Nursery Makeover Reveal

Remember this post about how I had plans to redo our nursery. Well, I finally have it finished and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Here is the bad news: I sadly did not take any 'before' pictures. So, just imagine this room looking a whole lot more boring and we are set. Here is it post-makeover.

This is the only shelf in the room. It makes a huge difference to have some vertical decorating in this space. 

 These are the paper flowers I made. The paper was super cheap and the vase was like $3 from Michaels. 

Here is my favorite part of the decorating process. I wanted some fun artwork in the room, but I wanted it to be personal. I recently have dabbled in watercolor painting and so I figured I'd just paint some pictures myself. I plan to have lullabies for each of my kids, so 'Baby Mine' is Eva's and "Hushabye Mountain" will be little boy's lullaby. Here are some closeups. 

 These are the DIY pom-poms I made to hang over Eva's bed. I love the whimsy they add to the room. 

And that's it. I'm super please with how everything turned out and I'm SUPER glad I actually took the time to put together the nursery finally. It definitely took long enough. 

Take Two: Back to Virginia

Morgan just started his second year of law school this week. He is pretty excited about some of his new classes. We have had a busy month back in Virginia already. We hurried back so Morgan could do on campus interviews, then we got to relax for about a week. We went to the beach a couple times, went to the park, went to some outdoor concerts and just overall enjoyed having so much time together.

Now it is back to the grind. We're finally settling back into a schedule and i'm working like crazy to get ready for baby #2 in six weeks.

I have had a major burst of nesting this last week. I redecorated our master bedroom (pictures coming soon) and have started sewing our Halloween costumes. My hip has been hurting a lot lately, but when it feels good i'm going a hundred miles a minutes trying to get things done.

Beka finally had her little girl, Clara Lela Sorensen. She is a doll.

I wish I could hold and snuggle. I'm glad that I will get my own little bundle here in a few weeks to snuggle with. Eva has absolutely no idea that a baby is coming. We have taught her to call my bump baby and she'll give him kisses if we ask, but besides that she is oblivious. Maybe it is better that way. Oh, I don't think I mentioned on here that we are having a boy, which is awesome! Now we'll have one of each gender and I won't have to worry what our next kids will be.

We're really loving being back in Virginia. It definitely feels more like home the longer we are here.

Summer 2015

We had an awesome summer in Colorado Springs this year. We lived with Morgan's parents while Morgan completed an internship with Judge McHenry at the district courthouse. Shay and Steph were home for the summer as well and we had a great time visiting, watching shows and playing games.

Morgan loved working for his judge. I feel like he finally found why law school was worth it through this internship. He excelled at everything his judge gave him and got a deeper insight into the court system. His favorite part that most surprised him was that he actually really loved watching the jury selection each Monday morning.

Eva grew leaps and bounds over the summer. We had three goals for her this summer: 1-learn to walk barefoot on grass; 2-learn to go down the stairs; 3-learn to enjoy jumping on the trampoline. I am proud to say that ALL three were accomplished in the 10 weeks we were in the Springs. She did take one big tumble down the stairs in the process, but wasn't seriously harmed. She also went to the zoo for the first time ever and loved it. Her aunts taught her a lot of animal noises before we went and she made the appropriate ones she knew (mainly monkey and elephant). Our favorite part of the zoo trip was when we went to visit the petting zoo and an aggressive chicken got too close for Eva's comfort. She quickly backed up, put her hands out and said, "whoa, whoa!" I don't even know where she learned that word from, but it was hilarious. Here is an Eva picture overload.

 Eva in her new pool

 First time coloring

 Relaxing in Grandma Lyons room while watching cartoons. 

 Making friends with the nutcracker at a German restaurant we went to.

 These are Eva's two favorite toys from Grandma's house: a stuffed dog and a blue purse. 

 Running errands

 Dancing in the living room

Splash pad 

 Watching TV with the aunts in her favorite chair

 Playing dress-up

 During family pictures, Eva decided little Gracie needed some encouragement to endure looking at the camera for so long.

I taught Skype lessons during the summer, worked on redecorating my in-laws house, enjoyed having company all the time and picked up watercoloring. Eva and I also spent tons of time together and went swimming and played plenty. It was so nice having Shay, Steph and Mom Lyons around to help entertain our high energy girl.

Other things we did: Visited the Garden of the Gods with the Laws and the McKeans (man, do we miss them both!),

went to a Skysox game (Eva loved Sox the Fox until she saw him up close),

had a tennis tournament (well, Morgan had one...and he won), 

tried camping in the backyard to see how Eva would do (it was a major flop), went up to Denver for the 4th of July to see Sam and Megan, and went to the Denver temple twice. On the last trip to the temple we did Daniel's temple work on the day he passed away a year ago. It was the perfect way to remember him and remember that families are forever.

