Mya's first soccer game

This morning we had fun watching Mya play soccer. She is so funny, she has been so excited up until this morning when it was time to go, then she all of the sudden threw a fit (surprise, surprise) and said she was not playing soccer, it was boring and to give her uniform back to the coach.
I tried to talk her into going then figured there was no point if she didn't want to play I shouldn't force her. I just decided to tell her that we could stay home and not go and right then she gave in said she would go but not play. Once she got there and saw her best friend Taya, she was super excited. It is so fun that they are on the same team, but then again, it might not be a good thing when it comes to game play. As you can see in the pictures, most of the time they just held hands and frolicked through the field like little girls do. It was pretty cute though.

So Cute!

Get it Mya!



there's always time for a hug

Run girls run!

Water break

First goal!

I did it!

Thoughts

As a mom I have found it is hard when you have kids to feel like you have a purpose other than sitting at home feeding kids, changing diapers, cooking dinner, cleaning the house and the list goes on... Micah has been wanting me to find a hobby forever because he knew I just kinda felt "worthless" in a way, even though raising our children is the most important things we as mothers can do, sometimes it feels pointless in a way. (At least for me it does. I sure hope I am not the only mom out there who feels discouraged at times.)
I love being a mom but it is HARD work. Like when we have just swept the kitchen floor and turn around to see Cheerios smashed all over it or see the little fingerprints all over the newly just washed 10 minute ago window. Or when we have all the laundry folded but haven't quite put it all away and the kids just can't resist picking up a pile and throwing it all over the room.

Anyway...I am glad I have found something for me that I can do that will in no way get undone by a little rugrat two minutes after I do it.

Here's what I have been up to lately to keep me busy http://julieyoungphotography.blogspot.com/(when I am not busy taking care of my little ones) and have cute senior pictures, more families and some little ones coming up so stay "tuned" for more.

What's with the faces

I have been having so much fun taking pictures and I just sold my treadmill (which is so sad...... not! I hate running) so I could buy a flash. I needed someone to practice on and Lexie seemed like a good choice.

She was cracking me up because she is not the most photogenic baby ever. She would not smile for me and kept pulling the funniest faces. (Yes she has some random things on such as a scarf and a Christmas hat that use to be Mya's but we were just experimenting with whatever we could find around the house.)

She is the sweetest little thing and I can't believe she will be six months soon!

Cost of a child

I was on Yahoo today and saw this article and thought it was interesting.

It's no secret that raising children can be expensive, but how about nearly a quarter of a million dollars expensive?
A government report released Tuesday says a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 raising that child through age 17.
Families with more income spend more money on child-related costs, the report said. A two-parent family that earns less than $57,000 annually will spend about $160,000 on a child from birth through high school. Those with an income between $57,000 and $99,000 spend about $221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly $367,000 through age 17.
Most single-parent households in the U.S. make less than $57,000 and are expected to spend about 7 percent less on child-rearing costs compared to two-parent households in that same income group, according to the report.
Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas.
The USDA report helps courts and states determine child-support guidelines and foster care payments. It does not address costs specifically related to childbearing and paying for college.
One of the largest changes over time has been the increase in costs related to care for young children.
The report was first issued in 1960, when such costs were largely negligible, but with more working families turning to outside help with child care, it has grown to be a significant expense for many families. The report does not give total costs related to early child care.
A mother of three, Raben Andrews of St. Louis, said the government figures sounded right to her. "Well, that's not half of it," joked the 42-year-old public school teacher. "I still have to put the little buggers through college."

So they mean to tell me that in our income range I will spend $160,000 per child x three = $480,000 dollars! Sounds like a lot to me. I hope I don't spend that much. Good thing I stay home and watch the little stinkers myself or It might just be up there.

Happenings

We had to take a second trip to finish up our dental work and get our crowns on and we also stayed with Micah's grandma and grandpa. Lexie got to come but we left the other two stinkers..I mean sweethearts at my moms (thanks mom!)

So when you have a brother-in-law do your dental work, you get to experiment and Micah had this master plan that he wanted to get a gold crown which is fine but then him and Robbe added to the madness and thought it would be cool to do an engraving on it... then fill the letter with a white filling, so Micah now has a gold tooth that has a great big white letter J for Julie on it(awe how sweet, I know) j/k. Who knows maybe they will start a trend haha.

Here is a little update on the little monsters (mostly just for my remembrance and for Tina cause she says she misses crazy Mya stories)

**Lexie had her four month check up, I'm a little behind she was actually four and a half months but anyway, she weighs 13lbs 11oz and is as sweet as ever.

**The other day I was telling the kids to get out of the kitchen and that they were food bubbles. Later on that day Tay was running around and I asked him if he was spiderman and he stopped and said "I not spiderman, I a food bubble"

**I was curling my hair and I had half of it done and I walked out of the bathroom and Mya let out a big gasp and threw her arms up in the air and said "Mom! That's just HORRIBLE!" I asked her what was wrong and she said "you can't do your hair like that it is awful" (nice that I have girls to help me with my style)

**We were driving up the mountain and Mya fell asleep on the way and one of her legs fell asleep and when she got out she said "Whoa, my leg is sparkling"

**Mya will not stop sucking her thumb and it is driving me crazy, so every time I see her do it I get mad at her. She has started coming up with excuses for why she is sucking it.

yesterday I saw her and this was our conversation

Me: Mya, was your thumb in your mouth?

Mya: I was just polishing it mom.

Me: What in the world does that mean?

Mya: When thumbs get dirty you just put them in your mouth and it polishes them

Another one is "mom, I am just so hungry I have to suck it"

**Mya does the strangest things, I went in her room and she had climbed up and was hanging stuff up I thought it was clothes but when I saw it I had to laugh, she has all of her toys on hangers. Anything with a handle or a hole of some sort is on a hanger. Everything from a Halloween bucket to an art supply kit.

