June and July

Warning: This is really long (like all of my posts...) Sorry!

Well, July was an interesting month for us. We started it out with dropping Trevor off in Utah to live with my parents while he looked for a job down here in Utah Valley. I went back and finished the last three weeks of my semester and internship. Trev did get a job at an assisted living place in Orem and found us an apartment to live in close to his work as well. So we were living with each other's parents for three weeks. Then my parents and Trev came up to my graduation on July 20th and we packed up my parent's car and trailer with all of our stuff and left for Utah right after my graduation ended. We are now moved into our apartment and are enjoying living together again and so close to all of my family and part of Trevor's siblings as well. We're excited! And I'm SOOO happy to be done with my bachelor's degree (In Marriage and Family Studies) and am excited to be a stay at home mom for my little Paxton.

Paxton will be 10 months old in about a week and is loving walking with help and along furniture. He did finally start crawling at about 8 1/2 months old and started trying to walk at around 9 months. He's a lot of fun with his 6 teeth and laughs and we love having him around. He is going through his stranger danger stage which was cute at first and is getting exhausting being the one who isn't a stranger, but we love him anyways.

So now for pictures....

This is from June...but the present Pax and I made for Trevor for Father's day:

The Front

And the Back

And some pictures from two different hikes that Trev has gone on with his brother Richard while in Utah. The first was to some hike up Little? Cottonwood Canyon and the second one was up to the top of Mt. Olympus.

From the top of Mt. Olympus

Paxton LOVES biting things-namely me and blankets. Here he is one morning in bed with us and he goes down face first into whatever and comes up with something in his mouth...

Paxton also LOVES dogs nowadays. Trev's brother's dog Tikko has been staying at the Steiner's house and so we'd go out in the backyard and see him sometimes. Pax started saying "woof" for a few days but won't do it anymore. This day he was doing it and it was ADORABLE. He'd do it everytime Tikko was barking.

We also went to the Idaho Falls zoo with Trev's family the weekend before we moved. Here is Paxton on the big rooster in the play area:

 

The HUGE turtle

It started raining just as we were finishing up and Paxton LOVED it. He  thought it was hilarious and we got soaked.

And Graduation Pictures:

My sweet friends Kaitilin and Sarah came up to Idaho surprised me and came for my graduation which was SOOOO sweet of them to do. And then my parents, Trev, and Trev's parents were there:

Me and my Sweet boys!!! I'm so grateful for these two and all they've done to help me through school!  I sure do love them! 

My sweet friends Sarah and Kaitlin

My wonderful parents who have taught me so much! I'm so grateful for them and all they've done for us.

I don't know why I love pictures of Paxton crying so much. He just looks so so cute!

HAHA. My mom was sprinkling grass on Paxton and  he was making this hilarious face. He's so funny.

Me walking across the stage getting my diploma cover

Me and Trevor's parents. They have helped us SOOOOO much-more than we could say-so I could get to this point. I'm so grateful for all of their help with babysitting, letting us live with them, and their support and love. They're the best! :)

I'm so grateful for this experience I've had of going to school with Paxton in our family. It's been hard, but I know that I've been blessed to have it not be THAT hard. I have many family members and friends doing MUCH harder things than this in order to get their educations and I admire them even more now that I've gone to school with my one baby. I'm so grateful to have my bachelor's degree though and loved the experience I had at BYU-Idaho. There aren't enough good things to say about BYU-Idaho. It's an amazing school. It is definitely unique and the unique things about it can seem weird and not the best way, but they are WONDERFUL and have provided the education that I needed and wanted and I know they were inspired! I'm so grateful for all of the prayers in our behalf as we've finished up our degrees at BYU-Idaho and know I wouldn't have made it without them! So thank you!!! And thank you for all of those who listened to me complain and vent and who encouraged and supported me! I appreciate it more than I can say! Thank you!!!!


And last but not least, we got to go to Bear Lake with my family this past week at the end of Bear Lake. Unfortunately our camera battery died the first day, so we only have this one picture, but it was a blast and I'm so grateful to my parents for doing it every other year so our whole family can be together. We missed our Derek who is doing great things in Sweden, and wished he could have been there, but know he is where he is supposed to be! And Jeff also wasn't able to come since he had to work. LAME!!!! But luckily his family came. We missed him A lot too!!!!  I love my family!!!
Here is Paxton after he woke up the first morning. He got really hot during the night in our tent and so we took off his pajamas and he slept like a rock after that (thank goodness):

The end. Sorry it was so long! :)

An update on Elder Derek and May

Derek and Paxton about 6 days before he left :) what cuties!

Us at Derek's farewell

So April ended with us saying goodbye to our sweet brother Derek! He left May 16th for the MTC for the Stokholm Sweden mission. Derek has been my best buddy since we were little. Me, him, and Jason were always best friends and did a lot together. I'm going to miss him SO much! I already do! He is SUCH a good guy. He has always been there for me. Really quick, sweet story about Derek..well similar stories all in one. Derek, in high school, would always tell me a lot about his latest crush. We used to stay up late at night on many occasions, and we'd talk. I remember one night in particular. I had just started running seriously and my legs and feet hurt really bad one night. It was really late and I remember I was so tired but wanted to talk to Derek. So I laid in the hall outside of the bathroom waiting for him to get out and then he came out and we talked till like 2 or 3 in the morning while he rubbed my legs and feet for me while he told me all about the girl he liked and what he liked about her. He is just so great to me. I look up to him a ton and am sad I can't text or call him for the next two years. :) He is what he believes and I admire that a lot!

 Good luck Der-bear!

