Newest Additions, Anniversary & Orders!

April 25, 2013- Tyler flew into the Salt Lake Airport at midnight where my father picked him up. We found out the day before that they were going to allow him to take a few days leave to be there for the birth of the babies. It was a wonderful surprise because we were so sure it wasn't going to happen. At 9:36 baby Skylar Jai (pronounced Jay) was born and baby Logan Tai (pronounced Ty) was born 2 minutes later. They had no medical problems and were absolutely tiny! Skylar was 5 lbs 4 ounces... 18 inches... and Logan was 5 lbs 14 ounces... 17 1/2 inches. Right away it was obvious they did NOT look alike at all. To be honest, they reminded all of us of Connor & Cadyn. No... like really........ We spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital because I was itching to get out and the babies were healthy. They didn't even have jaundice which is wonderful. We also found out by the end of day 2 that they were already SPOILED. They were held the whole time they were in our room by myself, Ty or my parents when they were there. Cadyn wanted to see them initially but got bored so fast. Connor on the other hand really wanted nothing to do with them. He was so concerned with why I was in hospital, if I was feeling better and when I was going to going back home. Throughout the time he was there he would randomly check with me and ask how I felt. SWEET LITTLE BOY. Ty was also able to go spend some alone time with the boys so they wouldn't feel left out. They absolutely loved that also. They played, went to baseball, McDonald's, bike ride and played in the dirt. There was no doubt that Tyler was EXHAUSTED at the end of the day but it was well worth the time and effort. The joy from the family being together was unexplainable. A few days later Tyler had to go back to Texas and wait for his orders and class to start... It was very sad but to be completely honest it was a BLESSING for us. It was a once in a lifetime experience for us and we were able to be together as a family. May 5, 2013- We have been married a year now. Wow it has been a long year... that's all... it feels like it should have been divided up into maybe 3-4 years. We've had a lot of changes but am grateful for all the changes and blessings in our life. We really have a blessed life together. We have become stronger together, grown together and love abounds in our family. For our anniversary we've decided that we won't be celebrating it much with 4 children's birthday surrounding it, however, Ty did get us a weekend getaway down to Orange County for a COUNTRY CONCERT! Luke Bryan, Thompson Square and Florida George Line. My parents are more than willing to take the boys so it will be nice for us. DISCLAIMER: This is the first concert Tyler has bought for and he chose a COUNTRY CONCERT!!!!!! wowzers.. how things have changed since we first met... May 14, 2013- I went back to work for the remainder of the school year. So another 3 weeks... It was really tough to leave the babies. I feel bad because it's not bad to leave the boys although I do miss them each and every day but to leave the newest babies for the first time was incredibly hard and still is. But 3 more weeks of work and then I'll be a stay at home mom for the next 5 years.. until they are in school full time. May 15, 2013- Tyler still hasn't received his order or received much information about him starting the school he was suppose to be there for. The boys at this point are just one day shy of 3 weeks and we are very anxious to be together again as a family. We know we have a waiting list for housing and with that and not knowing when Tyler is going to be getting his orders, time seems to creep by. A thought crossed his mind and inquired about it. Tyler asks about being reversed pipelined meaning being sent to Monterey first and then going back for the 2 week course he has been waiting for.For the past few days, he was bugging people about getting his paperwork cleared up and trying to push himself forward. Later that afternoon our family received another BLESSING... Tyler received orders to go to Monterey. He leaves in 3 days (May 18) and at that point he may put in for housing, start his schooling, and put some pieces of the puzzle together. He will be studying PERSIAN FARSI. He wanted an Arabic language and now he got it. We are elated by this news especially since I was going to be moving to Apple Valley, California on June 7th anyways.

