Light at the end of the tunnel!

I am  

5/8 

the way done with grad school!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Halelujah!

Three more semesters to go!!

And a little about how we've been doing:

All ready for church, I'm a sucker for sweater vests!

He hasn't quite figured out crawling yet, but he's on the verge

 

My latest craft...Christmas tree skirt to match our stockings

My mom used to always take pictures of us sleeping in funny positions, and I'm starting to love to do the same with Kyson, I never know how he'll be sleeping when I go in to check on him.

Kyson and his friend Garrett watching Elmo's world...he loves Garrett!

Kyson has been such a PILL with eating lately, he waves his arms around ferociously, turns his head from side to side and I'm lucky if I can get 3 good bites in his mouth. Any suggestion on how to get an 8 month old to eat well?

Happy Holidays...We're sure getting excited to be home for Christmas!

Pretty Deep for Sonic...

This morning, during the wee hours of the morning, while I was at work, I was inspired by a sonic radio commercial.

Desserts 

is

Stressed

spelled backwards.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Thanksgiving

 We went to the Fort Worth Zoo on Wednesday and it was so much fun. It was 70 degrees with a cool breeze and perfect zoo weather. Kyson really didn't care about any of the animals, but he loved being out side.

Our friends the Corbridges. (Erhart's and Peterson's were there too, but I just didn't get a picture of them!)

 Our Turkey Trot 5K Thanksgiving Morning

Kyson even toughed out the turkey trot, our little Texan isn't used to cold weather, but he survived like a champ!

We missed our families for Thanksgiving and can't wait to see them for Christmas!!!

Jessie comes to Texas!!

One of my best friends since 3rd grade came to Texas to visit a couple weeks ago. Jessie and I got in a fight in 1st grade over our pencil boxes. But in 3rd grade something really clicked and she has been such an incredible friend to me ever since. 

She was here three days and we spent our time playing Catan and Ticket to ride with Clark, going to Wal-mart to buy Jessie a couple things because the airport lost her bags, getting lost in Dallas, checking out the outlets in Grapevine (we had a good excuse to go shopping with Kati having a baby soon!!!), going on a run at River Legacy Park, relaxing in the hot tub, watching a good ol' chick flick, making cheese eggs and talking and laughing about old times and the new crazy things going on in our lives.

Thanks for coming Jess! It was so fun to have you here!

Of things that matter most.

I record this so that I can remember a tender mercy that I received.

Since Kyson has been born I have been trying to me a wife, mom, full-time nurse, part-time graduate student, Young Women's secretary, and still have time to be a somewhat decent friend, sister, daughter, etc.

Let's just say that it was rough. Clark was amazing. He did so much around the house to try to help take some of the load off me. But I was always going, going, going and felt that I had too much going on in my life to focus on the important things.

I went home for a school training conference and on Friday night talked/cried to my parents and told them that I was going to have to quite something because I couldn't do it all anymore.

Saturday we watched conference and Elder Uchtdorf gave an AMAZING talk about focusing on the things that matter most and the importance of slowing down when life gets crazy and making sure that our priorities are right...I'd recommend all reading it. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-7,00.html

I flew back to Texas determined. I marched into my bosses office Monday morning and told her that I needed a TDA position. (TDA is a position at my hospital that consists of working 2 of the 3 weekend nights, but still getting full benefits, tuition reimbursement and the pay is actually better than working 3 days of the week. I had asked my boss about it a couple weeks prior to this and she said she didn't have a TDA opening.)

So, I set up an interview with a manager of a women's unit that had a TDA opening and told my boss that I didn't want to leave our unit, but I absolutely had to be TDA for my family situation and that I had an interview lined up. She called me back 10 minutes later and said that they didn't want to lose me and that they would make room for me to go TDA.

What a blessing. Two weeks later I moved to TDA, yeah, the weekends and night shifts stink. But it means that I am home with Kyson all during the week. Clark is able to study more. I can get more of my school work done during his nap time. I still have one clinical day a week precepting with a nurse practitioner, but it is one day gone a week instead of four!

It reminded me that although sometimes I feel like I am in way over my head, the Lord prepares a way to do what he has asked us to do. I know that the prophets and apostles are inspired in what they teach us during General Conference and am grateful for the guidance we receive from our leaders.

September & October

Kyson and I have been hitting the roads of Arlington in the jogger...found it at a second hand store, works like a charm, i-pod connects and there are speakers that play us music while we run, Kyson LOVES it!

Found the toes...

Four Months Old

Clark came home to find me like this...logged into a web conference, trying to take notes, feed hungry baby, etc.

Happy Birthday Clark!

Kyson and I went home for a weekend training session for my school, my mom and sisters watched Kyson while I drove up to Pocatello. Then I got to watch conference with my family and go out to dinner with the women while the men were at Priesthood.

Kyson has brachiocephaly (one side of head grows faster than the other at first, not really a problem, but it can pull the facial features and mess up sinus development if not fixed.) So, we got the DOC band...aka the helmet!

Camping with friends (Erharts, Corbridges, Princes)...fun despite the HUGE spiders, close neighbors and kids up all night!

The helmet beautified...or "boy"ified

The crime.....

The culprit.

Thanks Becca for my BYU-I shirt!

Trying out Robert's Cowboy hat for size!

Halloween Party at the Erharts...notice the Boise State Insignia that has been added.

Clark and I always call Kyson our "little buddy" and my friend Amber found this cute fabric for me that says little buddy on it, so I figured I better make him a blanket with it.