Feeling hopeful!

So my dearest husband has been working so hard these past few years to be able to get into a PA (Physician Assistant) masters program. Not the easiest process in the world at all. He has spent the lsat 3 years of our marriage working low pay jobs to get patient experience (since they like to see around 2,000 hours of patient experience or more) going to school to get the prerequisites and retaking classes to make his GPA better, which he eventually got his degree in Physiology and developmental biology. As well as getting other certifications such as the CNA and EMT certifications and a lot of other things to help make his application look good. He applied last year in hoping that it would be enough to get in and received rejection letters back from every school saying his application wasn't competitive enough. So that made him work even harder this last year to make his application better and I have never seen him so determined or work so hard. With so many discouraging moments all along the way. . . He has been invited to interview with a school in New Mexico and a school in Las Vegas!! When he got his first email requesting an interview he was speechless and I just cheered and cried. We have been praying for the chance for him to show a school that he has what it takes and give him a chance. We are feeling so blessed and grateful to our Heavenly Father who really does answer prayers :)

So we are hoping with everything we have that he gets into one of these schools and gets to be the PA he has been working so hard to be. But until then we are celebrating the interviews he has been given and hope they go well. I know that if they can see Joe's desire and passion for the field, and his determination (that blows me away sometimes) and how hard he has worked they won't be able to turn him down. I just pray they see it :) I love my husband. I just had to let the world know a little about how great he is and how proud I am of him. So yeah, GO JOE! You can do it!

Zoo

So we made our once a year trip to the zoo a few weeks ago. And as always it was fun to go see all the animals. However this year I decided not take a picture of every animal we saw, since they don't change much from year to year and we dont have the space or reason to keep them on our computer :) I think the best part about this year was watching Jace recognize all the animals. Last year he only looked at them like, what is that thing?

I did however take pictures of my favorites, the giraffe and the elephant.



Jace loved the playground just as much or maybe even more than the animals.


Us on the train :) Yay Zoo!

New Toy

So a few weeks ago I bought a new toy for myself! It has been so fun! I bought the item shown below. Yes it was quite expensive and I am still paying it off, but Joe was way nice and let me get it. Reasoning for getting this camera was so that I could take my own kids pictures instead of going to a photographer every time. So everyday since I bought it I have been practicing with it and reading about how to use it so I could take Jace's 2 year old pics. And it has been a blast!


I have been practicing and practicing and finally got the courage to take Jace's pictures. So below are some of the 2 year old pics I took. I love my camera!

Ps. The pictures are a little fuzzier on here. I have tried to upload them different times hoping they would be clearer, but you get the idea of what they look like.

Pregnancy Update

Yikes! It's been 12 weeks since I last took a pregnancy photo. Almost a whole trimester! The last time was when I was 17 weeks Lol. I am not as on top of this as I was with Jace. Anyhow, here is one of me at 29 weeks. I am starting to get to the uncomfortable stage and am having a harder time sleeping at night, simply because it's hard to breathe. Um... other than that things are going good so far. I am on track for weight, but I am not at the end yet so I am not ruling out the possibility of retaining quite a bit of water again :S (please no). But I am crossing my fingers and hoping with everything I have that I dont retain as much as I did with jace and get toxemia! :S As of right now drinking a lot of water and staying away from junk as much as I can and such seems to be working, as far as water retention any way. :)

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July in my hometown like we always do, and I love it! I LOVE Blanding's 4th of July! It never changes and I love it! It's probably my favorite holiday.

Jace and Malin before the festivities. Jace LOVES Malin (my nephew). He calls him "My Malin"

Kia, Jace and Malin. These 2 are awesome babysitters. :)

Joe, Jace and Siah waiting for the Parade to start

Jace and I watching the parade. Poor thing, after we took this picture I realized how the umbrella wasn't covering him and adjusted it. haha I'm a great mother

The older grandkids after they got soaked by the fire truck.

Sander and Jace waiting for the Fireworks

My sweet, awesome family at the fireworks. I love them :)

Joe and Jace watching the fireworks. I don't think either were thrilled that I took this picture. The flash is pretty bright.

Balloon Festival

The Saturday before the 4th we went to the balloon festival in provo. It's super early in the morning but it was worth it cause Jace still talks about it all the time. He loved that we sat on a blanket on the grass, ate breakfast and watched the big balloons. Those are the 3 things he mentions each time. :)

Joe and Jace waiting for the balloons to come back

The pig balloon. Haha I kind of got it's rear-end. Still cool

Cola Bottle.

Birthday Fun

For Jace's birthday we had a pool party in our backyard and invited his little friends. Only a few were able to make it, but he still had a blast. Which is the important thing. He is still talking about it. This pool they are playing in was his main birthday present that he actually got it at the beginning of the summer. Best purchase ever! He loves it and never gets bored with it. Hopefully it will last a couple summers?

Jace and Gordon. Ps. Jace hardly ever smiles for pictures anymore he just looks at me. lol.


I dared joe to jump in and he did. :)


More fun in the pool


Taking a break, eating some chips.


And more water fun! Jace diving down the slide.


Ice cream cones!


Later that night we had a birthday party with a few family members. Thanks TaTa, Susan and Sterling for coming! We opened some presents and had cake and ice cream.

He got a lot of great gifts. Thanks to all who gave him gifts! He is really enjoying them.

My little MJ. lol. He loves this basketball hoop!


His car brithday cake! Disclaimer, I let jace help me ice the cake. However, even if he didn't, it still might look like this. lol

Yay! Happy Birthday!


And a few days before his birthday he got a new little cousin! She's a doll! He was so sweet with her. Hopefully this is the case with another little girl that's coming in the future :)