Dream A Little Dream

Trent and I seriously had the most amazing honeymoon! As a wedding gift, the parents of his best friend in high school, The Phillips, gave us their time share to the destination of our choice. All we had to do was pay the all inclusive fees and the flight there and back. We decided on Puerta Vallarta. It was heaven! A dream come true! I'll never forget getting out of our cab and walking up to the resort and thinking, "No way this is where we are staying. There must be a mistake!" But it was no mistake. It was a vacation out of something you'd see on the travel channel! I thought for sure I'd see Samantha Brown at any moment! Not only was the hotel the most luxurious place I'd ever been, but we got to swim with the dolphins, zip line through the jungle, swim in their infinity pool, get room service anytime we wanted and have our lunch by the pool. AND the cherry on top was that I was there with my very dreamy, very handsome new husband! It was perfection!



The lobby of our hotel



The view from our room looking out at the hotel. If you turned the camera in the other direction there was a view of the beach.

Petting the dolphins. One of the coolest things I've ever done!

My new husband looking so dang good relaxing on the beach!



Room service




We borrowed some bikes from the hotel and took a little ride around the town.





The food was delicious!



Zip lining.So much fun!

                                 


This was us (Holy smokes, we look like a couple of babies!)at the airport getting ready to head home. We didn't want to leave! It was such an amazing trip!



As difficult as it was for us to leave our honeymoon we were ready for our life as husband and wife to really get started. To get settled in our little 400 sqft studio apartment that we lived at in his parents backyard. To enjoy meals together after long days of work and school. To experience the hard times and to learn what it's like to work through them together. To plan our future together.

While I was looking through our honeymoon pictures the other day I came across this one:

Somehow on this vacation I found a baby to play with!(tee hee) I can remember sitting in the pool and watching her play with her mom. I was sitting on this little bench in the water and she walked right to me. She stayed with me for quite a bit while her mom and I talked. I loved it! After she went back to her mom I came back to sit with Trent on the lounge chair and Trent just looked at me a smiled and said, "Of course you would find a baby on our honeymoon!" And then after a moment he said, "You're going to be such a great mom".  Even though I was looking forward to much more time of just the two of us, I felt a surge of excitement at that moment. Together, we were going to have a family! And I couldn't wait to start that adventure with this man.

I knew I wanted children sooner than Trent. He wanted to wait 4 years and I wanted to wait 2. I was shocked when he said one day that he was ready only a year and a half after being married. We were lucky enough to get pregnant with Lucas Lucien and that was the beginning of our family.

I think about our honeymoon a lot. Whenever I go to a wedding and hear the new couple talk about their honeymoon plans there's a twinge of jealousy. I loved that time in our marriage. Everything is so new and exciting and somehow, it all seemed simpler back then. Sometimes when I've had a rough day with the kids, when the laundry and dishes are piling up, when I've stepped on the same toy on the floor about fifty times I close my eyes and escape to Puerta Vallarta for just a moment. When I open my eyes again, I decide that I wouldn't trade anything that I have right now to go back to that time in our lives without our boys. The reality that we have now is better than anything I could dream up! I love my little family that we have right now. I love that I get to be a stay at home mom. Love it!!! I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. A friend of mine from church tragically lost their little 18 month old daughter earlier this week. My heart breaks for their little family! How precious and fleeting these moments with our children are! It's has been a reminder to me of the covenants the we made in the temple and the eternal family that we started there.

This is where our family really started almost 5 years ago:

I'm thankful every single day that my family is mine forever. Our Heavenly Father was so wise in his plan for us. He knew we needed families to get us through this mortal existence. It's hard to imagine what we'd be like without them. When I think about that couple in those honeymoon pictures I feel a little excited for them. They thought life couldn't get any better than it was at that moment! They had no idea how many wonderful things awaited them!

