A Quarter of a Century

I really have accomplished a lot in my life (yes I am bragging). In the past 3 years, however, I really feel like I know who I am and what I am supposed to be doing. I moved to Utah, found my eternal companion, landed a job that I love at a school that I love (how often does that happen?), and now I have such a beautiful little family. We have purchased our first house and first car together, and I really couldn't be a happier almost 25 year old right now! To have done so much by age 25, I can honestly say that I am a very accomplished person.

Megan and Tyler

Right now I am loving life. My birthday is tomorrow. I had such a fun weekend with my family. My parents and oldest niece came in to town. My Dad said that they either wanted to do something like go on a hike or a picnic or they would help us on a project on our house for my birthday, and I quickly without hesitation asked if they would help with a project on our house because neither Tyler nor I are very handy, and we would gladly appreciate the all around amazing handy man that my father is. They arrived on Friday around 5 oclock and we decided to go to Lowe's and see if we could get some ideas. The project we decided we wanted help on is our front porch. When we first purchased our home, the people who owned the home before had done some nice remodeling. They put tile on the porch and some nice rock. The tile however is very slick in the winter time and many people either slipped and fell on our porch or were very close to falling whenever the porch got wet. We decided that we wanted to resurface the porch for safety reasons. Lowe's was going to help us with this project. We spent a lot of Friday night at Lowe's getting ideas, and then left the men to oogle how large Lowe's is, and the girls went out shopping for a prom dress for Peighton (my almost 18 year old and graduated niece). We went to the mall in Orem. Nothing. Did you know that there was not a single dress at the mall. Shocking. After searching for hours, the men texted and said they were locked out of the house, so we decided to head home anyways. I was also starving. We went home and made chicken fajitas, always a winner at our house. Saturday we got a slow start, but Peighton was bound and deteremined that we were going to find her prom dress. We went to the Provo mall, nothing. We went to Allyse's bridal. Nothing. We finally went to the store that we wanted to go to first, and found the winner!! We could have saved hours of time if we would have just gone their first. Then we went home to see the progress on the porch. Still not finished, but they had remodeled the front flower bed, which I will have to post some pictures of at a later time, because I haven't actually taken any pictures yet. We made biscuits and gravy on Sunday morning, another winner breakfast in our home, went to church, went and visited the new Provo temple that is being supported by metal beams right now, and then said our farewells.

School is going really well for me. My 3rd graders are super hyperactive this year and don't really have much of an attention span. It makes it very difficult to teach sometimes. I have been so patient this year though. I feel like my motherly instincts kick into gear a lot now though. I used to not have that "they are with me a majority of the day so I should try and teach them values and nurture them because they probably don't get it at home" attitude, but after becoming a mother, I really look at some of my students differently. A lot of my students live with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, or a single parent. They really need some extra love this year. I hope that they have felt safe in my classroom. This week has been teacher appreciation week, which always happens to land on my birthday, which I love. I can use double the excuse for them to be nice and behave. Our PTA have gone overboard this year. There is a Dr. Seuss theme and so parents decorated our door, Monday we got lunch, today we got "Hop on Popcorn" in the faculty room with lots of yummy kinds of popcorn, tomorrow is breakfast in the morning, Thursday is more treats in the faculty room, and Friday is another lunch. I love this week. One more month and then I will have completely my third year of teaching. I don't have to reapply this year, I don't have to update my resume (even though that's a good thing to do), I don't have to interview!! I probably won't have to change classrooms for the fourth time. I just get to be Mrs. Keil third grade teacher again next year! How exciting!

We bought a new car! We have been looking for awhile just because Noah's carseat is kind of difficult to fit into either of our cars. Plus, we are planning for the future. :) Our thought was that we could sell Tyler's car for the amount that we still owed on my car ($6,880) and then hopefully get a more spacious car with a similar payment to mine so that we would still only have one car payments but it wouldn't change our budget very much. We went to Low Book Sales in Orem because they wanted to appraise Tyler's car. After some really dishonest things that they did, we ended up not purchasing anything from them. The very next day, we went to Ken Garff in Orem because Tyler was going to test drive a car. We liked it, but it wasn't anything too special. Just in case, I asked if they had anything similar to that one. Apparently an older couple has just brought in a car that the other dealership had lent to Tyler while they were appraising his car that was way out of our price range there, but this couples' car was right in our price range. So we ended up buying it that very day. We love our new 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe and couldn't be more happy with the purchase of our first car together!

