Oh the joy of turning 2!

The past couple of weeks I have really been struggling getting through the days with this little munchkin of mine. There are times where I think to myself how blessed I truly am with this beautiful little girl but oh my goodness, I didn't actually take into consideration the meaning of "Terrible 2's" until I saw a sudden change in this household! Tyler and I have been so exhausted latley and I thought it was just because we had taken Maddie out of her crib and into a toddler bed so that meant she was getting in and out of bed all night and then ready to begin her days at 6 A.M.! But that wasn't the only change, all day long she is constantly screaming to get her way, getting into EVERYTHING she can including dog food, lotion, shampoo, my makeup, pens (which yes resulted to her drawing all over our doors), the pantry to get cookies or marshmellows, or taking every single item of clothing out of her dresser drawers! The list goes on! I know every mother out there is probably going through this exact same thing but it is really challenging for me right now! It has always been hard for me to disipline Maddie but latley I have really been sticking to time outs and taking away her favorite toys/binky when she is doing something wrong. So hopefully she calms down soon but if not...then here's to a trial of the wonderful terrible 2's ! Oh and it isn't even her birthday yet! We still have another 3 weeks! ;)

Here she is showing me her art work on the office doors...





Every morning she has dumped out her cereal and whatever else she got out of the pantry (this morning it was marshmellows) onto the couch and floor. Typical 2 year olds doing...


We still love every little inch of her though even if she causes a mess every single second of the day! :)


Anyway, we are so very excited to announce that Tyler will be wrestling again this year for the AirForce wrestling team! He missed last year so we are so happy that he will be able to go out for it this year! It's really fun to be able to watch him compete and the best part is that we will be in our hometown Nampa, ID for at least 4 months while he trains at a facility there in Boise! We really lucked out and my prayers were answered! If he wouldn't have decided to wrestle then he was up for going on a 3 month deployment to Iraq at the end of Novemeber and would have missed Maddie's birthday, thanksgiving, and christmas! But now we get to be home with our families!! :) Tyler is always missing out on holidays and family get togethers so what a blessing for us! We will be making our drive home a few weeks and until then we need to find a housesitter! I am going to miss our new home so much but so happy to say goodbye to the rain!!

The last 6 months...

Holy Heck, I can not believe it has been 6 months since I really mentioned anything on here. First of all, where did summer go? I am a little bitter sweet about that, sad to see that the depressing rainy weather will soon be here to stay in Washington but happy that all of the fun months are approaching! Lots of birthdays, halloween, thanksgiving, and of course Christmas! :)
Holy crap, A lot happened in the last 6 months! A LOT of exciting things that I am so happy to be able to write about on here! SO please don't hate me, I may drag this post out a little toooo much.
I guess I should start with my TWIN sister's wedding! It was so beautiful and such an amazing time for us all. It was truly her dream wedding! Everything was perfect! Her and Bret got married June 5th in McCall ID. We had a wonderful time sharing the special occasion all weekend long with close friends and amazing family! A moment that I will always remember was that Sunday morning, eating breakfast with our best friends and hubbys for the first time. I just realized how grateful I am to have such close relationships with my sisters, their hubbys and my friends.
So all the girls in the fam are officially all married off and we are so excited to all be in this next phase of life TOGETHER! Now, if only Em and Bret can jump on the baby making bandwagon.



Ok so June came and went and before we knew it Tyler and I were moving into our cute new house that we waited so long to have built for us. We are homeowners and SO EXCITED!!!! We moved in July 1st! However we were the first house to be built on the street soooo we don't have any neighbors yet but they are finally getting some more houses finished so I'm sure people will be moving in soon! We are praying for some nice neighbors for once! :)We are also only 1 mile away from the CUTEST elementary school I have ever seen and I can't wait for Madison to start preschool there ! The best part of it is that it's called EMMA Elementary! During the moving in process my awesome friend Shantel came and visited us!! WOW I WAS SO EXCITED TO HAVE HER! We did some way fun things and I just loved having her stay with us! She helped me decorate and gave me some great ideas! She is an amazing person and I am so blessed to have her in my life.



