The Rest of March

The last part of March flew by once Rick got home! He was able to take his test earlier than planned and started driving home the afternoon of March 23. He got here in time to see Kimbri's "Kindy 500" program and car parade on the morning of the 24th, so that was fun he got to come!

The weather the last week or two has been so wacky. One day it will be sooo nice and I think, "Finally! Summer is almost here!" and then the next day it is cold, cloudy and rainy. I guess I forgot how spring weather is in Utah after being in Arizona for a few years. 

It made for some pretty pictures one morning before the sun came out, with the clouds coming really low down on the mountain. And it's so pretty how everything is turning green!

Brenna's first day in nursery in our own ward! She went once when the kids spent a couple nights with Grandma Sundee when Rick and I were house hunting in North Carolina. But this was her first time in her regular nursery :) She did amazing and loved it! I was pretty surprised because she has been acting super shy and unsure around strangers but Rick dropped her off and said she went right in and did awesome. So that's exciting!

After taking Brenna's picture, Kimbri wanted
me to take some of her ;)

Garrett, Dad & Brenna

It was "Backwards/Inside Out" day at school.

The leftover rain left a huge puddle that the kids loved throwing
rocks into on our walk a few days ago.

Brenna just chilled in her stroller eating veggie straws.

Then it turned into playing in the water and Kimbri got soaking
wet up to her waist... haha. 

Brenna loves sitting under the table in the elevator on the way up to the house.

Homemade ice cream in cones for dessert! Brenna's nose
was so cold and pink from smashing her face in it to eat it.

We Are Almost There....

So my last post was about how Rick got to make a trip back home for the weekend, and it was so great! And then as soon as we took him back to the airport for the last 2 weeks in AZ, everything here in UT seemed to fall apart. 

For one, I could barely walk because of silly plantar wart on the bottom of my foot. I've had it for well over 10 years and it has never bothered me until recently. Every so often it will become sore when I go jogging and I thought I might as well get it taken care of before we move. So they put some medicine on it to make the skin around it bubble up but apparently I had a bad reaction to the medicine and it made it REALLY bubble up and my whole foot was so swollen and was in so much pain. It would have been better to just leave it be... ugh!

Anyway, so once we got back from the airport. I got Brenna out of the car and tried to get her to walk because I could barely walk myself, let alone carry the diaper bag and her. She did NOT want to walk and started to though a little bit of a tantrum, which she rarely does, and lay down on the elevator floor and was crying. Poor girl. 

I soon found out the next morning why, I'm assuming, she had been so sad and emotional... she was sick and had some kind of tummy bug! She threw up on the couch and in the family room. And she slept a ton. I must have jinxed us because I had just been talking with Rick over that weekend how we had been pretty lucky this winter season of not getting sick much. Yeah, I totally jinxed us.

After that Monday, Brenna seems to be fine and I thought the other kids would probably start barfing but after a few days went by without them getting sick, I thought we were in the clear! They were acting happy and the weather was nice so we played outside a lot!

Brenna & Kimbri eating frozen gogurt.

The cushions were still off from cleaning them.

Kimbri's leprechaun she made at school :)

He literally fell asleep at the dinner table. I guess they had too
much fun playing outside for so long that he just got worn out!

So like I said, I thought we were in the clear for the other two not getting sick. Well, Saturday night my sister-in-law, Nicole, was babysitting so I could go to the Miss Spanish Fork pageant with my mom and sister and some of their friends. We were on our way home when Nicole called and said that Kimbri had thrown up all over the stairs. Yeah... so that happened. 

I got home a few minutes after and we needed to take Nicole home, to Salem, which is about a 30-35 minute round trip. Kimbri threw up once on the way there and twice on the way back. Luckily we took a big bowl just in case, which I'm so glad we did so I didn't have to clean up barf in the car too.

We got home and I cleaned the carpet on the stairs and this is how I found the kids when I got done, around 10pm.

Kimbri in their "box fort"

Garrett on the couch.

They both just slept on the couch that night. Kimbri woke up feeling much better but we obviously had to stay home from church. Then on Monday night Garrett puked all over the couch. So I had to clean the couch cushions, again. Can I just stop and say how much I love having a carpet cleaner that has an upholstery attachment?! It makes cleaning up barf one thousand times better. Anyway, so this past week, we've spent a lot of time on the couch, sleeping, and watching movies, because who feels like doing anything when everyone is sick?! Also, I spent the evenings, after the kids were in bed, just binge-watching a show myself (Heartland) because I was so sick and tired of cleaning up puke and doing laundry to get all the throw up out of their blankets and clothes. So yeah, it was a super lax week because of all the sickness. 

