Catching up

Here's a quick summary of what we've been up to (besides moving).

**SNOW!**

We've had plenty of snow this winter in Logan. It's always pretty, but honestly I'm glad to have moved to a place where I probably won't see any more of the stuff this winter.

The boys have enjoyed it, though.

**Baby bump**

A picture of my baby belly at 17 weeks (back in January... I'm WAAAYYYYY bigger now!)

**Trip to Seattle**

As I mentioned, we made a quick trip up to Seattle for Ben's interviews. We didn't have much time for visiting or sight seeing, but we did stay with our friends, the Franklins. It was fun to catch up, commiserate about running a chiropractic practice, and let the little boys play.



The weather while we were there was rainy, but at least it was warm (well, it felt warm to us, anyway!). The boys were even able to play at the park while Ben was in one of his interviews.













The clouds and rain made for a gorgeous sunset on the way home:

**Happy Valentine's Day!**

**Evan's birthday party**

Because of our impending move, Evan's birthday party was really low key this year. He picked a Spiderman cake at Walmart and we got pizzas... and that was about it. He loved it, though, and it was great to see the whole family one more time before we moved.

How did my little guy grow up to be SIX already???








And that's about it in a nutshell, I think! :)

A new adventure!

I realize I'm very behind in my blogging, but I promise, I have a good excuse.

We've moved to Seattle!

This whole thing happened rather quickly, so needless to say, things have been pretty crazy around here. It all started with a great job opportunity that Ben noticed online, so he responded and got an interview. Since we were going to be making the trip up to Seattle for one interview, Ben set up a few others, just because. We made the drive up here, stayed with our good friends, the Franklins, and Ben spent two days driving all over the Seattle area meeting with other chiropractors. We came home from our whirlwind trip with 4 job offers!

After a lot of discussion and prayer, we decided that one of the offers was just too great to pass up and we accepted the job... and they wanted us up here asap! We quickly went into action preparing for the move. The biggest obstacle was going to be what to do with our practice. Ben put it up for sale just to see what would happen and we had the interest of several doctors in the first day of it's listing. It only took us two weeks to have the papers signed and the new doctor in the office learning the ropes.

A week later, we were loading up the truck ready to go! We had the help of some wonderful friends, family and neighbors... packing, cleaning and watching the kids for us. I can not even express how grateful I am for all the help we received. Really, we would not have been able to do it all on our own.

We left Logan early in the morning this past Saturday and made the whole 13 hour drive in one day. Ben drove the truck while I drove the van. The boys got to take turns riding in the truck with Daddy. (The idea to split them up for the entire drive was pure genius!)

This was pretty much my view for the entire trip:



Well, the back of the moving van anyway.... we had to say goodbye to the gorgeous snow-covered mountains pretty early in the trip. *sniff, sniff*

When we arrived at our new apartment around 8 pm, we were greeted by 7 or 8 ward members who quickly unloaded the truck for us. We got the beds set up and then crashed for a much needed night of sleep.

Our apartment is nice, as is the apartment complex (the kids are excited about the pool and the playground in the complex. I'm excited about the exercise room.) The town we live in is called Renton and the area of Renton where our apartment is (the eastern part) seems pretty nice. We are grateful for that, since you never know what you'll get with picking an apartment online!



Evan had his first day of school today and seemed to like it. He goes to Honey Dew Elementary, which is all kindergartners. Next year, for first grade, he will switch over to the regular elementary school. He told me this morning before school that he misses his old school, but after he went to his new class, he seemed a bit more enthusiastic about it.

Now, the big chore is the unpacking. I am slowly making my way through all the boxes. I'm driven by the frustration of not being able to find anything, combined with the desire to decorate these blank white walls. :) I'm sure I'll post some pictures of our new place once I get all unpacked. For now, here's a teaser... the current view from the couch:



I've got a long way to go! :)

I have several things to catch up on... our trip to Seattle a few weeks ago and Evan's birthday, just to name a couple. I'm hoping I'll have more blogging time now that I'm not working (yay!!). Once we get unpacked and settled in, anyway.

