update!

I haven't blogged in a while, and there is MUCH to catch up on.

1. We had Charlotte's baby blessing on April 1st with lots of family from all around! My fam came from Louisiana, Jonathan's parents & sister came from Parma, siblings and grandparents from Utah and Uncles & Aunts from Rexburg & Idaho Falls. It was spectacular and I felt so blessed to have so many people there that we cared about. It was an intimate setting with just our families present.  We did it in the RS room of our church in between Conference Sessions, and the Bishop came with his wife. He caught me completely off guard when he stood up in front of everyone and talked about how much I have done for the ward and would be missed...it made me realize just how much I love that ward and all the good folk we've come to know there. In the midst of moving I hadn't considered how I would feel leaving my "ward family", and it kinda all hit me in that moment.

Anyways, the blessing was beautiful and I cried through it all while trying to quietly shove snacks in Talmage's mouth so he wouldn't scream out (it was his nap time). 

2. We moved! I can't believe it actually happened. For the last 2 months we have been packing and cleaning and selling our furniture and organizing our junk- all for the move! It worked out perfect having my family come for the blessing when they did, because they were able to help us load up the U-Haul and clean our apartment. It was a HUGE blessing. I cannot tell you how nice it was seeing all those boxes & totes that had been cluttering my space for so long disappear into the great big truck :] We slept in our bare apartment Monday night on a mattress pad (Talmage had his mattress still, he's spoiled like that) and finished the rest of the cleaning on Tuesday before we headed out for good.

Unfortunately, since we ended up renting a truck instead of a trailer (trailer was too small), I had to drive the kiddos BY MYSELF while Jonathan drove the U-Haul 5 hours to Parma. It actaully wasn't too bad...Talmage had his dvd player and Charlotte slept most of the way, only waking to eat. We pulled over about 5-6 times for various reasons and it was almost funny... we spent that night at J's parents house in Parma and left early the next morning for the long 7 hour trek to Salem, Oregon.

This time Jonathan and I rode together with our kids, his dad drove the U-Haul, and his mom drove her car. We went through a couple of snowy and scary mountain ranges, lots of rainpour, and saw beautiful tall pine trees and waterfalls. It was hard, I'm not gonna lie.... and a few times I thought I was going to lose my mind. But we arrived in our new city with our sanity in one piece!

I was so nervous about walking into our apartment for the first time, since I found it online and was only going by the pictures. But we LOVE IT! It's so spacious I hardly know what to do with all the space. Talmage had his own bathroom and its huge, probably the biggest bathroom I've ever seen in an apartment. Our living room is 3 times bigger than what we had before and the kitchen has so many cabinets! There's brand new carpet throughout and the walls are a nice cream color as opposed to the stark white walls in our old place. We even have a little fenced in patio for Talmage to play in :] So needless to say we really like it, but we don't know how long we'll be able to live here until Jonathan gets a job after his internship.

The day after we moved in we had to go find furniture, since the U-Haul was due back soon and we wanted it for transport. We found an Ashley Outlet warehouse with some killer deals! It feels SO good to have a table and chairs again...we also found a sectional :] So things feel a little but back to normal, but it will take some time for me to feel like this is home.

The town itself is great, we live 5-10 minutes from all the stores! I've already picked up a Costco membership :]

3. Easter Sunday. The funny things is, with all the chaos of moving in and getting unpacked, we didn't realize this Sunday was Easter until late the night before. But I already had my Easter box out so we put up a few decorations and filled eggs for Talmage.

The next day, Easter, I took some pics of the little ones in their Sunday best with their bunnies from great-Grandma Heiss. It was pretty fun getting them to cooperate :)

and here's Talmage eating his breakfast. He is so goofy I just love him so much :D

And then we met our new ward. Its a family ward, and so very different from our married student ward before (obviously). There is LOTS of kids and LOTS of older (ahem..old) people. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person in Relief Society. One old lady actually told me I was smothering my baby (Charlotte's face was smushed against my chest, as she does all the time...). I found it difficult to feel comfortable but it WAS our first week there so we'll see...

Talmage had no problem fitting in though. When we picked him up from nursery the leader told me that all the other boys were so mellow, and that having Talmage there was "a treat". She said, "He is so...full of life!" Haha...that's a nice way to put it, I guess. Jonathan later told me that while in Elder's Quorum he could see the nursery kids walking outside, and one familiar little tot running into the parking lot while a leader chased after him...yep, that's our little treat all right!

After church, corn dogs, and a nap Talmage got to hunt for eggs. We hid them all around our apartment and some outside. He did MUCH better than last year at finding the eggs and dropping them in the bucket, though he still tried to sneak a few "crack the egg open and shove all the candy into your mouth" moves...

 

 I think that's it for now. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can make this place our home. I've unpacked everything but that doesn't complete the picture, not yet :/