Easter

Happy Easter. Ours started at 3 am when Anderson woke up and found his Easter basket and ran in to tell us that the Easter Bunny brought him a new monster truck. It took some doing but finally, I got him to leave it alone and go back to sleep. We went to church, burned our dinner, smoked ourselves out of the house, and made some memories....good or bad right?! Since we live out of town, my mom and dad want pictures, so here you go! We did a mini photo shoot in the backyard. I think we may start Ivy on a diet tomorrow.

Our First Visitors

The last few days, we had Tim's brother Justin's family in town with us for their Spring Break and we had such a good time. We were able to go downtown and check out all of the touristy spots, eat at the recommended restaurants, and even take a river boat on the Mississippi River. My kids LOVE their cousins, and they were no exception. I promised I didn't even see Anderson for like 4 days. He was Spencer's little buddy and Spencer was so good with him. This is all of the kids in front of the Gibson Guitar Factory. You can do tours, but you have to be at least 5 years old because of the level of sound during the tour. So, the big kids did that one without us.

Little buddies on Beale Street. Beale Street is the main street to hit here with all of the Blues Clubs and night life. You can't even drive down the street. It's pretty crazy.

And the girls. Minnie was in heaven too. They also came bearing gifts...Minnie got a new stroller and doll that she LOVES and Anderson got 2 new nerf dart guns that we used for a few "gun games". At one point, we had all of the kids (including 3 of my friend's kids that we were watching) all lined up along the fireplace vs. the adults. It was fun!

While they were here, I had the pleasure (just kidding) of speaking during church. And it was just me, not Tim. Weird, right?! I'm glad it's over, and that we had 6 helpers to keep my kids quiet in church. That was barely enough.

Anderson has been begging to wear his tie and church shirt with his "white pants". He asked me if he could wear his church shirt to bed tonight. Geez, must get it from his dad. (see the stroller in the background...she LOVES IT. It has to be parked next to her bed every night).

I learned a few things about Memphis this weekend. Half the time I forgot I lived here...

#1 Justin Timberlake grew up here...who knew? I love him...mostly because he is HILARIOUS on SNL

#2 Man vs. Food comes to Memphis a lot! We ate somewhere where you could order a 6 lb hamburger and try to eat it with another person in under 60 min. I think it's only happend 2x

#3 A guy in my ward went to High School with my mom...how RANDOM is that?

#4 There is full on tornadoes in Memphis. Like, it's no big deal to have the craziest thunderstorms and have to go in the hallway with the kids underneath a mattress. Who knew? Tonight there was 70mph winds in the area. Crazy! Guess I need to get batteries for my flashlight!

Anderson's 4th Birthday!

Today Andy turned 4! I can't believe it. He's getting so old. We had "birthday donuts" (our little family tradition we started...when we lived a mile from Krispy Kremes). Then we got ready and went to the Memphis Zoo. We have been told to just get a membership so we can go whenever and I think it's totally worth it. We loved it. These are the tigers that we saw as soon as we got there. They had a lot of different animals that we don't have at the good old Phoenix zoo and it was nice weather and the kids were really good. This is the area that is like Yellowstone. Ivy was asleep in the stroller by the random lady who took our picture. They had timberwolves and bears and elk here. It was really cool. The kids love the zoo. We rode the train around the petting zoo area and saw polar bears for the first time. They are HUGE. We will definately be going back. Minnie and I rode the carousel and she kept asking to go see Minnie Mouse and Snow White. I guess we trained her well. I had to explain, for probably the 10th time, that Snow White and Minnie Mouse were far far away.

After the zoo we came and did cake and presents. Andy made out and got everything his little heart desired...except a pogo stick. Do they still have those? He's been asking for one and I have no idea where he even saw one. I did look at Target and didn't see one. Weird request, right?

He was so fired up all day and had so much fun. He's done so good here and for being used to playing with his cousins A LOT, he has adjusted well. We've made some good friends here that he loves to play with, and I'm so grateful for that. I signed him up for Pre-School and he is soo excited. Anderson is a handful at times, but is starting to grow up and is a good big brother to his sisters. I will always have ENDLESS stories of his shenanigans though!

We moved!

