December 3. Special.

Look! We're still so happy! Colby and I have been married for 4 years now and I can't believe how its flown by. At the same time, it seems like we've been married for forever. Not in a bad way, it's just hard for me to remember what life was like before "US." Colby has been one of my greatest blessings. Our life together has been more than I could have imagined with so many things I never would have thought to ask for. Heavenly Father surely had a hand in the beginning of our story and has been present every day since. I guess I have to share the story (shortened version), but just scroll down through the pics if that's boring to you :)
For me, it began when I accepted a calling to be an umpire for our stake for Church Softball. What was I thinking, right! Well, it may have been the first game I umpired for that Colby's mom was playing in the game and I was the only ump. She called home and told one of the kids to wake Colby up and make him come up and help me because I was all by myself. He got there and didn't help me one bit. He just sat behind home plate and harassed me the whole time. You'd think that would have warned me for what was to come :) But I hoped and hoped he'd ask me out, which he kinda did... (Those details are for the long version.) We ended up going out (hehehe, Colby, I know you're laughing and are a little embarrassed) and the rest was history.

Colby tells me that was the night it started for him too. I was wearing jeans, a Tshirt, and a baseball hat and he fell in love! Little did he know I never wear hats... that was the flukiest fluke of all time.

We dated all summer, I moved to northern Utah for school, looked for a job and couldn't find one and got very discouraged. One night I was talking to Colby on the phone telling him how it was impossible to find a job and just hoping he'd say "Well then, just come home." I would have jumped in the car and driven all night but he only encouraged me. I should check with Colby, but it may have been the next morning or probably the morning after that he showed up early in the morning (5 hours away) to wake me up and take me out for the whole day. Little did I know I would end up more speechless that afternoon than ever in my life. We went to lunch, went shopping, then went to the Salt Lake Temple and walked around temple square. This is where my intelligent little brain should have yelled "Yoohoo!" but it didn't. We walked around and talked and Colby eventually ended up on one knee and I gasped for breath for a good 30 seconds (Colby says it was more like 30 minutes or 30 hours) before I could barely exhale, "yes!" So, then we asked a sweet old couple to take our picture and...

Well this is us when we got engaged... when we were still babies. I think we look so young... I can't wait until it's our kids that are getting married and then we'll really seem young in this picture.

It's definitely hard to act the way we did when we were first engaged. Kids change things a bit... but I think we've still got time to show each other how much we care... every once in a while... if we're sneaky.

And all the changes have been more than worth it. We love our little boys. To either of us, FAMILY is what its all about. We love our little family AND our big family that lives near and far. And our future family that is probably getting a kick out of watching us learn how to do this and prepare for them to come.

I can't believe it! Today is our 4th anniversary. We've had so much fun! I can't speak for Colby (haha), but it's so much better than I ever could have imagined. I love you Colby. I love you so much!

My growing boy...

Please enjoy my little journaling moment. Tyler is now about 6 1/2 months old. He is still a sweety. Everyone comments on how happy he is. Seriously, he's almost always smiling and happy. He loves to talk to girls, especially his grandmas. He has a cute little voice that alternates between high pitched squeals and a low growly roar. He is SOOOO close to pulling himself to a standing postition. I mean CLOSE. If he gets the right grip on something and has the right leverage with his feet, he gets almost upright before he starts "asking" for help. No crawling yet though. But in the last week he has started to look like he's finally getting interested in moving around on his own. He's always been kinda wiggly and active like he wanted to get around on his own but never seemed motivated when left to his own devices. He's been sitting like a champ though for over a month now. He's funny about rolling over. When he was only a few months old he started rolling over from belly to back like it was no problem. He would just roll like he had done it forever, but he started to lose interest. Now he only rolls over when he's asleep. I'm always finding him on his tummy while he naps.

He still loves to be swaddled. When he is sleepy and he sees us grab his blankie to wrap him up, he starts giggling and smiling because he knows what's coming next. His fall asleep habits are so different from Marshall's. It's like night and day. Tyler is quick to fall asleep on his own with little help. All he needs is his blankie and binkie.

Tyler loves to eat real food... baby food is alright, but whatever Mommy is eating is what he really wants. He loves bread and hates green beans. We have a hillarious series of pictures of him trying to drink Colby's Dr. Pepper.

One more funny addition. I mean funny as in "Mother of an infant funny." Not quite a month ago we went into the Dr.'s office for his 6 mo. well child visit. His weight was down a pound and a half from 2 months before. All of us were severely concerned but the doctor couldn't figure out a reason why based on Tyler's behavior. He asked me to come back in 2 or 3 weeks to check if he was still losing weight and had me start taking some supplements to help my milk. So we checked back after almost 3 weeks and no one seemed concerned about weighing Tyler. I mentioned it to the doctor and he laughed when he told me "a lot of babies were coming in underweight and so they evaluated their scale and found a sucker stuck underneath it messing up the readings." We all had a good laugh. For a good couple of weeks I was paranoid about starving my baby and would just smile and nod my head when people would call Tyler "such a big boy" or say "he was getting so big!" But he's weighing in at about 17 1/2 pounds now. What a big boy!

