We're moving...

Our lives are mostly in boxes. I've been packing for like a month now. A little here and a little there, but now that Ian is done with work the amount of stuff in boxes has sky rocketed. He's a real work horse and a great help to me!

We went on a trip to Jerome and Fruitland to visit some people we love. More on that after we get settled in California.

Oh, we're moving to California on Monday. A little sad, very excited. Ian has an internship opportunity there and we get to live with Mom & Dad Sorensen. Our kids are going to love having Grandparents around all the time.

The things I'll miss most about Rexburg are:
1. Our Friends
2. Everything is in walking distance
3. It's cheap to live here
4. The safety

I often wonder if we'll ever come back to Rexburg. It's been my second home. For the next few years we'll be nomads moving all over trying to find a place to settle. I think I'll miss being settled. I love new experiences, but I hate moving. Too much cardboard.

While you're waiting for more fabulous blog posts treat yourself to this video of Holly. She's such a little girl. She wanted to try the hat on and then mother her little baby doll. It'll be fun to play dress up with her.

OH! I almost forgot, wasn't General Conference AWESOME? My kids were really good so I actually got to listen to most of it. Thank you Grandma Almeda for all the fun activities! While you're waiting to hear my thoughts on it, you can watch your favorite talk again or for the first time by visiting here. I highly recommend "The Atonement Covers All Pain" by Kent F. Richards. More on that to come.

I entered a blog giveaway!

It's my first one! I see these things all the time but I lack the confidence to enter. Silly, I know. But today when I went visiting teaching and heard about this I just had to enter because of how much these women raved about these products! When I saw the diaper clutch and the diaper sling, I knew I wanted one too!

Check out Brittany's giveaway here and the creator's (Mud Puddles & Daisies) blog here. Sweet stuff!

Best Date Ever!

Okay so I've been planning this date for like 3 weeks and now that it's done I can tell you all about it! It was a scavenger hunt of sorts.

Background: I knew Valentines Day was coming, but I didn't want to plan a Valentines Day date because it's on a Monday and we made a resolution to do better with FHE. Sooooo I decided that BEFORE Valentines Day he wouldn't be expecting anything and it would show love just as much.

All week I knew Ian would have most of Friday off and that we would need the extra time because this date was a long one. Thursday night I stuck this little beauty in his scriptures.

When it's all filled in it says:
How 'bout a date tonight with your dame?
We'll take a stroll down memory lane.
Dress up real nice and get ready for fun,
this date will prove you're my number one!

The number at the bottom isn't my phone number. Goodness knows if it was it wouldn't post it here! But, I wanted it to be mysterious so I used a different number. Sorry, no telling where it came from!

By about 10 I hadn't heard from him so I was worried he hadn't found the note! I sent him a text from the mystery number that said "Have you read your scriptures today?" When we talked and laughed about it later Ian was really weirded out that someone who he didn't know was telling him to read his scriptures. *snickers* He finally responded and we were in business.

My hair cut went too long so our date started later then I wanted. No biggie. At about 6 we got in the car and I gave him his first clue:

This clue took us to the Hinckley Building where we first met. Once we got there we talked about that day and what we were each thinking. It was interesting to remember each of our different thoughts. We had a good laugh about it. If you want to read our story check this out.

Next was clue 2:

We went to the place where we had our fist date. He needed a little help to remember where that was. Good thing I brought our journals along so we could read them too!

Clue 3:
This one was a puzzle. It cut it up after I printed it out. Cutting the temple....is that wrong? Well anyway this is where we first kissed. I might have cut it in too many pieces because it was hard to put together. Still fun though!

Clue 4:
This one took us to his old apartment (Aspen 310) where I told him I loved him for the first time. More reminiscing ensued.

Clue 5:

Next we went where Ian proposed. It's kind of a funny story. Ask me about it and I'll tell you sometime.

Clue 6:

This one was kind of funny because right before I gave it to him his hunger started to really set in. It was 7 o'clock so who could blame him. He said "This is great and all, but are we going to eat?" Then I handed him this card. Thanks for the assist on that one honey. Then we went and had some dinner at Gringo's which was AMAZING! Love that place.

Clue 7:
This one was fun because I secretly gave it to our waitress and asked her to stick it in with our check. I'm so sneaky! He loved it. While we ate dinner we also talked about our wedding since it was the next big step we took together. It was sweet.

Clue 8:
This statue is outside the hospital where our children were born. Ian recognized it right away and we were off.

Clue 9:
This was our last stop for the night. After we let our dinner settle I knew we would want something sweet so I wanted to go to Florence's. It's a chocolate shop where Ian always gets me chocolates for our anniversary. Unfortunately by the time we got to this clue it was 9:30 and I'm pretty sure the shop was closed. Luckily for Ian I had some white chocolate truffles stashed away in my bag just in case that happened. They were delicious!

I decided to put this date together for Ian firstly because I love him. Secondly, because Rexburg has so many special memories for us and soon we'll be moving. I wanted to remember all those special places and times and visit them once again with him since I have no idea when or if we'll ever come back here. I hope so but if not, at least we'll have this date to remember them all.

