Fun in February

Here's some of our February fun: 

Cute kids all dressed for church. I am in love with Orson's outfit!

Basketball rivalries - BYU beat the undefeated Gonzaga in the last game of the season. It was amazing! 

Lots of trying to find ways to have fun despite the cold. Pushing eachother in buckets was a hit. I also made a little water table in the shower to keep the girls entertained for a bit. It may have backfired - before I knew it all the girls were in their birthday suits and Orson was soaked to the bone. At least they had fun?

Of course dressing up never gets old... except maybe for sweet, patient Kiara.

Eliza created this outfit to keep her head warm at night! Pretty cleaver.

We were blessed with a few days of amazing weather the middle of February. Temperatures hit the 70's and we LOVED it!

Orson has a new obsession with "li-lighs" aka lights. He loves to turn the lights on and off. He's learned how to push the step stool over to the light switch so he can reach them. The other day we were at Lowe's and he was in heaven in the lighting aisle. He also signs light in the most adorable way ever. Such a cutie!

Michael has been working with Hazel and Eliza on improving their ASL grammar. They love having "dad school" after dinner every now and then. 

The big girls also enjoyed a fun date with daddy to an ISU gymnastics meet!

Michael spent a few days in San Antonio for a Deaf education conference. He had a great time and got to enjoy some nice weather!

Lenora continues with her Trolls obsession. She was so thrilled when it was finally released on DVD and she would watch it! Now she and Eliza love to play Trolls dress up complete with Trolls hair. And Orson? Well he just really, really, really LOVES popcorn! 

This picture is actually from January when Michael traveled to Utah for Aunt Janet's funeral. It's such a wonderful picture of his whole family I had to include it. Awesome parents with awesome kids! 

It was a fun month, but we'll just be over here longing for Spring and more sunshine! 

Beat Street

Here's sweet Miss Hazel all ready for her second grade concert. This shockingly big girl was poised, graceful, and wonderful in her show. And I can't get over how much this sweetie looks like me - it's crazy!

I love going to school concerts! I love seeing how the kids interact with eachother and their teachers. I'm love seeing their individual personalities shine through. This concert included several dances which Hazel loved. There's a short clip of the scarf dance. They also did a polka and "Turkey in the Straw" but those clips were too big to upload.

Orson, Lenora, and I also were able to surprise Hazel one day and eat lunch with her at school. I love surprising my kids for lunch even more than school concerts! It's fun to get a glimpse of their social life outside of home, meet their friends, visit, and make them feel special. Hazel and I chatted about her day and the exciting science project they started in class. She and the boy across from us took turn trying to give me bunny ears. Hazel treated her little siblings very sweetly, chatted with them about her school, and beamed at all her friends admiration. We love you Miss Hazel! 

New Year, New Adventure!

This year has started with a bang! It's definitely going to be a year full of new adventures and changes for our family. In January,Michael was offered and accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor job at Eastern Kentucky University! Which means we will be moving to Kentucky at the end of the summer! 

As with all of our moves in the past, we have seen Heavenly Father guiding us to this job. We had decided we'd remain in Iowa until Michael finished his PhD, at which point we'd begin looking for a tenure-track job. ISU has been great, but they don't plan to grow their department at all and Michael already feels capped in his current position. Plus a tenture-track job is the next logical step. They are hard to find and even harder to land so we expected it would be several years before we moved. But for some reason, Michael felt prompted to look at EKU and found they had his dream job posted. Literally, his dream job. With nothing to lose, he sent his application the day before the search closed.

Within a week he'd had a first interview and at the beginning of December they flew him out for an on campus interview. Remember when he landed in the ER with a kidney stone? Well that was the day before he was supposed to fly out. Thankfully, he was blessed to be able to complete his trip and the interview without needing his pain medication and with minimal pain. It was such a huge tender mercy!

Michael LOVED everything about Kentucky while he was there. The job, the department at EKU, the people he will be working with, the area. He said the department is much more family oriented than here and there are so many more Deaf people. They have two BA degrees and plans to add two Master's programs the Fall of 2018.

Even with so many positive things, it was a difficult decision to accept the job. The health insurance isn't great (and we have the most amazing insurance at ISU). Kentucky is even further from our families. Was this the right job? The right place? Somewhere we felt we could live for a decade or more?

