Grand Canyon, Camping, and a Graduation

If life ever throws you a curve ball you swing, right? Well, I feel like you at least have to try your hardest. There is so much going on in our lives and expenses are tight. It's important to at least try to make special events to those close to us. Well, Matt's sister is graduating college. My niece graduated high school. Since we could drive to Matt's sister's event we decided I fly out my niece (to Denver) as her gift and we are driving to Mia's. We were able to camp along the way to get there and buy groceries instead of fast food.

Things have been going well so far. We had a good night camping near the Grand Canyon and were able to take lots of pictures of it this morning. Aside from the rock chip in our windshield and being exhausted from our travels things are good. William is an amazing traveler. We are truly blessed.

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Mother's Day Delight

Everything about Mother's Day is beautiful. Being a daughter and mother is a great blessing. I never imagined being so touched by my husband's words would bring me to tears on this special day, but it has. 

From my Mathew:

Happy Mother's Day to literally the most amazing mommy in the universe. You were made to be the most fun and biggest positive influence on some lucky child. I thank God that I married someone who is as incredible of a mommy as you are. I held my expectations of my ideal wife in the mommy department very high and you have delivered tenfold everything I had ever hoped for. We are blessed to have such a wonderful boy but he is equally blessed to have a mommy as good as you. Again happy Mother's Day to my amazing parenting partner, lover, and best friend!

I am truly blessed. I also received cards, a drawing and thoughtful gift. Will and I are headed to the park for a day of fun with friends. 

Cheers to all the mother's out there!

 

Growing in Colorado

Matt has been growing his business with VALIC to new heights in Colorado. His territory is huge and his clients are quite a few. He is loving the opportunities and possibilities. I'm so proud of how hard he's been working to support our family. Every day you can tell how motivated he is and it's refreshing. He also has been taking his health seriously. He eats very well (Paleo) and is working out 3-4x a week with FIT. It's really helping him with his energy.

Everything has been sort of a whirlwind with me. Last month I had 4 photo shoots. It was incredible. I love doing my photography. Working out has become a priority as I just turned 33 and need to be healthy. My birthday was so special as I celebrated with my family and some friends. It was nice having a birthday here. We went for Sushi, played laser tag, mini golf and went to Dave & Buster's. This year holds a lot of growth and potential for me. I'm going to open my own place called "14". It's going to have coffee, sipping chocolate, decadent hot chocolate, sandwiches, salads etc. I'm getting the chocolate from my dad's farms and they're processing it just for "14". I have 2 workshops this month and a meeting with Illy Coffee. This will all help me in opening. I am very excited for the potential success. I'm hoping to get an appointment with a gelato company as well. A great deal of progress happening.

Will is growing by leaps and bounds. He's starting to read, can count to 44 correctly, is doing so well in his extracurricular activities, and is really awesome at baseball. We are so proud of his progress. He makes his bed every morning, helps me fold laundry and gets his breakfast ready in the mornings. He has grown an inch since we moved here too. He's in size 5 clothes and 12-13 shoe.  We are truly blessed by all that God has made him to be.

Speaking of growth, we haven't totally given up on having another kiddo, but know that the likelihood that we'll adopt is very high. We are constantly reminded that we're not in control and have found peace with whatever happens.

Far Beyond Behind

The Lutze Family has begun a whole new chapter in our lives and so much has happened since November 2012.
Some Highlights:
In December, we went to Christmas on the prada in San Diego at the beginning of the month with my family. It was nice. We ate tons of food and saw tons. We really enjoyed our time.

Will turned 4. We had a joint birthday party in November with Makayla at our home in Lone Pine, but we had a party in Escondido, CA at Kit Carson Park the weekend before his big day. It was so much fun. It was a Spiderman party with pizza, chips, cake and lots of friends. Grandma Susan, Auntie Mia, Brian & Monica Fox with their daughter Madelyn, Sabrina Brock and her family, Lois Fox, Shari and Ty Daniels with Asher, Mamu, Grandma Vicky, Great Aunt Lori, Fontayne with her boys, Dianne LeVine and her kiddos and it was a blast.

Christmas was sort of a blur this year.  Matt's best friend Adam became a dad to twin boys (Daschel & Colton). At Christmas we drove down to LA, Escondido and San Diego. We stayed at Brian & Monica's as we ran around and spent Christmas time with everyone. We celebrated Christmas on the Saturday before Christmas with my mom and family. We woke up, had our special morning breakfast, did gifts, and hung out the rest of the day. We headed home Christmas Eve and spent time with Matt's family. We played a lot of Wii U and ate a ton of food. It was a nice Christmas. The best part of Christmas day was probably at night when it snowed! It was so nice to have a day of snow ball fights and such the day after Christmas.

New Year's we went back down for fun with Rick & Cyndel. Their daughter, Kenzie, and Will played tons. We really had a blast. We also celebrated Madelyn's 2nd birthday. She's so smart it's hard to believe she's only 2 years old.

January led to a whole lot of changes. Mat was offered a job in Denver, we decided to take advantage of it. We had to pack, move out, and find a home in a span of 6 weeks. Talk about a whirlwind. I also joined Eastern Star with Matt's mom. Everything worked out. It was tough and stressful but it could've been worse.

February 16th William and I drove to Aurora, CO. We stopped in Utah to visit Gaylene and her family. It was so great to see her and meet her new baby. Then we made it to Aurora. It snowed 2 days after we got here. We had a great time sledding and learning the ins and out of the area. Matt made it here 2 weeks after with all of our stuff. We moved into our apartment and got settled in. We had great friends help us move in too. At this point we were signed up for the Children's Museum, Gymnastics and karate. Since then, Will already has his yellow striped belt. :-)

Matt had to return to Lone Pine for 2 more weeks after bringing our things because he had a lot to finish up there with his transition. He finally moved here are March 14th. Ever since then, he's been adjusting figuring out some sort of a routine. He also joined a FIT class that has helped with exercise and keeping him sane/healthy.

Will and I go to Lifetime Fitness everyday. I take Hot Yoga and a Barbell class. We're going to start swimming there more often too. It's been great for Will because he gets to socialize and I get some "me" time.

I would say the only real bad thing that's happened since we moved here is that William was injured at a trampoline place. He got kneed in the eye. His eye was so awful. Black & blue, swollen and scratched up. It's been 2 weeks and it's significantly better.

It's been nice hanging out with friends and doing fun things like laser tag, mini golf, painting pottery, and sledding. We're looking forward to the summer with rafting, swimming and some hiking.

More to come.....

Day 1 Georgia Bound

Monday night William and I traveled from Lone Pine to Las Vegas. A 4 hour drive with a chatty boy made the journey go quickly. We stopped in Pahrump to go to the restroom and to get frozen yogurt. We met up with a friend that drove us to the airport and stored our car.
We journeyed through check in, security and waited for our plane to board. Will was so good and helpful. He hasn't slept a wink and took an hour to fall asleep on the 3 hr plane ride to Georgia. He was truly wonderful though.
We arrived on time, met up with daddy, Brandon and Josh. It was great. So far it's been such a great time.