Motherhood

The topic of Motherhood has been on my mind for a few weeks now. I've been thinking, pondering, on what it means to me to be a mother. What kind of mother do I want to be and what kind of mother am I right now. After this self evaluation I realised that if I were to give myself a grade I would maybe give myself a B-/C+. Yes, I make sure my kids have their basic needs met. Fed: Check. Bathed: Check. Clothed: Check. I had those things down. What I needed to do was snuggle them more. Stop them on their way to play outside or grab a toy and give them a hug and a kiss. Sing more songs with them. Turn the t.v. off. Watch movies with them. Play outside with them. Give them opportunities for their imaginations to grow. Not get snappy when one of the boys comes to me while I'm on the computer checking Facebook, Pinterest or my email (what am I doing that's more important than what they need me for?). To fall on my knees or plead with the Lord in silent prayer when I feel overwhelmed, frustrated or unqualified in this role. To look for those teachable moments to help my children develop relationships with their Savior. I loved this quote by Sister Cheryl A. Esplin in this last conference:

"Sometimes the most powerful way to teach our children to understand a doctrine is to teach in the context of what they are experiencing right at that moment. These moments are spontaneous and unplanned and happen in the normal flow of family life. They come and go quickly, so we need to be alert and recognize a teaching moment when our children come to us with a question or worry, when they have problems getting along with siblings or friends, when they need to control their anger, when they make a mistake, or when they need to make a decision. (See Teaching, No Greater Call: A Resource Guide for Gospel Teaching [1999], 140–41; Marriage and Family Relations Instructor’s Manual [2000], 61.)If we are ready and will let the Spirit guide in these situations, our children will be taught with greater effect and understanding."

I want to try not to worry so much about the house being tidy and live in the moments with my little ones while they're still little. While they still want me around all the time. While they still want to sit on my lab just because. I want to be a more present mother.
This role of motherhood is one I've always wanted! Nothing I've ever done has left me feeling more blessed or more humbled. It's a calling. It's a responsibility. It's a JOY! It's a challenge and it's my greatest happiness all at the same time. I want to give it 100%. There is nothing in this life that I can do that will be more eternally profound than this.
I'm going to use our family blog to account for the day to day life we enjoy here in the Owens home. I want my boys to look back on this time in their lives and know that their mom loved them and that we enjoyed those little moments together. I want to be more hands on and present for me family. Theis self evaluation was an answer to prayer. No time like the present to change the direction your life is taking.

Baja Update

I did update my Baja blog if anyone is interested. The link is down on the right side under "Trent's Baja Project"

The Parentals

I've done a few updates on the boys but I thought I'd take a post to do an update on Trent and I.

Trent has been busy busy busy! Trent's always busy but the past few months have been crazy for him. Trent is a superintendent for the local walter plant out here in Maricopa. The work is stressful and seemingly never ending! He's on call pretty much all the time and will even get called into work in the middle of the night sometimes. Water needs never sleep! It's been a great opportunity though and he's learned so much! It's opening a lot of doors for us. When he has a little extra time he's in the garage tinkering around on his baja. He finally has it running! We sold the Malibu (his car) and now that's his only mode of transportation so he's constantly making sure it runs the way it should. It still needs a lot of work but that comes a little at a time. He really loves it and I'm just glad he finally has it running! One huge hurtle crossed! He's starting to get back on the mountain a little more too. He's really missed mountain biking as often as he used to since we moved to Maricopa. He would still make the time to go when he could with his mountain biking buddy, Thomas. But, since they moved last year it's been harder to motivate himself to get out there. He's been making it happen though! Even when it's blazing hot outside! I think he's nuts but he loves it. He'd rather ride in the triple digit heat than the cold of the winter. Crazy boy! He's awesome to make plenty of time for us too. They boys love when Dad comes home. Especially Levi. He'll follow him all over the house! We're all looking forward to when things can slow down a little more. Whenever that will be!                                

