Ballet

Just after we got here, we were informed that the BYU ballet was coming to perform in town. So we snatched up some tickets for our dancer!

Ken took Rosie before the show for the "princess party," where children (dressed in their finest!) could meet the ballerinas.

Rosie loved it!

The performance itself was a bit long for a three year old, but she really enjoyed her first date with Dad!

Minor Holidays

 March was a busy month for celebrating. I never noticed how much there was to celebrate until this year!

Jared's school hosted a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast, which Ken and Jared attended. Jared was absolutely obsessed! He was upset that the rest of us had never tried it!
Fortunately for him, his father is very accommodating.

 One Saturday shortly thereafter, Ken made us Green Eggs and Ham. Well, green eggs and some leftover summer sausage, that is.

Jared kept on asking, "Do you know what the secret ingredient is? Food dye!"

 For Pi day, I made shepherd's pie for dinner and pear pie for dessert (we can never hesitate our eating to take a picture beforehand!)

Norah enjoyed chomping on some frozen peas instead!

 We keep our St. Patrick's Day pretty simple: Lucky Charms for breakfast and corned beef and cabbage for dinner. And whenever we have cabbage, we have to have cabbage hats!

While it's not strictly a holiday, we also welcomed home a missionary in March. Ken's cousin Rachel came home from Atlanta Georgia. It was wonderful to see her and hear her new accent!

The elder who was on the same plane home didn't have room in the car for his welcome-home balloons, so he offered them to Jared. Two weeks later and they've (finally) mostly died.

Finding a home

We tried to find a house before we moved here, but all the houses we came and saw in November were snatched away before we got an offer on our house in Indiana.
And once we got here, we spent a lot of time with our realtor driving around all the county. But Ken and I couldn't find anything that checked all the boxes. Everything was either too small, too far, too much of a project or too retirement community-y.
So we decided to build!
We thought about buying a couple of houses that were close to being completed, but neither had quite enough pros to outweigh some of the cons.
So after waaaaaaaaaay too much time researching building companies and house plans, we finally agreed to move ahead!!!
So our time in the temporary company-provided apartment was ending so we moved into an apartment in the same complex for the rest of the building period. And we finally got our stuff back!!! Sometimes, I convince myself that I'm not materialistic, but I do like my stuff!

It took a while for all the building permits to go through, but this sign on our lot kept our thirst for progress satiated for a while.

Recently, we got to do the fun part of picking all the fun things for the inside: hardwood, laminate, formica, quartz, light fixtures, cabinets, carpet. This is what my table looks like because this week I've been picking out interior and exterior paint colors. There are a lot of different whites and it feels like a very weighty decision to choose between them.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Ken loves to tease me because I have to have a pillow over my head to fall asleep. So he had to call me over when he saw that Norah was sleeping like this!

Um, Ken is here too

Whenever Ken is around, he takes the role of lead photographer. And when he is away, he doesn't get to be in the pictures either. Thus explaining the dearth of Ken pictures.

Fortunately, he was in a selfie mood recently!

Norah is crazy about him! If I had a nickel for every time she squirmed towards him, I would be eating fancier cheeses.

Our kids are lucky to have an involved and fun-loving father like Ken.

My Little Girls

 I love spending my days with Norah and Rosie. They are good partners and are growing so much faster than I thought possible.

 She can't pull herself up like this fortunately! But Norah LOVES standing. If she is fussing (or screeching) in your arms, just help her stand on the ground and she will be grateful. She has a pretty good army crawl that gets her wherever she needs to go. But if that takes to long, she likes to yell until she is brought along with the rest of the group.

Now that the sun is back, I love spending the mornings relaxing with these ladies, while Jared is at school.

Rosie seems so much older in this picture. She is always surprising me with how much knowledge and phrases she picks up. She loves helping me cook and clean. She sneaks pretzels and apple throughout the day. When she feels wronged she spits and bites and gives some really good dirty looks. But she can be calmed with a cuddle. I feel so lucky to have her!

Potty Training!

Despite all the stress of moving and not having any solid place to go, I decided that living in our temporary apartment would be the best time and place to potty train Rosie. I knew that she was physically and developmentally ready, but she just didn't like to be bothered.
So, we went to the store and I let her pick out a toy that would be her reward once all was said and done. Then a daily regimen of M&M's, singing, stickers, looking at her toy, and high-fives got us there! Once she filled up a sheet of like 45 spaces, she finally got her puppies!!!

Going back to just one in diapers has been heaven!

Now, we just have to practice wiping and fessing up to accidents...

Hiking Flat Top

 Ken took the older two on their first Washington hike on a day where I was recuperating at home with Norah.
The perfect hike for two kids, who have been cooped up for far too long was Flat Top Mountain. It is just 15 minutes away and more steep sandy hill than mountain.

They both brought their backpacks, so they could carry their water and snacks, of course.

 Celebrating their victory!

 The top really is flat. The sagebrush provides a surprisingly good place for a game of hide and seek, if you are under four feet tall.

Valentine's Mom

 As the mother of a kindergartener, it was my first time making a batch of Valentines happen!  I know it is silly, but I felt so much pressure because Jared was the new kid in his class. I just wanted to make all the kids like him with my budget valentines.

He had a very certain way he wanted to do these. We had to alternate between fold and silver glitter tape on the sucker side and smiley-faces and hearts on the name side.
We didn't do this in batches like I thought we would, Jared wouldn't stop! He was focused and determined to execute this project!

A bout of stomach flu for everyone and moving to a different apartment in the complex over Valentines day weekend delayed any fun plans.

Heart shaped strawberries was about as festive as anything got.

But isn't love more about letting each other sleep and folding laundry than any fancy evening out could be?

Settling in... Temporarily

Once we got to Washington (HURRAY!) we were able to move into a temporary apartment provided by Ken's employer. It came fully furnished and supplied with essentials like toiletries, sponges, and even a few snacks!

 We were just so please to have a home!!!

The kids got to playing right away!

 We started exploring parks during the only cloudy and chilly months of the year.

This is right when Norah was first exploring scooting around.

"Toys? Who needs toys? We've got a box!"

Six weeks without our stuff here, but the kids found that there was lots of fun to be had!

Post Christmas Fun

In N Out is always a must!

And afterwards we went to the butterfly preserve

From far away

And up close!!!

And then down to the beach

Norah's first time to the ocean!

The littlest ones were tuckered out after so much fun!

We are lucky to be able to partake of some amazing Korean food every year! Yum!