It's a girl!!

We found out yesterday that our little addition is going to be a GIRL! We are super excited! I almost didn't believe the ultrasound technician. I kept wanting to make her check again, just to be sure. :)

Here's a picture of our little girl's sweet profile. :)

The best news is that she looks healthy and perfect.

We took the boys with us to see the ultrasound and I'm so glad we did. They were so excited and they absolutely LOVED watching the whole thing. They were very interested in seeing her brain, heart, spine, etc. Evan had fun guessing how big her head, legs, etc. are right now (and he guessed pretty close!). They sat so good through the whole thing and were super excited to find out that they were going to be getting a sister. Evan really wanted it to be a girl.

Now it's on to picking names and making cute hair bows and stuff like that. :)

We are fam-il-y!

Since we won't be seeing Thomas for another two years, we decided to get a few family pictures while we were all together.

Here's the whole group... man we're getting big!


The immediate fam:


Thomas and my parents:


Thomas with Grandpa and Grandma:


We tried to get a good picture of all the kids, but that was a total circus. Still, these pictures are priceless. :)

Kylee's pout...

I love how Jaxon is looking at Evan in this one. :)

Not sure what Asher's doing.


We eventually ended up with a couple decent ones.



My siblings:


Sam's cute family:


My cute family:


Ben and Asher being silly while I set up the shot:




It's hard to believe that the next time we're all together, Evan will be getting ready to get baptized, Asher will be in Kindergarten, and we'll have a little one year old munchkin running around!

Christmas!

We had a fun and simple Christmas this year. We were a little bit behind due to my morning sickness and then our trip to Disneyland, but we were able to get everything done in time. We got all the decorations up on Christmas Eve (including the advent calendar.... the kids had fun putting ALL the numbers on). Then, we headed over to Brein's house for a Christmas party with family. The kiddos all got to open their Christmas jammies together.







Then, we took the traditional "cousins in their jammies on the couch" picture.


Tyller and her batman jammies.


Aariel made these adorable hand-stitched onesies for all the preggos. (From left to right: Rileigh's, due in Feb.; Brein's, due in July; Madi's, due in August; Mine, due in June.)


After the party, we went home and went to bed so Santa could come. There's something magical about Christmas eve after the kiddos have gone to bed.


Christmas morning is even more magical, though. :) Surprisingly, the boys let us sleep in until 7:30. Then we got up to see what Santa had brought.

Stocking stuffers




Evan asked Santa for some transformers and legos. Asher asked Santa for a fire truck and a "cool jet". They both got exactly what they asked for!

Asher definitely thought the jets were cool.




Evan admiring one of his transformers:


Opening the fire truck


We also got a Wii for the family (Evan kept calling it a "wig"). and after presents were opened, we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and played the Wii to our hearts' content. :)

That afternoon after naps and everything, we headed up to my parents' house in Rexburg. My little brother, Thomas, left for his mission to Lubbock, Texas this week so we went to hear him speak in church the day after Christmas.

When we got there, we had a yummy IHOP style dinner with some homemade pumpkin waffles and buttermilk syrup. Then it was time for presents!

The kids loved these things that they got from Grandma and Grandpa. I don't even know what they're called, but it's made out of a bunch of little pins that take the shape of whatever you press it onto. You know what I'm talking about.




After presents we played a few games and had a lot of laughs. It's sure nice to be close to both our families again for the holidays. :)

We had to leave right after sacrament meeting the next day, but Thomas did a great job on his talk. I'm so proud of him and I know he's going to be an awesome missionary.

That's the basic recap of our Christmas this year. Is it bad that I'm kind of glad the holidays are over? ;)

Another fun thing we got to do right after Christmas was visit with some dear friends of ours, Ben and Rainee, who were in town from Alaska. We knew these guys in Provo and then they came out to St. Louis for chiropractic school, too. We sure miss them, so it was great to get to walk around temple square and have lunch with them.



I'm hoping to stay caught up on blogging a little better now that I'm feeling well again. I've got family pictures to post as well as a few miscellaneous others. :)