Josh: In January 2014, he joined the Utah National Guard! He ended up leaving for Basic and AIT for 20 weeks in March! Upon returning he found a job in Page, Arizona at the Glen Canyon Dam and that's why we are in Page! He is busy working night shifts and is typically gone from 6pm to 6am and then sleeps till the afternoon. So the time we get to see him and spend time with him is very limited, but we just appreciate him and all his hard work that he does for our family! He goes to Drill once a month up to West Jordan .and is typically gone from Friday till Sunday.
Hillary: Upon Josh leaving for Basic and AIT I was able to stay home with Kaia. We moved in with my parents, since there was no reason for us to be in Bountiful by ourselves for that long of time! Since moving to Page, I am still a stay at home and so enjoy it! I love knowing that I am the one staying with Kaia and teaching her all the things she needs to know. I know that its not something every mom is able to do but I feel so blessed that we are in a position that I can stay home. I have a sweet little girl that I also watch typically 3-4 days of the week. She is 2 1/2 and is a good thing for Kaia. Teaches them both to share and to play well with other children.
Kaia; The biggest change over the last year or so is of course Kaia. She is now 18 months (tomorrow) and is officially old enough for nursery. Granted we have already taken her in a couple times and she does awesome. Between classes we usually check up on her and she will see us and pay no attention and will continue playing with all the toys. She knows a lot of her animals sounds and knows all the simple body parts! She likes to count to 3. She LOVES her babies. We can't leave the house anymore without a baby in tow. She loves puppies and kitties. She loves when we take her to Walmart and she can look at all the fishies! She enjoys watching Tangled and Frozen and will even sing "Let It Go: She loves her cousin "Jax" (we are lucky to have a Jax on both sides, my brother's little boy who is about 2 months older than Kaia, and Josh's sister's boy who is almost 4 and lives in Page too. She loves to play at the park and swing in the swings and is even brave enough to go down the big slides. Josh and I joke that she is no longer our baby and is a "Naughty" little toddler- and she has the attitude to match!
Well there is a quick update on us! We are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with. I will "attempt" to do better but I'm not promising anything. Guess I'll do another update in a year!?
This was before Josh left. I love little Kaia's smile. I feel like she had no
idea her daddy was going to be leaving for 5 months. She was and still is such a
Daddy's Girl.
While Josh was gone to basic the only way we could communicate was through letter. Twice during the 10 weeks we were able to talk on the phone and we took advantage of that and Facetimed. The last time it was Kaia's 1st Birthday. I think before we left to go out to see Josh, we were all a little worried that Kaia wouldn't know who her daddy was. But I was able to snap this picture. She remembered who he was. What a sweet moment this was for us!
This was taken the day after Josh got home from AIT. Kaia was in such a happy good mood.
We loaded everything up in a Uhaul and pulled our car all the way down to Page. Kaia was such a good sport! It may have helped that she was able to see what was going on outside!
The first little while we were here we took advantage of Josh not working yet and the warm weather and went to the Lake a couple times. Kaia enjoyed it so much the first time, but after that she just kind of seemed done with the water. But we do have all summer next year to remind her that its fun to play in!