 I'm keeping things under control (as best i can) here at home. The boys definitely keep me going everyday whether I have the energy for it or not! We've been spending more time indoors now that the summer heat is already hitting us in AZ. We were taking walks and spending time at the park a lot before then. It was nice to get the boys and I out of the house! I think we'll need to start going to the pool and splash pad here in our neighborhood so we don't go stir crazy. My photography time is picking up and I'm loving it! It's been so much fun to get out and capture families and individuals and I've learned so much! I wasn't really expecting it so I've been trying to pick up my game a little more. I'm glad things are taking off and I will hopefully be getting a new camera in the next couple months! (I can't wait!) It's nice to have something I can do that's just for me. It's a good outlet for me to get out for an hour or two once or twice a week. Things are going at a good pace for us and I'm as busy as I want to be right now. I've written a couple of times in the past about how I really want to loose some weight! I wasn't happy at the weight I was when I got pregnant with Luke and I was still carrying a few lbs of baby weight when I got pregnant with Levi. It's been an uphill battle and I feel like I'm finally gaining some ground! I have a ways to go still but as of today I've lost 11 lbs. I'm so excited! Each week I see the number go down is more motivation to keep going. I haven't given myself a time frame or anything to reach my goal. I have an ultimate goal in mind and if I give myself a date I get stressed out and don't loose anything! I'd be thrilled to be at my goal at the end of the summer and I guess if I had a time frame that might be it. Yay!!!

We're still serving in the Spanish Branch and Trent is still the young men president there. I've always been in the primary in the branch. I started as a teacher and then was quickly called to be the 2nd counselor and for the last few months I've been the 1st counselor. Sundays are crazy busy! Especially since there are so many holes to fill. Sometimes I'm wearing 3 hats at once but that's what most of us in the branch do. We all pull our own weight plus some to get the jobs done. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that this has been a huge learning opportunity for us as individuals, as a couple and as a family. We've definitely grown closer together through all this. When we were first called (over a year ago) we knew the branch would be different but we're constantly amazed at exactly how different! It was a bit of a culture shock at first.The people are the most warm hearted and loving people I've ever been surrounded by. I love them! We were brought in and welcomed into their "family" immediately and it's been a family feel ever since. It's a small branch but we're the busiest we've ever been in our time serving in the church. Lots to do! It certainly comes with plenty of challenges and I can say that I'm looking forward to being in a ward again but will be broken hearted when it's time to leave the branch next January.

Last month we gave away of our dog Brody. We got him last summer from my cousin Julianne and her husband. They  only had him for a couple months and were being deployed to Germany and couldn't bring him. I saw him when we went to UT for my grandma's funeral and thought he was such a cutie! We offered to take him and really took to him quickly. The boys loved him and he was pretty sweet with them too. The most difficult issue with him was his hyperness! I just assumed when we brought him home it was just his puppy stage and he'd calm down eventually. I did some research on his breed and I learned that's just his breed. They're hyper their whole lives. I tried to work with him but it just got to be too much with the boys and the dog. I started feeling super guilty because I couldn't take care of his needs like he deserved and made the difficult decision to find a better home for him. He's super spoiled where he is now so I'm sure he's thanking us! I still miss him though. He was a sweet dog and really loved me. He was my little shadow. Trent wants to get another dog right away but I'm quite gun shy after our experience with Brody. I will not get rid of another dog! Period. The next dog we get we'll have forever so I want to make sure it's at the right time in our families life. We know we want a chocolate lab (that's what we've wanted forever). I know labs are active while they're puppies and need attention and I want to make sure we can provide that for him. We'll see what happens in the future.

That's a little update on us. Probably do another one in a year or so :)

Luke, The Big Boy!

