Spring!

Spring! Spring! Spring! We hear from the birds outside our house! I know some people hate it, but I LOVE waking up to the sounds of birds chirping in the morning.

We have been "spring cleaning" of sorts here. Mostly just personalizing the house so it feels like ours. We painted 2 accent walls jalapeño green. Goose loved to climb the ladder, when we weren't looking, to help paint too.

The boys and I met up with some friends at this park. I have never seen one like it in all our traveling. It was like playing with all the animals at the zoo! Penguins, kangaroo, giraffe, etc.

Mr. Goose has the beginnings of a football player.

As we explore our new city, we find small little treasures in the most unexpected places. It's wonderful to chance upon them and have an opportunity to imagine and pretend!

Family on the Mr.'s side came to visit for a weekend! We loved having them ... And mostly worked on projects. But we got quite a bit accomplished!

Goose found his new favorite food; ranch dressing. 

I got a fun book I can't wait to utilize for landscape planning. 

We have all loved watching the birds come to our door for the seeds we put in the bird feeder. It's like dinner and a show!

The Mr. and I have found a few babysitters so we can have date night out again (hooray!!)

And I am finding groups to do things with, hikes to go on, nature to explore, ways to keep active, and slowly making friends again!

Hooray for finally reaching the settling-in stage!!

Family Pictures

That's all!

Hahaha, not really, but isn't that the funniest? The first group of pictures came out blurry because we forgot to take the protective case off the phone we were using. However, some are just too cute not to share!

Round 2 turned out more clear, but by the time we got to the whole family, Mickey was done and we couldn't get him to smile.

Guess who's walking and not going back?!

Christmas

Our first Christmas on our own, with no family to visit or invite over. It was small, and mostly quiet. To be honest, at first it was weird with a "now what?" sort of feeling, but once we got going, we had a blast. We LOVED having a day together as a family with no errands to do, nothing to fix, no to-do list, and away from electronics and the Internet. Mostly, we just enjoyed playing together. And it turned out great!

Goose mostly wanted the food in the stockings... :)

The Mr. and I liked taking time with the boys to enjoy each present a bit before moving on to the next present.

And of course, we had to use all that cardboard and wrapping paper for something! It was great!

Matchy-matchy! Mickey loves to match with his brother (he really does- this face was because he was impatient to take the picture).

A Home!

We have a home! And not just A home, OUR home! :) The boys loved running through and exploring their new space.

Goose particularly loved the outdoor addition - that was the first place he went.

Our home was so happy to see us, it quickly shouted "fix me!" Though a stressful and expensive welcome, we are happy to be settled. And the boys are great helpers inside and out of the house - like helping with the leaves, and dishes, and toilets. :)

The first week in, we had guests over and thoroughly enjoyed our time playing, running, and jumping with Gpa V, Gma Donna, and Kelly. We also had a special visit from Gma J. The boys absolutely LOVED having her around for a week. While she was visiting, we took a break from unpacking to go to a Christmas carnival. Mickey asked Santa for candy canes and friends (one candy cane for each friend). Santa was kept asking if there was anything else and didn't know what to say.

The boys also found toys they really want ... Hahaha!

Two, Maybe Three, Holidays in a Hotel

Welcome to hotel life. Fortunately, we were able to get a room that basically had two seperate bedrooms and a kitchenette - that helped a lot with the living arrangements! It was weird, though, living in such a temporary place, but for so long. We made friends with many of the employees there - Elizabeth, Emily, and Don were so nice to us everyday! God has blessed us even in a hotel though, to find another family in a similar situation to become friends with. Having friends nearby helps a ton!

We were able to explore much of the downtown area while living hotel life. There are a good number of fun places to take children here- and I love it! (I especially love that I can walk to all of them).

Union Station is a fun place! They have lots of retro decor from its days as a bustling train station, a small, but free, miniature train museum with a play area, A children's science museum (not free), fun events, and the link (glass walkway) to the Crown Center.

The Crown Center is a mini-mall attached to the Sheraton hotel/convention center. This area brought us fun eateries (like Fritz's, where you order your food by phone and it's delivered by train), shopping (including a play-in Crayola store), Legoland, an aquarium (we haven't visited yet), Hallmark visitor's center, and Kaleidoscope (a fun, free art lab for children). Not to mention the courtyard area events and ice skating rink in the winter.

Fritz's:

Legoland with our friends is the best:

Courtyard area setting up for Christmas. And the boys can play in it!!

From the hotel, I could walk to 3 different parks (although, one was a dog park, so I'm not sure that counts). And sometimes Mickey decides he doesn't want to walk back (and I forgot the stroller board), so we improvise.

The Children's Hospital is awesome! We walked up to visit this park, and thy had a little parade while we were there.

Fall brought a lot of festivals! We found a hot air balloon festival on the Kansas side, but had to leave before they launched because it was getting late, the boys were tired, and the weather was such that the balloons may not have been able to launch anyway. We saw these awesome kites though, so we decided to cut our losses and head out.

Upon exiting, Mickey wanted to watch the train go around (not ride it, just watch). Score for not having to stand in line!

Holiday 1 - Halloween. These awesome people invited us over to their house for pumpkin carving. What a blast! And a nice break from the hotel!

We spent our trick-or-treating time at IKEA with our baby dragon and Jake the Pirate. :)

Holiday (maybe 2?) - Royals Parade after they won the World Series. Approx 2 million people showed up when they were only expecting a couple hundred thousand. Most people just didn't show up to work, or took a vacation day. The local schools all just had the day off. It was too much of a crowd for me, so we just the streets from our hotel while Goose napped. Constant stream of people from before 11 am to 5 pm. People parked wherever they could find an area off the road (on sidewalks, making 2-way streets barely a one-way), on the grassy shoulder off the highway, etc).

Another fun adventure in our transitory state was the BYU football game we were able to go to at the Chief's Arrowhead Stadium with some new friends. It was so fun! Mickey didn't care who scored, he just wanted the cannon to go off (although, he kept saying "go Cougars!" For both teams). Goose danced with the music for the first half before he got tired (but did not fall asleep).

Holiday 3: Thanksgiving. We moved out of the hotel Thanksgiving day and knot our house (finally!). Not before we were able to visit some of the Christmas festivities downtown, however. The tree lighting ceremony at Union Station was fabulous! I loved the short performances!

Crown Center courtyard fun!

Bye-Bye hotel floor! So excited for our own carpet!!