Past couple weeks.. :D

So yes it has been a while but also has been super busy with getting things situated. Our life is changing dramatically as we speak but everyone is super excited for all the changes. On March 29, Tyler graduated from Basic Military Training with honor. He was 4th top physically out of everyone and actually has learned to like to run. SHOCKING I know but it has happened. He has done excellent in his training so far and is anxious to continue on in his schooling. Following graduation, he was able to come home for a week (in hopes that I would have the babies while he was especially since I was 36-37 weeks) but that ended up being a no-go. So instead we were able to spend a lot of time together as a family. We had baseball, school things, parent teacher conference for Cadyn (which he is doing EXCELLENT in school and is above reading and math level). We even let Cadyn play hookie and we went to the Aquarium. I asked Cadyn which one he wanted to go and I got this bewildered look that said DUH MOM... SKIP SCHOOL... No worries I work in the education system and allow my children to skip school.. OOPS! Ah well... it was worth it. Cadyn still talks about how him and Connor got to feed the sting rays and touch the little sharks. Here's a picture of them looking at the penguins.... :D We were also able to celebrate Tyler's 24th birthday while he was here. We had baseball in the morning and then went to MCDONALDS'S for an HOUR AND HALF!! Tyler was able to play with the boys on the toys for pretty much the whole time making it well worth it while I just watched and enjoyed my boys playing together. It really was wonderful... After we went home, we had cake and gifts where Tyler was able to REALLY LEARN that birthdays aren't about him anymore.. Poor guy got a vaccuum from my parents.. Something practical right. Later Tyler and I went out for a nice dinner at Rodizio grill where he ate chicken heart, rattlesnake and couple other meats.. It was delicious and a wonderful night. He had to go back since his earned time off had ended and well still no babies. Poor guy. It was tough to say goodbye again but it was a good time to have him here and be able to talk again unlike in BMT. It has all been definitely worth it. Hard but worth it in the end. We miss dad being there with us everyday. The boys really enjoyed playing with dad everyday but have to get things done now for our family.

Busy Busy Day!!!

Alright so today was a super busy day! It started with going to the military headquarters over in Draper, Utah to get my military ID and figure few things out. Well that took a couple hours.. I had to hurry home to pick up Cadyn from the house and then pick up Connor from school. We had a 1 pm appointment with the Matheson Court House downtown Salt Lake. We actually got there an hour early. Connor decided he wanted nothing to do with the court hearing for the Adoption. He threw the first of few fits today. After practically dragging him in, we had to wait in the hallway for another half hour. Connor decided he wanted to do nothing so he laid on the floor of the hallway. Yes the still desire to be a lawyer side of me just huffed at him. So it became 12:45 and the bailiff came out and unlocked the court. She asked us if we were waiting for anyone else. I replied with "No" and she said "We can get started then." I'm getting super excited but dreading how Connor is going to react to the movement again. Well... Cadyn and I went in and sat in the seats. Connor decided he wanted nothing to do with it again. Sigh.... Luckily grandpa was there so he took him back out into the hallway. After the Judge and we were introduced to the court (Connor had to come back in to be introduced... but immediately left after), he asked me if I was still okay with Tyler adopting the children and if we had a divorce he would still be the father to attach the child support and all that stuff too not the "real sperm donor." I said "Yes." The Judge signed the papers and said "Alright It's Done!" We were in the court room for about 10 minutes. Not a single problem. It was wonderful! The Judge even okayed the new middle name for Cadyn.. THANK HEAVENS!!!! So now we have Connor Eugene Monk and Cadyn Wayne Monk. The boys have been learning their last name is Monk for the past couple months so it wasn't new news to them. I was just ecstatic that he signed off on changing Cadyn's middle name. The filing process took us another 10 minutes. So all together we were busy with the court for 20 minutes literally... Immediately following the court we went to Wheeler Farm because Connor had been asking to go to the farm for few days now. Why not when we didn't have school, work and something to actually celebrate. We walked around and saw all the animals. Connor loved feeding the ducks and geese. Cadyn loved it too but I believe he loved chasing them more... but that's just my opinion We had a nice picnic there and it was an amazing 70 degrees today. Honestly it was a WONDERFUL day! <3 Our family is growing.. It's just a huge BLESSING for it all to be OFFICIAL. Never have to think about anyone else other than the 6 of us... :D I cannot express the happiness I feel for our family! I just wish Tyler was here with us but he is doing what needs to be done for our family also. Nothing great can come without some sacrifice. We are honestly blessed beyond belief.. I do love my little (or maybe not so little) family.. Okay I'll go with young family.

The first year so far...

