we are all still alive!

This year has already been one of the most hectic of my life.  I know already that I'm going to regret not recording more - I haven't blogged, I'm barely journaling twice a month.  Our lives are going to change in a big way in the next year and I know I'll want to look back on how things were, but I just have no idea how to fit record keeping in.  We have so much going on!  It's wonderful and scary.  Here is my little snapshot of our family right now!

Side note about Tyler's picture - both the boys desperately want a dog.  We found a stray this week and it stayed with us for a few hours before I took it to the shelter.  TJ was so sad we couldn't keep it- the whole drive home from the shelter he kept asking, "Where's my puppy?"  We cannot wait to settle in somewhere and adopt a dog.

Tyler and said stray (apparently the dogs name is hotwheels)

Tyler is graduating law school NEXT MONTH.  The end of April!  I'm just bursting with pride and excitement for him.  The next few weeks are crazy - he is traveling out of town  for a trial advocacy competition (it's basically debate team for law students)* and then taking the MPRE.  The MPRE is a professional ethics test you have to pass in order to pass the bar.  He's finishing up his registration for the New Mexico bar (more on that later)n  We feel comfortable that Tyler will find a job and that Heavenly Father has a plan for us.  He is continuing to apply and interview, but during our entire marriage, we've never had a job come together early.  Everything always happens last-minute for us, so I expect he will find a great job, but probably not until after he takes the bar.  Because that is the story of our life.

*note - after Tyler read this he became very indignant.  Apparently it is not like debate, it is a mock trial.  Which is soooooo different from debate.

At the BYU bowling alley

Summer has been interviewing for a summer internship to complete my degree!  I registered for my last few courses this week and I'm really hopeful that I will finally have my bachelor's finished by the end of the summer.  Because we finally had to pick a place to take the bar to avoid late fee's, we decided that we would plan to move to New Mexico to live with my parents.  The main reason for moving in with my parents instead of my in=laws is the internship opportunities available to me - I got "no thanks" emails from everywhere I applied north of Utah, unfortunately.  However, I recently received two great offers here in Utah so right now our summer plans are under consideration.  One of the things we need this summer is a good support system, since I have to work and  take classes, and Tyler will be spending a big chunk of his days studying for the bar (hence the need to live with or near family).  We have spent the weekend deliberating and are making our final decision after I go to the temple tomorrow.

At the BYU Paleontology Museum

TJ is our happy boy.  He loves calling his grandparents (or anyone, really) to talk on the phone.  He's been picking on Eli a lot lately.  But tonight, after dinner, he was so sweet.  We sat down to have dessert, but the boys didn't eat hardly any dinner so they both had to have two bites of real food before they could have brownies.  TJ, practical and goal-oriented as ever, has no issues with this and immediately filled his two-bite quota.  Eli, on the other hand, threw a huge fit and gave me mad dogs and screamed and yelled and pushed his plate away.  After a few minutes of this, TJ quietly walked over.  He picked up the roll from Eli's dinner plate and held it up to Eli's mouth.  And Eli took a bite.  And then he could have a brownie so everything was fine!  TJ went back to his chair and said "Eli, no more crying, okay?" and Eli nodded his head very seriously.  It was such a funny interaction.  Even though they fight, they are still brothers and TJ is looking out for Eli.

Diaper heads - always a popular game at our house.

Eli is at such a sweet fun age. He is independent and has a mind of his own, but he's not at that stage where he throw fits when he doesn't get his way (unless it's about food).  He isn't talking much, and we weren't that worried about it (children from bilingual homes typically have a speech delay), but he's starting to regress and has stopped using words that he used to use.  We are taking steps to enroll him in speech therapy for the rest of our time here in Utah, which will hopefully help us learn the skills to help him learn and use new words.  He isn't teething anymore but still occasionally bites, mostly other peoples kids.  So that is super great.

^ I love this picture!  At the end of February Tyler had a week off (every semester they get a "placement break" to go travel and do job interviews) so we drove to St. George to visit my grandparents.  We've really missed them since they moved.

So, we are still alive, we still don't really know where we are going to be in six months, and we are still crazy busy with school.  The end is in sight but there isn't really a light at the end of the tunnel, just the end of the tunnel.  Hopefully the light will come soon.  We are really looking forward to settling down and starting "grown-up" life.