I even let the kids have cereal one night because I didn't feel
like cooking. They thought I was the best mom ever, haha!

We also had to find time to work on Kimbri's Kindy 500 Car. They are going to be "driving" around the school in their cars to learn about different parts of the United States. She wanted a pink car so we went to the store and got pink paint and brushes. She has done a great job working so hard on her car! Here are a few pictures of the car in progress. I'll have to take some more pictures on the actual day of the Kind 500 since parents are invited to come and watch the parade :)

Painting the headlights.

We used our old Arizona license plate for it.

This morning was really green and pretty
 after it had rained during the night. 

Anyway, my post title is "We Are Almost There...." and that is because we have almost made it nearly 8 weeks of Rick being on rotations in Arizona. He took his last test and is driving home tonight! We have almost made it through a really difficult time of him having to be away for so long. We have almost made it to the end of medical school. We have almost made it to a lot of things! And we are sooooo excited for all the fun and exciting new adventures we will be having soon. I love our crazy life!

Rick Came to Visit!

This week was so busy! Last weekend Rick and I went to North Carolina (which I'll talk more about in a different post) and we didn't get back till really, really late on Sunday night. Then the next morning Kimbri had morning kindergarten instead of afternoon because it was a half day for the whole school. I forgot until 8:40am when Kimbri woke up for the day. She came down and gave me a hug and I suddenly realized that we needed to get her dressed and ready for school and drive her there all in 20 minutes! It was crazy but we made it just in time.

The next day I was a parent helper in Kimbri's class in the afternoon and my friend, Tiffany Hancock, babysat Garrett and Brenna for me. We have been doing trade-offs so we can each volunteer once a month as a parent helper. It is fun to help out in the classroom and see a little part of Kimbri's life at school. 

Wednesday I tried to play catch up and start laundry, get grocery shopping done and clean up the house. Then Thursday we continued laundry, went to play group at the church and got the rest of the house picked up for Rick to come home on Friday! Somewhere in those few days I got 3 Etsy orders finished and mailed off. It's nice to be able to get the kids down at night and work on orders while they are sleeping. 

On Friday we had a picnic outside because the weather was SO AWESOME!! I have been waiting for nice weather for soooo long. It seems that every time it seemed like it was going to warm up, it would for a day or two and then dump snow again. It was so sad and the kids kept telling me how much they didn't like the snow anymore and wanted it to be Spring. I was feeling the same way!

After our picnic we got Kimbri to school and came how to let Brenna have her nap. When she woke up we went to school to pick Kimbri up about 15 minutes early so we could head up to the Provo airport and pick up Rick. Everything was going so smoothly until I locked the keys in the car. Yep. So that happened. But I walked in and saw the principal, Sara Matis (I used to babysit her kids when I was a teenager) and she said they would just call Mapleton City Police to come and unlock it for me. I was so grateful! They came and popped it open so fast and easy and I was really so happy that they were willing to do it for free for us. The kids played in the front office, reading books in the little reading corner they have while I walked out to show the officer where our car was parked. So it set us back a little bit but no matter, it all worked out!

We picked Rick up and headed over to the Bean Museum on BYU campus and walked around to see all the animals. The kids loved it so much. We definitely should go a couple more times before we leave for North Carolina. It's a fun free activity! 

Then we headed back towards home and made a pit stop at Sam's Club to pick up stuff for Rick's birthday dinner on Saturday. Then we stopped at Teryaki Grill for Rick to pick up his free birthday meal and then I got a salad and sandwich at Zupas. Yum! We went home and all ate dinner and then went out for Rick's birthday ice cream at Cold Stone. I think the kids had fun picking out ice cream :) 

After all that fun, the kids we wanted to have a sleepover party downstairs so we pulled the mattresses into the living room and watched a movie together. We put Brenna down to bed since it was already so late, but I was surprised at how late Kimbri and Garrett were able to stay awake!

