These Days

Mae and Will

Last week Matt went with the scouts to hike to King's Peak.  He had plans of being gone for about 5 days.  I knew it was going to be a long week and I still had one more final to take, so I got some babysitters handy for the week.  My two nephews, Zach(15) and Nick(13) and my niece Samantha(10) came to stay with us for a few days.  If you ever have a few teenagers you can get a hold of, I will tell you that they are awesome to have over!  Mae and Will were so entertained.  They spent hours and hours on the trampoline, playing "family" and swimming.  We also went to the Tooele pool and to one of my favorite things, a dollar movie to see Shrek 4.  Mae and Will were sad their cousins had to go home.  We will be having them over again soon!

A bunch of boys on the top of Utah!  Matt is wearing the blue hat.

On Friday I got the house cleaned just in case Matt came home early.  We went school shopping, and then to the zoo.  We got there around 4:00 and had the best time, because no one was there!  It wasn't hot and the crowd was gone.  We had sandwiches and just took our time seeing what we wanted.  Then, I got a phone call from Matt- he was on his way home!  We got out of the zoo and started heading home.  We were about 30 minutes from home when I saw a familiar truck with a bunch of guys hanging out the windows- it was Matt!  I hadn't told the kids about Matt coming home so they did not know what to think!  Will wondered why daddy was in a truck if he wasn't coming home until tomorrow...???  haha, I told them he is coming home today!  They were so happy to see him... it had been a long week!

Let me tell you about my little Willy.  Mae calls him William or Willy, it cracks me up.  Anyway, this little boy is a real Stephens.  He is in his swimsuit 80% of the day and usually in the backyard with the hose in his hand and jumping on the trampoline.  He can't get enough of summer.  He was asked what his middle name is and responded, "Will Obiwan Stephens".  Looks like I need to start his Obiwan Kinobe Halloween costume soon!

Mae, on the other hand is excited for it to finally end so school can start.  That's right- she will be a big kindergärtner this year.  We just had her final eye appointment and she is clear to enter school now.  I can't help but think about how much our lives are now going to change.  We won't be the family with two little preschoolers, we'll be the family with a child in school!  No more being free to go and do what we want - we have to be home 5 days a week.  I'm going to be dropping Mae off each afternoon and picking her up too.  And this is only the beginning.... things will never be as they are now.  Which makes me feel okay.  Because in a lot of ways I have LOVED this stage of my children.  We have done so much and taken advantage of these years, going and doing what we want.  I have never felt like I needed time away from my kids, or like I couldn't wait to send them off to school.  I know this time is short.  I mean, it was only 5 years ago that Mae was born!  Now we are onto a new phase in life and I am excited for my little Mae!

Will is going to be at home a little longer with me.... no preschool yet.  But I am looking forward to this time with him.  Only 2 more years and he'll be a kindergärtner too.

I am so thankful to be their mom.
I hope they feel that way too.
They are all I hoped for and dreamed of... these really are the best days of my life.