Abi got married and our 3rd Anniversary

Abi got married on May 9th. Eva and I left Morgan in Virginia and made the trek to Idaho for the week. I helped decorate and organize the food for the main event. It was so cute. Abi and her new hubby were so radiant and the whole event was just one big party. I will say however, that it was definitely not a vacation for me. Weddings are a LOT of work.

Eva sadly cut two new teeth while we were there. She had a fever for a couple days and was just not feeling that great the whole week long. She did however LOVE Dotty, our dog. She discovered that she would eat up the food she threw at her on our last day there and thought it was the most hilarious thing. She would toss her food and then giggle and giggle when Dotty would snatch it up.

It was so nice to see family and get to be in Idaho for a little bit, but we definitely missed Morgan and green Virginia. I almost cried once I saw the trees as we flew into the Charlottesville airport.

Speaking of airports, I have to say that Eva was the BEST traveler on our trip out west. She actually fell asleep on the flight out and back and she didn't cry at all. It was awesome.

We also got to see little Gracie girl and Aleisha on our way to Idaho. It was nice to see Aleisha and catch up and finally get to meet little Grace. She is such a doll.

Morgan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary yesterday. We celebrated by going to a super nice French restaurant here in Charlottesville called C&O. They led us to a private table with a view and then gave us complimentary sparkling grapefruit juice in fancy glasses. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures, but it was delicious. Here's to year number 4!

Being a Law School Wife

Reflection time: I wasn't sure, 9 months ago, what it would be like to be a law school wife. Now that I have a whole year of experience (can't you just see me sniffing and pushing my glasses up my nose) I have been thinking about this first year journey and what I didn't know or expect before it all began.

I didn't quite expect, or understand, the full stress of law school. I knew it would happen, so I wasn't surprised, I guess looking back I just realize it has been harder than I thought. It's hard to feel completely helpless when you know your love is stressed and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Morgan has been so good when I admit to feeling this way, because he hugs me and says that I feed him and clean the house and take care of our beautiful girl and that is the best. It is so sweet of him, but I wish I could do more.

I didn't expect how homesick I would get, nope not at all. I was ready to move on, get out here to Virginia and start our adventure on the east coast. But man, here at the end of 9 months, even though we have seen our families multiple times, I miss them. I miss having them play with Eva. I miss seeing them face to face and visiting. I miss hugging and playing games with my siblings and in-laws. We sure love how beautiful and quaint Virginia is, but it sure would be the best place on earth if our families lived within a few hours driving distance.

I have learned that I can do hard things optimistically. Honestly, my life still isn't that hard, but I like knowing that Morgan and I can live on a nothing budget and feel like we are the richest people alive. I like knowing that no matter how much we make, how much debt we have, or if we don't have a job at all that we can still be happy. I have realized the importance of gratitude through law school. Gratitude for the small things is what bring me the most happiness and I'm glad I have figured that out a little better.

That's about all I can think to write about at the moment. I feel like when I write posts that wax philosophical, I often forget what I was writing about in the first place and then I look back on it a few months over and laugh and think…how naive I was. So, i'll stop now, while I feel like I'm still somewhat on point and leave it at that. It's been an interesting year and we are absolutely beyond excited to move out west for 10 weeks during the summer. More than that, I'm excited to have my husband back! Only 10 more days and he'll be free from the tyrant that is 1L year of law school.

Study Time means Party Time

Finals are consuming all Morgan's time right now. We only have about 10 days left to go. During this time of spouseless-ness, all the law school wives have banded together to party while our husbands study. We had a birthday party on Tuesday, a riverside picnic on Wednesday, girl's nights on Thursday and Friday and then today we had a fondue picnic lunch. Morgan says it is so sad that while he studies I just get to have all the fun. :(  Believe me when I say, I would definitely rather be spending all this time with my love, but a girl can't just sit around and do nothing while he is gone all the time.

Yesterdays girls night was a hot tub birthday party. We were so 'wild' (more like super loud, because come on…we're girls) we had the cops called on us. No worries though, the police couldn't enforce the curfew of the apartment complex in the first place. So, we were just kindly asked to leave…haha. We still hadn't sung happy birthday yet, so we gathered around plates of rice crispies with candles in them and whisper-sang Happy Birthday. It sounded like something out of a horror film and about halfway through we almost couldn't finish because we were laughing too hard. I believe the birthday wishes made were for all of our husbands to do well on their finals, that we'd all be millionaires one day and that we could then all go on a cruise together, just the girls. Good memories. I'm grateful that I have been able to find girlfriends out here to spend time with. Before law school, Morgan and I only had couple friends, but now we don't have time to do the couple thing as much. I've always had a hard time making girlfriends, but I think I actually do have a few here in Virginia, despite my lack of talent. It has been a life-saver. 

Singing creepy happy birthday.