1051

1,051 days

or 

2 years 10 months 16 days

Noah loved his baba. 

LOVED. 

He's the baby so I let him love it.

Till last week.

It was time. 

So he traded it in for a trip to Target and this little cutie

I never post anymore. 

Life is so busy.

It has literally gotten away from me. 

have so much going on. 

Big stuff. Life and stuff.

We are busy from sun up to sun down. 

Every. Day. 

Monday we had an appointment that was cancelled so we had about 3 hours of "free" time . I took a minute to catch my breath. Then I had a moment.  Watching my boys play. I realized two things (again). #1 What an amazing gift these children are to me. Seriously. My life. #2. I need to slow down. They are growing up too fast. This is what happens when I blink...

Disclaimer: I know I should rename this blog "It all happened too fast" but I am really feeling it these days...

I hope they call me on a mission...

Seems like only yesterday he was this little guy....

On August 31, 2012 James got a much anticipated letter in the mail.

He had been working on getting his mission papers ready all summer and finally mid August they were submitted. James was told that it takes 2-6 week. 12 days later I checked the mail and found a large white envelope from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   James was at work so I sent him a text. We made plans to gather with Lucy's family later that night so he could open it.  Then I had to spend the next 7 hours alone with a letter that was going to change our lives. It was super hard. I actually locked it up in my bedroom so I wouldn't be tempted.  We had all made guesses as to where we thought James was going to go. I chose Japan. Everyone else guess from California to Australia.  He opened the letter.  Held it up so he couldn't read ahead and started reading aloud...

Dear Elder Krenz,
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months. 
You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Russian language.


We are so proud of James. I am going to miss him like crazy and there have already been lots of tears about the idea of him leaving (not just from me) but we know he is doing the right thing.  We are excited for him to grow and to learn and to serve other people.  What a wonderful experience this will be for him. 

Virginia Beach

After our super fun day at Busch Gardens we decided to head just a little farther east and hit the beach. Why did we wait 2 years to go? I don't know. These kids LOVED it. Myles and Noah have never seen the ocean and they had such a great time.  We all spent hours playing in the water and digging in the sand.  So fun.

The boys @ the beach

He loved the feel of the sand.

So much fun drawing in the sand.

Seriously. How cute is this?!?

Pretty much the luckiest mom ever. 

He tried so hard to write Jessie's name in the sand so we could get a picture of it. 

Darn waves kept washing it away before he would get it done. 

This is something that almost never happens. The three of them playing together.  It made my heart so happy. 

Jumping the waves.

Maybe some more sunscreen next time?

"Best trip ever" ~ Myles age 5 1/2 

Summer 2012 {part 1}

This year has flown by at a crazy.insane.make it stop kinda pace. 

My babies are growing up right before my eyes. 

And I don't like it. 

I am going to try to do a quick recap of our year so far. I don't even know if anyone even still looks at this blog but I need to document this for us.   We have been so busy this year. Myles finished preschool. James graduated from High School. I finished my first year of college. Matt traveled less. Jessie turned 16. Liam turned 13. (I now have 3 teenagers) Myles turned 6. We went to the beach. We went camping. Back to school for me. James will get his mission call ANY DAY now.   See what I mean. I just want life to slow down a little. Just a little. 

Sad thing happened this summer. My computer crashed. Like dead/total loss/nothing can be done crash. I lost tons of pictures. Noah's first year. I knew better than to not have things backed up. But I never backed it up. I cried. A lot. So the only pictures that I have from that tender time are pictures I posted on my blog and on facebook.  I need to do better. 

So here it goes... 

in no particular order...

We went to Busch Gardens the beginning of August. 

It was SO MUCH FUN!

 Myles went on his very first real rollercoaster this year. Quite a feat for this kid. He was just tall enough to go on the Haunted Castle ride. He was buried into my rib cage most of the ride but when he got off he couldn't stop taking about how awesome it was. Then he went again. :)

 Noah loved the water. He had a blast at the sprayground and LOVED the observation deck at the water log ride. He must have gone back 15 times for this. LOVED it.

End of the day. Photo by Myles. 

It was super fun. Matt & I were able to take Liam, Myles and Noah. Jessie and James both had to work. Bummer for them because the next day we headed to Virginia Beach.

{first post of the year. what?!? things have been a little busy crazy}

So something happened. 

Pretty much overnight. 

I swear. 

I blinked and my sweet little boy went from this...

to this.

James is graduating from high school this weekend.

 I have been crying a lot. 

Where did all the time go?