A Boy's Best Friend

Call me a deprived child, but when I was growing up I don't remember having a toy or a blanket that I HAD to have with me everywhere. I'm sure my parents or grandparents would disagree, but I just don't remember. That is definitely not the case with Will. He has a very special dog that his Grandpa Evans gave him when he was just a few months old that has become his absolute favorite toy of all time. He carries that thing everywhere, even when he goes to play at other people's houses. We have to be very sneaky or persuasive if we want him to leave "Big Doggy" at home at all. He's even gotten quite possessive of it. I remember one time we were at a family gathering, and another child wanted to play with it, but Will promptly went up to him and grabbed it away, letting the child know "this is my doggy." Let's just hope he won't carry it around with him to his classes at college :-)

Time for a toddler bed?

Will has many talents and skills, and apparently he's acquired a new one. I've been trying to figure out when is a good time to get him a toddler bed, especially since he is almost 3 years old. I think it's time to give it a little bit more serious thought.

The joys - and pains - of motherhood

Don't get me wrong...I love being a mother. I live for the times when Will gives me hugs and kisses, tells me he loves me, and we have a great day together. Then there are days like today. Days when my house is a mess, I haven't showered, Bill doesn't get home till late, and Will has more than one time in his "time-out chair" for doing something we've told him a hundred times not to do. This is a day when I feel like doing exactly what the cartoon shows: putting myself in time-out and letting Will have his way with the house. Obviously that would just make things worse than they are, so I must resign myself to blogging about it and getting on with my day.

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day is such a great day to remember the fathers that are a part of our lives and who have touched us in many different ways. They preside, provide, protect, teach, watch, and care for their families and friends in a way that is very unique to each individual. Today I want to pay special tribute to 5 fathers who have had a big influence on my life.


First is my grandpa Rollie. He is someone that I look up to with a lot of respect. Whenever we have the whole extended family together, he is always giving us great words of wisdom and advice. He cares about each one of us and wants to know what we're doing, even if we live hundreds of miles away. He loves to joke around and be silly, but he also knows what's important and what he needs to teach us.

Next is my grandpa Owen (sorry about no picture, Grandpa!). He is one of the sweetest, kindest people that I know. I love to play games with him and joke with him on the phone. He has a wonderful sense of humor and loves to laugh and have fun. He is a great handyman and has helped children and grandchildren with many different projects whenever he comes to visit. He is a peacemaker who always makes sure that everyone is happy and getting along.


My dad and I have always had a close relationship and are similar in many ways. He has always been in the public eye, but at home he was just Dad, and he did his best to make time for me and my sister despite his hectic schedule. Seeing him be a grandpa has been so neat, and I love watching him take care of Will and create that special bond.


In the 4+ years that I've known my father-in-law, I have gained a lot of respect for him. He is quiet, gentle, kind, serious, encouraging, supportive, loving, hard-working, and just an all-around good person. I think this picture is perfect, even though you can't see his face, because he loves Will very much and is the first person to steal him away whenever we come to visit.



And of course, there is my husband. I can't say enough about what a wonderful father he is. He is so gentle and patient toward Will, and loves to spend time with him. He often comments about how much he would like to be a stay-at-home dad while I go off and work. He loves to take Will outside or to the library and making sure that Will is happy. He does so well at providing for our family and keeping us going with his positive attitude and endless love. I am so grateful that he is the father of my children.

Happy Father's Day to these wonderful men, and to the many other fathers among my family and friends who I love dearly.

Happy Birthday Bill!

Today is Bill's 27th birthday. I have to say that I married a truly wonderful person. He's such a hard worker, always trying to do his best in school, work, church, and at home. He is always looking at life in such a positive way, and never thinks bad about anyone. I am privileged to be his wife. I hope you have a fabulous day, Bill. I love you.

