I think I'm ready...

... to start my own photography business. I've always been interested in photography and lately become a little obsessed (my poor family). So now I have a new camera (THANKS COLBY!!!) and I need new people to be my models... that way my fam won't resent my new baby. If you want some fun portraits taken, for any reason or event, let me know! I'm here for you.

Milestones!

Tyler is doing amazing things nowadays. He's 7 1/2 months old now. He cut his first tooth yesterday! It's been coming for forever but he's been pretty happy through it all. You can't really see it yet, but you can feel it with your finger for sure! He's also ALMOST crawling too. Last night he was up on his hands and knees, rocking back & forth for a while and would scoot both knees forward at the same time. It looks kinda silly and it made me laugh so hard. He still moves a lot more while sitting though. The other day he scooted about two feet on his bum to try and get a new toy. He's turning into quite a character. He'll laugh to get your attention and he is always looking for Marshall's approval. Some of his favorite things to do are play in his jumper that hangs in our kitchen and play upside down. It's funny, he's always liked anything that makes him feel like he's falling or flying.
These two pics were taken up on Kolob Thanksgiving weekend. There's no dirt in sight now... TONS of snow fell during this last storm.

What a cute, silly boy.

He even stands pretty well by himself when there's something to hold on to. You're growing so fast little boy... You're so much fun!

Journal moment

I made taquitos and homemade salsa and guacamole for dinner and Marshall is basically shovelling the salsa into his mouth. After a while he looks up at me and says, "It's not too good, Mom." I ask, "It's not?" And in all seriousness he responds with his mouth so full, "It's much gooder! I LOVE it!" You had to hear his cute little voice. It was seriously the cutest thing.

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.

My one and only... Brother

This is a tribute to my brother. Don't worry fam. I know I haven't tributed anyone but my kids, but it will come, I promise. I love all of you.

Jon is awesome! Him and I have always been a lot alike. Except I don't harass people like he does. He can be such a tease, but I love it.

I love the way he knows how to chill. He has such a laid back attitude that helps me relax whenever he's around.

Probably my favorite thing about him is his laugh. It is so contagious... and the smile that goes along with it just kills me. That's what everyone loves about Jonathan I think.

It blows my mind that he is growing up so fast. He is almost a man now... and he will be such a great man. He might not know this, but I always admired his scripture reading habit. Countless times while we were kids, I would walk by his bedroom and see him in bed reading his scriptures. It was such a good reminder that if my little brother could do it, I should do it too. It was always at a time you would expect him to be playing and messing around but he was learning instead.

These pictures were from a couple of months ago. He took this cutie to Homecoming (his first big dance date). I gave him a really hard time... he wasn't going to go and I did everything but put a gun to his head. He was so patient with me and finally consented. I'm glad he's sensitive to the sensitve feelings all of us girls have. I think that's where I convinced him. I hope he always remembers what he learned growing up with three sisters. Girls can be crazy and irrational, but your life would be dull and empty without them... wouldn't they Jon? Please, always be sweet to the girls in your life. It will make you 1,000 times happier.

I love you Jon.

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.

Buck Fever!

I'm in love with this wooden gun. It was Colby's when he was little. His Grandma and Grandpa Tom made it for him and then restored it for Marshall. He carries it with him all the time and it has come in especially handy during the hunt this year. He holds it up, waits a bit, then says, "BOOM!" The other day we were driving the roads on the mountain and Marshall would say, "I see a deer. Marshall shoot the deer. BOOM!" So I pointed out a cow and asked him if he was going to shoot it and he said, "No. I'm nice." I cracked up.

Can you believe it? A family picture! I really don't like the way I look in orange, especially flourescent orange, but a family picture is priceless and has to be posted. (Thank you to my timer setting and the trailer that was right there.)

It was windy and cold on Kolob tonight. I'm so glad I remembered these fleece lined jeans I bought at Old Navy last year. The only other time we used them (snowmobiling) Marshall was cooking and I thought I would never actually have a need for them. They worked like a charm tonight.

Hopefully all the orange in these pictures sends the vibes out to all those bucks on Kolob so we can be home in the evening for a change. Can't wait for the jerky.

2 is still so close to Heaven

I've started to call Marshall the "sweetest little monster you've ever met." He can be so sweet or so scary. Usually sweet, but you know how two year olds are. Well, I want to share a sweet story with you.