Tyler is still working (hard?) on school. He still isn't quite sure what he wants to do other than continue working at the credit union. He originally wanted to be a teacher when we returned home from his mission. He couldn't decide what he wanted to focus on as far as subject that he wanted to teach. He kept saying, "Well I could do History or English." He couldn't decide so he switched his major to Business Finance after he started working for the credit union. Accounting came next but he wasn't passing his accounting class because it is a really different kind of math that he doesn't really love, but again, thought that he could do it. He has moved on to Elementary Education which he finally said that he is excited to do. However, he is not loving the school part of it. He has a really hard time focusing on his homework and remembering to take tests. Which is where my next advice comes from...before you get married or have a baby, FINISH SCHOOL!! It is so much easier when you only have yourself to worry about. There are just so many distractions now, and all he really wants to do is spend time with his family (which how can I say no to that?). I hope he figures it out because I don't really want my husband to be in school forever. That would be awful.

Noah

My sweet Noah is growing up SO FAST!! He will be 8 months old on Thursday! Where has the time gone seriously?? Noah is such a happy boy. I love the different stages that he has gone through and has been so fun watching him grow and develop. His personality is one that is addictive to be around. I love spending time with him and playing with him on the floor. One of my favorite games is putting blocks on the top of his head and watching him look for the block. Actually I like putting anything on his head because he will just look with his eyes to the top of his head, and it is just the cutest little face that he makes and it makes me laugh really hard. Here are some things about my sweet boy that I would love to remember always:

1. He loves his mommy and daddy the most

2. He gives mom the best kisses, but won't kiss dad because of his facial hair

3. He pulls himself up on the furniture so fast now and has such strong legs (We even had to lower his crib because every time we go in his room now to get him he is standing up in his crib)

4. He loves eating at the table with us

5. He loves zucchini, green beans, squash, peaches, pears, prunes, bananas, chicken, sweet potatoes, bread, cinnamon rolls, french fries, blueberry puffs, and peas, as long as all of those things are warm
(He makes a really funny squish face and shakes his head when he eats something that he doesn't like)

6. He has the happiest face in the morning when we come to get him out of his crib

7. He makes this noise like a grandpa when he talks, especially at other babies in church (it kind of sounds like he is grunting)

8. He has 2 top teeth and 2.5 bottom teeth with more coming in

9. He still loves to be swaddled when he goes to bed, even though he breaks out of the swaddle and usually ends up sleeping on his stomach with his head up against the bars of his crib
(we finally bought some bumpers to go around the outside so that he doesn't hit his head on the bars)

10. He doesn't like the grass, but loves being outside on a blanket

11. He is always clapping his hands on the table or pounding on the table or with blocks

12. He loves to rest his outside leg on my chest when he is nursing

13. He loves to snuggle with dad on the couch at night

14. He likes to look at books and turn the pages

15. He loves to hold our hands and walk around the house bringing his right leg up really high out in front of himself

16. He loves his baths and especially loves to chew on the washcloth that I try washing him with

17. He sleeps for about 11 hours usually with eating only once during that time

18. He loves to jump and move around; not sit

19. He smiles all the time, sometimes with his top lip over his bottom lip

20. He doesn't even mind his car seat very much anymore
21. He makes a very quiet puh puh puh sound and loves it when we copy him
22. He loves to squeal loudly
23. He huffs and puffs when he is frustrated
24. He rubs his eyes when he is tired
25. He now turns over after I take his clothes and diaper off and crawls quickly away so that he can be naked

I could come up with about a million more, but I love love love my baby, and I can't believe he is growing up so quickly.

When Tyler got home from work tonight, he asked if I wanted my birthday present from my mom and his mom. He can't keep a surprise a secret for more than a few minutes I don't think. I could tell he was excited so I said he could show me. They got me a jogging stroller which I was totally surprised by because I don't jog. But I am willing to try it out for sure! I have always said that I want to enjoy running, so I guess now here is my chance. I just hope it warms up soon so that I can take this baby out for a spin!

Today also marks the 2 year anniversary of when Tyler proposed to me on the "Y" mountain. He actually suggested that we do that for our activity tonight, and I don't think he could pay me right now to hike it because I am so out of shape. Happy two years of love Ty!