Little miss homemaker

I'm so proud of myself lately! I know many woman are successful at cooking dinner every night but I always had no motivation while working and taking care of my little guy. Since I resigned from my job I have cooked every single night (minus the wedding dinner and wedding night for my sister in law) and I feel good! It's so nice to make dinner instead of buy it and never have anything in the fridge. Our fridge has been full of left overs that help solve the "what am I going to eat for lunch or snack" dilemma, I so commonly used to have. I feel like a happier person and a better wife as well. I know much is contributed to not being overly exhausted with work on top of taking care of H and all the other things that have to get done.I know that I am truly blessed to get to stay home because some woman can't but this girl loves just being with my little boy all day. House chores are also less of a chore somehow.. I will contribute it to the extra energy not spent working. Well I rant is over... Just so glad to be home with my boy and get to feel like a homemaker to the fullest :)

Stay at Home Mom

Well it is now official! I am no longer employed. I have officially resigned with JetBlue and I am going to keep the title of "stay at home mom" full time. It's a big change to go from two incomes to one (even though I don't contribute much anyway) but we have felt that I needed to be able to watch our boy 100% when needs be, since Greg has to travel for work and work from home. H is also not the easiest baby and so by me not working any longer G will be able to get his work done. It will also be less stress on us because taking care of a fussy child and working takes a toll on you. It also makes working out and spending quality time as a family very difficult also. We have prayed about it and we felt that this was the best thing for our family. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us as we follow in His ways. We are so blessed to be where we are and to have our darling little boy. I am so excited to just be a Mom and have no other job title for a while. There is truly nothing more rewarding to me than motherhood. Now to start budgeting... I need to learn how to use coupons, spend less at Costco, and to be creative in cooking every night and not crave fast food... Any tips, pointers, suggestions, advice, etc is welcome! Here's to a bright future!!
"The future is as bright as your faith" -Gordon B. Hinckley

Moving!!

After a much shorter stay at my moms then intended, in the beginning,we will be moving into our brand new home!! (Finally) this weekend! Feel free to help us with those muscles you have because moving is a doozy! Hopefully this will be the last move ever...or for at least 20years or more.
As for why we are moving now instead of the original plan, is because building our home didn't pan out as easy and affordable as we planned. I honestly know that Heavenly Father set us on our path to move into this other home instead. We could not be more happy and excited about location and the fact that it's brand new and never been occupied! It has all our needs and many of our wants. Especially granite countertops and an island!! Also, no more sharing a driveway!! We feel so very blessed and we can't wait for the opportunity we have to raise our children in a good home with a great neighborhood and ward! Yay for new adventures!

The BIG but not so very big move!!

Well it's official! We will be closing on our house next week and moving out of our home this weekend! It has been a great 3+ years in this cute home but we are excited for the next adventure. We plan to build our next home with my brother-in-law and so for the next period of time we will be down graded from a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home to a basement with two bedrooms and one bathroom and nothing else at my moms. This will definitely be a journey and hard change, but totally worth it!
We had no intentions of selling our home at first. We love it and there is plenty of room to grow, but a few other things triggered us to try selling. The main thing is that now is the time to buy! The market is so low right now and rates have never been this great. We could stay in our home and wait for it to gain even more equity or we could sell and start earning equity in a home with a yard and it's own driveway! Also, by the time we earned more equity, the next home we get would be even more $$. So yes! We made up our mind. The crazy thing is that we sold it on KSL and had 2 offers within 4 days!! Talk about timing! We feel The Lord has helped us and has been guiding our paths. Here's to a new adventure! Hope I survive moving back home for the time being.
The BIG move will be when we move into our second home! So until then.. This is the big move but not so very big move :)

Valentines day!

This year was a special day of love in the Ballard home on Valentines day. I am one lucky lady!
To start it off Greg ran to the store at nearly midnight for a few things and I laid in bed wishing I'd already been sleeping (since Hayden would be up to eat in an hour or two) but instead Greg called me on his way to the store and asked me to please turn the dishwasher on. I tried getting out of it, but he was asking me so nicely saying "it will only take a second". So I reluctantly got out of bed and went downstairs to turn it on. As I trudged around the kitchen getting ready to go back to bed I had a sweet surprise awaiting me. He picked out my favorite candies and had a huge ballon,teddy bear,roses, and a very sweet and thoughtful card from him and Hayden. It made my night. :) I got to start valentines day off right!
For Greg I made homemade pizza in the shape of a heart and sugar cookies shaped as hearts with sprinkles (can't forget the sprinkles) and had many different food items labeled with reason why I love him. For example: big hunk because he's a hunk, donut holes saying "donut you know I love you a hole bunch, Funyuns because he's fun to be with, starburst because just one look and stars burst .. Etc. corny but he liked it.
Most importantly we were able to express to each other, how much we love each other and also were able to have our son present who is a great outcome of our love. Valentines day was special this year. This year we shared our love to each other and had a special boy who has only made our love grow stronger.

First Night Away

Greg and I have been married for almost 4 years and until just recently, have never had a day where we haven't seen each other nor spent a night apart from each other. Well... we can finally cross that off our list.
Greg went to Phoenix for a leadership conference with eBay for 4 days and left Hayden and I home by ourselves. I know I'm an absolute baby but I don't do "alone" well at all. To top that off we stayed up until 2am the night before and woke up at 6 to get him to the airport in time. I thought I'd be able to come home and take a nap, but Hayden had no intentions of going back to sleep. So.. We stayed up. Then went to a baby blessing. He was good long enough to get through the blessing then cried the rest of the letting so we spent the rest of church bouncing his full 15lbs up and down while getting weird looks as he cried (imagine that..a baby that cries lol) after those events we went to my moms to kill sometime watching the Super Bowl but he just wouldn't have it. Super fussy! So we went home, he got his routine bath and was fed.. Still no sleeping. This first night away was hard. I broke down, probably due to lack of sleep, and decided to just lay in bed with him and cuddle him until he was finally out. Finally he gave in and fell asleep! Yay!
The next day was light years better. He was an angel! So happy! Not gassy! He woke up laughing and smiling and talking to himself. (Heavenly Father knows how much I can take) then the rest of the days flew by as I filled them with things that kill time!
We finally picked Greg up at the airport and had a very sweet family reunion together. Hayden missed his daddy. He gave him big smiles and played with daddy for a while and then went to sleep like an angel.
My heart goes out to those women who are military wives. I personally don't have it in me for that. I can tell you that distance has made me appreciate the smells things that my hubby does on a daily basis. I also realize that having a child is a two person job and even of I'm only relieved for a few min each day by Greg holding the baby; it keeps me sane.i love my little boy and I love my hubby. This was our newest adventure. We are stronger from this small experience. There will be many more nights spent apart, but we made it through the first. :)

Family Christmas

This Christmas was the best that we have ever had. It didn't have boxes it didn't have bags it didn't come in packages or have anything with tags. No this Christmas was different and nothing like the last. This Christmas the only gift we had was a bundle of joy that made us a family and that's way way better than toys!
We love our little man and we couldn't feel more blessed. It was so difficult last Christmas to celebrate with family and struggling to know if we would ever have a child of our own. We couldn't ask for a better gift in this life. Christmas is about our Savior and the life he lived that made it possible for us to be families forever. Growing our forever family is such a gift. We feel so blessed to be parents. I love being a mom and I'm grateful for a Christmas where the only present isn't anything wordly at all. It was my Son! Our gift this year is family!