Brooke's Birthday

Brooke turned six years old yesterday!  We let her open her presents in the morning and then later that afternoon we headed to Topeka to see the Arab Shrine Circus.  Brooke's favorite parts of the circus was the trapeze acrobats, eating cotton candy and getting to ride on the back of an elephant with her dad, Kenna and Tyler.  I volunteered to be the picture taker since I was the only one who had rode on an elephant before.  (When I was little, Hogle Zoo offered elephant rides.)   Despite the overpriced concession and toy stands, I must say it was a worth while trip.  The kids really liked it.  

Last Thursday Brooke made a much needed trip to the dentist.  She had a permanent tooth growing in behind her baby tooth.  The dentist ended up pulling both of her two bottom baby teeth.  Brooke was quite the trooper.  She showed no signs of being scared, she was actually really excited.  I'm sure a lot of that excitement was because she knew the tooth fairy would bring her some money that night, and that she could show her friends at school her new smile.  

Here we go again!

We are moving again but this time closer to family. Jake got a new job in Afton, Wyoming at Star Valley Medical Center. Afton is a small town close to the Idaho Wyoming border, about 45 minutes south of Jackson Hole. "Star Valley" is made up of a handful of small ranching, farming towns, one of which is Afton. We feel very blessed and excited to be able to get this job and move closer to our families. My family will be about one and one half hours away and Jake's parents will be about three and one half hours away. Much better than 19 hours and our kids whole heartedly agree. They could not believe that we are going to be so close, they let out screams of joy!

Jake will probably move to Afton the first week in May to start work and then the kids and I will move after school is out which is May 22nd. We are hopeful that our house will sell. I have heard that the market has not been affected too much here in Manhattan but I will believe it when I see it. All I know is that I am not excited about spending the next 3 months keeping every single crumb off of my floors while we try to sell. What a pain. Does anyone have any great ideas about how to keep your house spotless all day long? At least it is just Kennady and I at home during the day so we don't make too big of a mess, although I do find myself cleaning a lot anyways. Why is it that kids can't keep their toys in their rooms? I guess it's because Kennady is attached to my side so she figures her toys need to come along too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Job Hunt

We visited my family this last week for a few days.  We are job hunting around Idaho, Wyoming and Utah trying to find something not so far away from our families.  We are sick of missing out on family outings and get togethers.  It was a quick trip so we didn't have much time to spend with everyone but I did manage to get in some quality baby snuggling.  I keep trying to convince my sister, Val, that she should just give me one of her twins.  She doesn't need two, right? I am sure that somedays she would consider it, I just have to catch her at the right moment.  Brooke loved every second that she was able to hold them and did a great job! Kennady, on the other hand, had to get over her jealousy and then she decided that the babies were kind of fun to be around.  Tyler was just to busy roughing up his uncles!