Hangry

Hungry + Angry.

It's a word some friends introduced to us and now we use it all the time.

It actually helps lighten the mood when you're coming home from say, 3 hours of church, and you're a little bit... hangry. Just tell your spouse, "I'm a little bit hangry right now, so maybe we should talk after we eat." And they totally get it.

Well now that Makenzie is in kindergarten, she gets out at about 11:30 and boy are the kids HANGRY on that drive home. 

Here is a sample conversation from today.

Jarom: I don't like anyone.

Makenzie: Jarom, I thought you said you like Mom.

Jarom: I do like Mom, but I don't like Dad.

Makenzie: Why don't you like me? I always give you the rest of the snacks I don't want.

Jarom: No. I don't like you.

Makenzie: Fine, I'm just going to put you on my naughty list then.

(Laughter from me)

Makenzie: What? I do have a naughty list. I put all of the people who don't like me on it.

This is followed by a constant stream of Jarom telling me he wants to go camping RIGHT NOW, he wants gum, and he doesn't like this van we're in. Makenzie is telling me she's not eating anything until she gets a doughnut. What??

And on and on we go.

Good times.

And if I'm not too hangry, it can actually be pretty entertaining.

Especially when, as soon as they finish eating, Makenzie is happily playing with Kyle and Jarom is literally giving me hugs and kisses. So funny.

Yesterday we took the kids up the canyon for a picnic and a hike. We've had a lot of work to do around the house lately, and we all needed some fresh air. It was one of those, "why don't we do this more??" kind of moments. We live so close to the mountains, the most beautiful part of Utah, and instead of going up them, we just drive by and look at them every day. Crazy.

And since Kyle's 1st birthday is tomorrow, we decided to get some solo shots of the little guy. He is the most expressive little baby, just love that bundle of love! 

I got some cute ones of Makenzie so I put those in, too. I tried to get some solo shots of Jarom but they came out blurry... he was actually still, I just have no idea what I'm doing with the camera. But I tried. Here are the good ones!

 

So, so fun. Can't wait to do it again.

Home

Let's go back in time together.

It's late 2005.

Justin has just begun his first year teaching middle-school Spanish.

I am 9 months pregnant with Makenzie.

And I mean nine months as in due already.

We are moving into our very first home.

It's no dream home by any means, but we got an amazing deal on it because Justin is a teacher.

It's old but updated and we are ecstatic about it.

We only have to live in it for one year to get the teacher deal.

We know we'll only stay the year, two years max.

And then, life happened.

And we all know that around that time... whoever thought they were going to buy their house and make out like a bandit a few years later... didn't make out like a bandit.

We still have some equity, which is lucky, but we weren't going anywhere until Justin got an administrator job.

And that brings us to now.

Justin finally got his administrator job.

We said we would "look casually" for houses and if a really good deal came up, we would do it.

Well, it didn't take long.

We found a really good deal. 

And we're moving.

And we're excited.

And call me crazy, but I'm also a little bit sad.

We brought all of our precious babies home from the hospital to this house.

All of our Christmas mornings with the kids have been in this house.

We have countless memories playing in the backyard.

We've put our hearts and souls into more updates and renovations.

We have slaved away in the yard (trust me, it was a real mess when we got it).

And we have some great friends in our ward who we're really going to miss... not that we won't see them anymore, but it will be less often.

So yeah, tonight while Makenzie was pushing Kyle on the swing set and I was running around watering and putting toys in the shed, it just hit me. No matter how much I complained about it, there is always going to be a special place in my heart for this little house that we started our family in.

 

Kindergartener

After years of preparation, the day has finally come. Yesterday was Makenzie's first day of kindergarten. 

We are going to be moving at the end of this month, and the school district where we're moving has year-round school. So just a few days after we put the offer on the house, we had her all enrolled for her new school. She was ecstatic that she got to start kindergarten so soon.

 

 

I totally thought I was going to cry when she walked into that school. I never thought I would cry about stuff like that until her preschool graduation a few months ago. She just had this huge, beaming smile on her face and it got me a bit choked up. Just so proud of my baby girl.

But thankfully I was spared and didn't cry. I was just plain ole excited for her. So far she's loving it and said she played with her new friend all of recess. When I asked what her name was, she said, "I can't remember her name, but I know what she looks like." So cute.

We've been waiting for this day for so long and I'm so happy for Makenzie that it's finally here!