I feel like I don't have a toddler anymore. He's a boy. I have a little boy. I think I've decided this is a good thing. He can communicate things with me now which is so nice! I had no idea what a huge help talking would actually be. He can tell me what's wrong when he's upset. He can tell me what he wants to eat (that's not always a good thing). And he can tell me he loves me. He's so much snugglier now than he ever was as a baby or a 1 year old. As long as he still hugs me and lets me hold him on my lap he can grow up all he wants! He still has his independent stubborn side to him though. I have to also admit that I really love that about him. I think I have to because if I didn't I'd no longer have a 2 year old! And truth be told it's totally my fault that he's that way! Even at this age he'll do something to be stubborn and I'll think, "Holy cow! That is so me!".

He's really a crack up with the things he's starting to say. A few weeks ago we were driving home from church and he all of a sudden says, "Mom's the best!". We just cracked up! Where does he come up with something like that? About a month ago we bought a new sectional off Craigslist (new to us anyways, and I LOVE it!). We brought it home and Luke and Levi were so excited about it! They kept walking from one end of the couch to the other. I think having one continuous couch was pretty awesome to have in our own house! Anyways, the next morning they were playing on it again and Trent and Luke had this conversation:
T: You really like our new couch don't you Luke?
L: Yeah! (pumping his fists in the air)
T: What's your favorite part about it?
L: Mama happy!
Haha! He's learning fast! I love that boy :)

He's learning to count pretty well and loved to count almost anything. We'll be in the car and he'll start counting the cars that drive by. We're working on colors but that's been a little more of a challenge for him. We're getting there though. He loves to play with my mom and Trent's smart phones. He's incredibly good at it! He knows exactly how to get to all of his games and how to get out of them and move on to the next one. Tech savvy!
Luke LOVES to sing! He'll sing along with Trent when he's playing the ukulele. He tried to sing along to the sacrament hymns at church. Which is really funny t hear because since we're in the Spanish Branch in our stake they're all in Spanish! He has a few favorites that he like to sing right now.
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Popcorn Popping
Once There Was A Snowman
The Wise Man and The Foolish Man
I Am A Child of God (my favorite!)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sometimes that one turns into ABC's)
ABC's

His nursery leader is always impressed because he's the only one in there who will actually sit through all of singing time and actually participate.
He and Levi have been playing really cute together lately too. I think now that Levi is walking and can keep up Luke feels like he's big enough to rough house. Levi holds his own pretty well though. It's so fun to watch them interact! I feel like Luke has just recently realised he has a little brother. He never paid much attention to him before he could crawl. He'll get excited when Levi wants to play with him. He still picks on him from time to time but it's inevitable I think. He's sweet to get Levi a toy car if he's playing with one so they can play together. He'll also help Levi get into either a small wagon we have or his little red coupe car and push him all over the house. The only rough part is when Luke wants his turn and for Levi to push him. He doesn't quite understand that yet so mom usually ends up helping Levi push Luke around. That's good enough. He'll always share his goldfish with Levi too. Before he could eat the whole thing he'd bite off tiny pieces and feed them to Levi.

We were SO close to having him potty trained a month or so ago. He would tell me when he'd have to go and hardly ever went in his diaper! We were so excited! He was sick for a little shy of a week and then it's like we erased all the progress we'd made. Bummer!! I was so looking forward to having only one child's diaper to change. But, we're slowly regaining ground so hopefully it'll be soon.
Luke's been so much fun! The older he gets the funner he is. I love being his mom! I just stare at him sometimes because I can't believe he's already so big. I can't believe I'm a mother. It's the job I've always wanted! I'm so grateful that Trent works so incredibly hard to allow me to be home with our boys. It's not a job that I take lightly and it's the hardest and most challenging thing I've ever done but the rewards are even greater than the challenges. I can't wait to bring more little spirits into our family to see how our dynamic will change. But for now I'm trying to live in the moment as much as possible and just enjoy these two little boys. After all, they're only little for so long.

My Big Little 9 Month Old!

9 months have passed by so fast! I seriously feel like I've blinked and now we're here. He's only 3 months away from being a one year old! It's been a while since I've done an update on just Levi and this seemed like the perfect time.