The other day we were at my Mother-in-Law's house and Marshall was playing the piano. He would turn the pages of the Children's Song Book, play a little, and narrate the picture he could see. This went on for a little while and Connie and I sat talking and smiling about how cute Marshall was. Suddenly Marshall turned around with his arms folded and said "fold your arms Mom." He wanted to pray. So we took the opportunity to pray for a loved one in real need of support and a helping hand from our Father in Heaven. Once we were done he turned around to play more on the piano. After a few seconds he turned around with his arms folded again. We took the chance to pray for more loved ones. And then the whole thing happened again.

It made me smile from ear to ear to watch my little boy behave in such a reverent manner. I really felt like he was so close to the spirit and knew there were people close to him that needed an extra prayer full of the power that can only come from a sweet soul so close to heaven.

PARTY!!! All are welcome.

I'm hosting a Heritage Makers party at my house on Thurs. at 7 pm. I'm a little challenged and haven't learned to do links on here yet. I know everybody... it's SOOOO simple. I just haven't done it yet and don't have the time RIGHT NOW. Just go check out heritagemakersDOTcom. You'll love all their products. Then when you want to buy some, order them from my party. Thanks. I was told that all of their books have gone down in price, that anyone who attends a party gets a free 12x12 page, and 8x8 books (one of the BEST sizes) is on sale for $39.95. If you need something to do Thurs. night come on over and bring anyone you want to. Leave me a comment if you need my number or address. I hope you can make it!

For Tyler

There is nothing more special than the way I "grew" to love you my little one. I truly cherish the fleeting time of feeling so close to my babies and all the anticipation that goes along with pregnancy. Tyler, you were good to me, regardless of what I said those last couple of weeks.

You know how sometimes you have to experience something more than once to really learn the lesson. Well, I think I understand more and more how close to heaven you little babies are when you are fresh into the world each time a child joins our family. You are such a sweet treasure straight from our Heavenly Father. How blessed I am to be entrusted as a mother of you darlings.

You are so loved by so many...

Tyler, you were always so pleasant as a baby. You just went along with whatever was going on. You were my little doll that I dressed up and had long, drawn out photo sessions with.

You were someone to look up to from when you were quite small. Marshall always surprises me with a new way to copy you. There's just something about you that makes us all want to be more sweet, innocent, and tender. Just today you were wimpering and I noticed Marshall wandering the house wimpering just like you.

You pay such close attention to things and try so hard to learn quickly so you can be grown up like the rest of us. You can grow up as slowly as you want to though. I already miss Baby Tyler. All I see now is Growing Tyler.

You definitely have your own look about you too. Sometimes I see Marshall in you, but whenever I have compared pictures, you are your own boy. How wonderful it is to be an individual!

You are such a delight. Such a sweet temperment you have. That is until you spot food. Your always act like you've been starved and grab at whatever food you can get your hands on. I doubt that characteristic will fade - after all, you are a boy. This is a picture from your first meal of "real food." You smiled every bite.

I sure love you little man. Marshall and Daddy love you too.

I can relate (on so many levels), can you?

I can hear the faint sound of a drum roll...

After two months of waiting (I'm sure you are all so anxious!) here are some pictures of our new house. I was waiting to post pics until I decorated, which I thought would have happened by now, but I realized that is closer to the bottom of my to do list. :) There aren't any pics of our bedrooms because I really want them to be all done up before anyone sees them. Otherwise they just look like our unmade beds. FYI: It has taken about 5 months for me to feel like I can take care of my family AND my home and still feel well balanced. I have not, however, converted to being a bed maker. Not yet anyway. Now on with the tour.

This is the view out our front door. LOVE IT!
This is our entryway...
Our family room...
Our kitchen/office... the kitchen and the 1/3 acre lot are what sold me!
The extra bedroom is serving as a playroom for the next couple of years...
The guest/main bathroom...
I had to show you the detail on the shower curtain. It is the only decor that is up in our house and I made it. I couldn't find one in the colors I wanted so I made one out of a set of sheets. Marshall is very proud of the fact that I can sew four straight lines. He always says, "Mommy make a 'ower 'urtain."

The high ceilings, walk in master closet and room around the house to let us feel like we can breathe were welcome changes from the townhome. Every day I thank my lucky stars that our neighbors do not smoke! Another welcome change. We love our house and would love to have you come visit.