December

Well the end of the year is almost here and I cannot believe how fast our last year in Utah is already going. We have been really busy this past semester with school, work, and of course keeping up (or trying to) with our children. Coen is 2 and 1/2 now and is finally starting to talk in sentences  I feel like it took him forever to start but knowing his personality it dose not surprise me. He is a lot like Dale that way with his very observer personality and not talking to people he dose not feel completely 100% comfortable with. Our poor families have to wait for Coen to warm up to them every single visit. Lucky for us there are things like Skype and Facetime, so my kids get to see their family almost every week. This also helps with Coen warming up a lot faster when we do have visitors or we go to AZ.

With Christmas here we decided to take the kids to see Santa. Coen was very excited because we have been talking about Santa for the last month and how he was going to bring Coen presents. When we got to the front of the line, Coen freaked out and wouldn't even let Dale put him down. As you can see in the picture Coen is not even happy with Dale sitting there with him.

Adylee is the exact oppisite of Coen. She sat right on Santa's lap and had a nice conversation with him. That is our Addie though. She will talk to anyone who will listen and go to anyone who will hold her. She is so much like me that I am scared for the future. She is our social butterfly. It amazes me that these two came from the same two people.

We have also had quite a bit of snow so far this season. We took the kids out after a big snow storm and Coen loved it. I am not sure Addie did though. Again something like me. She dose not like the cold and I am pretty sure she hated the snow. It is a good thing we are moving back to Mesa where there is not snow every winter.

Dale finished his second to last semester on the 6th. He is feeling good about almost being done. He also received a paper from the school telling him about all the important dates for Graduation this next semester. It has hit us that we are almost done and will be graduating in April. (I say it like I am graduating too. Sometimes it feels like we are both graduating.) I am so incredibly proud of Dale and everything that he has accomplished  I cannot wait for our next adventure to start.

We are bittersweet about Christmas this year. Because of all that we have to pay for this next semester with graduation and the bar exam, we felt that it would be better if we stayed in Utah for Christmas instead of spending the money to go and visit our families. It is sad to think that we won't be there with  everyone this year, but we are excited about being with just us and waking up in our own beds on Christmas morning. We have gotten out kids Christmas presents for the first time this year (because we always go to AZ our families always give us all our presents and we don't buy any because out Christmas is paying for the trip). We get to play Santa this year. I am so excited I can hardly wait. I am excited about seeing out kids react to all the presents this year and spending the day playing with them and all their new toys. Next year we will get to be with out families and have our own Christmas too. As for this year we are making the best of it.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

New Blog

Hey everyone! I have started a new blog and you should check it out. Also let your friends know about it too! Thanks!

cookingforthebusymom.blogspot.com

Changes

Hey All! I hope this post finds you all well and happy with life. Some changes have happened here in the Albach household and I thought that I would share. Oh and for those of you wonder if I am pregnant again.......sorry to disappoint  that is not in our update and will not be for at least the next year (hopefully, I guess birth control is not always 100% effective as we found out with Miss Adylee Ann).

Change #1
Dale applied to the Air Force JAG and was turned down  because he had to loose another 20 pounds in addition to the 50 he has already lost this summer. It was very heartbreaking (kind of) and after much prayer and thought, we decided that the Air Force was not for us. Dale is proud of himself for the 50 pounds he did loose (I think he is SUPER hot!) and it has caused him to live healthier and learn portion control, but he does not want to constantly have to worry about his weight and diet like he has been for however long he would have been in the Air Force. I personally was just fine with that decision.

We talked about going to Texas for a while after Law School because we were worried about moving back to Arizona. We have grown to like being a little further away from family. (Every newly married couple, I highly recommend moving away from both families for a time. I promise you will be stronger together.) We have learned to rely on each other more, to spend more time together as our little family unit, and we have made some great friends that will be going back to Texas and I am seriously going to bawl like a baby when we have to leave these AMAZING people behind. But again after much fasting and prayer, Texas just didn't feel right. Dale and I have always loved the idea of our children growing up around cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents, that we felt like we are now ok together to move back to Arizona. So we are just going to have to make sure that we make a yearly trip to see those AMAZING friends of ours because they cannot get rid of us, EVER (sorry Chinns, you are stuck)

For those who know me, know that I hate the cold and Utah has been not nice to me with all the snow. I am super excited to move back home and be around family again. I am so excited for the heat too. I know that you all think that I am crazy, but you do not have to scrap sunshine off your front windshield. So we will be moving back to Arizona on April 27, 2013 and I cannot wait.

Change #2
This brings me to our second change. I have been accepted to the Arizona State University Psychology Online Program. I am finishing up my AA degree in Medical Transcription at Kaplan University and in January I start at ASU. I am really excited that all of my hard work is finally paying off. I am really excited to start this new chapter in my life and finally get my degree. It will be about a 6 year adventure to get my doctorate  but I am excited. And I can do all of this from home while I raise my babies. I am very grateful to live in a time where this is possible and that I am able to do all of this without sacrificing time while my children are growing up. And because of the fact that I am a ASU student, even if that is online, we get to live out at the ASU family housing on the Polytech Campus in East Mesa. We are really excited for a house to live in that does not share any walls with anyone else, and it will give us time to save up some money and buy our own home in a couple of years.

Change #3
Adylee is now pulling herself up and walking with the push walker. She will be nine months tomorrow and I cannot believe how fast she is progressing. Coen did not even crawl until 10 months (I think he was too fat to do much of anything ;) ) and didn't walk until just before he turned one, so I was not expecting Adylee to be so fast with every milestone. I guess she is just trying to keep up with Coen as much as possible who she just adores and follows around constantly. She is so adorable and tries to talk so hard. We joke that she will be talking better then Coen next year and she will be doing all the talking for the both of them.

