A weekend for good memories

I had the best weekend. I was able to drop everything and spend a few days with my family in Utah celebrating my sister and her family being sealed. It was a beautiful day, made even more special because she chose this date specifically as it is the one-year anniversary of my dad's passing. Being in the temple together as a family and then again gathering at my dad's grave to leave some flowers and make some positive memories was the best way I could think to spend this day. I'm so, so, so happy for my sister and brother-in-law and my adorable nieces. They've earned every happiness. Such a great family.

I took Chloe around and let's just say she's not a very good flying partner, but she makes up for it in cuteness. Most of my family hasn't met her, so she got to meet gobs of people. Anyone she met she'd stick her little hand out and grab a button or a necklace or watch or something else that caught her eye. Seriously, every time. This girl is not shy. It reminded me of how Spencer noticed all the little details like that when he was tiny too.

Now I'm back home and it is so good to be in my house again with all my cuties. Traveling is the best and coming home is too.

This and That

I'm spending every free moment lately looking for houses. This is ridiculous because it's still several weeks away from when Bill actually goes out to our prospective new hometown and he won't get an official offer until then. Plus, no houses are available now to rent or to buy that work timeline wise as we're a few months out from being done. And we have no proof of income because we don't have an offer yet. But yet I look, multiple times a day, at multiple sites. I obviously need something else to focus on. Anyone have any ideas? It's like a siren call, lol. Come back and check again, just to see if anything else has been posted...

In other news we've had a pretty fun week. I posted on Facebook about how an old bookcase collapsed around my children in the living room yesterday. That was exciting. No one was hurt and we were going to throw it away anyway, so this just sped up our timeline on that, but it was quite the adrenaline rush.





Genevieve got some tattoos as part of her Valentines cards. She was so happy to put these all up and down her arms.



Chloe loves to eat. And grab the camera.




Spencer lost his first tooth. I love his new little grin.



I made this delightful cake for Valentine's Day. It's so rich we're still eating on it. You can only eat a little sliver at a time. Yum.



I also made these s'mores brownies. But when I went to toast them under the broiler I got distracted by Chloe waking up from a nap and Bill opened the oven to find brownies on fire. Exciting! I scraped off most of the marshmallow. This is what was left. They still tasted pretty good, surprisingly.



Aaron was sad in nursery a week or so ago and my friend, his nursery leader, did some snapchat filters with him. It was so cute.

Spencer is learning to ride his bike two-wheeled. Pretty fun stuff. We don't really have anywhere to go bike riding by our house, so we haven't bothered teaching him any earlier than now. We headed to the park to let him practice. He picked right up on it, though he needs some practice.

And Chloe got to ride a swing for the first time. She loved it. 

Eleventh Hour

Spencer prayed at dinner tonight that Daddy could finish his project soon so we can move to Colorado. It made my heart happy. It's permeating us all. We're so close to the end and everyone is pulling to be done. Bill had a great interview this week at his unicorn firm. They're going to bring him out there to interview more. We're super excited. There's still so very much to do before the semester ends. It's insanity. But we.are.so.close! Ten years in the making! Bill has been working so hard for so long and he's earned every single bit of this degree and this job opportunity. He is amazing. We're already planning what we're going to do in celebration. It's all in dream form still, but so very, very close to reality and the feeling is out of this world.

We're running on little sleep, little money, mostly just that last burst at the end of a marathon. We're digging down somewhere to find just a little bit more to give. So if you're the praying type, send prayers our way that we can just give that last little bit more needed. It's a huge accomplishment this PhD business and it's taking everything Bill has, everything I have, the kids see it, and we need all the blessings we can get.