So we did it. We moved to Memphis. I'm exhausted! Tim drove out with his friend Tyler and both cars. They had Anderson and surprisingly, the busiest kid in the world did great. The whole trip (a 24 hour total drive), he watched 45 minutes of one movie. He just sat in his seat and watched the window. Tim said he kept asking if he wanted to watch a movie and he would say no. I guess he just needs to be strapped in once in while. We also blessed Ivy before we left on our last Sunday in my parent's ward. It was nice. Because things have been so crazy with Tim's job and selling our house, I haven't been able to really enjoy Ivy yet. Now that things are starting to calm down, we get to play and enjoy having a little baby in the house again.
While unpacking, it was like Christmas for the kids all over again. They re-discovered their long lost toys and were happy...for about 2 seconds. There are too many other things to mess around with and play with in a new house to worry about those boring old toys. Finally I ended up saying, "Don't touch anything that is not a toy". I'm sure you can guess how long that lasted.

Tim, Tyler and Andy stopped at Cadillac Ranch on the way. Crazy.

This was our backyard last week. Now the trees are getting green leaves. This is a sight I've never seen before as a AZ lifer. It's so pretty and green. It's been in the seventies if not lower since we've been here. Definately will take some getting used too! It snows a few times in the winter which I've never done before. Anderson and Minnie actually have not even seen snow yet. It's going to be crazy!

This is my view as I sat in Relief Society last week. The Memphis Temple is a smaller one built on the grounds of the church building. You have to make an appointment if you want to go other than the already set session times. I can't wait to go. It's awesome to be able to go to church every Sunday and see the temple right there. Our ward was super nice, and much smaller than we are used to. We already were invited to someone's house for dinner and made a few friends. Seriously, how or what do people do when they move somewhere and don't have the church? How do you meet people? Who do you call for help? I am so thankful for it and wouldn't know what to do without it! Especially now that we will be relying on ward members and visiting teachers and home teachers much more:)

Later AZ

For the last 6 months, Tim has been working 2 or 3 days a week. It's enough to keep our benefits (THANK GOODNESS considering I had a baby during this time) but also enough to make us (more me) go crazy stressed. We have had D-land passes for the past year and would go when Tim had to go to Irvine for work. This way, we tagged along on a work trip to minimize the expenses. Last week Tim only worked 2 days. So Tuesday afternoon, we decided we needed one more Disneyland Trip. We left that evening, pricelined a hotel for $35, and went to Disneyland Wednesday and Thursday. You know you have taken your kids to Disneyland too much when 1) you only take one picture the ENTIRE trip (this Goofy one was from when we went in October...the one of Minnie below is from this trip) 2) your kids have opinions and where they want to go and what they want to ride 3) your 3 year old doesn't ride ONE ride the entire day...and is totally fine 4) you recognize the "day workers". It's been 15 days in the last year or so. I think we've had our fill for a while.
So Tim finally got a job in Memphis, TN! He is transfering within his company there but will be doing some of the same work and some different work too. Also, we sold our house and close in a couple of days. I cannot believe it is all lining up with each other. Tim and I and Ivy will go out there in a week or so and find a house to rent and then as soon as we can get all of the logistics taken care of, we are moving. We've wanted to move away for a long time, which we understand is probably not the desire of most people. So we are giving it a shot.

We told Anderson we were moving to Tennessee and he said, "Do they have a playground there?" He will miss his cousins but will be able to make some new friends too. Little Minnie (who rushed into Terrible Twos the day she turned 2) said, "no, my Tennessee". Typical 2 year old. She finally let me put pig tails in and they lasted a good 20 minutes. I guess she likes having a clown wig in her face all day long.

We are excited and a little nervous, but looking forward to change and the new things to come!

Andy

The other day I rushed through Target to get some well needed groceries and supplies, first time with all 3 during the day by myself, and had to stop at the bathroom for Minnie. In stores, church, or any public place she likes to pretend she has to go potty to be able to flush the toilet and wash her hands. As I'm getting her on the toilet for her false alarm, Andy spots something on the FLOOR in the corner of the BATHROOM STALL. He says something about nuts, bends over, and before I can stop him, eats some stranger's left over nuts from the bathroom stall floor at Target. As I sternly told him, " Don't eat food from the ground, it will make you sick" I thought I can only imagine what the lady in the stall next to me is thinking. I always tell him that and he NEVER gets sick. My kids must have the best immune system of all time.

Well Needed Good News

We got some good news last week!! Tim passed his Professional Engineering test and he is

now a licensed PE (Professional Engineer) in California! The reason he took it in California is to get it early. In Az, you need 4 years post graduation and in California you only need 2. Woo Hoo! I needed to hear some good news:)