Easter

                                                                    Easter 2013:

                                             Easter Egg hunt in the Park!

Edie screamed and cried for us to wait in this giant line for her to see the Easter bunny.  We did and then she wouldn't look or talk to the Easter bunny and she ran off as quick as she could.  Sam wouldn't go anywhere near the giant bunny. Can't say I blame him really....

 Sunday morning! Loot!!!

The older I am the more I recognize how beautiful the Easter holiday is.  I am eternally thankful for the saviors atonement. Where would I be with out it? The gospel is the most wonderful thing in my life.  The peace and comfort it gives to me is true happiness.  My heart swells when I think of being able to live with my little family forever.  I had a very humble and thankful heart this Easter.

Clara

Clara had  Dr. Seuss week at school a few weeks back

Here she is as a WHO:

I have been so proud of my little girl this past year.  She is reading and writing SO well. She definitely has her moments but she is generally my sweet little helper.  She has so much personality it can hardly be contained her little body!

 She begs me at least a few times a week to have another baby. She would like a girl baby.  And she would really like me to name her Rosie.

She has to have her clothes laid out the night before and her lunch made.  It helps her fall asleep much quicker and she seems a lot calmer. Poor kid is just like her mom.

She LOVES play dates.  Her BFF is Emma who she carpools to school with and I pick them up everyday. Plus her mom is one of my closest friends- so they have easy access. I really worry about how Clara is going to when we have moved from Emma. They already have plans to skype.

She is in love with Justin Beiber. In fact she has asked if she could marry Justin Beiber in the temple, and I've had to explain that Justin Beiber is not currently a member.  But maybe she could convert him? The funny part is, I don't think she really even knows who he is. Her friend's love him so I guess she feels she needs to too?

She is obsessed with having a "beauty kit".  She has a bag with some chapsticks/lip glosses. and a few nail polishes. She wants to give me makeovers daily. 

She often acts very put out by Edie. But I know she loves playing with her and hanging out with her because she always makes plans for them. Picnics downstairs, slumber parties in the t.v. room, cupcakes to make together, Beauty spa parties. You name it. It warms my heart that they have each other.

Edie turns 4 years old!!!

Oh where has time gone?!?!

My little Edie turned 4 on March 17th. 

 I can't believe my little St. Patty's baby is 4 years old.

"There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good, she was very very good.

And when she was bad she was horrid".

              

I came across that while reading Mother Goose to Sam the other night.  It was definitely about Edie:)

We had a small Birthday party at McDonalds Playland to celebrate Edie turning 4.  I intended to make Edie a "rose cake" however the tip I bought for the frosting was cheap and the roses did not turn out as I anticipated.  So my good buddy Kelly came over and helped pull the heap of cake and frosting together.  Thankfully Edie was still pretty pumped and all the cake was eaten.

 Edie is such an affectionate little girl. She will walk up to me and put a hand on either cheek and look into my eyes and say "Mommy- I just love you so much".  She melts my heart! She routinely says "you are my sweet grill Mommy".  I will be so sad when the day comes that she starts Kindergarten.  While she can exasperate me, she really is just a sweet little thing. 
Edie has many aliases:

• Fifi
• Bean (Edie Bean)
• Eden Buh Feden
• Bunny Foofoo

One of Edie's greatest talents is her vocal chords.  I have never heard a child scream quite like she can. I've even had a couple of our neighbors comment on it.  When she was born she never cried. She was born Screaming.  She has never done a normal "cry" and she doesn't really whine either.
 She is either happy -or- screaming. 

                                         Sam helping clean up after making all that frosting:)

 On Edie's actual birthday we drove out to Sunnyside (an iffy town nearby) to get a Papa Murphy's pizza.  It was worth the drive.  I forgot how good pizza is! We also had cookies and I let her pick out a movie to rent. She chose "Hotel Transylvania".  We ate pizza and let her open gifts from Mimi and Grumpy and her Grandma and Grandpa.  John and I got her a bike and a unicorn helmet. Being a fabulous mom I forgot to take pictures. Nice.  Afterwards we all snuggled on the couch and watched the movie while we plowed through a plate of cookies.  It was a very fun night:)

 Clara and Sam were sent a couple of gifts too.  I don't know if you can tell but Sam was pretty thrilled about the Sesame street phone he got.

