Happy Thanksgiving!

Pictures courtesy of our favorite photographer, Stacie Powers.
Visit her website at:
http://www.staciepowersphotography.com/

Things I am thankful for:

• a loving family (both immediate and extended)
  
• the restored gospel of Jesus Christ
• the knowledge of the plan of salvation and eternal families
• the cutest little girl
  
• good health
• great friends
  
• a flexible, fun job that also pays for me to finish my masters degree
  
• that I've always had food to eat & shelter over my head
  
• a laptop that is working again
• education
• a wonderful husband who also has a flexible job
• technology (I love that I can keep in touch w/ so many people through facebook, email, and blogs.)
• my calling in the Young Womens
• Mya's wonderful baby-sitters (Stacie & Stone)
  
• everything I have!!!!
  

Can you believe I'm actually posting early and not 2 months after Thanksgiving? Hope you all have a wonderful turkey day!

Mya's 1st Birthday Party!!!!

Hmmm. . . . What is this thing my mom is feeding me now? She usually just feeds me boring stuff that is supposedly healthy for me. How do I even go about eating this pink thing?
Well let's see . . . I'll first lift it up and try to take a big chunk out of it.
No, I think I'll set it back down and try something else.
Okay, I just smooshed my face in it and that worked out pretty good. Yummy, this thing called chocolate is delicious. Where was this stuff before? Enough of those fruits and vegetables mom.
Let me get every last lick of this heavenly stuff off my fingers.
Why are you guys still watching? Just leave me alone now and let me eat my cake.
I'm going in for another bite. I can't get enough of this.
Man, this is hard work.
I think I"m going to be sick now.

So like most first-time moms out there I had been thinking about/planning Mya's 1st birthday party in my head since oh she was probably like 6 months old. One of the hardest things I think was to decide on a theme. Finally, I decided to do a butterfly theme (liked the idea of look how our caterpillar has grown into a beautiful butterfly). Once I decided on that it was easy to come up with all of the details. The other hardest thing was to figure out where to have the birthday party (since we're temporarily in a small apt. right now we knew we couldn't squeeze everyone in here). The Oxfords were so kind to let us have the party there; however, all of the kids got sick the weekend of the party so I was back to square 1. Luckily, the Matsons (some lovely family friends), were so gracious to let us invade their house and do the party there. I was a bit stressed w/ the change of location and starting the party late (b/c of the husker game) but later on I realized that the most important thing was that Mya was surrounded by a lot of her family and friends that love her so much. (Luckily we had lots of family in town for the weekend of Mya's birthday - Grandpa & Grandma Hulse & McConnell; Mike, Natalie, & Clay; and Travis & Megan.) We had dinner, opened gifts (I had more fun opening Mya's gifts than she did I think - she was too sidetracked by everything else going on), and had cake. Mya got some adorable toys, hair accessories, clothes, books, etc. (Yes she's spoiled.) I made Mya her own little cake; it was so fun to watch her eat it because she loved it and made the biggest mess - as you can see from the pictures above. I am already excited for her next birthday and am going to remember not to stress about the little things so much (but I think I do have a theme - pumpkins). Anyways, Happy Birthday again to our beautiful butterfly Mya!!!!

What I've learned about being a Mom - in a nut shell!

(Side note - what's up that in 3 out of these 4 pictures I am wearing the same shirt? Oh well, I guess that us mammas know that things like this seem to go by the waysides sometimes.)


This past year has been so incredible. I've learned a ton of new things from my new role as Mommy that I thought I would share just a few.
Being a mom means that (in my words/ramblings anyways):

• you have the best job ever (well I don't really like calling it a job but that's the closest word I can think of right now)
• you will look at life in a totally new way (it helps you to regain focus and remember what's truly important)
• you will love someone in a way that you never have before (instantly you would give your life for this little person)
• you will be closer to your Father in Heaven
  
• you are truly blessed
• you have had the opportunity to witness a miracle (of pregnancy & birth)
  
• your life will never be the same again (in a good way though)
• you have the most important responsibility
  
• your patience will be tested to the max somedays
• your house will never stay clean again for longer than a couple of hours
• you learn one day at a time (no matter how many books you read while you were pregnant you just learn as you go)
• you are tired almost all of the time
• the days will go by faster
• you will cry, smile, and laugh a lot more
  

I love you Mya bear!!!! - hugs and kisses

From helpless to destructor - all in one year

I can't believe that at this time last year Mya was basically unable to do anything for herself and was this little babe that just slept and ate all day. Now look at her, only one year later! She can do so many things all by herself, even including getting into trouble. Brad and I call her the "DESTRUCTOR" because well yes, basically she destroys everything. Case in point. last week on our way to St. Louis Brad tells me that I should give my sunglasses to Mya to play with (apparently he thought she was bored with her other 20 toys). Anyways, I decide well I guess okay maybe it will entertain her for a whole 2 minutes. What do you know though? Not only a minute or two later they were broke. Oh well, still love you to pieces Mya!!

Happy Belated Birthday Mya baby!!!!!!!!!!

(As you can tell from the above 2 pics Mya closes her eyes when the camera flashes; it makes it hard to get pics of those beautiful blue eyes of hers.)

Do you like my new wheels guys?

(wheels courtesy of Grandpa & Grandma Hulse)

So we've already established I'm way behind on blogging. Anyways, I missed a very, vey important event. My baby girl turned 1 on October 7. Can you believe it? I can't; the year went by way too fast in my opinion. However, it was a wonderful year. So here's my first excuse for not blogging on her birthday. I did have the crazy H1N1 the week of her birthday. Therefore, we couldn't go out and do the fun stuff that I wanted to but we did do a few things at home that day for her. Luckily, her birthday party wasn't until the next weekend so I had time to get better for that (a post on her actual b-day party w/ pics will be coming soon). Anyways, Brad went and picked up a few gifts for her because I wanted her to have some presents on her actual birthday and I found some energy to bake a little cake for her too. She loved her presents. She had no desire to eat her cake but did love smooshing (however you spell that) it in b/w her fingers. I was surprised that she didn't like it but she loved her chocolate cake at her real b-day party (as you will easily be able to tell by the pictures coming soon). It boggles my mind when I look how much she's grown and changed this past year and these little babies truly are miracles and the best blessings ever. I am so lucky to be her mommy and well I just think she's the cutest thing ever.

House Update

Here's a couple drawings of the house. We found a plan way back when online and luckily one of Brad's clients he sold a house to awhile back is an architect. He helped us tweak everything and get all of the many drawings and plans done for the city. He was great.
The floor plan - here's the main floor.
Here's a picture of the very beginning of the framing; it's pretty much all framed in now (will post a pic of that soon - well soon in my world is like a month or so I guess, ha ha).


As usual, I am a couple months behind on blogging (I guess I need to get H1N1 again so I have the week off and can do some more blog posts, just kidding that was the worst junk ever). Anyways, here's an update on the progress of our house. It is finally coming along and I am pleased with the recent progress. It's almost all framed and soon they'll be doing roof, siding, etc. Hopefully the nice weather stays around for a little longer so that the exterior stuff can get finished.