The best part of my date (besides the man sitting next to me) was going back to my journal. It was weird to read what I actually wrote about how I was feeling. I'm so glad I kept a journal. I always find reminders of how the Lord has blessed me and my family. Ian is most certainly the biggest blessing in my life. The prophets have counseled us to keep journals and I think this is why. Like Alma said to the people of Ammonihah:

Behold, O ye wicked and perverse generation, how have ye forgotten the tradition of your fathers; yea, how soon ye have forgotten the commandments of God. Do ye not remember that our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God? Do ye not remember that they were all led by him through the wilderness? And have ye forgotten so soon how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them from being destroyed, even by the hands of their own brethren? Yea, and if it had not been for his matchless power, and his mercy, and his long-suffering towards us, we should unavoidably have been cut off from the face of the earth long before this period of time, and perhaps been consigned to a state of endless misery and woe. (Book of Mormon, Alma 9:8-11)

I bet if those people had kept a journal, or even read the scriptures and records that their people kept, they would have remembered the Lord and his mercies toward them. Having Ian in my life has been a great blessing and act of mercy. I know because it says so in my journal. :-)

Thanks for letting my tell you about our super amazing date. You can take the idea if you want to. I'm happy to share the love!

Good Everything Day!

Okay so first I got my hair cut over the weekend. It was a disaster at first. Ian says it's silly but I cried about it. Anyway I went back and they fixed it! Today was the first time I styled it myself. Good HAIR day! (see photo below)

Next the mail came! I love when the mail comes especially when I'm expecting something. I've been waiting for our passport for 2 1/2 weeks and to my surprise they came! I HAVE A PASSPORT!
Maybe it's not a big deal. But really it IS! It's my first one! I showed Atley and Holly theirs too and they were excited too so now I know I'm not crazy! Holly just kept saying "YEAH"! When I showed Atley he saw the eagle and said "bird!" I told him it was a special bird. When I went to put them away he said "I want special bird!"

Also the first books from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library came today! It's a non profit group that sends an age appropriate book once a month to children under 5. The book for the month is The Little Engine the Could! Atley has been looking at a lot of trains lately so that occupied him for about 10 minutes!
Good MAIL day!

Last I was so excited to take a picture for this blog post and was making all kinds of silly faces my kids decided to join in.
Good PLAY day!

I love my kids. I love my passport. I love my life!

Catching a train...

That's what I feel like right now. I feel like there are a million trains some going fast and some going way too slow and I have to coordinate and catch them all at precisely the right moment which I won't know until I have to jump on board. Whew! I'm getting a work out.

Needless to say, our blog has been one of those non priority trains lately. Sorry! I promise we have a lot to share, but I'm going to condense it into one super awesome update blog post! Here we go!

This is my couch before we reupholstered it.

This was during the process...

This is the after! I gotta say I'm pretty proud that I actually finished it. I still have to do the cushions because they don't match but we ran out of that kind of fabric. Oops! We're going to try doing it in brown. Keep your fingers crossed. Also, I'm still finding staples from the project all over the house. I think the people who live here after us will probably wonder what we were doing! The job was hard but I am so grateful for the experience and for Ian helping me with the couch. It went so much faster! Also, this picture is a little out of place. It's from Christmas morning when Ian's brothers were visiting us, but it was the best picture I had of the finished couch.

Next, Ian GRADUATED! This isn't the best picture, but he's there in the black gown and handsome smile! We were so excited when the semester was over but we had so much other stuff to do that I couldn't express it on the blog. I am so proud of Ian. He graduated "cum laude" which is in the top 10% of his class. How awesome is that?! He looked great in his cap and gown which I was sure to iron the night before. I giggled a little to myself when I saw people with the creases in their gowns and said to myself "see! They don't have a wife as great as me, huh?" It felt so good to see everyone going back to school in January and have no part in it.

Because of Graduation Ian's Mom came to visit. The kids loved having their Grandma around and so did I. It was such a nice visit we were sad it was so short.

The snow during December was so beautiful in Rexburg. I think I'm going to miss all the fun winter festivities they have here.

As mentioned above, for Christmas we had Ian's two brothers come to visit. It was so much fun to be surrounded by family for the holiday as we spent time with them and video chatted with both our families Christmas morning. In the evening we cooked up the Turkey that Ian's work gave us and had a great dinner with some friends.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas went went sledding. It was so fun to watch Taran and Jordan do crazy things from a distance and then enjoy the safer stuff ourselves. Holly thinks she's a little queen and should be pulled around in her sled everywhere we go. She often sits in it in the house trying to make it go by herself. Below is Atley's first try sledding and a little commentary from Ian.

Atley even got into pulling Holly's sled around. What a good brother, huh?

Holly even got dressed up for our Christmas dinner. She is absolutely in love with her clothes and brings me different outfits all day to try on. What a little girl!

Ian and I have decided we need more pictures of the two of us. Too often we're left out. This isn't the greatest, but it is a good start.

The next super cool thing we did after Christmas was head up to the cabin in Utah! There was so much snow the only way in was by snowmobile. The kids were freezing, but they handled it pretty well. On the way back down the mountain they were pros enough they just fell asleep. I on the other hand need some more practice. I was dumped off 3 times! But, despite eating snow, I had a great time!

We tried to play in the snow, but we always ended up falling down. By the time we left I think there was over 4 feet! That's like 2 of Holly!

See! I told you she thinks she's a queen.

This is the last attempt at a picture of us. Sad, I know. We're working on it.

This Christmas was also tried to teach Atley some French Christmas songs. This is his version of "Il est ne."

We're so anxious to move that it's a little difficult to contain ourselves. We know if we rush ourselves we'll really regret it, but it's hard not to be excited about the opportunities that await us. Soon we'll be able to apply for housing at the University of Sheffield and then before we know it, we'll be selling all our furniture and visiting out families in California and Florida. Hence, some trains and moving by so quickly and some I wish would just hurry up! We did apply for our passports this last week and for me that was a big financial commitment that say we're actually doing this. I think a lot of me still can't believe it. Maybe once we're on that plane it'll sink in.