The Back to Back Birthdays

Sally's Day

- Pancakes with strawberries and whip cream

- Purple balloons

- Her "birthday outfit" that she laid out the night before

- Preschool

- Birthday shopping with Grandma

- Mac & Cheese

- A sick brother (Drew)

- Playing at Jones's house

- Spaghetti

- Angel food cake with more strawberries and whip cream,

but she chose the chocolate frosted one that was made for non-strawberry lovers instead

- Lego Friends/My Little Pony Pants/Ice Cream Necklace/Skylanders

 

 Drew's Day

- 3 Musketeers for breakfast

- Mostly better, but got to stay home from school

- Skylanders

- 3 Musketeers for lunch

- Heelys (the heaviest shoe ever made and he's so proud of them)

- A sick brother (Owen)

- Shopping with Grandma

- Pizza dinner

- Pinewood Derby (got 12th out of 29...not bad for a car that ran on 3 out of 4 wheels)
- Ice cream instead of cake

I felt like I didn't do a ton for their birthdays, but they were happy.

Having my parents and Cole in town made their days.

He's a Civilian

 3/11

Justin is officially out of the military as of last Monday, March 11.

That was one tough decision to come to and I'm glad it's over with.

We were going back and forth until literally the day before.

Even that day I couldn't believe it was really happening.

After being in the military almost 10 years, I kind of thought we'd just do the whole 20 to earn retirement.

Which would be practical.

But it didn't feel right.

And now we feel peace.

Stressful peace if there is such a thing.

While job and school hunting (for an Arabic/Middle Eastern Studies masters program), Justin is doing some part-time work for my cousin Chad's company (thanks Chad!).

And we all have our dreams...

Sally wants to move to Arizona cause she really likes it and has friends (aka cousins) there, "Brook, Gwen, Payten, and the little guy Gavin."

Drew wants to move to Serbia. Yes, Serbia. His best school friend, Lazo, is from there. And if you're born in Serbia you don't have to have a middle name. But Drew likes his middle name.

Owen was going back and forth between moving to AZ to be near all his cousins or staying here with his friends and Jones. He ended up choosing to stay here.

I would love to stay here, too. Would also love to go back to Monterey. Or to Arizona. Or honestly, even somewhere in the Middle East. If there were a safe Middle-Eastern country for our family, it would be so great for Justin to live there and get fluent in Arabic. I think I could handle a year away. And then come back to a great job just waiting for him (on the West coast of course, even though he'd be fine on the East) where he could use Arabic, we could settle, and never move again.

Justin would like to start an Arabic program on the Rim in Payson. But really, he just wants to know the language well enough to have a career using it.

For now...yay for never deploying again.

Grateful that the military got us to where we are now, and grateful that we're done with it.

The White Stuff

 

Ready to go up to the Mogollon Rim.

Except we never made it.

Pulled off the side of the road to sled in the perfect snow.

 

 

Hot chocolate after the sledding.

First taste of snow.

 

  

Ended the day in the jacuzzi where Justin had them doing sissy tests

(jumping out and laying in the snow, running around the jacuzzi, putting snow on their heads, etc.)

3/9

It's like we had a good day in the snow or something.
We really did.

Rachel + Jacob

 

The kids being escorted from the visitor's center to see Rachel & Jacob come out of the temple.

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Photo Credit: Errin
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 Photo Credit: Errin
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Photo Credit: Candace

 

Gwen pushed August in the stroller any chance she could get.
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 Photo Credit: Errin

Fruit Pizza Bar
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 The flower girls/nieces traded their flowers for umbrellas at the temple,

then had fun with the flowers at the reception.

Photo Credit: Denise (aunt)
Brothers/brothers-in-law on kitchen duty.

 Photo Credit: Emma (Tami's daughter)

 Photo Credit: Justin

Photo Credit: Justin
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March 8, 2013

Everything about the day was perfect.

Except the weather.

The cold, windy, rainy, hail-y weather that forced the reception to be moved from my parents' beautiful backyard to the church cultural hall.

And the weather that made post-wedding temple pictures crazy.

It was so sad, but we made the most of it with cute flower girl umbrellas and wedding rain boots. 

And thank goodness for Errin and some other talented ladies that could transform (as much as possible) a cultural hall.

Can't wait for the professional pictures.

So happy for them.

"I'm in love with this guy Jacob. And even though it took me a while to realize it, Heavenly Father knew how much I loved rain so he gave it to me on the most special day of my entire life." - Rachel (via Facebook)

Getting There

3/7

Getting to AZ for Rachel's wedding took 2 tries.

I left with the kids Wednesday night (Justin still had some checking out to do at work).

After driving 3 hours and only getting 90 miles (traffic),

we were directed by police off the freeway to a gas station.

The I-8 was completely closed due to a crime scene/murder on the freeway.

So instead of waiting 2+ hours for it to open (it would've been late),

I turned around and went back home.

Drove 4 1/2 hours solo for nothing.

Left again first thing the next morning and made it no problem.

Drove alone again...that's how desperate I was to get my hair done.

But this time it went great.

Justin came later Thursday with Brent.

Anyway, Karen did my hair then we went straight to the wedding dinner that Jacob's family hosted.

Cute and yummy.

3/7
Photo by Uncle Craig

Got to my parents' and August got some freedom from his car seat and stroller.

He had fun with Cole and his guitar that night.

And the next morning (wedding day) he got his first swinging experience...also thanks to Cole.

 

3/8

Baby Food

3/4

The water Sally fed him a few days ago didn't count.

Neither did the little tastes of my banana the other day.

This was August's first official experience with baby food.

Justin loves his babies and loves to be the first one to feed them.

And it was time.

After nursing what felt like 18 times the night before, I gave in.

He inhaled that rice cereal and took a lovely nap afterwards.