Life Since January

Whew!  I have taken a hiatus from blogging and it has been a good break.  But now I need to get back to documenting our family events!  It has been a crazy three months around here because we have had life changing news.  Jared finally gets to leave his current job and start a new one!  We were very determined that this year was the year he would get out of his city job and start to do the stuff he really wanted to do.  After praying and planning for about five years, things started happening! We are feeling very blessed and taken care of with the big changes on the horizon.  Along with all the good stuff, we have had to deal with the fact that we have to relocate.  We've been here for six years and have really loved it.  Leaving friends and the area is a bummer.  I just keep telling the kids that we'll be ok, and I am trying to convince myself all the while.
Since we found out about the big job change, we have been busy making preparations!

So these pictures will satisfy my need to keep a family journal of sorts of the things we have been up to.

Cade visited the dentist for the first time.  He was super brave and followed the examples of his older siblings to get his teeth cleaned.  Afton got another filling.  :(

Afton and Ben both received academic awards at school.  Afton got the Excellence in Linguistics.  She's really getting good at this one.  It means she is a very good reader and writes well.  Ben received the Excellence in Mathematics award.  He has really taken off in his counting and adding and sees patterns well.  We are so proud of them!

 

In January there were about two and half solid weeks of a thick, dreary cloud cap on the valley.  No sun, no snow, and super cold temps.  It was awful.  One Saturday we decided to drive up into the mountains until we could see the sun.  It was like breaking through a blanket!  Once we got on top of the cloud cap, it was glorious!  Here is what the valley looked like below us.

 Here we are taking lots of pictures and basking in the sun

 And here we are frolicking in the deep snow and enjoying every single ray of sunshine.  It was super hard to drive back down into the soupy bowl of yuckiness.

 February we had so much fun watching the Olympics. The kids were fascinated by the cross country skiing because we had tried that for the first time the month before.  They didn't get why the athletes would carry rifles and shoot them in the biathlon, but quickly decided it was cool and created their own version of the sport.  Afton strapped a caulk gun to her back, donned some goggles and some crappy rollerskates and she was set.  Ben pretended he was a downhill skier and got his game face on.

For Valentines Day we kept it simple.  The boys showed how much they love their sister by kiss-attacking her.  I'm glad they are friends.

 In February we also took a super fun trip to Utah.  We got to visit family and do tons of fun stuff.  Here we are at the BYU museum seeing the awesome Sacred Gifts exhibit.  I love museums.  A lot.

 Jared and I were spoiled and so we spoiled the kids by taking Ben and Afton to a BYU basketball game.  Afton got to sit with Grandpa Mark and get his total attention.  Ben got to sit on row 4 with us and Jared's aunt and uncle.  It was a pretty sweet place to sit and the game was intense.  It was a BYU v Gonzaga game so we could kind of cheer for both sides.  The kids had a blast and fell asleep on the drive back to Grandma's house.

As March started we settled into the knowledge of a job change and move so we got the house ready.  That entailed moving about 1/3 of the kids stuff out to the garage to "stage" the house. The kids have not been super happy about the upcoming change.  But since we have had a few months to get used to it, hopefully it won't be too traumatic when we actually move.
Also during March we made sure to have silly celebrations like National Pancake Day at Ihop

and Pi Day

Inspired by my family members who recently sold their houses without agents, we decided to try to do a for sale by owner for a couple of weeks to see what would happen. 

The first Saturday we held an open house that Jared manned for a few hours.  I took the kids to one of our favorite parks for a hike.

While we were there, the future owner of our house decided to visit the open house.  And two weeks later we were under contract to sell our house!

What a relief! That left us with all sorts of time to enjoy the amazing spring weather.  We are checking off our bucket list items of things to do while we still live here.  One was a hike up to a nice lookout spot of our neighborhood

 

And visit a fun park with good swings

At school Afton participated in a super fun talent show.  She recited the poem "Sick" by Shel Silvertein with her friend.  They did a super job and we were really proud of her for being so brave.

When spring break came around, the weather turned wet, but we still had fun playing dress-up, doing crafts, and sneaking in a playdate with the kids besties at the park in between rainstorms.
Elsa from Frozen

Ninja

Batman and Robin

  Mustached Magicians

Ben and his buddy

 

And finally, here are our annual pictures of the kids in front of their trees.  We'll miss these trees!  Ben's apple tree is finally going to have apples this year, too bad we won't be eating any of them!