Then there's little Madison, oh my heck has she grown! She will be 2 in just 2 months! She is a little tornado of a child! We call her this because seriously every room she goes in she leaves it like a tornado just went through it. But we love her hyperactive personality! Her favorite thing to do lately is DANCE! She dances to every song she hears!
Some random/funny things about her:
-She HAS to have like 5 spoons, 5 bowls, and 5 forks when she eats.
-She LOVES her carseat! She gets so excited when we leave because she knows she's going in her carseat. She can also climb into the car, get in her seat, and buckle herself up all on her own.
-She loves Finding Nemo or MINO as she calls him
-She loves going to bed and nap time. She is a big sleeper!!
-And since her dad is always gone flying around the world, she LOVES skyping him and kissing him on the computer.



Alright so another person I have to brag a little about is my amazing HUSBAND! He has accomplished so much and I could not be more proud of him. All through the summer he was in Airmen Leadership School becoming a Staff Sergent for the airforce. It was a long 6 weeks for us because we NEVER saw him. He was gone all day from 7-5 and then would either be home studying until bed time or stay afterwards until 9 pm, studying. But this was a big promotion for him so we were just excited for him to get through it. His graduation FINALLY came and so my amazing dad and his amazing mom and sister came up to visit for it. I loved every second of seeing my hubby being recognized for his hard work. But the best part was when they announced that he had achieved the award for being top of his class! The award is called the John L. Levitow award and only goes to 1 person out of the 50ish people that graduate leadership school. He worked so hard for it and earned it! He has became so successful in his military career!






Sooo now he is back to working and taking college classes. He is so close to being done with college so he is trying so hard to get these classes taken care of! YAY! He also has already gone out on 2 missions. Right now he is away helping out in the middle east and should be coming home in the next couple of weeks. He is one busy guy that's for sure! I am so proud and supportive but I am also looking forward to when I get to go back to school/work one day and have his support. But right now there is no way we can both focus on school/careers while giving Maddie the attention she needs. So, I am very proud to be a stay at home mom during this time and just help my hubby get through what he needs to get through in order to provide for his fam!


Anyway, Madison and I got to go on a little vacation to Utah while Tyler was studying away last July to visit my amazing sister, Sarah and her adorable little family! I love being there so much and it brings back a lot of old memories! The reason for our visit wasn't only to have a ton of fun and spend time with her but also to help her out with the NEW BABY! Yesss, another little nephew!! I was so blessed to be able to be there when he was born ! I feel like that is one of the best experiences you can share with your sisters! The new little guys name is Kyler Curtis Craig! And boy is he a cutie!!! He was so small and probably the best baby I have ever seen! I love him so much!




Also we celebrated our 2 year anniversary! We didn't do a whole lot since Tyler was so busy getting ready for his Leadership graduation so we just enjoyed a day hiking up Mt Rainier! We loved just getting to spend time together alone and exploring! We hiked up to a beautiful waterfall and ate lunch up there.



Last but not least, one of my close childhood friends, Emily Blackhurst MOVED in with us!!! We are LOVING IT!!!! She will probably be staying with us for the next 6 months while she is working in Seattle! She is such a free spirit and I love it! Her and I love working out together and exploring the seattle area. Ewww which brings me to the my next thing. I have been on this insane diet for the last 2 weeks and I hate it. I have a goal to loose 20 pounds soooo I will keep trucking but I can not wait to eat yummy foods again! Hopefully I get there!!

Well that about caps off the update! Right now Madison and I are enjoying visiting Em and Bret in Wyoming while Tyler is out of town and we will soon be driving to Idaho this next week to spend some time with my mom until Ty gets back!!

Thanks for tuning in!

Feeling a little...Negative.

Tonight I am in a totally negative mood! And usually I use my blog for all my postive thoughts and happy events but right now I really just feel like blogging about how I have been feeling the past couple of days.
Tyler and I have been so blessed to move into our dream house at such a young age and I have been having a lot of fun with it! But during the days when he is at work I find myself feeling so down about things! I feel like I am not a good enough mom, wife, daughter, friend, or sister. I wish so much that my family could all live by eachother and that I can have all my close friends back. I love what my husband does for our country and how well he provides for us, but I hate how unstable our lives can be and some days I just want to move back home to Idaho.

But on a more postive note some things that I really am going to be working hard on to change my attitude is my relationship with our heavenly father and making sure my family is in church every sunday, spending more of my days playing and partcipating with maddie rather then pushing her to the side so that I can get all the cleaning and errands done, work out or at least run every night to release my stress, and love on my hubby so that he knows how much I appreciate him.