Sold and Headed Home

Clearly, I have taken a lengthly break from blogging.  I have every intention of catching up though- So here we are:

In early March our house sold.  We were truly shocked at how quickly it sold.  When we met with a realtor he told us HE could sell it in 2-3 months.  He said that about 90% of homes in Prosser that are up for sale are listed with agents.  The other 10% are FSBO and only about 2% of those actually end up selling.  We were really dismayed too at the price he wanted to list it at. We had just put SO much money and time and effort into this house that it seemed so unfair to lose so much money.  So we decided to take a stab at selling it ourselves.  Which in hindsight was quite the risk considering John's job started in a little over 60 days!  But we put it up for sale and we had 2 showings in about 2 weeks. BOTH showings made offers and thankfully the way things played out it ended up really working in our favor.  So after 2 weeks on the market we were under contract.  Sweet Divine Intervention is the only way I can describe this experience!  This also helped me feel good about moving back to Salt Lake City, because I had been having a lot of doubts about whether or not it was really the right thing for us.  I have really grown to love our ward and neighborhood here.

So now we are relaxing for a couple weeks then we will begin packing and moving back to SLC for John to start at his new clinic and to begin house hunting!

Home for sale By Owner!

Yes, it's true.  John got a job in Salt Lake.  It is WAY more family time, more pay, they treat their clinic providers much better, the benefits are a THOUSAND times better and it is just a much nicer clinic in general.

However, we need to sell our house.  Not expecting to move in a year and half, we put a lot of money into our home thinking that it would have time to appreciate, and hopefully we would make that money back (and maybe more...). But that is clearly NOT going to happen.  Were giving it a go trying to sell it ourselves so maybe we can re-coup more of the money we put into the home.  So.... if you know someone looking for a home in Prosser WA, I've got an awesome one!

Take a look- and pass around to anyone you know interested in buying a home:

www.prosserhomeforsale.blogspot.com

Neither of us are entirely sold on the idea of moving, as it seems we have fallen in love with Prosser over the course of the last few months.  But- jobs in the medical industry are hard to come by in Salt Lake, and this one is amazing. So- it looks like we are going to be making a big move. Again.

Oh bother....

So the hard drive in our desk top crashed. John was rearranging our office, and apparently just the act of moving our old computer was enough for it to crash and die.  I can't say I'm completely shocked however.  We found this computer in the gutter.  John was the Elders Quorum Pres.in our old ward, and on one of his many Saturdays of moving some family, he noticed that they took their desktop and just dumped it by the street for someone to pick up. He said "Your not going to use this?" The guy laughed and said it was so old and slow.  We'll John picked it up and carried it home at the end of day and we've been using it for the past 4 years.  In fact it got John through PA school quite nicely! We are debating whether to replace the hard drive (not super expensive) or if its not really worth it as it is SO SO old and slow, and this is just the beginning of problems to come. My Internet access is now limited to 20-40 minute snippets with John's work laptop, I snatch it away for a few minutes when he comes home from work and before he has to begin his nightly hours and hours of patient charting. I will say my house is a lot cleaner...

But, even though I can't post pictures I wanted to do a quick update and write down some of the funny things my girls have said recently before I forget:

"Mommy, you'd better hold my hand as we cross this street. Otherwise a car will hit me and kill me, you'll have to bury me in the backyard, and I'll go up to Heaven and you'll be so sad and crying. You'll cry and say, "oh I'm so so sad, I miss my sweet Edie Bean!" So you should really hold my hand ok?"
-Edie


"When I grow up, I'll live next door to you and come over during the day and help you make rolls. You can watch my kids while I draw pictures for you to hang on the fridge" -Clara


"Will you turn my peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a reindeer shape today? Everyone has cool shaped sandwich's, and I'm just like sitting there with my square sandwich. It's embarrassing"
-Clara


"You'll fix your hair before you pick me up from school right? And wear regular pants, not your pajama pants" -Clara


"Can Santa really see me when I'm sleeping? We have curtains". -Edie


Sam doesn't really say a whole lot besides one word at a time right now. However he is developing a lot of personality.  He loves to dance. He likes to hit, and throw all the time! I'm always sitting there stunned when he does because my girls just didn't do that... He is a sweet little man and I love having a boy. There's just alot of extra energy there....


And last but not least, I wanted to add this blog post I just read, and I absolutely LOVED. If you are a woman then you should definitely read this!   I found it on facebook, a friend of mine had shared it. And I'm so glad she did:)


http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/enough

The Nutcracker

 Last weekend Clara's Ballet School performed The Nutcracker.  The first dance she was in she was a snowflake. She wore a pretty light blue dress and did a lovely dance.  I was so proud of her!!

                                     The second dance she was a flower.  She did a wonderful job!