The past year.. well almost.. has been like a tornado for our little family. After we were married my parents took Connor & Cadyn on a 2 month vacation with them to the Florida Keys and that southern route leaving us 2 with some time to be newlyweds. We spent our time in Apple Valley at my parents house for 2 months where we were able to play. During this time Tyler and I had talked about expanding our little family. After much debate, we decided it was the right time for us. In August, the boys returned to us and we moved back to Herriman, Utah. Tyler attended Utah State University in Logan for the semester. The poor guy had to commute hour and half there and hour and half home three days a week. I worked as a substitute teacher for Jordan High School and the boys started Kindergarten this year. (OH DEAR HOW THEY GROW UP TOOOOOOOOO FAST) My parents would take care of the boys when Tyler and I were unavailable to do so. By the end of September, we found out that I was pregnant AGAIN. Imagine the shock when we found out it was TWIN BOYS for the 2nd time and due May 10, 2013. We had some serious thinking to do regarding what we were going to be doing for our future. We came to the conclusion that Tyler would join the United States Air Force. He did so by mid November and was considered active duty by beginning of January. He accepted his job as an airborne cytological linguist and left for basic training on January 29, 2013. He has excelled at basic training so far. It has been a difficult change for our family. Although we have not been married or together for very long, Connor and Cadyn got real comfortable with finally having a loving, playful father and I did also. It is going to be a hard course but it serves our family the best it could. I am incredibly proud of my husband and all that he has done (even if he is a creeper still).

Our History

Our story begins back in July of 2010... I was in town for a good long-time friend's wedding in San Diego. Since I was in California, my family decided that we would spend a couple weeks in town. Towards the end of the trip I was itching for something to do so I went to institute on Wednesday night. I heard about a softball game the following night and decided that if I want to get out of the house tomorrow evening I'll go to that. Why not right.. So I ended up going. Saw this cute guy there and thought "hey when I return to Utah I'm going on a non-dating focus on myself and children for at least a year.. why not flirt a little and maybe get a couple dates out of this guy?" No worries guys I was laying it on think. Poor Tyler had no idea what he was getting himself into by flirting back. Later that night of course I snuggled up on his blanket (NOT HIM) during the Sandlot showing. As the night went on I gave up and was just heading home thinking oh well. Tyler on the other hand had been hanging around while I was saying goodbye to a couple friends that had been there and at my car asked for a date the following night... The following couple nights we went out and had a fun time, we stayed out til like 3 or 4 am talking.. I thought this guy was a good choice to spend time with. He says after these couple nights he couldn't shake there was something about me. FEW MONTHS LATER- we hadn't really talked or texted but he remembered when my birthday was and knew I was running the tri-state marathon and would be in Apple Valley for Thanksgiving since they are so close. The house was pretty dark but he decided to ring the door bell anyways. Tyler had bought me flowers and card for my birthday. I couldn't help but think wow this guy is cute but WOW WHAT A CREEPER! (which I still call him). We went out a couple more times during this visit. One of fist dates. Walking around Mountain High during the summer. FEW MONTHS LATER- we hadn't talked for couple months except a couple text here and there at this time but he still sent me flowers and a teddy bear for Valentine's Day. He still says he can't believe he spent so much to send a girl flowers that he wasn't dating or even really talking to. Still something kept him from forgetting me. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER- Fall 2011 now and we HAD NOT SPOKEN AT ALL for months. I was in another relationship. Very short term relationship might I add and Tyler had started texting me again. I had deleted his number entirely out of my cell phone or had lost it when I changed phones. I honestly can't remember which one it was. I ended up sticking up for Tyler to this short term relationship guy and still had ditched out on Tyler for a couple dates. Snowboard season rolled around and we had season passes at the same place. Not sure what his real intentions were but I thought hey someone to go with during the week while my real buddies could only go on Fridays and Saturdays. One of the times we were snowboarding. We began dating outside of snowboarding yet it took me 2 1/2 months to be okay with dating him exclusively (thanks to my BFF Mckayleigh with a heart to heart over breakfast which convinced me to take a chance on the guy). Yes I literally told him "Why can't you be happy with where we were?" when he asked me about dating him exclusively so in other words the answer was "no" but in a nicer way. Well after giving in, our relationship excelled at a rapid pace. We were engaged on April 6, 2012 and were planning a June 15th wedding. However, things were just getting complicated and too big for what we wanted. On a Friday I basically told Tyler if you want to marry me marry me NOW which he was totally alright with. We were married the following Friday, May 5, 2012, at the Draper, Utah Temple. My parents, his parents, and our siblings were present. We spent our honeymoon weekend up at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho at a Bed and Breakfast with dirt bikes and hot springs. This was the start of our happily ever after.