We celebrated Trev's birthday with his family before Pax and I headed for UT for a study I'm in (we were gone on his actual birthday). Trev's parents got him new scriptures (which were much needed, so thank you), a Michael Buble music book, and a candy bar poster.

While in Utah we went to Krispy Kremes to get doughnuts for our grades

The weekend after we got back, Trev's family was gone so we had the house to ourselves so we did a birthday party for Trev with just us 3. :) I got him the piano/singing music for "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" (the version from "17 Miracles"...can be heard here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_ig_aM3zgw  . Some girl sang it at Derek's farewell and Trev said he'd love to sing it sometime...so I got it :)) 

We had DELICIOUS BBQ barbecued chicken, homemade chicken rice a roni (recipe is below...SO easy and DELICIOUS), and steamed carrots.

And Trev wanted Bread Pudding, so we made the caramel apple bread pudding from Ourbestbites.com...it was delicious!

Pax with his new cousin Matthew..about 3 weeks old

Pax's position for pooping..it's hilarious

Us watching Trev fish at a pond in Idaho Falls on free fishing day

My hot husband :)

A dead fish in the water right by us..disgusting. And the only fish we saw the entire time

the pond we fished at....it's a pretty good sized pond for fishing in Idaho Falls

It was windy and cold so Pax and I played in the car while Trev kept fishing.

HAHA Pax LOVES listening to things like General Conference and will hardly look away. I think he just likes watching movie things and hearing new voices, but it's cute anyways.

Some sweet Tie-dye cupcakes I made for Stacy

Going on a walk...

Pax pushing hard. HAHAH

It's been a good month and at the end of this week my last semester of school is HALF OVER. Yay! Only 8 more weeks until I will be graduated!

Recipe for Homemade Rice-A-Roni...SUPER EASY
Time: 15 minutes to prep and cook

• 1/2 cup raw spaghetti, broken into 1 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup raw white rice
• 14 1/2 ounces broth (any flavor)
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine

Directions:

1. 1
   In medium skillet saute' broken spaghetti pieces in butter, stirring constantly, until the spaghetti begins to brown.
2. 2
   Add rice, stirring until the rice is well coated with the butter and the spaghetti browns a little more Carefully pour in broth.
3. 3
   Simmer until liquid is absorbed.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-rice-a-roni-24476#ixzz1wCDhJG00

March and April

Okay, it's been forever...but in my defense I don't think my life has ever been so busy and...hard? Okay. That's a good word. For some reason I can NOT get on top of this semester. I thought it was going to be my easiest semester in a long time...WRONG. So, I just haven't gotten around to blogging even though I've wanted to...and even though I really should be working on my paper right now. Oh well. Well, I don't really remember March and April much but I have pictures.
But really quick about the things I DO remember....
-Pax turned 6 months old on April 14th.
-We moved in with Trevor's parents for the semester since Stacy (Trev's Mom) babysits for me about 20 hours a week....basically she is the only reason I am going to school this semester and am able to graduate in July finally. :) So we really really appreciate her and all of the Steiner's for making our lives easier by allowing us to live with them and for watching Pax all of the time for us. It helps us out a lot!
-Trevor is just about to finish up working for the USDA doing soil sampling like he did when we were engaged. Basically he gets soil samples in the potato fields all around here so that they can test for this infectious, microscopic work called a nematode. So yeah, the farmers are planting their fields now so that's ending and so he just found out he can actually renew his CNA here in Idaho even though it's been expired for 5 years, which is a HUGE blessing. So although we'd like to move to Utah for the next year, we will probably end up staying here in Idaho until PA school happens..hopefully next fall.
-I finished the biggest semester of my life. And it turned out well thank goodness. I ended up getting the scholarship that we NEEDED me to get so I could go this semester too! We're grateful for the many prayers that the Lord answered for this to be made possible.
-I got a week break and we were able to visit Utah and be with everyone, which we haven't done since Christmas, so we're grateful we got to do that.
-I started my last semester before I graduate!!! Woot woot! Seriously, I'm SO sick of school and having to leave Pax all of the time. But I'm so grateful to be getting my education done. I've also been doing my internship which has been a very interesting, but great experience. I am shadowing a Marriage and Family Therapist and also a Licensed Counselor here in Idaho Falls. It's been a really good experience that has helped me see what I want to do with my career someday when I go back and get my masters. I'm leaning more towards counseling now rather than Marriage and Family Therapy. This office works a LOT with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stess Disorder) and trauma in general and I'm finding that's what I'm really interested in doing someday. I still love the idea of helping marriages and families, but can do that as a counselor. I just really like the approach counselors take more. But that's just my opinion. :) So yeah, it's been really good for me! I'm learning a lot about how amazing people are, and how amazing people go through TERRIBLE things sometimes. They are great examples to me and it's so uplifting to be around such strong individuals who have been hurt in some of the most painful ways.
Okay...that's the update..now for the cute pictures of Paxton...

He does not like his Bumbo much after about 5 minutes...haha

We finally discovered he was getting teeth after he already had one in and had one about to break through...

haha. He would NOT let go of his toy for like 5 minutes, literally.

About to watch General Conference :) Which we LOVED

He loves his daddy. :)

Matthew Farrell Steiner was born early on April 22nd, at 8 lbs. 1 oz. He's a cutie. So Pax finally has a cousin on the Steiner side. (Here is Brad, the proud papa holding him)

We all went and visited after she had the cutie

Pax is such a happy cute baby. We are just so grateful for how good he is during this crazy time of our lives. :)

Pax LOVES crossing his ankles like this, especially when stretching his legs. It's hilarious.