Levi is still our little sweetheart. He snuggles up still and loves just about everyone! He's also showing his true colors more and more each day! As sweet and loving as he is he's just as mischievous and noisy! I have to have my eyes on that boy during all waking hours! When he's up, it's time to explore! And he's so stinkin' fast and stealthy! His favorite places to get into trouble are the dogs food/water, toilets (not gonna lie that terrifies me! Bathrooms are closed at all times around here!) Doing dishes is pretty much impossible while he's awake cause the dishwasher is a playground to him! He's very determined to get where he wants to go. If there's a will there's a way!

And I'm pretty certain that in the next months or so he'll be taking his first steps! Luke took his around 9 months and Levi seems like he's on the same track. He's already tried several times. We're getting close!
He's had his two bottom teeth for a few months now but he's cutting 4 more right now! Two on top and two more on the bottom. Poor baby! However, unless you could see the teeth coming I'd never know he was cutting 4 teeth at once. In true Levi fashion he's still as happy go lucky as ever! He's all of a sudden started making this adorable scrunched up face when he smiles sometimes. It's so adorable, I wanna just eat him up when he does it! He's full of personality that boy!



The scrunchy nose smile :)

Levi has the biggest bladder of ANYONE I know! That boy soaks his jammies pretty much 5 nights a week. I really don't know how he does it. He's a little bean pole and maybe that's why! He doesn't keep anything in him! I feel like I'm constantly changing his diaper and if I miss one, I'm changing his clothes instead. I've even bought overnight extra absorbent diapers and he still wets through. There's lots of laundry done around here! He's also got this weird obsession with socks. If he finds one he'll carry it around with him all day long. I will usually just give him a clean one that's missing its match for him to have. What a goof ball!
He's also developed a pretty big voice! You'd have to to be heard in this house with big brother Lucas ruling the place! Levi holds his own though and he really does adore Luke. Anything Luke does is hilarious! It's so rewarding as a mother to watch my sons play around and get along. It's also so frustrating when Luke tries to dominate Levi and takes anything that Levi has in his sights away from him. Sharing is an ongoing battle in this house. Neither one of them want to give things up! We're getting there.
Levi loves music and singing! If music is on he'll bounce and "dance" around. He LOVES when Dad plays the ukulele and sings songs to him. He'll drop anything and go crawl to find Dad when he starts to play. He gets so excited when Trent comes home from work and I think it makes Trent's day when both his boys come running and crawling to him when he walks through the door. It warms my heart too :)

We love our Levi boy!

(By they way, no editing was done to this picture. Those are his Daddy's baby blues!)

Mischief Managed

Hi, my name is Lindsay and I'm a Harry Potter nerd! And, I love it! It all started with my brother being obsessed with the books. That trickled over to my mom and by the first movie I was hooked. Our entire family, with the exception of my Dad, are quite the Harry Potter fanatics! I even sucked Trent into the group but he won't read the books. "Why read the books when I can just watch the movies?"
When the release date for the final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, came out I knew we need to end it with a bang! These stories have been a huge part of my life and will be in my children's lives as well. I invited my family, the Hunsakers, and a few of my brothers invited friends. It was a BLAST! I enjoyed every minute of planning the party and the company was delightful. My brothers came earlier in the day to help make signs and make yummy food. I think everyone had a great time!

All but I think one of these wands was made by my brother Tyler and my mom.
Awesome signs my brothers made. There were two more but I forgot to get pictures.

We had Treacle Tarts (Harry's favorite) cake pops, caramel corn & movie theater pop corn Of course we needed some Butter Beer
As evidence by these pictures my boys loved the Butter Beer!

Definitely NOT my best work but I made a couple Gryffindor aprons for my mom and I. I made them that day so I was a little rushed. I really wish I would have spent more time on them!

