6

Kason turned 6!

Six sounds so much older than five.  Maybe it's because alot of activities have an age cut-off of five.

Or maybe it's because it takes two hands to show how old he is now.  

Whatever the reason, he is getting older!

Isaac was on a fly-out on Kason's birthday.  So, I felt the need to still try to make the day as special as possible.

The kids woke up to balloons and crepe paper.  That alone was pretty exciting.

We snapped some pictures

 These two really are best buds.  They play together all day, and for the most part, do really well.

We also went to the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics.  This our new favorite place we've found.  I can't believe we haven't found it for this long, but it's the new "treat" that's begged for.  I'll admit, it is a pretty cool place, by far the best open gym place we've been to here.

Rocky and Kason getting ready to jump off the pirate ship into the foam

Emry has become quite the fast walker.  She really doesn't care where I am either, she just takes off.  Here she is falling taking out a competitor for her area.

Asher (remember, he's all talk) hasn't quite worked up to daring to stand to jump off the pirate ship, but he sits and either gets pushed or slides off.

Group picture on the beam.  Look at Asher's face.  He was so scared to be up there, he's gripping Kason and Rocky and making shrieking noises the entire time.

future gymnast?!

 When Isaac got back in town we opened presents.  Kason was pretty excited to get this present from Gramma and Grampa.

This was his reaction to getting a bow and arrow from us.

I feel like this cake was a major fail.  I got more sick than I've been in a long time (thank goodness it was between Isaac's flyouts) and so Kason's cake kept getting pushed back.  Isaac finally made it and I tried to decorate it.  It's a snake, and I had it pictured alot better in my mind, but I think he still liked it.

A little bit about Kason:

He has a very sweet and tender heart.

He can be a bit sensitive.

He is very mature, and generally very obedient and my biggest helper.

He really thinks of other.

He's very mature, our joke lately is that he seems like a wise old man in a 6 year old body.

He can be quite competitive.

He is a crazy dancer and singer (usually while watching his reflection in the TV).  I have to regularly clean the spit marks off the TV cause he sings and dances so vigorously in front of it.

He loves to draw.  He will draw a picture of what's going on that day or what he's feeling. 

An example of his drawing, Buzz Lightyear:

He is a great big brother:

This picture makes my heart happy.

Funny story:  At church on Sunday a girl Kason's age just came up to him and gave him a long hug and almost a kiss on the cheek.  The whole time Kason was completely still, his torso rigid and arched, leaning away from her, with his arms down to his sides.  He did not know what to do or what to make of the situation.  

Life Lately

I always wait too long to blog and then I have a bunch of things that I want to put in to remember and it becomes one huge, long post.  So, here we go. 

We went to a roller derby!

It's been on my bucket list of things to do here for years.

It was worth the wait and alot of fun to watch, despite being crammed into tiny bleachers with kids.    

It's always fun to go with friends 

Isaac's birthday!

Isaac requested a cake our friend, who is an amazing baker, had previously made.  I did my best to recreate the chocolate-y goodness and we were happy with it.

These kiddos sure love their dad

Also, lesson learned: Asher cannot keep a secret.  

Really, I wasn't surprised by this at all.  The kids and I went to get Isaac's birthday present, a watch.  I had to bring them and so I debated about just not saying anything and hoping that would make it a small enough deal that Asher wouldn't say anything about it.  But, I decided to remind him not to say anything.  So, the car ride home was filled with "don't say anything to Daddy about presents, don't tell him what it is, don't even tell him we got a present".  

Isaac had been home for 5 minutes when Asher was sitting on his lap and said, "Kason is going to go find Daddy's watch present!"  

Kason about had a heart attack, he couldn't believe Asher would do that.

The next two days it became a game of Isaac asking Asher what his present was and Asher truthfully and innocently saying with a big smile on his face: "a watch!"

 Walking has clicked for Emry girl and I'd say she walks more than she crawls now.  She's 14 months.  I still am not used to seeing her just come toddling around the corner all bowlegged taking tiny little steps.  So, of course I watch her walk all the way down the hallway and take tons of pictures.  She grabs some toy cones the boys have and puts them on her hands and walks around.  I guess she's learned well from watching all the sword fights.   That, or two lotion bottles seem to be her go to thing right now.  

Happy Valentine's Day

Isaac was on a flyout and was supposed to get home at 4pm, but because of plane's missing parts (what?!) and delays it was 10:30 when he got back.  Emry slept leaning her head in his hand the whole way home.

Bonus video: It's good to be the little girl and have big brothers and a dad to push you around in their trucks.

Bonus picture: sibling love.  (This was after Kason bundled up and went outside and swept the leaves off the patio all on his own, he said it was like a Valentine's present)

Bonus Asher saying:  Isaac wasn't listening to Asher and so Asher shook his finger at Isaac and said loudly, "Daddy, you are DISOBEDIENTING me!"

Milestones

Yup. It happened.  Kason lost his first tooth.  Sooner than I expected.  Aren't kids who lose their teeth supposed to be old?!?!  He was pretty excited and wiggled it all the time until it was hanging by a thread. Isaac pushed on it and it fell right back into Kason's mouth...who quickly spit it out.

Emry is walking! 13 months old - about the same time as Kason.  She's still plenty cautious about it, and still crawls the majority of the time.  But she can definitely do it and is getting braver about it!

