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Monday, March 31, 2014

Where has march gone?

This month blogging has been off my to-do list.
It's been quite the month.
My emotions have been flying everywhere, and I have been bursting into tears for no reason.
I apologize to everyone who I have not been as kind or as thoughtful as I should have been.
I feel like this past month has stretched me in every direction, and I hope that I have come out of it a stronger, happier and more determined person.

To recap:
*I had a delightful lunch/afternoon with my Grandma G.  We had a great time eating at Red Lobster, and she took me on a generous shopping spree.  Everyone should have a Grandma G telling them how beautiful they are when they go shopping. :)
*Mr. H and I were able to attend the temple with our ward and do sealings.  It was such a great time: we were able to do some Elder Nelson's family names, which I thought was great. :)  We enjoyed pie afterwards and loved hanging out with our friends.  Thank you Sister Baldwin and my parents who babysat C.
*The H family had a birthday dinner for me which was so nice of them.  They do such a great job at including me in their family and supporting my family.  It was really great to see everyone!
*Mr. H had spring break, and we decided we needed to do a couple of fun things. We went skiing for the day at Powder mountain and it was a BLAST.  Such a gorgeous day, perfect snow and we had a ball together.  It was so nice to be together and not be plagued by so much worry and stress.  Thank you to the H family who babysat C for us. :)  Also--Mr. H tried snowboarding this time and he was SO good!  He looked so cool going down the slopes, which motivated me to try some harder runs as well.



*I was able to go up to Idaho with my cute parents for my cousin's wedding at the end of the week.  Mr. H and C had a daddy-son bonding day which I was told went very well.  I had a great time with my family up in Idaho.  My cousin looked beautiful and the wedding was gorgeous.  It was so great to see my family!  We had a really nice visit with my grandparents who both have had major surgeries within the last couple of months.  So grateful they are all well!
*The next day we took C to the U of U's Art Museum.  It was really fun!  C loved pushing his stroller through the galleries.  The following pictures were in a really odd exhibit, which featured a live birth on screens inside.  We didn't stay for very long. :)

*That afternoon we got to attend my other cousin's Andrew and Nikki's wedding.  It was lovely, and they are such delightful people.  It was fun to see my G side of the family.
*St. Patrick's day came and went....I totally forgot and Mr. H came home and pinched me.  Oh well, maybe next year we'll get into it a little more.
*Here in the village we get to enjoy a lot of free things at our activities.  There was a pizza night, and you should have seen how quickly our little neighborhood devoured that free pizza.  Seriously: if you say free, people are going to come.
*We got to go to the temple again, while Grandma T watched C at City Creek.  It is always so good to go to the temple.
*Mr. H got to fly out and tour Boston University. He had such an amazing time.  He got to stay in a gorgeous hotel and be wined and dined.  He loved meeting with everyone and felt really excited about it.



Instead of a selfie, he took a picture of his food instead.


*C and I headed to my parents for the weekend.  It is so nice of them to let us hang out there with them.  We enjoyed hiking and relaxing together.  I got to meet up with a friend and her baby boy and we chatted and let C run around the playground.  It was so nice to see her.  My parents and A and I played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan.  It was really fun.
*My birthday came!  My sweet parents pulled out the birthday table cloth, and then we headed to Sill's cafe for a birthday breakfast with my friend K.  It was delicious!  The scones are a must have.  We then borrowed a bike trailer and all of us took C on a bike ride.  It was gorgeous and really fun!  C loved being pulled!  We got home, and had a delicious birthday lunch and cake.  It was so nice of K to come up from Provo and be with us.  She is a true friend.  My parents were so sweet in hosting C and I for the weekend.  They always make it so nice and just take care of us.  It's always hard to have Mr. H leave, but they made so we didn't have to dread it.  Later, we all took naps, and then C and I met up with Mr. H's parents for ice cream.  It was fun! C likes ice cream! (But only from Grandma T).  Then C and I headed to our adult session of Stake Conference.  My presidency was in charge of the nursery.  It was so sweet, the girls that had been asked to come babysit all had to cancel at the last moment.  The man in charge of finding people was starting to get really stressed out.  But then his daughter, who's birthday also was that day, said "Dad, I'm turning 12 and would like to do service for my birthday."  So their whole family did the babysitting for the nursery that night.  She was such a good example to me of putting service above selfish wants.
Anyway, after that session, I got C to bed and finally got to go get Mr. H from the airport.
We celebrated together the next day, and had a delightful time!  Thanks to everyone, I got a fancy new camera!  I'm thrilled!  It was great to celebrate with Mr. H and C.
I don't feel like I'm 24, but I'm sure it will be a great age to be.  :)


