Kiddo Update Part 1:Carrigan

With all the craziness of the last several weeks, I have neglected to give much of an update on Mr. M and Miss C.  I thought it would be nice to take a few minute over the next two weeks and update you on what has happened in their lives since last I bragged about them.  Since ladies go first, this week is all about Carrigan.

Since last we left our heroine she has made that crazy transformation from a newborn into a baby.  She celebrated her two month birthday, has gotten very strong and holds up her own head, and has become such a vocal baby.  She was never shy about telling you when she was upset, but now she is not shy about telling you when she is happy either.  She is very smiley and has dimples that will melt your heart and I swear is very close to laughing at times (I know it is early, but I swear she is close).  I apologize that the pictures are a little blurry she tends to be quite active and my camera did not seem to like it.

The other big event that happened in CC's life is that she received her blessing into our church.  Jeremy was able to give her a name and a blessing and all our family near and far (minus Garret) was able to be there.  The event took place in our home and while, as mentioned above, Carrigan was not shy about expressing her displeasure during the blessing, it was a really special experience.  If only we had gotten a decent picture of our family or had remembered to take a picture with my side of the family or made Merrick wait to change is clothes until after the picture with Jeremy's side of the family...oh well. What are you going to do?

She is growing so fast this blog is practically going to be outdated by the time I finish typing it.  I wish I could figure out a way to slow down time, but I never figured it out with Merrick so I am not holding my breath.

Hi, Goodbye, and Big Girl Pants

You may have noticed the lack of blog post for the last few weeks.  I apologize and do have a lot to catch up on since last we spoke, Carrigan celebrated the 2 month mark, we celebrated the 4th of July, Colvin marked turning 6 with a slip-n-slide party, and Carrigan was blessed.  In addition to all that craziness (which I promise I will get around to over the next few weeks),  Jeremy's parent, Jensen, Bryce, Emily, Kai, and my Dad all came and went (along with my mom) and that is what I want to talk about today.  I hope you will forgive me because I am still processing all of this and this blog post promises to be more rambling than anything else and without pictures, despite the fact that I have lots of pictures from the other events mentioned above.

Over the course of our marriage, Jeremy and I have never been blessed to live by both sides of the family at the same time.  For the first six years of our marriage we lived mostly by Jeremy's family in Arizona (I did have one sister and extended family close by) and the last two years we have lived by most of my family in Oregon.  The problem with this is you are always saying goodbye and missing someone or lots of someones as the case my be.

The last few weeks were no exception to this rule.  Due to the holiday and Carrigan's blessing we had a whole slew of visitors and what followed was several amazing days of family time, and once again I will catch you up on those in the day and weeks to come, but as always happens, the vacations came to an end.  First Jeremy's family left,  followed by Emily and Kai.  Then, just a few short days later, my parent left to begin their new life and adventure in India.

If I am being honest I am not very good at goodbye's.  Once when Jeremy and I were dating we broke up for a week and despite the fact that I was the one who initiated the break up, I mostly cried all week long.  While these goodbyes have not brought constant tears, I have shed my fair share.  This is the first time since we have been married that we have not lived by one set of grandparents and after having lived with my parents for the last two years, I have really become accustomed to having them around...which leads me the last part of my blog title "big girl pants".

Except under rare circumstances, when you live with someone, whether it be a spouse, parent, or roommate, over time there tends to be a natural division of labor that occurs.  Each person takes on certain tasks and while it may not be formally talked about, those become their responsibility.  That has been the case for us these last few years living with my parents.  Some things, like cleaning up after dinner while we got the kids ready for bed my parents took care of.  Well, now my parents are gone and while we are perfectly capable of doing these type of tasks, we just have to adjust to the change and step up and do them.  So Jeremy and I have gotten into the habit of teasing each other that we need to put on our big girl/boy pants when something like having to check the thermostat, which oddly enough neither of us has done in the last two years, comes up.

Anyway, I will stop rambling now.  I guess at the end of all this I will just say that I am really grateful for eternal families.  I look forward to being with my family forever and no longer having to say goodbye.