March, April, May

March ended with a chance to fly the kite Santa left in Maren's stocking. We had a lot of fun creating some of our own wind. Marn enjoyed it and still talks about it. Eliza just like the running around.

Easter came and went. It was fun to have Easter egg hunt with The Hundertmarks and Suzie and Erin at Papa's.

It was nice to see all the siblings even

if it was for a funeral. Maren Loves going out in the rain. Good thing it's spring.

Hey Beth, Maren loves the "princess hair style" you introduced to her. Too bad the master at getting her to hold still doesn't live nearby. Then just this Month Maren started to show a bit of interest in climbing trees. Here are some pictures of her in the tree by our back door.We hope all you mother's have a great Mother's Day!

Still Here!

Hey, a new post! Bet you didn't see that coming! My apologies. Facebook can be the devil when it comes to precious blog updating time. You can bet if we had the internet at home, Sunny would be updating this regularly. It reminds me of how often I updated my journal when I was on my mission.

Anyway, right now I'm in the school library dragging my feet on finishing a huge paper that is due tomorrow. I'm taking 18 credits this semester and it's a killer. Three out of my six classes have me doing a lot of papers and projects scattered throughout. Can't wait until May 16th. This morning I met with my internship coordinator. He's going to be sending my internship application to the State Police. My first choice was for the Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (STIC) in Springfield. I probably won't hear anything back until May. We'll see what happens...

Sunny's keeping herself busy. She's still going to the library story time and the church's play group. She's second councelor in the Young Women's Presidency, so she is busy with those activities as well. She's still watching Piper from 8-noon four days a week. Maren loves it (except when they don't share). Eliza's even getting big enough to where she can play with them at times.

I afraid there isn't much else going on in our world. Besides, I really need to work on this paper.

Why Did We Move Back?

I know, I know...we haven't updated in a while. It's been a busy couple of months.

Eliza turned one on October 18th. Her favorite thing to do lately is to annoy Sunny by constantly saying, "mom, mom, mom" in a very nagging way. She is walking a lot better now. She still doesn't have 100% confidence in herself, but she is getting there. She is understanding a lot more and she is also playing well with Maren. She is talking a lot as if she were on a phone. Anything she can hold in her hand she'll put up to the side of her head and start talking. Once in a while she let out a little laugh amongst the jibber-jabber. Just like Sunny.

Maren turned three on November 1st. Where do I begin with Maren... Sunny and I get a kick out of the words she invents. For instance, she's been telling us that we are "so greatiful" as a compliment. She is still toting around her baby animals and freaks out if Eliza gets too close. She has also turned into a Dora nut. She loves helping Eliza, sometimes a little too much.

Sunny and I are great. Anyway!

We had a horrible ice storm on the night of the 18-19th. It started at about 9 or 10 at night and didn't stop until about day break. We went outside breifly and found that the rain froze right on impact. It was crazy. No doubt we had weather like that when I was a kid, but I guess Vegas erased my memory of it. We looked out the window and saw that a large branch was hanging over our power line from the street pole, so we knew our power was going to go out, it was just a question of when. All night every few seconds we would hear the cracking and tearing of branches and trees all around. I wasn't able to sleep. I don't think Sunny did either. Finally, a little after three in the morning our power went out. The next morning, I found that we had enough hot water for me to take a shower by flashlight and I went out to survey the damage. I found that a smaller branch had hit the hood of my truck, but the layer of ice had protected it from any paint damage. There was at least a quarter inch layer of ice on everything. Tree branches were down everywhere. One of our bigger trees was almost stripped. The branch that held up our kid's swing was spared to Maren's joy. Of course, with the power out, it was quickly getting cold, so we loaded up the car and went down to Petersburg to stay with family. Our power was restored Saturday night, so we came back up on Sunday. Clean up is going to be interesting. I think we were spoiled in Vegas. I keep reminding myself that at least we won't have 115 degree days in the summer!