Love you Ty. We all love watching you grow into your personality.

SUGAR!

Marshall has been almost main-lining sugar lately. For obvious reasons he would rather eat candy than anything else. Then comes Halloween. If I hide his candy, he's sure to find some other candy somewhere. If we don't all eat it by Saturday it is going in the trash. No more. Well, today at lunch I was sneaking some carmel apple dip with my apple slices and right before Marshall declared he was done, he spotted my treat. He nicely asked for "some of that." I obliged, handed him some more apple slices, turned around for a second, and turned back around to find Marshall using his finger as a spoon in the carmel. We just go from one sugar high to the next in this house.

Do you like a good joke?

Colby has one for you. This last Sunday we thought it would be clever to dress all three "boys" in matching clothes. The 40's went away and we welcomed 70+ degree weather. It was time for the Stratton Family Favorite (camo shorts) to come out. I just bought Tyler's on clearance at Children's Place and I thought they would fit him next spring, but they fit perfectly now. Better see if they have any more... Anyway, since they all looked so cute in their matching clothes I insisted on a photo shoot. Here is where the joke comes in. Try to get three boys to hold still, look at the camera, and look happy all at one time. My poor husband tried to have a great attitude while he wrestled these two until I was satisfied. We almost left unsatisfied until I changed my outlook. These wiggly, blurry, goofy pictures capture our real life. The life we LOVE so much! Thanks for the laughter and smiles Colby, I'll try to shoot quicker next time. Because we all know there will be a lot of "next times."

...and I gotta put this out there. I love my husband. He is an incredible example and one stubborn dude :) I can say that because we both know who has the real problem with stubborness in this family. Me. Colby is an incredibly hard worker and as generous as they come. It never fails when Colby has a second to sit down and breathe he volunteers himself for a friend. Or a stranger. I love how he loves to serve. He helps me want to be better and less selfish. My favorite thing about Colby, the thing that made me sure I wanted him to be my husband, is he is a wonderful father. I knew he would be a great dad, but holy smokes! He is a better dad than I could have ever imagined. I love the way he loves our kids... both the ones we have and the ones we will have. It is sometimes intimidating to hear him talk about the dreams he has for our family. He smiles, he plays, he teaches, he leads, he loves. He takes his role as father very seriously and I love that. Something else I am thankful for is his confidence. He is such a big help when it comes to teaching our kids to be confident and self assured because of his example. Thank you for being you. Love you babe.

Happy Halloween from a cowboy and an elephant!

These two are something else! It's been so fun counting down to Halloween. Marshall has gotten really into it this year. We have eaten ghost and bat shaped pancakes and sandwiches for the last couple of weeks. He points out every skeleton, witch, and scary pumpkin (jack-o-lantern) he sees. Grandma Wallace and Papa Perry grew a pumpkin patch in their garden and Marshall is sure that every pumpkin in the world came from Grandma's house. It's so darn cute! He chose to be a " 'owboy" and he loves getting dressed up. When we were trying to get pictures it was really windy and he was worried about losing his hat. Marshall was either holding onto his hat, holding it at his side, or frowning... grouchily... in EVERY picture I took tonight. No worries though. He's such a cute little cowboy.

And no cowboy would be complete without his weapon of choice, and he undoubtedly know how to use that gun.

And then there was this sweet little elephant. From the time I opened this costume Tyler became my little elephant. It seems to suit him so well. He may not be as enormous as an elephant, but he has that adorable quiet quality... have you ever described an elephant that way? (It made sense in my head. I hope you understand what I mean.) In the last week he has mastered blowing raspberries and sometimes it even sounds like an elephant. It is so stinkin' cute! HE is so stinkin' cute!

Doesn't he look like he's ready to graze...? Good thing we still have these gorgeous weeds in our backyard. wink. wink.

In case you were worried too...

If you live in Wash. Co. the health dept. is having an H1N1 vaccine clinic tomorrow, Wed. the 28th at the Dixie Center from 1 to 6 or while supplies last. Kids 6 mo. to 10 yrs., parents of babies under 6 mo., pregnant women, and those with chronic c...onditions (I think, I kinda stopped listening to the recording) can get the shot. It sounds like they are getting new shipments weekly so if you miss out tomorrow, call the health dept. to make sure you make it to the next one. I've been kinda weary of getting the shot, but my doctor (who I trust VERY much...) assured me that if you get the regular flu shot there is no reason to be afraid of the H1N1 vaccine. He said, in fact, that because the H1N1 virus is highly contagious (more so than the regular flu) it is even more important to get this vaccine.

For the last few weeks, my sister in law and I have asked every credible source we could think of about the vaccine and couldn't get a consistent answer. Now, thankfully, the health dept. is offering some info...

The Jerky Nazi is in town...

and he said "No Jerky for You!"

Bummer, I know. Colby is already talking about next year and the big one he's going to get. 51 weeks and counting.