We have had such a great few weeks full of family and friends!  I hope to take the time to blog about each of wonderful things that has been happening!  But for now, here are some other thoughts I've had from today.

There's this song that I named my blog after when Andrew and I first got married called Side By Side, written by Harry M. Woods in 1927.  It's a song I've always loved since I was young.  The words of it are so simple and straightforward about what love and romance and living everyday life with people you care about really is.  It's been kind of theme (in my mind at least) for our family.  Here are the first few lines:

Oh we ain't got a barrel of money
Maybe we're ragged and funny
But we'll travel along, singing a song
Side by side

It came on in the car today while me and the kids were driving around and I thought about how true it is for our life right now- especially the ragged and funny part!  Somedays we take so long to get out the door that it's not until we are getting out of the car at our destination that I realize we forgot to do their hair.  There are A LOT of days where we are the ragged and funny family who only kind of has our act together as we go out and about.  

And it shows.  

But.  What can you do, mama?  

You just walk into the store cheerfully (because everything about mom's mood affects every aspect of everyone's life in the family) and do what you need to do, get what you need to get, trying to keep everyone happy the whole time. And you decide that you will get up earlier tomorrow and make sure to get EVERYTHING done this time.  And then the next day goes about the same.  But it's all okay because we're traveling along singing our song, side by side, ragged and funny and everything.  That is my life right now.  And I'll take it.  

Like today went about like that.  But after the library and the store we found a little trail to walk near a stream in Layton.  We veered off to a less trodden dirt trail, found a little spot where we could sit by the water and put our feet in.  No one happened upon us, and the kids were pretty excited when I did say they could take off their shoes and socks and put their feet in.  We used to do things like this all the time but lately we haven't and since finishing school and still trying to get our bearings back I guess we haven't done things like this with them enough.  It made it all the more special.  Conversations with my growing little people are different than they once were.  At some points in this trip they were mystery solvers, fairies maybe, and Bear Grylls sidekicks.  Guess who was Bear Grylls?  Me!  They kept trying to think of new interesting options on our little journey.  I wish I had everything recorded to revisit again someday.  Sometimes I just wish I could walk around with a video camera and film our life, cause I cant bear to forget anything.

  

Oh we ain't got a barrel of money
Maybe we're ragged and funny
But we'll travel along, singing a song
Side by side

Don't what's comin' tomorrow
Maybe it's trouble and sorrow
But we'll travel the road sharin' a load
Side by side

Through all kinds of weather
What if the sky should fall
Just as long as we're together
It doesn't matter at all

Well they've all had quarrels and heartaches
We'll be the same as we started
Just travelin' along, singin' a song
Side by side

See that sun in the mornin'
Peakin' over the hill
I'll bet you're sure
It always has and it always will

Well that's how I feel about someone
And somebody feels about me
We're sure in love with each other
And that's the way it's gonna be

Oh we ain't got a barrel of money
Maybe we're ragged and funny
But we'll travel along, singing a song
Side by side

Don't what's comin' tomorrow
Maybe it's trouble and sorrow
But we'll travel the road sharin' a load
Side by side

  But as many people know, the leave of absence was well justified.  

The whole journey of going back to school has been a crazy experience.  A good one, but also a very stretching one.  Sometime maybe I will write all about how that worked for our family from my perspective, but for now I want to focus on doing an update on us all- but of course you know that means mainly the kids!  

Eli:

Eli is many things, but probably the most distinct thing about him at this age is that he is a talker.  Like a full 7 to 10-word sentence kind of talker.  There is no way I could count how many words he has at this point and the real advanced thing about him is how many clear sentences he puts together.  He may even surpass our girls and their early talking history because of this.  I have been keeping a running note on my phone of things that he says, but because I have been keeping it for more than 6 months, he is well beyond some of the things I have written down.  I literally cannot keep up with him!  Along with his extensive vocabulary has come a lot sass for a two-year-old too.  He gets very attitudinal with me sometimes- it is so naughty and so cute at the same time that I have very hard time keeping a straight face when I’m trying to be serious with him and tell him it’s not okay that he talks to me like that.  He fights with his sisters every day (mostly Hannah) but then turns around and will give them a smiling hug a minute later. 

