Dancing Queen

I still need to blog more about Christmas, but I have been in such a good mood today and just have to share my joy.  About two years ago I started a high intermediate-level adult ballet class with Ballet West once a week.  It was so, so hard for a long time (I hadn't danced in like 16 years), but I loved it so much!  I could tell I was gradually getting stronger and more flexible.  It was my outlet.  I attended this class for a little over a year, until I was about 21 weeks pregnant with Abigail.

Well, I made it my goal to start attending again after this past Christmas.  I went yesterday for the first time again and was seriously in heaven!  I still have lots of baby weight to lose, but I am excited to gain my flexibility and strength back.  I love having a body that can dance and being with other grown-ups who love dancing as much as I do.  The teacher is amazing!  He stretches our abilities and wants us to improve, but he always reminds us that we are not getting a grade and don't have to audition for anything.  We are just there to have fun.  And I am!

Goodbye, Angela

Earlier this month we said goodbye to Alan's sister Angela as she left for the MTC to prepare to serve her full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You can't actually see my HUGE belly very well in this picture!

 She gave each of my kids a little gift as she hugged them goodbye--I had no idea how she even had time to plan that!

Maggie got a new Elsa necklace

Evy got some new nail polish

Jared got $5 worth of state quarters for his quarter collection!

We will miss her while she is gone, but we love to write her letters and emails!

Here are also a few pictures of the local splash pad from that same week.  Jared likes to pretend he's getting too old for the splash pad, but I think he has fun when we get there.  Usually my kids like to play in the river, but this day they were enjoying the spouts of the ground.

We love Papa

Pi Day

My friend Kalee just sent me a Pi Day e-card (I had totally forgotten about Pi Day this year), so I thought I'd dedicate this post to two of my dearest friends and fellow math nerds.

Kalee is my dear friend that helped me survive my program at BYU. Some of those math classes were so dang hard, but life definitely got easier once Kalee and I found each other. We signed up for one or two or even three (!!!) classes together every semester and did pretty much all our homework together. Wow, I get all stressed just thinking about it! She not only helped me survive, but we survived happily with a lot of fun times to remember. Kalee continues to be one of my dearest friends. I haven't seen her in person for like 3 or 4 years (but I WILL see you this summer, right?), but she ALWAYS remembers my birthday and makes me feel special. I love you and miss you, Kalee!

My other math soulmate (ha!) is my former coworker Adrianne. She and I taught at the same high school together. She seriously was my inspiration to try new things to make my classroom even better. She is such an amazing teacher and her optimism and enthusiasm made her well-liked by all of her students and coworkers. I only ever heard good things about her! Adrianne has lived far away for the past few years, but she and I keep in touch every month or two with our over-the-phone book club we have--we are the only two members. :) I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours with Adrianne just a week ago after a LONG absence, so here is a recent picture! Thanks for squeezing a visit in, Adrianne!


Happy Pi Day to math lovers everywhere. Go eat some pie to celebrate!

Excitement!

Our lives have been very crazy lately, and I haven't wanted to blog about our exciting news in case something fell through. But we are moving very soon to a house! I'm not going to post pictures of the outside so that all of our stalkers won't find us, but here are some lovely pictures of the inside. (I wish our furniture looked this nice!) By the way, for those who are wondering, yes, this is the same house that I blogged about a while ago.








We are really excited! Our house has 5 bedrooms, a completely finished basement, a den, and a playroom, plus a swing set, small vegetable garden, and two fruit trees in the backyard. Wish us luck as we make this transition!

Remember When...

Since November is the month where we remember things we are grateful for, I thought I would share some things about our current apartment that I am grateful for. Or, rather, I will share some things about our old apartment in student housing at BYU that we no longer have to deal with. To be fair, we lived there for 3+ years and had many fond memories take place there. However, Alan and I periodically mention these drawbacks about our old apt. to each other so that we can be more appreciative of what we have. I'm sure some of our friends from school who also lived in Wymount will appreciate this post.

Remember when...

1. we had to share a bedroom with Jared because there was only ONE bedroom?
2. we had to wash all of our dishes by hand because there was no dishwasher?
3. we had to trek through the snow to our laundry facility whenever we wanted to do our laundry?
4. we had NO counter in the bathroom?
5. we had to re-roll our toilet paper every morning because our furnace vent would unravel it every night?
6. the bathroom was HOT and the rest of the apartment was freezing (during winter)?
7. we had to turn the volume on the TV up and then down again every time our furnace kicked on?
8. we could hear EVERY conversation our neighbors had if they were standing in their bathroom?
9. our disposal would spit up leftover fish guts from our next-door neighbors' apartment into our sink? (our neighbors ate some interesting foods and our disposals were all connected)
10. we had no room for items of furniture like a piano, crib, changing table, desk, coffee table, etc?
11. our kitchen table was actually a tiny desk? (thanks for the long-term loan, Mimi!)
12. we had to park far away if some annoying visitor parked in our NUMBERED parking spot? (not one of our visitors--someone else's)
13. we had Crest toothpaste-blue countertops, complete with gold flecks?
14. we had NO room to walk around after we got all of our baby paraphernelia?
15. we had cinderblock walls?
16. we couldn't use our gas stovetop if our oven was turned on? (we probably should have had maintanence look at that one...)
17. we lived in about 450 square feet? (the square footage listing on the student housing website included our semi-large patio--um, yeah, like that should count!! Also, we did NOT have the large storage closet since we were on the first floor.)

Aaahh, home sweet home. I think I will kiss everything in my current apartment.