We are so blessed

I know it's probably a little silly to get something meaningful from a reality TV show, but I am going to wax philosophical for a few minutes. One of my favorite shows these days is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The reason I love that show so much is because they go around the country essentially changing the lives of families that need help in all sorts of different ways. The most recent episode I watched was a family from Idaho that have 4 children all suffering from a potentially life-threatening disease. As I was watching I felt a myriad of emotions, including sympathy, sorrow, and joy. Watching this particular show made me realize just how lucky I personally am, and how lucky my family is. Being born with Spina Bifida, I know what it's like to have a million and one doctor visits, numerous surgeries, and special accommodations made for you. However, Spina Bifida is fairly mild compared to many birth defects and diseases that are out there. Yes I am confined to a wheelchair, but I am also a college graduate, a wife and mother, and besides not being able to walk, I consider myself a "normal" person.

Another thing I am so grateful for is that Will is a healthy, happy child. I see so many children out there, like the ones on this show, who have to deal with so many horrible things and it breaks my heart to see that. It also makes me look at my own child and realize that I have it pretty good. Besides spending a week in the NICU for a small infection when he was born, he has never had much more than a cold in the 2 1/2 years he's been on this earth. I remember when I was pregnant and we went in for an ultrasound. I felt so much relief when I could see that his spine was completely formed and he wouldn't have to deal with the things that I did growing up. I know there is a chance that one of our future children might have to deal with Spina Bifida, but I am so glad that at least Will doesn't have to.

Finally, I am grateful that the Lord has been watching out for us and that He sees us as worthy of His blessings. For example, Bill is currently working on his 3rd degree, but in the 4 years that we have been married, and the 3 degrees that we have between us already, we have never had to take out a single student loan. And because of wonderful medical insurance, we don't have medical bills piling up and drowning us. We have some amazing family and friends who have helped us tremendously over the years with everything from babysitting and bringing us meals to just sitting and talking with us if we've had a bad day.

We have been so incredibly blessed, and even when times might seem hard, I wouldn't trade the life I have for anything in the world. I have a wonderful husband who adores me and who I love so much, I have an adorable little boy who makes life fun and interesting, I have a roof over my head, food to eat, family and friends to spend time with, and so many more blessings. It's definitely a wonderful life.

It's hot up in here!

We've lived in Illinois for about 10 months now, and even though there are a lot of things I miss about Utah and BYU, Urbana is definitely growing on me. I like how green it is here, I like having many parks to choose from for Will, I like our ward and the people that we've had the chance to meet. There's only one thing that I absolutely can't stand - the humidity!!! I have never been so hot in my life (well ok, I probably have, but it certainly feels like I haven't). I don't know how I'm going to survive the rest of the summer. Any ideas?

Happy 100th post!

I can't believe we've done 100 posts since we started this blog back in October. It's been so much fun to do, and I am so glad that Bill's sister Laura introduced us to the blogging world and got us (more specifically me)hooked on doing it. I think the top 3 reasons I love doing this blog are:

1. It's a great online journal, which is good for a slacker journal-writer like me
2. It's a good excuse to take pictures, which is nice for a bad scrapbooker like me
3. It's a great way for loved ones to keep up on what's happening with our family

I'm looking forward to the next 100 posts, and I hope you are too.

So Proud

I feel bad that my picture-taking can't do it justice, but this is the final copy of Bill's masters thesis from BYU. After a slight mix-up at the printer, we finally got the right one. I am so proud of Bill and the hard work that he went through to get this done. Math is a hard subject to write a paper on, and I can't even begin to understand what exactly his thesis is about, but I do know that it looks very impressive and that Bill put in a lot of time and effort to get it done. I'm very proud of him and I know that he will do just as well with his PhD dissertation.

We're not in Utah anymore

I lived in Utah my whole life until last year, and there are a lot of things that Utah is known for, such as Temple Square, great skiing, bad drivers, and unpredictable weather. You never know what the weather's going to be like, or if it's going to change in 5 minutes. For example, you could have a good thunderstorm for about half an hour, then all of a sudden you have sunny skies again, or vice versa. Well it's definitely not that way here in the Midwest. Last night we had a whopper of a storm. And it lasted for HOURS. I have never seen so much thunder, lightning and rain in all my life! A lot of the roads were literally small ponds that you had to drive through. And every 5 minutes on the radio they were broadcasting thunderstorm warnings, flood warnings, and tornado warnings. Luckily none of those warnings were for our specific area (I think the closest one was about an hour away), but it was still pretty scary to realize that they very well could have been. I guess this is one more thing about living in this part of the country that I'm going to have to get used to.