Hello May, What Happened to April?

I feel like everything is moving in fast forward now. This winter was never-ending, but now as soon as I want time to slow down a bit, it's doing the opposite. I can't believe we move NEXT MONTH! Crazy. I feel like I'm making some progress on getting organized and dejunking. Not a ton of progress...but some. I'm good at procrastinating.
We have been wasting out time away playing outside and enjoying this gorgeous Spring weather. We've had a few thunderstorms this last week and it has made me realize how much I will miss them. I was TERRIFIED of them when we moved here. But I find them so comforting now. :Sigh:
This is Em trying to convince me that she really is an angel...That girl is going to be the reason I get premature gray hair. I can't ever complain about things being boring at our house because she always keeps me on my toes.
And here she is in her fave hangout, time out. Banana is explaining to her little sister why it is important to not throw Rocket at mom's head. Repeatedly. Such a good big sis. :)
She has also recently discovered toe jam. And the joys of cleaning it out. Running Man and I walked in and saw her doing this. She looked up at a us with a HUGE smile and a piece of lint on her finger. She was so proud.
Finally, here is Banana modeling her new 'do. I love it! I have always LOVED her long hair, but it was just getting to the point where it drove me crazy to do it every morning. Her cousin has always had a super cute short cut, and that gave me courage to chop Banana's off. It's not as short as her cousins, but I'm not that brave! Banana loves it, and I think it looks fabulous on her! (I love this pic because you can tell she thinks she's cute and her confidence shows)! I hope she always feels this way.

Bedtime Lullaby

This is how bedtime sounds at our house.
I love my job!

Blessed

Our drive to Utah went smoothly for the first six hours...

Then this happened....

And it pretty much didn't stop until we got there. It wasn't until the next day when the fever hit did we realize that she had good reason to not be a happy traveler. She had another tooth coming in. Great timing. I hope everything goes a lot more smoothly on the drive home.

But all the frustrations of driving all night paid off because....RUNNING MAN GOT THE JOB! That's right folks, we are going to officially be Utahns! (Again). It feels sureal and we can't seem to wrap our minds around it yet. Running Man will be working in SLC with a fabulous Doc and we are excited for our future! I still can't imagine being able to see fam more than once or twice a year. Or that my children will get to see their grandparents pretty much as often as they would like. A two hour drive it so much better than an 18 hour drive! We feel so blessed and are grateful for all of the prayers and happy thoughts that have been sent our way over this past month.
I am looking forward to being surrounded by these every day...
And eating a lot more of this...
(Cafe Rio for all of you who don't recognize the restaurant decor)

And spending a lot more time with these people


(More pics of all of the other fabulous people we get to spend time with coming soon).

Here's to six years of planning, hard work and commitment paying off! So grateful for a hubby who has dedicated his life to me and the kiddos, and who has worked so hard to make sure our future will be everything we hoped it would be!

Easter!

We had a great Easter.

We painted LOTS of eggs.


We went on TWO eggs hunts.



One came with breakfast and great friends.
The other at Devil's Glen Park. One of Running Man's fave childhood hang outs.

Had a YUMMY dinner with GREAT friends.

Banana is a huge Sandra Lee fanatic and has been dying to make her own "Tablescape." She came up with all of these ideas and was so proud of herself! (I was as well)!
(Em coming down off of her sugar high. Cuddling with one of her favorite ppl, and one of my best friends).
And we LOVED every second of conference. There were so many talks we felt were being told for us and a few messages that I really needed to hear right now. There seemed to be a lot of focus on forgiveness and faith. Two things I think we always need to have in our lives. I feel stressed out a lot right now and most of the time I am completely overwhelmed with everything I need to accomplish in these next few months. It is such a scary/exciting time for our family and Running Man and I are both trying to have faith and stay strong for our girls. I don't know how I would cope if I didn't have them to greet me each morning, to fill up my days with so much joy, and to be able to kiss them good night.
We are headed to Utah next week to try and figure out the job situation, and we can't wait to see our family! We have two new nieces to meet and the girls can't wait to see their Grandparents! I am most definitely not looking forward to the drive, but the end result is always worth it. Once we get home I need to get serious about packing. I am tempted to just start throwing stuff away. I still have so much stuff to get rid of so you if you want anything call me!