In the end, just as when we moved here, we felt so much peace about the decision to move. We are excited for this new adventure! We're excited to FINALLY settle down in one place for more than a few years. We're excited for the beautiful Kentucky landscapes. I'm SO excited about the mild Kentucky winters! We're excited to be within a days drive of so many cool places - New York, DC, the beach, the south, etc. We're excited for mountains again!!!!

The kids are okay with the move. Obviously Orson doesn't care. Lenora doesn't really know what it means,but she talks about moving to Kentucky a lot. Eliza will be sad to leave her friend Abe, but otherwise she's very happy about our new adventure. Hazel is a bit hesitant. She actually understands what it means to move. She's going to miss her friends a lot. But she too has been blessed with peaceful feelings about our move. She told us, "I know we're supposed to move to Kentucky, but I don't really want to!" Slowly, she's warming up to the idea. She LOVES horses and is looking forward to all the horses out there. She wants to go to the Derby! I think, in the end, it will be hard, but she will adjust quickly and love it out there.

So now we just finish out the school year, Michael finishes up his PhD classes, takes his "comps" (huge tests over all his PhD work), and teaches summer classes at ISU. We sell our house, find a new house (hopefully in that order), have family come to Iowa for Hazel's baptism this summer, than pack up and move. Yikes!  This is our fourth major move since we've been married so at this point I'm not worried. It always works out. Remind me of this come July okay?

Terrific, Trying Three!

Sweet Lenora you're three! I have a feeling it's going to be a terrific and trying year for you. You are so terrific in so many ways. You are an awesome sister. You encourage the big girls and find genuine joy in their accomplishments at school. You play with Orson and make him happy.

The pigtails and overalls! I love it beyond words.

You are a terrific daughter! You love to cuddle and give the best hugs. You happily help unload the dishwasher. You run to greet Daddy when he gets home from work. We love you so much! 

Three is also going to be trying. You are developing strong opinions! You tell me, "I want to do things the way I want to do them!" Here's how you wanted to go play in the snow...

One night you decided dinner was "disgusting" just by looking at it. You threw a fit for half an hour before finally tasting one bite. Then you decided it was awesome and licked your plate clean. What will we do with you!?!

You love to read. Frogy books are your favorite.

You're learning to write your name! Not bad for barely three!

You are a terrific little ice skater!

 

Your favorite princess is Anna from Frozen. You will dress up when Hazel and Eliza do, but you're much more of a cowgirl at heart. Given the choice you prefer to play dolls or trains over dress up. You're always up for a good wrestle with Orson!

Your favorite color is orange and that's what you wanted for your birthday cake!

We celebrated your special day with breakfast doughnuts and presents in the morning, a day of playing with Tabby, and breakfast for dinner!

Thanks for being incredible Lenora! Thanks for your love, your laughter, your silliness, your strong opinions, and your snuggles. We love you! 

January

We rang in 2017 with a house FULL of people. We were hosting the seven Wangsgards while they were in town for Glinda's funeral. Add in the Farrells and a few friends and we had 15 kids in the house! I feel like that's how this year is going to be for our family - big, loud, crazy, and tons of fun! 

Eliza has taken to stuffing Ellie in her shirt. One day I found this picture of me about her age doing the exact same thing! Like mother, like daughter! 

Orson spent the month climbing on everything he can reach, falling off, and doing it all over again!

Sweet Lenora had a birthday! (more to follow)

And Miss Hazel and I bravely walked 6 blocks to her friends house after an ice storm so she could keep her play date. It was treacherous! I love this girl and the great person she's growing up to be!

We played trains.

Ice skated inside...

.... and outside.

Enjoyed a family date for ice cream on a cold Saturday.

 Dreamed of mountains and skiing!

Played with this crazy puppy! She learned if she waits carefully by the front door until one of the little kids is going out she can escape and gallivant through the neighborhood enjoying the snow. Naughty!

We enjoyed a snow day from school complete with crafts and dress up.  

Eliza wrote the most adorable story....

Overall it was a typically winter month. Now to hunker down and survive another month or two. I'm already longing for spring.