Watching the storm blow in

Little Rhett loves loves loves to be outside.

Probably mostly because he loves when people walk their dogs in front of our house.

Yesterday we had an amazing summer storm.

I'm so grateful for our front porch so that we can watch these.

Every time the thunder rolled by,Rhett would put his hand on my leg, tense, then relax and clap.

Maybe he'll be a storm chaser when he grows up. 

For Dee-daw

There is a children's book titled Air Mail to the Moon that was a favorite in our home. Ora Mae Cotton is the little girl whom the story revolves around and she calls her father, dee-daw. I don't know why I thought of that as I sat down to type this, but it seemed fitting since this post is for my dee-daw.

Dear Dad,

I am now almost 26 1/2 years old. I have a baby, a husband, I big move coming up, a living room full of furniture  ready for the farmer's market, and sometimes I feel really nervous about what the upcoming future holds. But do you know what's funny? Whenever we need to make a decision or stubble upon a new situation, I automatically think to what you would do if you were here. Truly. I know that I can always trust your advice to be sound. I know that you will always live with integrity. And I always know that you will put other's wants before your needs.

I know that you love my mom. I know that you almost sacrificed your sanity to earn your Ph.D so that you could provide a full life for us. I wish I still had that copy you gave each of us when you finished your dissertation because I know it would mean more to me now. I know that you have a real relationship with Heavenly Father and that you turn to Him to help you be a father. This has been an example to me and Jake as we became parents.

I know that you have given up things you enjoy like playing golf, to have more time and resources for us. I know you always ask for peace and hugs for Christmas and if that's all you got you really would be happy. I know that you spent 2 hours preparing a meal for Ginger because you want to make sure that she is getting the best treatment...even though she's a cat. I know that you love Rhett and hearing how he is growing and learning.

I hope that you know I love you so much. I hope you know how much I respect you. I hope you know I chose to marry Jake in part because I saw qualities in him that I knew you had so I felt safe that he would be a great husband and father.

Happy Father's Day dee-daw! See you soon.

Julia

Le Bucket List

Before we leave Provo for Gilbert (which we have been told is like little Provo) we have a few things we want  to do for the first time and in some cases do again. 

We've divided our bucket list into 2 categories, food and activities. 

Food

Siegfrieds

Gandolfos

Café Rio

Zupas

Burger Supreme

India Palace

Goodwood

Communal

Walk to 7-11 and get a slurpee (classy right?)

Activities

Jump on It

Lagoon

Hike Timp

Hike over the Y

Nickelcade

Riverwoods surf place

Farmer’s Market*

Temple Square

7 Peaks

Make out in the library

Bike Provo River trail

MTC

Provo Temple

Park City

Go to the Quarry

Starmill Antiques

(The best part of this one is that we will be part of it this year with a shop for my furniture!)*

If you have any suggestions about places we should try let us know!

Oh you crazy in-laws

I absoultey LOVE my in-laws. 

I would go see them every month if I could (even without Jake). 

Last time we saw them we did have a slight incident of sorts.

My in-laws (and husband) know that I really don't like the word moist.

Something about it just makes the skin between my fingers feel gross. 

Blah.

So anyway, one evening they kept saying it over and over again to bug me.

So I might have poured less than half of a water bottle on my in-laws to make them...moist.

(It really wasn't that much water)

And how did they retaliate?

They put me in the shower. 

Yes, they really did.

But we still love each other. :)

 I'm planning my retaliation at Thanksgiving. :)

Furniture blog $25 cash giveaway

So on my furniture blog I'm doing a $25 cash giveaway.

Go here to check it out! 

Faces I'm going to miss

The Barlows

The Kings

The Cranes

The Havicans

The Johnsons

The Pretes

The Von Niedas

It hit me on Sunday that we are really moving. 

Away from all of our amazing friends who we have been so grateful to know.

Why can't we all just buy a whole neighborhood and be have our kids grow up together?

Please?

Month 10

Dear Rhett Rhett,
10 months ago I thought we would never live to see this day. Our first night home we spent the laying on the floor with you on our chests because if we put you down you cried. And now you are crying yourself to sleep because you are so past tired. Oh how things change.

You are such a little boy. You love all things ball, eat like a horse, love to be chased, wrestled, and you don't hold still for much longer than 30 seconds.

This month you have learned to stand on your own, point, give kisses, say "mama" and "dada" usually correctly although Jake is often "mama" too. You wave hi and bye.You run when we hold your hands and zoom around pushing your walker. You love to share your bottle and food with us. You think it's beyond funny when we pretend to eat the food you're offering. You dive (literally) to anyone who is close enough to catch you. Stranger anxiety hasn't hit yet so everyone is your best bud. You love piggy back rides from your dad. His ears make excellent holds for you. :)

I'm so excited to start planning your birthday party!! 

Love, Mama and mama (dada)

May Madness

In the month of May we were home a total of 9 days. That's a total of only 216 hours. The rest of the time we were in Arizona, North Carolina, and Oregon. As much as we LOVE traveling we are more than ready to not be living out of a suitcase. When we got home last night Rhett was so happy to be home. He went straight for his toys and then proceed to crawl to all of his favorite spots. My shoe rack in our closet, the shelves in the bathroom, the vacuum in the laundry room, making sure every thing was in order. So cute.

Here are some of the stats of our travels. 

Hours spent in airports: 26+

Number of miles traveled: 7332 

Times dinner was at Wendy's: About 9

Diapers changed in an airport: At least 2 dozen.

Here's a map of our travels.

Rhett is an amazing traveler. He loves to look out the window of the plane and eat his snacks off his tray and play with the people behind us. We somehow managed to lose track of him on our flight to Oregon. We were letting him play on the ground between our seats and he power crawled under then to 2 rows behind us. Gotta love it when some stranger says "Ma'm this is your kid?" and your kid then blows a raspberry at you.

We were grateful not to have him when we went to North Carolina. Probably it was the worst experience we've had flying ever and we travel a lot. Our flight was delayed out of Salt Lake which meant we would have missed our connection in Colorado. They tried to get us on a flight to Chicago, but after running frantically threw the airport, the Southwest lady realized she had told them to hold the wrong flight. Ridiculous amount of running wasted. So we got a flight 5 hours later to Baltimore where we landed at 2AM had to pick up our bags from baggage claim, got ready for bed in the bathroom, couldn't get through security or check our bags because their's no one their at 2AM to help. So we spent the rest on the night on a wooden bench by the ticket counter with the security terriorst advisory announcement going off every 5 minutes. So we gave up sleeping and played with the wheel chairs. We found out that Jake gets REALLY friendly at 3:30AM. He started enthusiastic conversation with EVERYONE. Then around 6:30AM he get's really paranoid and skeptical. We were in Barnes and Noble (still at the airport) and he started going off on how every book in there was a conspiracy theory. Poor Jake. We were so tired when we finally made to NC.

But now we're HOME. For at least a month. For the weekend of the 4th of July we'll be in Florida. We're really excited to introduce Rhett to the ocean. :)