Wednesday, August 21, 2013

April 2014

 Here are some of the random, and planned events for our family in the month of April.

Graduation - so close he could taste it!!!  There was an MBA graduation banquet.  Jerry made some very good friends while he was at school.



 Hayden got to tour the fire station with the scouts.










 The weather finally started to warm up.  We were able to go on some walks around the neighborhood, and go to the park.



 Rebecca saved up her money to buy her very own set of clip on earrings.

 Hayden made his own Minecraft head.

My trip to Chicago!
My girlfriend, Sunni was in Chicago for a few days while her husband had some meetings for work.  My friend watched Sydney and Luke while Jerry was in class so I was able to have a child-free vacation to visit Sunni.  It was a quick trip, but so much fun.  We lived only 2- 2 1/2 hours from Chicago, so it was just a day trip.  Still, I was pretty proud of myself for battling the traffic on my own.  We went on an architectural boat tour of the city.  It was so cool.  Not that I'm totally into architecture, but it was awesome to see the changes in architecture and learn the history of the city.
After the tour we walked down the "Magnificent Mile" - I think that was what it was called.  We wanted to find a quaint little outdoor restaurant to eat lunch.  We found a great little place.  We started out, outside, but before long the shade came in and we were freezing so we moved to a table inside.
We wanted to go to a park afterward, but we ran out of time.  I didn't want to hit the rush hour traffic going home.  I'm so glad we were able to get together, even if it was just for the day.




































 Hayden was getting dressed one morning and called to me in frustration. He was frustrated because he couldn't get his shorts buttoned up.  I was kinda excited thinking that he might finally be having a growth spurt and getting some meat on those bones.
He came in my room and I just died laughing!!!
He was wearing Luke's pants.  Yes, 18 month pants - my 8 year old son was wearing them as shorts!!!  I couldn't stop laughing.  At least he had a good sense of humor about it.  When I could finally stop laughing long enough to tell him why they didn't fit he thought it was quite funny.  So funny, in fact, that that night when I told him to get his jammies on he came out in Luke's jammies.  Some day, that boy will get some meat on those bones.  haha.



 House hunting in Connecticut

We drove up to Madison, Wisconsin and left the 3 older kids at my brother, John's house and we flew to Connecticut for a quick house hunting trip.  It was the first time I'd been to Connecticut.  It was weird realizing that we'd be moving there.  We met with our realtor and looked at 3 houses that first day.  It was depressing.  The homes were so old, stinky, and not in areas I was too excited about.
The next day was much better.  We found our home, and were so lucky.  It had only been on the market for 1 or 2 days.  On Saturday we didn't have any appointments set up so we decided to go on a little trip into New York City.  I'm amazed how close we are to New York.  It took us just over an hour to get there.  We walked around Central Park and went to Times Square.  So fun.
On Sunday we went to the ward we'd go to if we got the house we wanted. I love the ward.  We went and looked at one more house after church, mainly to see if the one we wanted fell through, we wanted to at least see this one.  Then we went to dinner at a new friend's house.  Seriously!  People are so kind.  When I was trying to find out about the area I didn't know who to call so I called one of the bishops in the area and talked to his wife.  She referred me to a friend of hers, Rhonda to find out about this area a little more.  I texted and talked with Rhonda quite a bit before our house hunting trip, just finding out about the area.  When I actually met her at church on Sunday I felt like she was already my great friend.  We had planned to go to her house for dinner before we even came out to look for homes.  She also invited another family, The Hibbs, over for dinner as well.  They have kids that line up perfectly with ours.  Everyone is so friendly and helpful.  It made me very excited to move here.
As we were driving to the airport on Monday we got a call from our Realtor and found out we got the home we wanted.  We were so excited.  It was a good trip.

























Family Portrait Time

 We got family pictures in April.  The individuals of Sydney and Luke were actually taken in the fall, because I did it one day while Hayden and Rebecca were at school.
I am a little biased, but I happen to think I have some adorable children!!