Kason was in a basketball camp.  He loved it and really improved his dribbling.  He wants to be just like Dad playing ball.  He's in the gray in all these pictures, I should've had a different lens, but was lucky to just get the camera at all as we were running out of the apartment.

And I didn't want to leave Asher out, poor middle child syndrome, so here's a picture of the cute boy - booger nose and all. 

The Job Market

The Job Market.  

Where do I begin?  

I wanted to write something witty, yet be able to put down on paper the feelings that went with this adventure.  I don't think that's going to happen though, so I'll just write down the whole slew of craziness from beginning to end.

We've been hearing about the job market and getting prepped and stressed for it for, literally, over a year.  The job market is where all the Econ grad students send out applications, then get interviews at a big conference over a weekend, then hope for fly-outs from those interviews, and then hopefully a job.  We heard get new suits, not black though, not pin stripe either, no brief case, no back pack, has to be a messenger bag, do say this, don't say this, do it like this, not like this...Isaac was slightly stressed.  I have to say though, his advisors have been absolutely wonderful.  I have really come to appreciate the help and caring they have given Isaac and us.  So, out came the JOE.  If we ever have another boy, we'll never name him Joe, because I think the name makes us both cringe now.  We Isaac filled out over 180 applications.  It was all he did for a month, all. he. did.  It was exhausting. I have a big preference to live out west.  I prefer the culture, the weather, and it's near our families.  I really, really, really want to be out west.  But, as we looked at the JOE I felt my hopes getting smashed that that would happen.  There are just so many more schools back east, and Pennsylvania seems to have a ton that are hiring this year.  I really struggled (and maybe struggled shouldn't be past tense) with it.  But, I can see that any employment is better than unemployment and I'm getting to the point where I can see that there will be good things anywhere we end up going.  Faith, and little baby steps...

SO, after the applications were in we waited to get calls for interviews.  AND they started to come!!  and come and come!  The job market was in San Diego this year and we had decided that I wouldn't go, mostly because Isaac was going to be gone for 5 days and that would be a looong time for me to leave the kids, especially since Emry was still nursing.  But, Isaac's interviews got up to 29, which was great, and he only had 10 - 15 minutes in between to get to hotels across town.  It was in 20 different hotels aroudn the San Diego bayfront.  So, Isaac needed help and I wanted to help him.  2 weeks before we called my family and they decided my mom would come out to help.  I would just go for Friday and Saturday and come back Sunday.  I was soo nervous to leave the kids.  I've never left them except to have a baby or when they were hospitalized for RSV.  I always thought if Isaac and I went on a vacation just ourselves it would be to Hawaii , or realistically, somewhere relaxing.  Not the job market.  But Emry weaned easily, we have wonderful friends who watched them until my mom got here, and wonderful family that helped out.  The kids ended up doing totally fine, and I would actually leave again, for a short time, someday. :)

So...the prep kept up. Isaac made coversheets for each university he was interviewing with and tried to be prepared the best he could.  School, or is it considered work now, scherk? rules our lives. I memorized the map of San Diego gas lamp/bayfront area and planned the routes I'd take for the tricky connections.  Isaac ended up at the wrong hotel in Portland (his flight left at 5 am the next morning) and had to walk to his hotel.  I flew out (I love flying, especially by myself), got to San Diego, and got the rental car at midnight.

I didn't see much of Isaac.  He was booked from 8 am to about 6:45 at night.  I'd see him as I took him from interview to interview and then we'd go to dinner, then go prep for the next day.  We had a system worked out where Isaac would text me "go" as soon as he walked out of the hotel room, and hopefully I'd be waiting  nearby and be in the front of the lobby when he got there.  It worked pretty well. The hotels were huge!  And super nice - probably the nicest hotel I'll ever stay in.  Our hotel was 25 stories and the next one was 40!  I went to the top of that one for the view and my ears were popping in the elevator!  The pull through's in front of the lobby were three lanes and there were specific workers who blew whistles to call taxi's.  Obviously, I hadn't been to places like this before, or was too young to remember.  It was pretty cool.  And, I have to admit, it wasn't super warm, but I walked around in a sweater, it was sunny, I was alone, I wasn't pregnant, and wasn't nursing...it was pretty nice.  

It was so busy.   There were 15,000+ people there interviewing.  Everyone was in business suits.  I had to smile as I saw people walking around stressed out or as I was walking along the bayfront I would catch snippets of conversations something like, "the consumption in a centralized market..."  

All in all, the meetings went better than either of us were expecting.  Isaac did great and that's all you can do.  We felt good about it.  I know we were blessed in so many ways too. When I was leaving I was throwing the trash in the dumpster and my keys fell in.  But they didn't go to the bottom of the dumpster.  When I was gone and Isaac had to take a taxi he left his ipad in it, but when he came back out a few minutes later, miraculously the taxi was still there with the ipad in it. 

I didn't get any chances to take a pic of us together, but here we are walking from one hotel to another in between interviews

the bayfront at dusk

The marina and our hotel in the background

The bay

It is a relief to have it done, but Isaac keeps reminding me this is a marathon.  We anxiously awaited calls for flyouts.  If you made it through reading all this, he's at BYU interviewing right now!   I'm hoping that something works out as it is supposed to.  Hoping that Isaac won't always be so stressed!  It's all good.  And it feels good to get this all written down because I think we'll want to remember it!