Golden Birthday

That's right! Kyle went and turned 26 on the 26th of March. And since it was his Golden Birthday (Kyle claims that there is no such thing as "Golden Birthdays." I beg to differ. I have been waiting to turn 28 on the 28th of January since the 4th grade when I learned about them. I am very much a believer in them!) I came up with 26 reasons why I love the fellow.

And I posted them all over the shower. Cards can get lost, but writing in the bathtub? Can't miss it! It was a bit tricky finding a time to write it up. We bath the kids at 5:30 at night, and then spend the evening together.

But since my darling son still wakes up twice a night to eat, I figured I would write it up after one of those feedings. And just so you know, 1:30 AM is the PERFECT time to write in the shower.

That is, if you don't mind having slanty writing and a few smudges along the way. :) I never have been (and probably never will be) a perfectionist.

Which is also shown by these birthday candles. Notice anything funny about them? A "burn the candle from both ends" kind of look, perhaps? That, my friends, is what happens when you stick candles into a pan of brownies fresh out of the oven. The wax melts right off and becomes one with your dessert.

And you better believe the Golden Birthday boy devoured those brownies anyways. :)

Happiest of birthdays to this wonderful guy!

Next Stop: Bloomington!

Okay, so this is a bit wordy, but it's a big enough change in our lives that it constitutes having a blog post.

Here's the concise version:

We are moving to Bloomington, Indiana this summer where Kyle is going to attend Indiana University to get a PhD in Organizational Behavior/Human Resources.

And we are happy about it!

What? You didn't see that coming? Yeah, neither did we. Here's the long version to give you some background.

The original plan was to pursue a job when Kyle graduated with his Masters in Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology next month.

But in November the head of the I/O Psychology department e-mailed Kyle telling him about this PhD program at IU. Kyle saw it and quickly discarded it (afterall, a PhD wasn't the direction we were thinking of going.)

Then in December Kyle's mentor e-mailed him about the same PhD program. This time Kyle and I looked into it a little bit more. The degree would come from the Kelley School of Business (ranked #1 in the country) and it looked like we could get some funding, thanks to an institute that works directly with Latin America, to help offset the PhD costs and also get a living stipend. We weighed pros and cons of attending IU (Pro: IU Basketball. Con: IU Football) and decided there was no harm in applying.

In February Kyle found out he was one of the final candidates for the program. That was exciting in and of itself since they received over 100 applications. 2 Skype interviews followed and an invitation to meet faculty and tour the campus in March was extended.

And, as of two weeks ago, Kyle received an official offer to attend. (Side note: Kyle was the only applicant they even offered a position to.)

 (This originally said "Welcome Home! We Love you! Congrats!" Apparently, Avery thought it was too boring and added a few other finishing touches.)

And, as of today, we accepted.

We honestly feel guided to this point in our lives. If Kyle hadn't lived in Argentina for 2 years as a missionary for our church, if he hadn't been accepted to IUPUI for his Masters (which is a branch of IU), if his faculty wasn't familiar with his connection to Latin America, he would have never been accepted to this program (or have even known about it.) But he now will be working personally with a world renowned expert (!!!) in OB/HR and is setup to pursue his dream of becoming a professor!

We feel extremely lucky.

So here's to 5 more years of school, moving an hour south, and many other exciting changes!

Date Night

Okay, it's no joke that when your husband is in grad school, and your cashflow is minimal, and you have two kids under the age of 2, that date nights are non-existent.

So we decided to change that last week. And since we aren't too original, we decided to recreate one of our first dates.

Feast your eyes on our soap sculptures.

The category was animals and we picked what the other person would carve. Here is Kyle's sea-turtle emerging out of the water.

And this is my...well...it ended up being a hexa-pus.

I tell you, those legs were popping off all over the place. :)

And we've been accused of not being very romantic, so we did it all by candlelight.

Kyle now has fun sea creatures to keep him company in the shower. :)

Raising up Baby

You know those cute pictures of older siblings holding the baby of the family? The really cute ones that make your heart go all mushy and make you feel like everything is good and right in the world?

Yeah. I want some of those.

So I did a test run with Avery and one of her dolls.

And she did pretty good!

She actually did so good feeding the baby a bottle...

that she quickly upped her game to giving two!

Followed by a quick burping session. (Seriously, this is adorable!)

And since Avery never used a bottle herself before,

she gave it a try.

Like I said, I was pretty impressed with her. Sure there were a few headlocks to the newborn in the process...

but overall, she was a pretty good big sister!

We'll see how she does when we try her out with Sawyer! 

I might put a football helmet on him though.

Just to be safe.

Kids in Action

Alright, my kids are pretty amazing. And here is some visual proof of it.

Sawyer is one squawky, drooly, smiley, tummy time loving, tongue chewing kiddo. Like I said, he's amazing!

And Avery. Well she is one clean, obedient, clementine loving, teeth utilizing, creative toddler.

Yup, amazing!

3 months and counting.

Winter seems to be no one's favorite season.

And I completely understand why.

Our family is going into our third month of sickness. Not that we've had the same illness for three months. No, nothing that miserable.

But I am not kidding when I say I can count on my two hands how many days all four of us have been healthy. It's been brutal (I can already see my friends with chronic illnesses rolling their eyes now) for me. I blame it on nursery. I swear, one of those kids is a walking disease!

I am behind in cleaning (how often is one really suppose to vaccuum the floor?)

I am behind in my running (7 weeks until the half marathon...am I suppose to have run more than 3 miles at this point? Oh heaven help me!)

And I am behind on blogging!

So I will do my best to end March better than than January and February.

A highlight has included Sawyer not peeing on me. Like ever (I confess, that was my one reservation about introducing a boy into the family.)

A lowlight is Sawyer's inability to sleep pass 6 o'clock in the morning. We are up and running everyday at the same. exact. time.

A highlight has been putting pigtails and clips in Avery's hair. They are fun for the 5 minutes she lets them adorn her head.

A lowlight is that Avery is starting into full blown "2 year old" tantrums. *Sigh*

A highlight has been Kyle being awarded by his faculty and peers "The Outstanding Graduate Student in Industrial Organizational Psychology." Also he successfully defended his thesis last week!

A lowlight is that he has been really busy with his last semester (what do you expect when he TA's, goes to classes, works at the testing center, has an internship, does research, and is writing a thesis?) and we've missed him.

And really, when I lay everything out on the table like this, I feel like life has been pretty darn amazing.

...

But I am still reserving the right to hate on winter. I have some beef with that Groundhog claiming Spring was coming early.

Sitting

Avery has entered into a new phase. If she can get her feet in it, she'll try to sit in it. That includes (but is not limited to) boxes,

crock pots,

and big ole metal bowls.

The End