Seligman

This past year Trent's parents shocked us all with the news that they were moving to a little (really little) town called Seligman here in northern AZ. It reminds me a lot of the little town in Cars. In fact it's off the I-40 which was the original Rt 66. They own property up there and decided to leave their home of over 30 years and live the good life! Their house is so cute and their property is beautiful! When the words to the song "Home on the Range" come to mind I always pictured something like where they live. It's going to be the funnest place for the grandkids to grow up. There's space as far as they eye can see and the adventures are just around the corner for my kids. We had an opportunity to see it for ourselves for the first time back in November. Luke was in heaven! He'd wake up each morning and ask to go outside to play. He'd get out there and look out from the porch for a minute and then say "run, run, run!" and take off! I can't wait for all the great memories to be made at Gramma Jo and Papa Dale's house! The visit was so nice ans we all loved the quality time spent together. We've missed having them 25 minutes away but we've had so many great visits with them since they've moved! So much to explore!

Levi staying snugly warm with Gramma

For Christmas this year, Trent built his dad a potato gun. Papa's dog, Quigly, loves for you to throw his toy. Now with all that space and a potato gun, Papa Dale can really throw it far!

Love that cute little face!!!

The real reason we went there when we did was for our annual Christmas tree cutting. We usually would meet up at Trent's parents house here in Chandler the morning of. Now we have a new tradition of driving out the day before and staying an extra night. That way we don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn AND we get to have extra time with family! I'm all for it :)

Levi missed most of the fun!

The winner!
Gotta love fun family traditions!

*Since this is our family journal I decided to write about this experience.

Sometimes life is such a roller coaster ride. That is the best way I can describe what we've been through the last couple months. I was so hoping to post an announcement on our blog that we would be having baby number three this summer! We were happily surprised to find out that we were expecting again the week before Thanksgiving. I took a pregnancy test and we went to the Dr and sure enough there was a baby coming! Considering how unplanned it was I was surprised and happy at how thrilled I was for another baby. Three little ones under three seemed so overwhelming! We hadn't planned to get pregnant as soon as we did (we wanted to wait a couple years), but I knew it was what the Lord wanted for us as soon as we learned the news. I was at peace and excited. I thought I was experiencing morning sickness symptoms and since I knew I would need help with the boys and since we had already had two very healthy pregnancies we figured we'd let the cat out of the bag and make the announcement to family and friends Thanksgiving Day. (Soon after we made the announcement I realized I was just plain old sick and that it wasn't morning sickness! Oops! Live and learn I guess)
Christmas Eve, I began to show signs that something might be wrong. I shared my concerns with Trent but we kept our worries under wraps till the Christmas weekend was over. I went to the Dr Tuesday afternoon where our concerns were confirmed and we learned that we had in fact lost the baby.
It's been a long road and although I am at peace with all that has happened (excepting whole heartily this baby that we were going to be blessed with only to loose it a few weeks later) I have had a lot of thoughts and emotions through this loss. I sometimes feel silly for feeling the way I do. Compared to what others have lost, this probably seems like nothing. I have come to terms with the loss and have "moved on" I guess. Each day is different and I know I'll never be the same (in a good way). I still know that this is what my Heavenly Father wanted for us. I know it. It hasn't been all bad. We've had some sweet experiences. Trent and I have been brought even closer together through this and we've been encircled in the love of my family and close friends. I don't want to speak for Trent and what he's felt about all of this but I do know that I've been his number one concern and he's been a rock for me to lean on.
I've never known a loss like this. To have something for such a short time only to loose it shouldn't be so devastating. I know we will have more children. And I know that life will still throw us trials, but I'm thankful to know that I can make it through with the love of my Heavenly Father and the people he's blessed my life with. I'm thankful for Eternal Families. I love my two little boys with ALL of my heart. I've never experienced a love like the love I feel for them. They've made this experience sweet in their own special way. Our family has been brought closer together and we appreciate more than ever before what we have and for that alone I am grateful for this experience. Thank you to everyone who have shared their love and concern for us! Life is moving forward. And even though we don't know what is in store for us, we are excited for what the future will bring.