Change #4
Coen is now 36 inches tall and almost 40 pounds. He is turning into this little boy and I am not sure that I can call him my baby anymore. He turned 2 on the 5th of October and is really starting to talk and put together sentences now. He is always coping me when I am on the phone, and from what I have gathered by watching him is that I must laugh a lot when I am on the phone because he will do the same thing. He is such a sweetheart with Adylee, always kissing and hugging her and reading and playing with her. I could not have asked for kids that play better together then the way these two do. As hard as it was having them only 16 months apart, I would do it all over again because of the bond they now share. I love to just sit and watch them. I love them both dearly and love being a mommy. It is hard some days, but so very worth it when all is said and done.

So those are the many changes that are happening here with us. I hope you all are well and I have posted some new pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

The rest of the Summer and start of our last year of Law School!

So the rest of the summer in Arizona went really well. We really enjoyed being with our families for so long. We ended up coming home early because Dale was finished with his internship and we were anxious to be home. I cannot begin to tell you how nice it was to come home to all of our stuff after being away for 3 months. I love my bed and I do not want to sleep anywhere else, ever. My kids, adjusted back to our normal schedule well and it was so good to be welcomed back into our ward that we missed so much. I was especially glad to go to our playgroup again. I can tell that Coen missed it.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took of the kids this summer.

 Dale and I got to go to a Diamondbacks game which was awesome! We got to witness a in the park home-run and it was very exciting. Dale and Coen also got to go an their first Father's and Son's camp out. They had a good time but Dale said he probably wait until Coen is a little older to do it again. Adylee and I had a girls night out that night. We went and got dinner and watched movies. It was way fun and I think that I will continue to do that with my girls when the boys go out of town.

The last two pictures are of the 4th of July. Pretty lame, I know. It is my favorite holiday and those are the only two pictures I took. It was really nice though. We stayed at home, had a BBQ, played cards, and watched fireworks from my parents front yard.

Dale started his last year of school this week! We are so excited that we will be finally grown ups and not be in school anymore. Dale is pretty burnt out and so he is ready to be done. We are really excited for this last year.

Summertime Post #1

Well this summer has been going really well. We are currently living in Tempe, AZ in a older couples home while they are serving a mission. We have been enjoying our time in AZ with both of our families. I love the fact that my kids have had this time to be around their uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents. We have also had some time to get to know Dale's new stepmother and her children. It has been nice to get to know the newest members of the family. We really have been enjoying our time here. I am not sure about living in someone else's home with their things. We have missed our friends in Utah and we have really missed our Ward there. I will be excited to be home at the end of the summer.

Coen is now 20 months and has officially started talking and potty training. It has been an adventure for sure. I am not liking this adventure as much but Coen is growing up fast and I am just trying to keep up. 

Adylee is now four months old and is such a great baby. She is now sleeping through the night and is rolling over and eating rice cereal. She also has started sucking her thumb which I think it is the cutest thing ever. I know that I will regret it later on, but is pretty cute now. She is so cute and I love her. She brings so much light into our home and I am excited that she came into our lives, even if it was not the most planned thing in the world.

Things in our lives are changing quickly. Dale is now applying to the Air Force JAG program in September. If he is accepted he will go to officer's training after he passes the bar and then he will go on to lawyer training for the Air Force right after that. That means we will be separated for 14 to 15 weeks. That will be very hard on me because I will be alone with the kids and then have to move our whole family where ever they station us, even if that means we are stationed overseas. The Air Force will fly Dale out to where ever his assignment is so that means we need to meet him there. Everything I have read about the Air Force life I am excited about. It will give our family a chance to have an amazing adventure and a way for us to get our loans paid off very quickly! I am very excited for the changes that will be happening in this next year.

I will be graduating this year as well with my AA degree in Medical Transcription and then I will be transferring to ASU to complete my degree in  Psychology and then to continue to get my masters in Psychology as well. So I am excited to continue my education.

We hope that everyone is well!

Adylee Ann Albach and Family Update

Hey all! Ok so I am really bad about all of this blogging stuff. But here is an Update on all of us.

Adylee Ann Albach was born on February 5, 2012. That makes her and Coen exactly sixteen months apart. My water broke at 11pm on Saturday the 4th after a day of no contractions. I didn't even have contractions for two hours after my water broke. Very weird! At 3am on the 5th, I got my epidural and at 7:45 am my baby girl was born. We were very happy that she was a girl because the ultrasound tech was not sure. She weighed 8 pounds 13 oz. I was so surprised because I had only gained 11 pounds. So I was all baby!

Our little family is growing and I love it.

Coen is doing really well and loves having the baby around. He is always very concerned where his sister is and that she always has her pacifier, blanket, and bottle. He is such a good big brother and Adylee already adores him. She is always looking at him like she knows who he is and that he will always be there for her. I love the bond that they have already. Coen is growing so fast that I don't know what to do with him. He now knows nine words and he is trying to say more every day. I want to freeze time with these two. Even though my life is very busy I love ever second.

Dale is finishing up his second year in Law School! Yea we only have one more year. He will be doing an internship in Mesa, AZ this summer and I cannot wait to get back to the heat. We will be there from the 20th of April to the 1st of August. I am very excited to be around family again. Cannot wait!

I am still very busy with school and for the first time in my life I have straight A's. I am very proud of my schooling and will hopefully graduate with my Bachelors in Health Admin the same time Dale finishes Law School. Then we will be grown-ups. Very Scary!

We hope all is well with everyone!

This is a photo shoot of the kids and the most recent pictures I have of them! Enjoy!