These past few weeks we have gone to Chicago for a job interview and did this while we waited for Running Man to convince someone to hire him...



And then we braved downtown Chicago traffic and headed to our favorite spot and did this to help us all blow off some steam...


We have made a few Easter crafts...(She REALLY wanted a bunny mask, but it was last on our project list for the day so she didn't have the patience to color it. Which resulted in it looking like this...)

And frosted Easter cookies with her BFF Little K.

They even found time to share in some sisterly love.

We <3 Spring. This should be a longer post but we are anxious to play outside! Have a great Easter weekend!

Spring Has Sprung

I think we can finally say SO LONG to winter here! (I'm hoping I don't eat my words...) It is GORGEOUS outside and we are loving every moment. We went for our first spring walk today and I snapped these cute pics of the girlies livin' it up! (Can I say now how I desperately want a nice/new camera? And to learn how to use it)!


And no walk by the river is complete without a trip to our favorite soda shop/candy store Lagomarcinos! Can I say yum?! They have a HUGE assortment of homemade candies to choose from. And we acted like...kids in a candy store.

(Running Man is a great dad and I love that he can do this with the girls)!
We also discovered my new fave store in the Village. It has incredible furniture and custom made pillows/shelves/everything you could ever want for your house. Sadly the couch of my dreams is a teeny bit out of my price range...Someday, right? :)

Banana started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and is doing great. We haven't had a lot of access to a pool since we...well ever. And she's always had a blast the times we've been able to go. But for the last few months she's started acting a little fearful anytime we brought it up, so we decided now would be a great time to nip that fear in the bud. I'm not a great example for her because i'm a lousy swimmer and harbor my own set of my fears. So I'm super motivated that it doesn't happen to her and I've promised her that I'm going to overcome my fear along with her. Anyhow...I snapped this one picture of her. It looks lousy because my camera was having issues, but she's floating on her back. It's hilarious to watch her because she fights her desire to cover/protect her ears, and her desire to really want to learn to do it right. Love it!
So here's to a fabulous spring!!

Much Ado About Nothing

I realized this past week that I have definitely lived in Iowa for too long when it is mid-thirties outside and I go out w/o my coat. And I didn't get cold! My children even went coatless for about five minutes then I felt like a bad mom and bundled them up. Then Banana begged to take hers off, so I did. Which made Em scream to take hers off, so I did. Then I was getting too many "Tsk, tsk" looks from old ladies in the grocery store parking lot so I put them back on. And then the girls flipped out. So I took them off again. And then I got a headache. :)

We are so excited for the warmer weather to be here and to be able to get OUTSIDE! There isn't any green anywhere outside but we don't care. This winter lasted far too long!
Graduation day is rapidly approaching and we are excited about some of the job opportunities that we might have. We are praying and crossing our fingers and toes that one of them works out! We hope to end up closer to home, but I think we'll go wherever there is a job!
Running Man was on a tiny break this past week so in between his time at clinic and our job we snuck in a few day trips. We went to Iowa City again to play at the Children's Museum (forgot my camera), and to Nauvoo (forgot it again). We had fabulous times at both places and are going back again soon. We are also headed to Chicago in a few weeks to meet up with a Doc that Running Man has been talking to. It's for a job in Utah, but he'll be in Chicago for a few days and wants to meet the WHOLE family. No pressure, right? I am already stressing!
I've been a horrible mom and taken practically no pics of my kids since Banana's birthday, but here are a few random ones I have managed to snap.
I had to throw these pics in here. If you look at the above two doesn't Em look like such a sweet little girl? Well she is a sweet little angel most days. But then...

She turns into the Hairy Scary Monster at night. That girl can flip switches so fast. I can't keep up with her mood swings and her different personalities. She keeps me on my toes.I also needed to throw this picture in. Running Man has been cooking for me a lot this past week and he does a pretty great job! This is only one of the AMAZING things he made. It's a homemade lemonade that has some not so usual ingredients in. Love it. I drank about half of that pitcher. In one sitting. And I am still craving it now.

The girls got to hang out with one of their best friends this past week and there was not one fight. Little K needs to come over more often because they LUV her.
Typical pre bedtime shot. The girls love to cuddle, and Dad is usually their own personal recliner. (And he totally loves it).