Saturday we woke up and Rick hung out with the kids at home while I ran to the store for a few more things I needed for Rick's birthday party. He requested Hawaiian Haystacks and Texas sheet cake with Moose Tracks ice cream and Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. Sundee & Mike came with Cosette, Nicole, Megan and Cody and then my mom and dad were of course there since they hosted, with Zach, Olivia, and Enoch. Dawson dropped by with Oaklee, Luke and Ava and Nolan & Brooke came with Hadley. It was a really fun time, hanging out with family and getting to spend time with them before we move! The kids all ran around in the backyard in the awesome weather and Zach set up a bounce house he bought last year and it sure was a hit with all the little kids running around. It was so fun. And Rick is about to be 28, on March 13!!! We celebrated early since he was in town for just the weekend from his ICU rotation in Arizona. It was great to have him home for a couple days.

That night we put the kids to bed and watched a movie and ate the rest of our ice cream from the day before. The next morning Rick got up with the kids and let me sleep in, which I can't remember the time I slept in! It was so amazing!! Since he has been in AZ for 6 weeks so far I've felt like a single parent for so long and it was so nice to have a little break, getting to sleep in :) Then when I woke up we got the kids through the bath and ready for church. We went to sacrament and then loaded up and headed back to the airport to drop of Rick. It was a short trip but so great. 2 more weeks and he gets to come home for good! Yay!!!

I love these kinds of shopping carts!
And the kids in it :)

I let Garrett pick a cereal and he didn't want
to let out of his sight, haha.

We watched a movie together for FHE
and the girls were snuggling together.

This was the aftermath of movie night... yikes! Popcorn everywhere.

She wanted her picture taken and asked me to send it to daddy.

Our picnic.

Walking to the bus stop to get Kimbri.

The next few pictures were at the Bean Museum. It was definitely a hit and we'll have to go back again soon!

North Carolina

So we made a trip to Fayetteville, North Carolina from March 3-5. And by "we" I mean me and Rick. It was so fun! He flew into Fayetteville from Phoenix and I flew into Raleigh from SLC. He got there several hours before me so he picked up the rental car and drove up to Raleigh and picked me up. We grabbed some food and went to the hotel. 

The next morning we had to wake up really early to eat the continental breakfast and make it down to Fayetteville to meet up with our realtor, Josh. We had 15-20 houses on our list and saw just about all of them. He even showed us a couple that weren't on our original list so it was a pretty long morning.

He took us out for lunch at a place called El Burrito and it was super yummy. We talked about the houses we had seen, pros and cons, etc... We went and walked through our top 2 again after lunch and then took some time to walk around the neighborhoods without the realtor, just to get a feel for the neighborhood. We decided to go drop our stuff off at the hotel and then find somewhere to eat for dinner. 

We got to the hotel and it was soooo awful and so sketchy looking. We had requested a non-smoking room but as soon as we opened the door, a smoke smell hit us like a brick wall. It was terrible. Rick made it back to the front office with literally 1 minute to spare, before the last time allowed to cancel was. He had to make a phone call to get our money refunded. It took them forever to refund it and cancel the room for that night. So after all of that we had to turn around and find somewhere else to stay. It was crazy but so worth it. I don't think I would've got an ounce of sleep if we had stayed in that hotel. We ended up staying in a Comfort Inn just down the road, but it really was so much better!

Anyway, it took so long to work all that out that we were so hungry by the time we finally were able to drop our stuff off at a hotel. We quickly did that and headed out to a place called Pierro's that the realtor recommended. It was a really yummy Italian place. They gave us side salads as an appetizer and we ordered mozzerella sticks also as an appetizer since they said our food would take about 40 minutes and we were so hungry. The portion sizes were ginormous! Which worked out great because we had a mini fridge in our hotel room so we were able to save the leftovers for Sunday lunch the next day. 

We got back to the hotel and stayed up so late thinking about what house to choose. We went over our pros and cons lists so many times. We thought about it, talked about it, and went back and forth over and over. It was around midnight when we finally decided on which house to make an offer on. It was so stressful because of how big of a decision it is! This trip was fun but definitely not easy and I think I cam home more tired than when I left, but it was all so worth it.

Leaving Utah, bound for North Carolina!

It was so pretty going over the mountains!

Driving down from Raleigh to Fayetteville... we only made a
few wrong turns, haha!

I loved all the trees along the roads!

Here is the house we are gonna live in! I'm so excited!!