Life is good

What I love about Byron:

• He is extremely patient with me. Even if I get upset for no reason, he puts up with me and helps to calm me down.
• He wants to spend all his time with the kids and me. I know he could spend a lot more time watching sports with friends or doing other guy stuff, but he honestly loves just being with us and would rather hang out with his family than anyone else.
• He is such a huge help around the house. He helps do dishes, sweeps, vacuums, and even cleans bathrooms once in a while. Sometimes I feel guilty because it seems like he never gets a break.
• I love to see how much the kids love him. They literally dance for joy when he comes home every day. They love waiting on the porch for daddy’s car to drive up.
• He is such a hard worker and never complains about getting up early for work.
• He puts Lila to bed every night and goes to help her if she wakes up in the night. How many dads do that?
• He loves sports and always wants to include me in his sports watching. If there’s a good play, he just has to bring me over to the TV so he can go rewind our DVR and I can watch it with him while he explains just how amazing it was.
• He is so witty and always makes me and everyone else around him laugh.
• He is really close with his dad and talks to him on the phone all the time. And I don’t mean for just a second. I hope Miles (and any future sons) will have a relationship like that with their dad.

What I love about Lila:

• She loves to be a helper. She gets absolutely the biggest smile when she knows she’s doing something helpful. She seriously looks like she just won the lottery.
• A girl after my own heart, she loves to sing and dance. Her moves impress me and make me laugh at the same time. She not only knows all the words to many, many songs but she also makes up her own songs all the time.
• She has such a big vocabulary and I’m shocked multiple times per day by the amazing things that come out of her mouth.
• The look she has on her face when she says, “Do you want to play with me mommy?” melts my heart!
• Her imagination is amazing! I don’t know how she comes up with the little playtime scenarios that she does, but she definitely knows how to create her own world. Maybe she’s the next J.K. Rowling!
• It’s absolutely adorable when I’m getting ready in the morning and I hear “Mo-mmy! Mo-mmy!” coming from her room and I know she’s up and ready for me to come get her.
• She’s in such a cute (and sometimes frustrating!) phase where she wants to do everything herself. I love to watch her gain some independence even though it of course makes me so sad to see her growing up.

What I love about Miles:

• As Byron once said: Miles is just such a nice guy. I know it sounds weird to say about a baby (or should I say toddler now… crazy), but it’s true!
• Even though it’s exhausting that he wants me to be with him 24/7, I love how much he’s attached to me. I love that he wants me more than anyone else, especially since Lila can sometimes be quite the daddy’s girl. He crawls after me as soon as I leave the room and sometimes sitting next to me on the ground isn’t enough—he has to be right in my lap. I love it because I know it won’t last forever.
• He is such a music lover and has the cutest little head bob and knee bend dance moves.
• He constantly wants to be exactly where his sister is, doing exactly what she’s doing. I don’t know if Lila loves it, but I definitely enjoy seeing how much he loves her and wants to learn from her.
• It’s so cute to see him reach for his favorite blanket and snuggle it up to his face.
• I love the excited look he gets and happy dance he does when I come to get him out of his crib in the morning or after naps.
• I love how he bashfully grins and nuzzles his head into my chest when someone waves at him or says hello.

What I love about my life:

• I love that I have such great friends here. I never feel lonely or trapped at home because there’s always someone fun to spend time with. I definitely need to do a better job expressing to my Sa Diego friends just how wonderful they really are.
• I love that we get to live in the city that I consider paradise. You know how people ask, “If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?” Well, my answer would be San Diego. Yep, that’s right. I would stay right here even if I had millions of dollars. (Ok, I might buy a bigger house and there are a lot of millionaires here anyway). How many people can say they live in their dream city?
• I love that my husband has a good job that he actually enjoys and that he rarely has to travel or work late.
• I love that we were blessed to find a house that we love in an area with fabulous neighbors at an amazing price. I know the Lord was definitely watching out for us on that one.
• I love that I know who I am, why I’m on earth, and where I want to go after I die. I love that my life has purpose because I know who Jesus Christ is and what He did for me. I love that I know death is not the end of life and that I can be with my family forever.
• I love that I always have my parents, sisters, and grandparents supporting me. I also two pretty great brother-in-laws.
• I love that I have a husband who loves me more than anything in the world and two beautiful, healthy children. Who could ask for more than that?