Twilight Love!

I love Twilight! A good romance puts me in a good mood. I don't care if it's not popular anymore. Team Edward!

Miss Francy Makes Friends

It's crazy how different my kids are. Francesca, who seems to have taken on the nickname of "Francy", loves making friends. It's in her nature. First of all, she has built-in friends who happen to be her brothers. When they are at school she loves chasing Conrad around. When Conrad is napping she begs and begs me to play with a friend. She loves playing house, dress-up, my little pony, barbies, & dolls.

I think she is used to being surrounded by people, so that's where she is most comfortable.

Her BFF is definitly her grandma, my mom. He and my mom are so similar it's uncanny. From their petite size, to their feminine nature to their love of rolls and of playing in water, they are two peas in a pod. 

She is a lot like a sparker. ;)

I wanted to add that she also adores Justin's mom as well. 

I love this girlie girl of mine.

She makes me laugh and cry and smile all at the same time.

Making the Trek Northward

Another huge life changing event I wanted to update the blog on was our move. Yes, we moved from Springville to Lehi. We actually moved from Springville to Farmington to Lehi, but more on that later. It all started in the spring of 2012. We had originally planned on staying in Springville for 5-10 years, but Justin's job's kept bringing him north. First with AtTask, they moved from Orem to Lehi. Then he got his current job with EMC, which is located even further north in Draper. The commute was terrible, especially because there was a huge construction project happening directly along his commute. He was not a fan. Not just becasue of the hassle of the drive, but because it took him away from the family for an extra 1.5-2.5 hours a day, depending on traffic and weather. He even tried carpooling, which helped. But eventually after praying about it and going to the temple about it we decided to start making plans to move further north. Another motivation for moving further north was being closer to our families. So, since I was pregnant at the time, we decided that we would improve our house the best that we could now, then right after having the baby we would put our house up for sale. Fixing up our house was fun. Here are some of the projects:

New floors.

Front porch and landscaping project.

large amounts of priming, painting, and more tearing out old carpet, and installing new flooring. (this is the old carpet)

Our house went on the market when Conrad was one month old. We had about 3-5 showing a week. Here is the house blog I made: http://housewithcharm.blogspot.com. this whole time, we started looking at houses, which was very exciting. 

I wanted to look in the Salt Lake Valley, but Justin wanted to stay in Utah Valley. After realizing that not only is SL about 10-15% more $, but the yards are typically smaller, especially in the neighborhood I wanted to be in, (Daybreak). We signed the papers to build the home we are now in in September of 2012. We sold our Springville house just in time, closing in November of 2012. 

Floral Designing & Balance

As most of you probably know, I attended the Utah School of Floral Design in 2010.

Here I am with some of my fellow classmates. Shorly afterward, I officially started Field of Gold Floral Design, my flower design business. I did several weddings, mother's days, one valentine's day, and several other small projects.

I love flowers, I really do. I enjoy working with them. Unfortunatly, I had a really hard time balancing the flower business with motherhood, and my housewife duties. Because of this, I came to the conclusion and realization that now is not the season in my life to be starting businesses, big or small. Being the best mother and wife I can be comes first priority in my life right now. I'm not going to lie, Yes, occasionally I dream of being a working mom, but because of this experience and my experience with being an Avon lady, I think when the time comes for me to pursue a money-making opportunity, I would want to work for someboody else, in an office, outside of the home. For now, that is at least a few years in the future. I have found a new purpose and appreciation for being a stay-at-home mom. I try harder to cherish every moment with my sweet kids. I count myself extremely lucky that I am married to the most wonderful hard-working man I know.

Dealing with Loss

There have been four losses that we have had to deal with between December 2010 & February 2012.
#1) My grandmother, Carolyn Snell Wilson.

She was an amazing woman, and I miss her a lot. She had leukemia.  I look up to her very much, and still think about her often. I know that she is in heaven smiling down with her mom and dad and little sister waiting for the rest of us.

#2) My kid's pediatrician, Dr. Gregory Nielsen.

It was a very unexpected death. I had just seen him a few weeks before I heard the news. He was my kids pediatrician for six years. We saw him for earaches, colds, diaper rashes, e coli, the flu, immunizations, and much more. He was a wonderful doctor, and a good friend. Jumping into motherhood so young, he helped guide me and reassure me of my parenting skills. We have been through 4-5 different pediatricians since his death and we haven't found anyone close to as wonderful as him. 

#3) Whitney Houston.

Judge me if you may, but I wanted to be her for most of my childhood. I would listen and sing her songs for hours a day. The first CD I ever listened to was The Bodyguard soundtrack. In my opinion she has the best voice ever. I had a really really hard time dealing with her death. I cried for months. It is just such a tragedy. I had hoped to meet her some day. 

#4) Krishna. 

She dissapeared shortly after her second birthday. We checked the pound every week and never saw any sign of her. She was special because her and I shared a birthday. She was beautiful. I loved her.

I had another baby

Introducing our fourth child, Conrad Alexander!

I noticed I hadn't introduced him on the blog yet so here he is. He is such a wonderful sweet lovable baby. He makes us happy. Life with four kids had been tough at times, but incredibly joyful other times. These munchkins keep us on our toes. I have had to re-evaluate my parenting. I have purchased over ten books about parenting over the last year and a half, and have checked out about that many from the library. It seems my kids all hit unfamiliar stages all at once, and each child is so different you can't really use the same strategy as you did on another child. Life is hard, but I'm working on it. Those precious moments when they look into your eyes and smile, and you know you're everything to them makes it all worth it.

Goodbye, Art City

We sold our house in Springville in November of 2012. It was good, but kinda sad. We made a lot of great memories in that house, in that neighborhood, in that city, an that ward. Awwwww, I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it. It was a very bright and happy place. Very humble, but the people were friendly, and kind. I miss the Springville library. I miss the SMofA. I miss the friendly first ward, I miss Reams. I miss my loverly friends. I miss our trees and garden and yellow walls. I miss my kids having close friends. I miss catching butterflies on warm summer days. I miss taking walks.
Things are different here. Not neccesarily worse, but different. Things are getting better.