*This past week was really stressful.  Mr. H and I have been trying to decide our future, and man it has been really hard!
So to calm our nerves, I picked up Mr. H from school and we just drove.  We decided to let C play at the Church History Museum (which was so cute!).  We then walked around Temple Square and just enjoyed being together.
We tried to go to the temple again, but got there too late.  So to make the best of things, we headed to Gourmandise.  It was amazing.  Thanks Mr. H for knowing how to help me destress. :)

The future is always a hard thing.  I really wanted to do the right thing for our family.  I started stressing out about Mr. H even getting a PH.D. He had been given another offer at Stanford for a master's program, and so we had to rethink some things. But ultimately, we knew that Mr. H should get his Ph.D.  I know it's such a long road, and it is breaking my heart to think about leaving my beloved Utah and family.  C has the most amazing family, and it makes me so sad they will not be close.
But, I know that Mr. H and I have been led to this point.  It may be a really hard road, but I know that the Lord will bless us.
We then had to decide between University of Pennsylvania, and Boston University.  Such a hard choice. Both are amazing schools and have great programs. Through the whole journey, I have been rooting for Boston.  I thought it would be so easy.

But it has been VERY hard.  We wanted to go to the place that will help Mr. H the best with his career. We wanted to go where the Lord want's our family.  We wanted to make the best decision.

I have learned a lot about prayer.  I was making myself sick, going back and forth between these two places.  Both had some amazing 'pros'.  As we both prayed, we both felt very good about attending Boston University.  There is so much worry about moving to such an expensive area, and the future is uncertain, but we do know that going to Boston is what we are supposed to do.

Mr. H submitted his acceptance and we are excited! We still are stressed and worried how things will all work out, but we are happy to have a plan! We will be moving at the end of the summer.

We can finally breathe!  We celebrated last night by making midnight waffles and giggling and getting excited about our future.

Time is going so fast, and I can't believe the month is over.  But things are good and life is good.  We couldn't be more blessed.

Some random pictures of C:
C and his friend E.  They both insisted on sitting in that chair together and reading books. 

If you notice, those are ear buds around C's neck.  He loves wearing it around his neck for some strange reason.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

In like a lion...

Isn't that what they say about march? "IN like a lion"????

Idk.  March has crept up on me and I literally can't believe spring is here.

Last week, the Hogle Zoo did a free day.  
A bunch of girls from the court packed up their strollers and headed out. 
Some of us decided to walk. (*note: 1.2 miles uphill).  
We looked pretty hilarious with our big stroller train.  

The zoo was fun!  
C definitely liked it more than last year, but there were SO MANY PEOPLE!!!
Herds of children surrounded every pane of glass.
Both C and I got overwhelmed by the crowds.  
Our favorite part though were the sea otters.  They would swim by and do flips and it was awesome.  

Thankfully, we were able to leave by noon, and we were amazed at how many strollers/children/cars were headed up Sunnyside Avenue.  

C has been being pretty funny lately.  
He leaves "cheesing" where he'll scrunch up his eyes and squint at us.
He loves trying out new words, like 'back pack' and 'baby'.  
He also is into water lately...
what a mess.  

I was able to go to my friend's baby shower.  It was a blast.  There is nothing like taking a bunch of girls with babies and talking all night long about babies. :)

Mr. H got to give a presentation down in Provo on Friday.  We spent most of the night before prepping, and him presenting to a half asleep me.  He likes to give it to me, because I then tell him what I understood and he modifies.  I loved being in Provo.  Props to both of our moms who came down to support.  
He did an awesome job!