Good news!

First....Lance and Tyce got their mission calls! They are going to Argentina! Lance is going to Buenos Aires North and Tyce is going to Neuquen. I googled it and they are a thirteen hour drive from each other.

I am really excited for them but sad that they will be gone at the same time. They leave October 14th. I can't believe this day has finally come. They will do AWESOME! I hope these two years go by fast cause it won't be the same without them around.

And....Tay is potty trained! Yay! He has done so good too. I was dreading the whole thing but the other day Micah put underwear on him and we decided to just do it. I have heard that boys are harder than girls to potty train but not with my kids. Mya was a nightmare and took forever to figure it out but Tay is so sweet he won't fight with me about going and wakes up in the morning saying "I need to go to the baffwoom" He has number 1 down and now we are working on conquering number 2 haha, good job Tay! Now the challenge is finding underwear that actually fit him. I have bought a few different brands but they are all big on him, so if anyone knows a brand that runs small, let me know.

And...Lexie is sleeping through the night! Hooray for sleep!

Mya's Fourth of July birthday

We had a great time celebrating Mya's birthday and the Fourth with family. It is hard to believe Mya is really already four!

Photography blog

I finally have my photography blog up and running. check it out at http://www.julieyoungphotography.blogspot.com

Obsessed

It's official, Tay is 100% obsessed with four wheelers. We went to the Carter's cabin yesterday and this is where Tay was the ENTIRE time. We would all be eating or sitting by the fire and look around and little Tay would never be there, but we knew right where to find him. He would get off the four wheeler to come grab a snack then get right back on and hang out until someone was kind enough to take him for a ride. It was pretty cute.

California

Last weekend we went to California to visit Micah's sister Kaily and Robbie. We had some much needed dental work to get done and Robbie was nice enough to work on us. I really really HATE the dentist, I think I would rather have a baby, but Rob was awesome. He did such a good job and we are so lucky to have an amazing dentist in the family. Thanks so much Rob!

When we got there we loaded up the kids to go to the water park but when we arrived it was closed because of some Huck Fin festival, no big deal, so we drive over to a different pool, pull up and that one has a sign that says, closed due to electric shock warning. So, we tell the kids we will just go to the park instead and play and not to worry because we are going to the beach tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, it is a beautiful sunny day, the forecast for Newport beach is suppose to be sunny, the kids get their shovels and swimsuits on and we head for the beach. We get there and it is all grey and raining. No beach.

I don't know why, but for some reason we were not suppose to get in the water on this trip. This drinking fountain was the only water they got to play in. They just splashed each other with it and had a grand ol' time, they didn't care. Kids are so good to just go with whatever. It was pretty funny.

We did go to the Crab Cooker while we were in Newport, it is one of their favorite restaurants. I have to say I was very proud of myself, I 100% hate seafood mostly because of the taste but I also hate how it looks, I am very afraid of creepy crawlers and all of that shrimp and crab and lobster just looks like GIANT bugs to me! It really freaks me out. Anyway, we had crab and I ate some, yay. I couldn't shell it or touch the disgusting claws or even look at them, but I did eat more than I thought I would. Thanks for a fun time guys and letting us stay with you!

Saving money

I had to post an update about the whole coupon thing. I thought that at first it would be a pain to use coupons but it really isn't bad and doesn't take that much time. After you check out you just hand them a big stack and they scan them all through. It's pretty fast.

I am pretty excited about my savings. All of this food originally cost $34.00 but after it being on sale and me having a coupon on top of that I got it all for $9.60!

I got six boxes of cereal for $3.20!, the salad dressing was only 15 cents a bottle, each chex mix was 40 cents... anyway, I was happy to see it really is worth it. Waahh Whoooo! I actually get kind of excited to go grocery shopping for the first time ever.

A year ago today

A year ago today at this time I was getting Mya and Tay ready to go up to Salt Lake to meet Micah off the plane from Iraq. I cannot believe that a year has already gone by, when the year he was gone took SOO long to pass.
I am so proud of Micah. Even though it was really hard, it taught me a lot. I remember when he first found out he had to go, he was up north at drill and I cried and cried for the whole weekend he was gone and really didn't know how I would do it. Tay was only six weeks old and Mya was so hard to handle. I was bitter at first but decided that he was going whether I had a good or bad attitude, so I toughened up and tried to do the best I could. I have grown so much through this experience, and have learned that we are all a lot stronger than we think we are.
I am also very relieved to say he is out of the Army now. I was worried when he first got home that it would be hard to get back into the groove of things and also worried how it would affect Micah but I am glad to say unlike a lot of families who are torn apart and never the same after going to war, we are so fortunate to be doing well.
Here are just a few things I am glad to not have to do anymore by myself
Going to church by myself
Not having the priesthood in our home
Eating dinner without him and no grownup conversation
After putting the kids to bed just sitting alone for the couple of hours until I go to bed not having anyone to talk to.
Worrying how I would react if someone were to break in and Micah wasn't there to protect us
Not getting to go out to dinner of a movie with him
Hanging out with friends and trying not to feel like the third wheel.
Not being able to hand the Tay off when he was a baby and had bad nights. I remember being so tired and crying right along with him because I just needed a break.
Mowing the lawn and taking care of the yard
killing bugs
Not being able to open jars or fix certain things

The first year of being a normal family again has been great!

Here is a link to the video of him coming home.
Mya was so excited! You can here her squeal in the first video and in the second, she couldn't wait for him to get to her. There was caution tape keeping the crowd back and she ran right under it to see him.
http://micahandjulie.blogspot.com/2008/05/video-of-micahs-homecoming.html