The Summer

This past summer may have been one of the most difficult in my life. To keep it brief, I took on a job working from home creating a course for an online high school (while still nannying and teaching piano) and Jake would be home to take care of Ty for me. Well, Jake, being the awesome dad and husband and engineer he is, landed an awesome (paid!) internship opportunity with Central Arizona Project way the heck out there by Deer Valley. So I was going to have to work and watch Ty at the same time. Tyler is the type of kid that loves interacting with others... or maybe just his mommy. So it was pretty difficult to work and take care of him at the same time. Then we were so excited to find out we were expecting, only to have our hearts broken when I miscarried a week later. I thought I would be fine since I hadn't had a lot of time to get attached, but boy oh boy was it hard. Maybe it was the hormones, or maybe it was the fear of "what if we can't have more children" or who knows what, but it was a really trying time for me. But I learned to grow and put my trust and faith in the Lord. I didn't know what the future would bring for our family, but I was going to trust that the Lord would take care of us. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the comfort I feel in knowing that the Lord is mindful of us! Although I would not like to relive the stressful, somewhat depressing summer, I'm thankful for the lessons I learned and the humility it has taught me. So without further ado, here is a picture recap (most likely not in chronological order) of our summer.

Jake on his way to interview for the CAP internship- it must have been the gold tie because they loved him! (No, his hair isn't really that tall- it's just a shadow my awesome camera made)


Uncle Jason got home from his mission in Costa Rica. We're so glad to have him back and excited for his upcoming marriage to Alison (pictures to come)


Making messes with oatmeal in our old kitchen. Oh yeah, we moved. Bigger, cleaner, newer, cheaper- can't beat that!


Hanging out with dad and learning to bat (left-handed of course. Jake is excited to have a lefty- apparently it's a great asset in sports).


Happy 3rd Anniversary McSweets! I know- let's be married forever, ok? Dinner at BJ's (thanks Scott & Alisse for introducing us to this fabulous place!).


Swimming with cousin Savannah


First day of nursery= disaster. But he loves nursery now and I love his teachers. They had a lesson on gratitude so I asked Ty what he was grateful for (didn't even know he knew what that meant) and he responded in his lispy voice, "JESUS!" What am I grateful for? That my not yet two-year-old son is grateful for Jesus. This is a picture of his first day. By the looks of it, I guess I must have been bawling in sacrament meeting. What else is new?


Slip 'n sliding with Brooke and Maddi. They loved it! Thanks Raylene!


Richardson Family Reunion in Heber area. We stayed at Bison Ranch (thanks Mike for sharing your time share!)and had a great time. We stayed up way too late playing Settlers with the siblings which only ended in a complete gridlock- no one could win! First time I've ever seen that happen. This is Ty getting ready to watch Dad go fishing.


For part of the reunion we all went to the place where Jake's ancestors had a log home. This is one of the logs from the log cabin. They helped to settle the area there. It was really cool- we could see rocks that were lined up that outlined parts of walls and whatnot. It was neat to imagine what it must have looked like.


We had to say goodbye to our two favorite missionaries. Elder Pebley and Elder Wilder. Jake was the Ward Mission Leader in our old ward and so they would come over at least once a week. I learned how to give them haircuts and we taught them how to play farkle (no time to explain... just google it).


We may have had a little too much fun with them. Elder Pebley (the one on his knees) and Jake were like soul mates. They really connected. Funny note: we told them we were moving and they were crushed. What can I say, we were their favorites! Then they called Jake a couple of days later and told him the area was being whitewashed and they were both being transferred two days before we moved- Elder Pebley called it sweet justice.


All packed up to move!


We took Tyler to his first in-theater movie: Toy Story 3. He loves Toy Story and almost sat through the entire movie. I may or may not have bawled in that movie and thought- that's going to be Ty in 16 more years. Who does that?!?)


Tyler and Savannah like to give loves.


Phew! You made it!