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 :)