Evelyn's 5th Birthday

Evelyn is officially 5 years old which means my first born is growing up!  We partied for her birthday this year with lots of family, cousins, Aunts/Uncles, and Grandmas.  We celebrated her and her cousin Mark's birthday together.  Evelyn loves her cousin Mark who was turning 7 with August birthdays only one day apart.

We had relays, gunny sack races, swimming, presents, and homemade ice cream cake.  Daryl and I got Evelyn a guitar for her birthday and she plays it all day long singing out loud Taylor Swift lyrics:)

Relay partners--each kid got to pick an adult

We love you Evelyn!

The Move

Operator Jane playing with the office phones

We did it!  We are settled and almost unpacked.  Daryl's brothers (Bryce and Shayne) made a deal with him that if he went mountain biking with them in Utah they would come back with him and help us move.  Pretty good trade off!  They were so helpful and had themselves in for a lot of work since we had farm animals to move too.  While Daryl was in Utah my Mom and I packed everything in boxes so it would be ready for the guys when they came.  My Mom is so helpful and cheerful to be around which made packing mountains of stuff pretty enjoyable.  Can't thank both our families enough for all they have done to help us move!!!  While my Mom and I were packing it came time to pack my wedding dress which both of us decided was the perfect time to try it back on!  It was a good break and we both got a good laugh.

Here are some pictures from the last Sunday at our old house...love auto timers for family shots!

We are moving...again

  

a view we will miss

"Nothing is more constant than change." --Heraclitus

There really is no way to avoid change.  We have decided to move back to Richland.  We were here exploring a commercial bee business with the intent to buy it but after a lot of thoughts, prayers, sleepless nights, and bee stings it just wasn't right for our family right now.  That is the simplified version.  We were planning on staying here a year but we kind of knew by this summer that we had our answer.  And then the house we lived in before opened up for rent so we jumped on the opportunity so Evelyn could start and finish kindergarten at one place.  Such a hard decision!  Can't express that enough but when you have certain feelings you just have to go with it even if it doesn't make perfect sense.  As a dear friend once said to me "When your life makes sense, give me a call!  I sure would love to hear about it!" Implying that usually life doesn't make sense.  The optimist in me thinks life always makes sense looking back on it just not always moving forward.  I loved our time here and don't feel like it was an experience wasted.  I learned so much and loved living on the quiet seven acres in our little ranch house.  And hey I think Daryl even achieved getting the first masters degree in bee keeping!;)  Beekeeping is something we will always love!

 In other news our once baby chicks are now laying eggs!

And this years Thanksgiving dinner keeps getting bigger and bigger...

 If you look closely you can see a duck behind the white turkey.  He was raised with these two turkeys and really believes he's one of them.  Why do we have a duck?  I have no idea but my husband brought him home with the turkeys as babies and he was pretty darn cute.

I have always said I am absolutely not a cat person!  But I have some of the best farm cats around--and yes I am one of those people who takes pictures of their cats sleeping...

So what are we going to do with all these animals!?  Well, luckily I have the best in-laws and they have said they will take them in at their house.  Hopefully they enjoy it as much as we have.  I know I am going to miss taking care of them I might just have to get a social life with all my extra time:)  I am happy that we will be able to still see them.

 I will miss our country view.  We have spent countless nights on the porch just enjoying the cool nights in complete privacy.  I think that comment just made me sound old but I truly will miss it.  

I am so grateful for this experience and have loved our time spent here.  It has challenged me and taught me a lot about myself.  Sister Hinckley said it best:

“The trick is to enjoy life.  

 Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.” 

   

                                               So for now we will continue to find joy in the journey!

Joanna's Birthday Weekend

We had a busy weekend.  It started Thursday by taking the girls to the Moses Lake Waterpark.  We usually try to go once a summer.  I went with some friends and enjoyed the day.  Cute story.  I was walking ahead of Evelyn and Jane at the park when I hear Evelyn say to Jane "Oh Jane your feet must be too hot on this sand"  I turned around to little mama Evelyn carrying Jane across the sand.  Proud moment for me and I even was fast enough to snap a picture.  Usually it's like "QUICK grab the camera the girls are doing something cute...oh wait yep missed it!"

After the park we drove to Tri-Cities to Daryl's Parents house since he was working over there that weekend.  I was kidnapped that night and brought to work with him.  He moves bees at night so we didn't get home until two in the morning!  It was nice to chat and keep him company though.  Always good conversations when you're stuck driving in a truck for hours late at night:) 

The next day we went swimming at my Mom's house and played.  My Mom made me a cake and watched our girls that night so Daryl and I could go out.  We ate dinner at Costa Vida and saw a movie.  I also added some pictures from our last date night rock climbing.  I love climbing with Daryl.

On Saturday Daryl took the girls back to Yakima and I stayed back for a couple hours and went shopping with my Mom.  So nice to shop with an adult!  The only shopping I do is at the grocery store so it was nice.  I even got to do a little school shopping for Evelyn.  We went out to lunch and then got my favorite flavor of ice cream from Baskin Robbins which is "World Class Chocolate" and has been my favorite since forever ago.  When I got home Daryl and the girls had picked out a cake for me!

Jane loves riding in the work truck

 Evelyn was so excited about my cake and walked it very carefully to the table.  I had a great Birthday weekend and lots of cards, calls, and texts from family and friends.

Evelyn and I before church today--she was excited to give a talk in primary