Taking it Easy

No real reason to post except that I snapped a few fun pictures of the kids over the weekend. Some of our wonderful neighbors who know we will be moving sometime soon have been bringing over boxes for us. We've already packed a bunch. We're not anxious or anything. Richie's wanting to pack up nearly everything. I on the other hand would prefer our apartment to still feel like home for as long as possible, especially considering we don't know where or when yet. All signs point to Northern Utah in June. Who knows.

Miles caught a fever on Friday night, so Saturday we took it easy. We watched movies (as in the kids), and cleaned (as in me), and hung out on the front porch. Blowing bubbles and drawing with sidewalk chalk is probably in my top 10 of reasons why I love being a mom. Who else gets to say that they hung out in the warm sun and doodle names all over the front porch for work today. The fever has left, but the kids have gone on a sleeping strike. Either Miles is sick, or Gwen is teething, or they got used to getting cuddles and drinks of juice in the middle of the night, or one of them sleeps well but wakes up because the other one's crying... Dang it.

I've been trying to email a few pictures to my in-laws to show them the cute outfits they sent recently, modeled by their cute grandchildren. But I can't get them to upload for one reason or another. So here they are on the blog. It's totally impossible to get them both looking at the camera, smiling, no trains in their mouths, at the same time. Totally impossible.

Spring Day

We saved some fun "Easter" activities to do after the actual Easter and celebrated spring instead! We invited some friends over who are trying to do things the same way and focused on birds. :) We made bird's nest cookies, made our own bird feeders out of tp rolls, PB and bird seed. We even went so far as to decorate our tree with our bird feeders, strings of popcorn, and left over strands of yarn etc that the birds could weave into the nests they are busy making! I'm sure our landlords love us.

More Windows!

I snagged 2 other businesses in town! Here's the basic pictures. If you'd like to see more you can head on over to the window blog. I am learning lots and lots. Maybe one day, I'll feel confident enough to charge major bucks. :)

Going into labor

The process to get hired as a seminary teacher takes about a year and a half, not 9 months like a pregnancy, but we've noticed some shocking similarities between the two. Just like your body works overtime when you're pregnant, Richie worked extra hard trying to improve his teaching skills and we worked extra hard as a family to become the type of people the church would want to hire. Our nerves have been stretched to their limit not knowing if all this effort would result in an actual job. I feel like all our nervous energy has been bloated to it's full extent, also like a prego belly, yes?

We were told April 12th was the soonest we would know. Our due date, if you will. Thursday came and went without any news whatsoever. We were officially over-due and that means that we were then allowed to get REALLY anxious and start complaining. Just like that last little bit in a pregnancy, sleeping got really difficult, we were all more on edge, we felt like we couldn't breathe, etc etc etc. This morning Richie called me and told me that the area directors wanted to meet with not just him, but all of us in one hour down in Rigby. This is where I imagined it like we were going into labor. All of a sudden, this moment you've been waiting for for an eternity is set in motion, and then you're not sure if you want it to happen! It's a little scary, it might hurt and you're probably going to cry. I rushed around like a chicken without a head and got ready, got the kids in the car, sped subconsciously, got my hands to stop shaking and met a pacing Richie outside the seminary building. We met with the two area directors in a room, and they got it over with nice and quick, like a band-aid. They talked mostly to Miles and then asked him to tell us "Congratulations"! We got hired!! I'm pretty sure if there are any sudden gusts of wind in your area today, it's us breathing sighs of relief. Seriously, all day I've been walking around deflating. At least that's what it feels like. We plan on going to get some ice cream as a family tonight to celebrate. The directors also told Richie that he'd better take me out for diner, or else. I think I'll hold him to that.

We don't know where we will be placed except that it won't be in Eastern Idaho, which is kind of a bittersweet situation. We'll find out by mid-May where we'll need to move to. We're not sure how many got hired, but they did tell us that we were on the top of the list and some of the first to find out. The past few hires, maybe 8 out of 80 get hired, and they told us that they weren't able to hire as many as they had anticipated this time around, so we feel especially lucky. What a huge faith building experience this has been. Holy Cow. I'm so proud of my man! Wanna know a secret? I had this awesome seminary teacher in high school, who was a good lookin guy. I never had an official crush on him or anything, but many times I remember thinking, "I want to marry a guy like that! I want to marry a seminary teacher!" Forget Cinderella, forget winning the lottery...our dreams came true and we are the luckiest people on earth today. Here's to the start of a major adventure!!

