Where are they now....

I figured it would be a good idea to give a little update on our lives as of today....

We still live in Texas and love it.  We miss our family terribly but we know for right now this is where we are supposed to be.  We have made life long friends that have truly blessed our family.  When you are SUPER far away from any of your family it is amazing how close you get to your friends and people around you.  We are so lucky to have such supportive and loving friends and ward family at church.

Things I love about Texas:
The food...oh the food.  I could go on and on about it.  Best food you will ever eat is here.  BBQ that is shut the front door amazing.  And food trucks.  I don't know why food coming out of a truck is so magical, it just is. 
I love how nice everyone is to everyone! People just smile at people.  That they don't know! It is great. :)
I love the "yes mam" and "no sir" stuff.  And yes we expect Hayden to say it. I love how respectful it is. It is even better to hear it from some of my friend's kiddos who have a little southern drawl.  Oh my heart.  You say "yes mam" and I will give you whatever the heck you want kid. Cutest thing ever.
Texas Springs, Fall and most of Winter.  It's perfect.  And I don't miss driving in or shoveling snow.
Blue Bonnets every Spring.  Gorgeous.
Y'all.  Yup the word y'all.  I'm not sure at what point that word crept into our everyday vocab.  But we all use it.  Often. I really love it. 
Blue Bell Ice Cream.  It WILL change your life. 
Tim Riggins. Clear eyes, full hearts... ('nuff said...Texas forever.)

The humidity we are use to now. We are pretty much permanently sweaty all summer and I have really super flat and frizzy hair.  But so does everyone else so it's all good.  We live at the pool or indoors.

I have a love hate relationship with the bugs here.  I hate them because..well they are bugs. Usually they are HUGE, gross and either bite or sting.  When you walk in the grass you always watch for fire ant mounds.  I haven't laid in the grass forever.  BUT they pay our bills.  Cory is the regional manager for the technicians of a pest control company here.  He travels.  A lot.  But again, it pays the bills and we are blessed that he has such a great job.  We will also tag along sometimes on some of his trips to see more parts of Texas. Dallas...Houston here we come. Road Trip!

Cory is pretty swamped with the craziness of pest control summers, he works with the young men at church and plays church ball when he can.  He loves his kids, me, sports talk radio, BYU, funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting, anything sport related and twitter.

Hayden is 4 1/2.  He has a huge imagination that is always going.  He loves pretending, learning, art projects, wrestling with daddy and helping me cook/bake.  We love him so much.  He has a HUGE personality that is always keeping us on our toes and laughing.  He wants to be obedient and make good choices.  He is our big helper and an amazing brother.  He is my favorite little buddy and I don't know what I will do when he leaves me to go to Kindergarten next year.

 Halli is 4 months.  That little but chunkalicious girl has so much sass!  She is determined, has an opinion, has found her voice, and is so spunky.  She thinks she is much older than she is and wants to be involved in whatever is going on around her.

She is already rolling all over the place.  She adores her brother, no one can make her laugh like he does.  She has rolls upon rolls of chubbiness and I love kissing her all day.  She has added so much joy to our family.  I didn't know my heart could love so much with my two sweet, beautiful kids.

I love being a mom.  I know my babies won't be babies forever.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be home with them all day.  Sometimes it is rough.  I step on multiple legos, I smell like baby poo and spit up, I haven't shaved my legs in days, my kitchen may look like a dish explosion and most of my meals are eaten cold... but I love my kids.  I love watching them learn new things and come into their own personalities.  I am the Relief Society Secretary and try to keep things organized.  I love getting to know the women at church.  They inspire me to be better.  I am so grateful for the blessing of Relief Society.  I contribute to a fun blog called Momspotted.com.  It has been so much fun.  I forgot how much I love to write!  I am a stress baker and eater.  I love to bake, cook and try new recipes.  I will be posting a few on here every now and then of our favorites. I love to read, peanut butter m&m's from the fridge, girl's nights, I'm addicted to taking pictures of the kids and shoes.

That is a tiny bit of our life right now.  To be continued..... :)

Journey Stories...

It has been over 2 years since I kept up on the ole' blog.  2 years!  Sooo much changes in 2 years.  Hayden is 4 1/2 (ya, let that sink in..while I cry in the closet eating Oreo's by the sleeve because my little buddy is almost 5), we bought our first house in a cute neighborhood(we really do have cowboy neighbors), a sweet n' sassy little princess was added to the Hamilton family...blessed people.  We are blessed.

When I first stopped blogging we had just started Hayden's speech process.  It was a long road and a lot of work but now he has been dismissed from speech.  You would never know he had such a severe delay. We also bought our first house right around that time, then it was summer...and I never got caught up.  I figured photobooks would be good enough and facebook would keep our family updated...I didn't need to blog.

Until recently... I had our sweet Halli on March 28, 2013.  I kept having this feeling that I needed to blog.  I had gotten that thought before in the past but brushed it off. But this time the feeling was more urgent.  I kept getting the feeling over and over I NEEDED to blog.  I would read talks in the Ensign about family history and why it is important to keep records of our thoughts, feelings, and happenings in our families.  Then I would go to church and sacrament meeting would be about family history.  A friend posted a wonderful talk called Your Wonderful Journey Home by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  In his talk, President Uchtdorf talks about how everyone has their own "journey stories," Dorothy and Toto, Bilbo Baggins... and as I am reading this with all the other thoughts of family history swimming around in my brain I get in a "slap in the face" thought of  "Hey Megan! I don't know what else I need to do for you to journal and keep a record of your family! JUST DO IT ALREADY!"  Esh..*enter guilty feeling*...I really hope I am not the only person that needs a wake up call, or a slap in the face every once awhile from the Lord that I should be doing something.  I want the blessings of keeping my family history.  I hope one day when our kids read this, or their kids, or their kids' kids(?), someone will laugh at the fact that neon came back into fashion, and read about the trips we took, and the memories we made.  I hope that I might be able to inspire and uplift one of them with my thoughts about the world, about being a mom and my unwavering testimony of the Savior.

So here I go again.. Blogging and I couldn't be more excited about it.  I hope this will also be a way to keep us connected to our family and friends that are way too far away.  Some things are still the same around here too.  I still am a helicopter mom and probably way too protective of my babies.  Cory still keeps me grounded and reminds me to let them be kids.  My kids are the cutest most beautiful babies ever.

I love being a mom, I love being married to my best friend and I am pumped to re-start our very own Journey Story with all the funny, the messy, and the happy parts.