Now that I'm finally starting to catch up with daily life and the editing that's still on my plate, I was going to sit down and start catching up the blog with what we've been up to since Thanksgiving. Then.... our hard drive with all our personal pictures went kaput. We can still access the files, but it's something with the power or something that should be fixable... but it costs money, so it's being put on the back burner until we come up with said money. Can I just say (again) how excited I am for Bryce to finally be making a paycheck in just a few months!?!? **I'm having my own personal dance party right now just thinking about it**
So, this sums up the past few months since November.
We moved November 8th to our town home. It's a cute little neighborhood where the majority of the other medical/dental/PhD etc. students live and we are LOVING it here. There are Bachelor nights every Monday, girl's nights on Thursday nights where we stay up way too late, there's a big field outside our back door where all the kids play in the afternoon while the mom's chat and hang out, I'm just doors away from great friends, play dates almost every day, and the biggest thing of all.... The ward is amazing!!!! We love this ward and wish we were in it the entire time.
My dad flew out December 3rd and flew back to Utah on the 5th with the boys so Bryce and I could drive across the country. We were planning on being in Utah for 2 months and we wanted our own car there, and he had some interviews along the way. We stopped in Iowa City and stayed with Brandon and Brittany. Brittany and I had an afternoon to ourselves and had lunch at Panera (oh, how I'll miss that blessed restaurant) and went shopping (much to the boys' dismay) while Bryce was interviewing. We also stopped in Omaha for another one of Bryce's interviews. Omaha totally won me over. I was not expecting that one, but it was an awesome city!! The night of Bryce's dinner, I went downtown and got some Thai food, walked around a bit and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the cute little downtown area. The next day during his interview I went to see Twilight. It was me and a bunch of other ladies who looked like moms. I'm guessing we all wanted to see it without our husbands and without children, and it was great :) Well, not the movie, but sitting there by myself was. Omaha, you were great. I'd be okay if we had to live there one day!
Next, we made our way to Utah. We got the boys and started our 2 months stay. Bryce was in and out of town a lot the first few weeks with his interviews. He made 4 trips down to Texas total and we decided we needed to choose between San Antonio and Temple as our top choices, so I went with him on one of the trips. We visited both cities and looked at houses in both. Thanks to our parents for watching the boys AGAIN while we were gone.
While in Utah we were busy. To name a few things:
Had a super hero birthday party for Britton, went on a sleigh ride with my family in Heber, we helped around Bryce's parents house as they were doing some remodeling projects and getting it ready for Bryce's siblings to get home (painted, sorted through my mother-in-law's craft room, cleaned out closets, sorted through clothing and the bathroom, changed out all electric outlets, etc.), I learned how to make my mother in law's amazing rolls and did lots of baking with Bryce's mom, had Christmas parties with both families, spent time with Triest and Lara, I took pictures for Bryce's cousin, Ashley's wedding (so great, so much fun, beautiful couple!), did a little bit of shopping, spent time with Ryan and Jessie, took pictures of my nephew Boston, went to Erica's basketball games, lots of family time, BYU volleyball game with R&J, went to the Egbert cabin with Bryce's high school friends (so fun!!), got an iPhone (!!!), had a lovely Christmas, welcomed home Bryce's brother and sister from their missions, did lots of nails at my mom's house, got my ring re-dipped (finally!), lots of trips to the temple, saw my cousin Tacy get married, had a New Year's party at the Tranters, watched my sister deliver my nephew (I have never seen a live birth before and it is amazingly beautiful!), helped my mom clean the pantry, cleaned out my closet and found my riding boots (so excited about this!), celebrated Damon's 1st birthday the same day Sam got home, gave my father in law photoshop lessons, finally talked my mom out of acrylic and switched her to Shellac, took pictures for my friend Jami and her family, and lots of hanging out with my mom while Bryce was out of town and my dad was in Africa.
Something so fun that happened while we were there was that Damon started TALKING and WALKING! His first real word he would say on purpose is "hot," which he learned from the fireplace. I was trying to teach him the sign for hot, but he just started saying the word and signing it at the same time - whatever works, I guess! :) And he started walking more seriously while there. He's been taking steps since he was about 9 months old, but right at 11 months, he started walking everywhere! He now says hot, mama, dada, baba (bottle), woof, cat, clock, cracker, ball, hat, car, truck (guck), Britton (bitt), more, no no, all done, several animal sounds, that, this, and I'm sure I'm missing a few. He's a talker that's for sure.
Maybe that was more than a few things. Like I said, we were busy! And I don't think I mentioned all of it.
Bryce left January 23rd or so with Britton and drove the car back home. I stayed a few days longer until they were back home and flew back that weekend. It was chaos when we got back home. Moving our house to our town home was NOT a fun process. We have a storage unit that is filled top to bottom. Since coming home we have sold our kitchen table, my vanity and stool, our couches, our bookcases, and trying to sell a few other things. We've made room for more boxes and will slowly start going through everything. We've made a lot of trips to Goodwill already and will be having a huge yard sale in a few weeks for extra baby things and knick knacks we don't want to keep. We are both so excited to buy things we actually want instead of the cheapest decorations I could find and hand-me-downs! Even if we go a few months without furniture and decorations, it's totally worth it to us!
Britton starts soccer in a few weeks and is in round 2 of swim lessons. Damon is getting into everything, is still so sweet, but such a little stinker. He's learning how to do things so much faster than Britton did just because he has an older sibling to watch. He's a smart little guy and makes me laugh. Britton is practicing writing his name and still working on sight reading words. He's reading so well! Damon loves slides and swings and kicking balls and being outside. Britton loves bugs, being outside with his neighborhood friends, preschool, and swimming.
So, the next thing to mention is residency. We have finalized our rank list and turn it in I think this week sometime. Bryce has heard from 3 different programs that we feel pretty confidently that we'd have our pick as to where we'd go. Once all the rank lists are finalized I will do another post about this. :) We are very excited about it and feel good about any of our top 5 choices, but really any of our top 10 would be great!
It's a very busy time for us, hence no posts for a while (and the dang external hard drive). I'm hoping to slow down my picture taking so I can concentrate on family and moving for a little bit. We feel very blessed to be in the position that we are with our house selling so quickly, being able to live in this great neighborhood, having a good say in where we'd like to move, and things working out so well. Of course we have our ups and downs like anyone, but we have 2 beautiful boys, lots of love in our home, and an exciting few months ahead of us. And hopefully, I can get some pictures soon to update the blog a little bit more. :)