Sometimes he is a mama’s boy but quite often he is all about Daddy.  They are two buddies and I am surprised how natural it is for them, even at this young age- the way they talk to each other, the way they play, the way Andrew disciplines him- it all just works between them somehow.

Elijah loves cars, trucks, dirt, and construction, but also can appreciate a nice game of dress-up.

My favorite thing in the world is to feel his little hands on my neck pulling me towards him, cheek to cheek for a kiss.  If I ask for a hug, he gives me one and as he’s pulling away, he says, “And.  A kiss.” And plants one on me.  That is my favorite.  That and him singing, “I chid a God and sent me here.  Early hoooome.  Payents tind and deeeer.  Yead me, dide the waaay I mus dooo to live him sodaaaay.”  Sometimes he just breaks out in song with this.  And it’s the happiest spiritual reminder for me that I’m raising little sons and daughters of God. 

There are so many other things about him that I can’t express because it would take 50 blog posts. Hopefully the pictures can express a lot of it.  He just has my heart and always will.
Get ready for a crazy amount of pictures for the rest of this post.  And so many of them need captions, but it is 1:45 am right now and I just cant)

Hannah:

Hannah is still our feisty girl but she seems to be slowly making her way to mellowing out of the terrible twos and threes into the more level-headed fours.  There is no end to her personality.  With other people she is very shy and sweet.  But once she gets home, she comes alive!  Complete with booty shaking and Lego Batman voice, fighting to the death for her favorite toys and expressing every feeling in her tiny body at all times and in all ways.  

Audrey:

Audrey was our first little kindergarten graduate this year!  She looks and seems so big and mature at home but when I see her with her class of fellow five-year-old’s I remember just how tiny and cute five really is- especially when I realize that she is one of the shortest in her class.  Audrey has a best friend named Jacob.  They just adore each other and it is the cutest little thing in the whole wide world.  She talks about him often and tells everyone about him.  The best thing about it all is that Jacob does the same thing!  Whenever his mom brings up how much he has been talking about Audrey, I’m just so elated for Audrey that she has found such a friend in her first year of school.  For both Audrey and Jacobs birthdays Lucinda (Jacob’s mom) and I have had to base our planning on what days each other was available.  Because there was no having a party without the best friend, they both made clear to us.

This was one of the few reasons we were sad to move.  But don’t worry…they are only 20 minutes away from each other!  Overall, she really had a fantastic first year of school!  

This Dobbins family as a whole has had quite a year so far.  Our biggest update, besides school graduations, is that…we bought ourselves a house!  Kaysville, Utah is the place we are now calling home and is the probably the place we will be staying the longest so far in our married life.  We are calling it the land of the white butterflies because we have already seen about a thousand of them and we’ve only lived here two months!  They really are everywhere and I love it.  This house has been our little miracle- the location of it, the price, the layout, and just the fact of it- and we are so grateful for every part of our journey that has led us here for the time being.  Our time in Bountiful/North Salt Lake is now a chapter in our story that we will always remember and cherish.  We went to a ward/neighborhood get-together in that area a week or so after we had moved and we were overwhelmed at how loved we felt there by all of these people we had spent only three years with.  The event was a going away party for three couples who had been in the ward/their houses for thirty, forty, and fifty years!  Yet we felt just as a part of it all as they did.  So many grandparents loving our kids, so many friends and mentors who we had developed our own relationships with.  It made me sad to go.  But it also inspired me and made me feel ready and determined to be a part of our new community and find and invest in those new relationships waiting for us here.  

The two months we've lived here have been eventful already.  We've had road trips, visitors, did some dog sitting with our good little buddy JoJo, had some birthdays and other activities, and we've started on our journey to friendships around here.  Everything is continuing along no matter where we are.  We are so grateful for all our blessings and we love our family and friends.  And we especially love pictures!  

Life is good.