Life the past few weeks...

Wow, it really has been a while. Sorry, I'll try to play catch up just a little bit. Life has been busy and fun for us lately. Since our interview in Illinois, we have been busy negotiating the contract and I have been super busy with trying to figure out how REAL life works. Between the mortgage pre-approvals, health insurance games, finding a house, making sure that house is in a good school district, etc., etc., etc. You all know how this all works, we are the ones who don't and it sure takes plenty of time to try and figure it all out. It has been exciting though.

Last weekend was a busy one for us. We have a collection of STUFF in our basement for months and due to our great friends, the Blodgetts, we were able to get rid of a lot of it in their garage sale. They were very generous to let us join then and it feels GREAT to have that stuff GONE!!! We even made a little bit of money ($280!!!!) So, we did that Friday and Saturday.


I took Ethan into the doctor on Friday to see if they had some allergy medication that would help him and since I had strep throat at that time, she tested Ethan and he also had strep. So we have both been recovering. We are both feeling much better now and we hope we didn't share it with anyone else!!!

Saturday after the garage sale, Nate's sister Jennett and her family came up and hung out for the rest of the weekend. We always have so much fun with them. We enjoyed a beautiful day in the great outdoors at Innis Woods Park. It was SO beautiful there with all the flowers everywhere!!!

By the way, I was not the photographer today, Jennett gets all the credit for these pictures. We picked a great day to go because they had several spring activities going on.

The kids each got to plant a tomato plant.

They got to pet some lambs and there was also a super cute baby pig.

There was a fun booth set up where the kids had to throw a bean bag into each of the three "bugs" and then they got a ladybug ring as a prize. As you can see, all the kids made it. I was so proud of my boys; they did a great job and got all the bean bags in the holes by themselves and for Ethan on his first try for every hole!!!


We had fun playing in the super cute tree house there.

And, we found some beautiful wildlife to observe. We thoroughly enjoyed the park and the beautiful weather and it was fun to share it with our wonderful family!!!!


We have practically lived at the park the last few weeks. I think we go about 3 times a week. Maybe that's why Ethan's allergies have been so bad. Notice his poor eyes in the picture. He has just been miserable this year with his allergies. I think he is almost over that part of the year. His eyes have been better the last few days. He even told me this morning that he doesn't like Spring and he doesn't like flowers. He says he likes Summer but no flowers. How sad that he isn't able to enjoy one of the prettiest times of the year because it brings him pain and suffering. He has been a great sport though.

So, here are the kids at the park. I watch a friend on Thursdays and we love to go to the park with him, Andrew. These four really are great buddies and I love to watch them play together.

The boys LOVE to climb the tree at the park. They get pretty high up there!!!

Linz loves to swing and just be her goofy self. She sure has a fun

personality and always makes us laugh.

So, I tried to take some pictures before church one day of the kids. I just thought they looked cute and wanted to snap a few shots. I got some pretty cute pictures.

I just wanted to share the many faces of Luke. This is what I get EVERY time I take pictures of this cute little kid. He just can't give me a nice, normal smile. I get about 6-10 different expressions from him, and all but that nice, cute, wonderful smile. I do manage to capture it every once in a while though.

And, that's about the best I could get of Luke. We love his cute personality though.

Wow, that was the longest post I've ever done. Hopefully that lets you know a little bit of what we've been up to.