she helped water them afterward.

Come Back, Srping

The weather in Utah has gotten cold, rainy, and gloomy again. Maybe posting some more pictures of flowers I took not too long ago on a sunny day will make me (and you) feel better! This is back behind my parent's yard.

Skye loves blowing the dandelions.