Catching Up

I have some MAJOR catching up to do. With a baby coming soon, hormones raging, a family vacation and some sick kids and a sick mama not much has been accomplished in our house as of late. So with only 5 1/2 weeks until baby comes, I am going to race to catch you up on our happenings. It has been a great couple of months.

Sooooo.... Valentines day was fun. The kids made some Valentines mailboxes where they would wake up to find a treat in them the first two weeks of February, building up to the big day. They were a hit!

Austin took the two older kids to the rodeo. This is a yearly tradition and a must see in our town. It's been voted best in the country lots of times. Lots of bull riding, bucking broncos, and a concert after. They had a ball!

Olivia had her second birthday the end of February. Can't believe my baby girl is growing up so fast. It breaks my heart. Hyrum set the table and put up all the decorations all by himself. He did an awesome job. He loves Olivia so much, they are the best of friends and I think Hyrum would do anything for her. He has even requested that Livvy come and wake him up every morning because it makes him so happy to see her.

Olivia is OBSESSED with Dora. She was so excited to see all the decorations, cake and balloon. What a sweetie.

The crew of kids ready for the cake.
Livvy saying cheese in front of her Dora chocolate fest.

She got a kick out of opening her presents and would sing happy birthday to anyone and everyone multiple times daily for the next couple of weeks. Happy Birthday big girl! We all love you so much!
We got some amazing news that required some serious celebrating. Austin got his fellowship slot in Gastroenterology. This means many things, 1) We don't have to move for another 3 years, 2) He goes right into his specialty fellowship and once he's done with that all our training will be done, 3) This fellowship is one of the most competitive in the country right now and the fact that he got it makes me so proud I could burst. He's always worked so hard for us, he has put in so many hours and years of studying and sacrifice and we have been blessed with this now. It is amazing to be able to get this fellowship right out of residency and we are very grateful! 4) He will not be deployable during the fellowship, which means 3 more years he will be with us, safe and sound.

We also had to celebrate the fact that our dear neighbors, the Craguns, also are able to stay here for the next 4 years. This was also somewhat unexpected and relieving news. They are our family here and we will gladly weather the jokes that we are the 'Nelguns' or the 'Craisons' if it means we get to be their neighbors for another few years. We do love them. So to celebrate, we all went to Gringos and had a great time.

The big kids.

The little ones, and Hyrum.

Mom and her belly enjoying an ice cream cone.

Hyrum also played basketball on base. He LOVED it and was really good at it too. I think his two great sporting loves are basketball and baseball, he does great at both of them.

Paige is my sweetheart. I just love her. She was just dancing around one day in her dress-up to one of her dancing movies. I brought out the camera. She has great calves don't you think?

I also have been teaching Paige, Olivia, and McKenzie dance this year every Tuesday morning. The girls do great and the get a kick out of Olivia and her antics. Olivia just thinks it is heaven and eats it all up. She does really well too.

McKenzie laughing hysterically at Livvy doing her 'happy back'.

Best Friends.