My Dear Micah is 29

Today my amazing husband is 29 years old! He's such a wonderful man, father, husband, brother, and son. I'm so grateful that I get to share this journey with him. I hope you have the best day!

We celebrated a day early because my mum's 60th birthday party is tonight.

The night before, I stayed up to work on some things for my mum's party, but I was also staying up so I could work on a cake for Micah without him knowing. It was super simple, but I'm happy with how it turned out. :) 

I also laid out his presents on the table so he could see them in the morning when he got up.

Lila was very cute about the whole birthday. That morning before Micah got out of bed I told Lila that we were going to celebrate daddy's birthday today and so when he came out I wanted her to say "Happy Birthday!" She decided that she also wanted to hide and so she hid between the two couch pillows and waited very patiently for her daddy to come out. He was a little slower than she expected so she was getting a little uncomfortable being in a ball. We eventually brought her blanket out for her to hide under. :) 

She was so excited to sing to him!

We did have the cake out and ready for him to see when he got up, but don't worry, we didn't eat it then.  We did, however, do the birthday song and blow out his 2 candles. 

I really love Micah and appreciate all he does. He never asks for anything, but he deserves so much.  We love you very much! Happy Birthday babe!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my love Micah! We love you and are so grateful to you for all that you do for our family. Thanks for being the best partner to me and the best father to our wonderful children. 

Here's the pie you wanted for your day. :) 

I also want to wish a very Happy Father's Day to my own dad and my father-in-law! I hope you know how much we appreciate you both!

I am a U.S. Citizen

Yesterday, June 17th, 2015, at around 10:15 a.m. I became a citizen of the United States of America. It was a great ceremony to attend. 

The Park City Marching Band played the National Anthem at the beginning. 

After we took our oath and listened to a few speakers, they handed us our official certificates stating that we were citizens.

Brighton loved the little flag I was given.

This lady was the only other Aussie getting her citizenship. Something that was funny is she's my sister's patient from the dental office. Another thing is that her name is Joanne and that's my middle name. :) 

After we decided to just get something to eat once we were home (for the sake of the kids). We chose to get sandwiches from a place we hadn't been to before. Micah didn't know how big the sandwiches were when he ordered… here's my HALF of the sandwich. :) 

I'm so glad it's done and over and something I no longer have to worry about. Yay for being a citizen!

We Had to Say Goodbye

The summer so far has been so fun, but there have been a few sad moments, too. Our adorable dog Maggie had to be let go. She was having trouble urinating and Micah noticed Friday night that a "rock" came out of her. We knew that couldn't be good, so the next morning we called the animal hospital to see if we could get in. They asked us to bring her in immediately so we did. We new the news probably wasn't going to be good and that there was a good chance that Maggie wasn't going to be returning home. It turned out we were right. She had bladder stones. We couldn't afford the surgery or the special diet and medicine, so the only other alternative was to put her down. Or so we thought… 

Maggie is an incredibly sweet and well behaved dog and she is very healthy. The vet was sad to think that she would have to be put down even though she was healthy in every other aspect. When the vet went to get the person who puts the dogs down she came back with an alternative for us just in case we would be interested. It turns out at that animal hospital the doctors can choose certain dogs to sponsor. That meant that we would give Maggie to the doctor and she would pay for her treatments to help her get better then she would keep her in the doggy day care. Finally, when Maggie recovered the doctor could find a family to place her with or choose to adopt her herself. The doctor was relieved when we told her that we'd love to do that. Of course we'd rather have Maggie go to someone who can take care of her rather than put her down! We're really grateful that the doctor was very understanding of our situation and was willing to help us out any way that she could. We're also grateful that she chose to sponsor Maggie because she can only choose to do that with so many animals. 

We loved Maggie. I'm going to miss Brighton trying to ride her. :) We'll miss her for many other reasons, but it honestly ended up being the best for all of us.  We got her before we lived in a condo and she deserves a back yard to play in. We'll always remember our first pet as a family!

Our last family photo with Maggie. We took this right before she went to the hospital.

Lila the Photographer

Lila has decided that she really loves taking pictures. She keeps "borrowing" my camera and going off to do what she will. 

I've been pretty impressed with some of the pictures she's taken. You can tell she's really trying. Some are amazing and it almost seems like only she could capture it, and others are not as good. ;)

We're thinking about just giving my camera to her at this point. I really need a new one as some of the buttons are really hard to work with. 

I feel like only Lila could get pictures of Brighton like these. His smile is always so big for her. 

The following three are my favorite… I think you can tell why. 

Lila Turns 4

Today is Lila's 4th birthday. She's growing up too fast! (I know you've heard that a million times from me, but it's not going to stop any time soon because she's not going to stop growing any time soon.) We love this little girl so much! She has been an amazing child. She is incredibly beautiful, smart, inquisitive, independent, stubborn, bossy, thoughtful, creative, loving, happy, and just a downright good little girl. 

Lila brings us so much joy and has since we knew we were expecting her. I'm so grateful that I get to have this little angel in my life. She has been a beautiful child and a wonderful example of love, kindness and patience. She has changed our lives for the better.  

Lila is very girly, but also very tomboy. She absolutely adores princesses, fairies, unicorns, pink, dancing, dresses, etc., but she also loves to watch sports with her dad and wants to play soccer and do some rough and tumble with Brighton. She is a very well rounded girl and I'm proud to call her mine. She is an incredible older sister and Brighton just lights up whenever she's around. I love to see them interact and share such an amazing bond and love. 

Since we already celebrated her party last Saturday along with Brighton we just did a family outing today. Together we headed to Thanksgiving Point to check out Farm Country. It was really fun, and had a lot of little things to look at and do. Lila absolutely loves animals, so I think this worked out perfectly for her.

We got to look at the pigs, horse, sheep, goats, chickens, etc. The kids also got to go on a pony ride (it was SO ADORABLE!!!) and then as a family we went on a wagon ride.

She REALLY loved the pony ride and did very well by herself. 

I have to insert a quick story here… Brighton was determined to turn this ramp into a slide. He headed to the top of the ramp and scooted his little bum down the entire thing, all the while saying "Weeeee!" It was so cute. :) He did this twice. 

I know this doesn't seem like much  of a picture, but I love how it caught Brighton jumping. 

Lila was very excited to do the wagon ride!

Isn't she the sweetest?! We love you Lila!!!