And just because.....

Easter

My niece is staying with us for a few days in between semesters and the kids have been in heaven. It made Easter so much more festive.
We dyed eggs



We hunted for our baskets. We were super spoiled from neighbors and family so much, we even had to withhold some gifts!




We attempted an Easter egg hunt at the Christensen's after dinner. Of course, puking always puts a damper on things. Poor Miles boy.



We also attempted to get some nice Easter pictures. Attempted is the key word here. Getting both kids to look at the camera and look happy is near to impossible.

One of those moments

I had one of those parenting moments today. The kind of moment that you hear others talk about, or watch on a sitcom, or imagine. If you want to get technical, I guess it was a bunch of feelings and thoughts crammed into one moment.

We are trying our best to keep Easter all about Christ and do fun springtime activities later, but when the park across the street has a free Easter egg hunt, you go! Richie and Gwen stayed home while Miles and I put on our heavy coats and boots again (Yes, it snowed and we had an Easter egg hunt, snow and all. Only in Rexburg I tell you.) and waited in line. We got there plenty early because I knew there would be a big turn out. We were right on the front line, but that also meant we had to wait for about 30 minutes to run out and grab the eggs lying across the field. Miles was starting to understand what was happening and got very excited. When they finally said we could go, I stayed behind since that's what they asked all the parents to do. However, in about 1 second, it was clear that Miles' timid excitement wasn't going to win him any eggs. I guess most parents realized this and pretty soon the field was covered with people swarming for the eggs. You would have thought those eggs were golden. "Get as many as you can!" "Hurry, run!" We were only about a quarter way through the field when it was clear, there were no eggs left. Miles didn't realize this and kept telling me we were going to find some eggs! My heart just broke. Here comes one of those feelings. I want to give my kids everything, and when I can't, it just hurts. And at that moment, "everything" was a plastic, neon egg with a Tootsie roll inside. I found myself subconsciously hoping, praying to find an egg. When I had resigned myself to the fact that there were no more and we'd just have to do something special at home and explain it as best as we could to Miles, a lady from our ward saw our basket was empty and hastily threw 2 eggs from her sons basket behind Miles. He turned around and was beyond ecstatic to actually find not one but 2 eggs! We knelt down in the snow to open them and as Miles bit into a cheap, chocolate candy, I hugged him tight and prayed so many things. I was so thankful to Sherri for giving away 2 eggs. I was thankful that Miles is still small enough to be easily satisfied and was as ecstatic with 2 eggs as he would have been with a whole bucket full. I was thankful that my boy is sweet and kind and still likes to hold my hand instead of racing through the egg-hunting crowds without me.
We walked home and I shed a few tears thinking about times in the future when it won't be a plastic egg that he wants, but maybe a car, or a cell phone, or to get invited to some party. What happens when I can't give it to him? Even if I can, should I? I then thanked Heavenly Father for parents who always gave me what I needed, even if it meant withholding something. They are smart parents who have followed our Heavenly Parents pattern. We don't always get what we want, do we? Thank goodness.
So yes, lots of "those" parenting types of moments today, at an Easter egg hunt of all places.

Keeping Busy

Watching conference with 2 small children is hard. We had a special FHE the Monday before conference to get them (at least Miles) excited. We talked about King Benjamin and how the people would turn their tents towards him to hear the prophets words. So we set up our tent towards the computer and watched a clip of president Monson. I was feeling pretty good about our parenting skills. However when 10 o'clock Saturday morning rolled around, it was apparent nothing really sunk in. :) To keep busy during conference we did some of these activities. Even when conference wasn't on, we've been keeping busy with these out of the ordinary things.
Glow sticks in the bathtub


Aqua beads!



Trains


"Elephant Toothpaste"

"mini Volcanoes"

With Easter this week, we've been doing our best to keep it Christ centered. On Palm Sunday, we talked about Christ's entry into Jerusalem. To keep in interesting, we made palm branches and made Richie be the donkey. :)


How did moms think of anything fun to do with their kids before Pinterest? Before the internet?? Yikes. I would be such a boring mom otherwise.