Category Archives: Just Life

Posts about the good normal everyday life stuff: eating out, family outings, coloring, just living life and loving it.

Letters for Carson’s room

Just Life

In Texas I started this craft for Carson’s room: wooden letters to spell his name. (Thanks for the materials, Mom!) I had wanted to make something like this since before Carson was born but never got around to it. It’s so good to finally get it done!

I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I thought about doing a few different things (baby-themed scrapbook paper, painted patterns) but finally settled on a collage from magazine pictures because we already had them and I love collaging anyway. And I think he could kind of grown into them, too, since they’re not super babyish.

Zoo day

Just Life,

A few weeks ago Carson and I went to the zoo with a play group from the ward. It was his first time at a zoo! We had fun, but I’d like to go again as part of a group with maybe more younger kids, like Carson’s age, so we could focus more on the areas that Carson found interesting. Also he wasn’t up for more than about an hour and a half there, but it was fun while it lasted. Mostly we liked the monkeys because they were easy for Carson to see and because they were indoors so I let Carson get down and look up against the glass. He really liked that.

Heading into the zoo!

We loved the monkeys. And this was the “after” face, when Carson was definitely ready to go home:

Our courtship story, and a special surprise for me

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I don’t know who knows the story of how Josh and I met, but here it is:  Our senior year of high school, Josh and I both went to something called Y Weekend at BYU. We went to the campus, got a tour, attended some sporting events and classes, and got to know other seniors from all over the States. I think there were about 40 people in our group.

Josh and I didn’t really talk or get to know each other during Y Weekend, but we recognized each other enough so that, flash forward a few months to the first week of our freshman year at BYU, we recognized each other when we were put into the same New Student Orientation group. After a fun weekend at orientation, with more campus tours and a dance, Josh and I knew each other, had talked, and started to be friends.

During freshman year we hung out a few times, and went on a few dates (including Preference, so I’m a supporter of girls’ choice dances), and really had fun together. But Josh was only at BYU a semester before he left for his mission, and he lived in the Heritage dorms and I lived in Helaman…you know, long distance. ;-) So we stayed just good friends. But as a Christmas gift for me, right before Josh left, he surprised me in the lobby of my dorm and gave me a super nice card (still have it and love what it says) and a framed picture. It was a photo that I had taken a few years before on a vacation, one of a pier and an old boat at sunset, that Josh really liked and had put on his photography blog (and you probably know that Josh is awesome at and loves photography). So the picture had special meaning. I loved it and put it up in my dorm room, and then each other room I had the whole time I was at BYU.

Flash forward two years to when Josh got home from his mission, and really, things just clicked. He started writing me (I was in Spain) when he got home, we exchanged emails, we both ended up at BYU in the spring, we saw each other for the first time, we went on our first post-mission date (an amazing magical date – a photo scavenger hunt, of course), and pretty soon after that we were seeing each other every day, then dating, then in love, then engaged, then married. :) BYU in the spring and summer was a wonderful time to date and fall in love. :)

Anyway, flash forward to yesterday, a few years later, when we’ve moved from BYU, married for three and a half years, with a ten-month-old baby and a new life, and we’re hanging up pictures in our new house (our last big move-in task, yay!). I found the framed boat picture (which I’ve always kept on display in our house), but I needed a frame for a picture of the Savior that we’ve never hung (and I was starting to feel guilty). The boat picture frame fit the print of the Savior perfectly and even matched, so I figured I’d put it there for now, just until we get a new frame, and then the boat picture goes back to where it was (it’s still very special to me). But when I was changing the picture, I was shocked to find, hidden behind the boat picture, a nicely matted picture of me and Josh during our preference date, with a short hand-written note from Josh on it. Wow! I had never even seen that before! It was so crazy to think that Josh gave that to me almost seven years ago, and I had that picture and note the whole time, but never found it until we were married with a kid! Crazy! I started shouting with so much excitement when I found it that Josh (who was hanging pictures upstairs) thought Carson had taken his first step.

It was a really neat experience. Kind of felt like something from a movie. Thanks for letting me share. :)

We got iPhones

Big Events, Just Life, , , ,

And I’ve decided the new iPhones are responsible for the lack of posts lately.

See, now that Josh and I have iPhones, we use them as our cameras. And we just haven’t emptied our phones and put the pictures on a computer yet, so I don’t have access to pictures to blog about. Oh, and we’re trying to sort out computer stuff and set up a family computer so we can have all of our pictures in one location, but we haven’t gotten around to that either. But we’ve been taking lots of awesome photos over the past few months, don’t you worry.

For now, as far as pictures go, the only thing I’ve got are these pictures from Carson’s 9 month photo shoot during our stay in Texas (thanks, Mom!). But these pictures are so adorable, you shouldn’t need anything else. ;-)

As far as updates, life is good! Josh and I have felt all grown up lately, leaving BYU and getting a real job and moving and all. It’s exciting, but admittedly kind of weird sometimes. But yes, we’re doing all kinds of grown-up things like moving into a bigger house (in a nice neighborhood, though 15 minutes from just about everywhere), buying a second car (with no good public transportation options for Josh and our house 15 minutes from just about everywhere, a second car became a necessity), and even having the missionaries over to dinner (being called “Sister Lyman” by the missionaries probably feel the most grown up of all).

Carson’s been doing his fair share of growing up, too! This week I cleaned through his toys for the first time, packing away all the baby toys he’s no longer interested in. Aw, growing up! He loves exploring the house, climbing up and down stairs, and walking – with assistance. He’s not quite walking on his own yet. He’s still eating really well, and his latest favorite food is toast. He loooves it and once he sees toast, he won’t eat anything else (even his old favorites, like bananas) until the toast is completely gone.

We can’t believe Carson will be 1 in August! This past year has been amazing and incredible; we’ve been so blessed to have Carson join our family, and we’ve been blessed in numerous other ways, too.

Well, there’s a small update, but this week my goal is to get the iPhone pictures onto a computer somehow, and then I’ll have no excuse reason not to blog. ;-)