My Little Sassy Pants

So as I putting Tabitha to bed the other night, she says to me, "Mom, I want to wear something beautiful and tasty tomorrow."

What??  I don't know where she comes up with these things, but it is hilarious!  I love seeing how her little mind works and hearing the crazy things she comes up with.  I love that we can have conversations now about lots of things and that I can understand what she's saying.

I've really missed seeing the kids all day as I've been trying to finish my hours for my nail license.  Tonight when I got home, Beckam was already asleep, but I was met at the door by Tabitha.  "MOMMY!!!!" accompanied by a huge bear hug.  "Mommy!!!  I missed you all year!" I guess it was a long day for her too.

In 9 days we will be flying to West Virginia!  There have been a lot of preparations that have been made to get to this point.

Tonight, I am cleaning out our minivan, actually CRYING because of all the changes we've had to go through!  We sold our swingset (SADDEST DAY EVER) and our house, moved to Grandma Carrie's for a few weeks, moved to Grandma Teriann Booth's for a few more weeks, moved to Texas for a few weeks, moved back to Grandma's, sent Dad and Rocky to West Virginia with all of our things, and now we are selling the van.  Well, we sold the van.  Seriously, if you ever told me I would be crying over selling our van, I would think you were crazy! 

I guess I just am overwhelmed by all the changes we have had to make in order to accomplish this next phase.  I am really excited to get to West Virginia, but also really scared!  Especially because I was informed of the amount of money we have to live on for the next 4 months and I went into a huge panic.  Let's just say I got that Medicaid/Food Stamp application submitted PRONTO.  Life sure is about to change drastically.  Again. 

I Love to See the Temple

 

At the beginning of August, one of the girls I grew up with got married.  She had her reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which was fantastic because we got to walk around Temple Square afterwards.  Even though we never visited Salt Lake this summer, I always loved knowing that we could and that it was so close.  That was one of my favorite things to do in St. George, walk around the temple and go to the visitor's center with the kids.  Tabitha always loved looking at Jesus and asking questions.  I always loved being able to share my testimony with her and see her sweet little spirit just absorb everything.  I'm really going to miss having a temple close to us while we live in West Virginia.  The closest temple is in Washington D.C. a little over two hours away.  It's so strange to think about that, when growing up I could always access multiple temples, and even more now! I hope we get to go to the temple a few times while we live back east.

 

 

Our Story

If you would have told me where I would be today a year ago, I wouldn't have believed you.

A year ago:

I had given up teaching to be a stay at home mom to my two darling children.
Beckam Ryan was turning 2 months old.
Tabitha Cate was 2 and a half.
Ryan was working at a laundry plant and at his own crossfit gym.
We owned a home.
We lived in the beautiful St. George, where we both met and went to school and started our lives.

Today:
I am still a stay at home mom to my two darling children, but I also persued a nail technician license to be able to work from home occasionally and bring in some extra dough.
Beckam Ryan is 14 months!
Tabitha Cate is 3 and a half!
Ryan quit his job, left the gym, and persued something that he's been wanting to do for a while - a law degree.
We sold our home.
We left everything in St. George, moved in with my parents, moved to Texas, moved back in with my parents, and are headed to West Virginia in 2 weeks to begin our new adventure.

And it has been exactly that: an ADVENTURE.  I wanted to pick up where I left off from my previous blog (ryandnat.blogspot.com) but I think I quit blogging before Tabitha turned 1.  Plus, we aren't Ry and Nat anymore.  We are Ryan, Natalie, Tabitha, Beckam, and Rocky.  We are a family who thrives on adventure!  Life is anything but boring for us. 

The thing that is awesome about us is that if something isn't working for us, we change it.  Ryan didn't want a career in banking.  So he changed it.  He started his own business where he got to help people get healthy and develop a love for taking care of themselves and losing weight.  That was awesome for a while and was an amazing experience that I know neither one of us would change.  You can't regret the past becuase of everything it teaches you, right?

Life was amazing.  And then all of a sudden, it wasn't.  Ry had to take another job to support us because I stopped teaching.  We never saw each other.  The kids never saw Ryan.  We were arguing a lot more.  Debt was swallowing us whole!  So guess what?  Life wasn't working, and we changed it.  I guess you can say that we chase our dreams without giving anything else a second thought.  I really admire that in Ryan, that he can just take a look at things and say, "You know what, this isn't working."  It takes a very brave man to do that, in my opinion.

So, since we are hitting the RESTART button in life, I figured I'd give this blog thing a shot again.  Especially since I'm leaving dear old Utah for a new adventure across the country.  With all of the social sites out there, I'm not sure really what this blog will be.  Let's face it, I'm on instagram and facebook a lot, so I don't know what a blog will bring to the picture.  Just a lot of duplicates?  But perhaps this blog will be a reminder for future me.  It will be a glimpse into everything we endured and remind us of where we came from.

So here's to our fresh start, and our new adventures.  The Nielsen Adventures.

XOXO