Our new house

Here it is!

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom 

Music Room & Dining Room 

Kitchen, Eat-In Nook, & Living Room 

Basement

Guest Bedroom 

Backyard 

Thanks to my mother, the unpacking process is going very quickly and is relatively painless.

It's hot and humid here. I've got to think that the fall is going to be spectacular.

This week we're planning to do a few fun things, like check out the water park at the YMCA. If it cools off enough, we might even try to go to the zoo!

Wichita

Just a quick note after a long day of unpacking.

Our new house is wonderful. Aleks did an amazing job picking it out.

We arrived on Friday, exhausted from our 3:00 AM wake up, but so happy to be together again.

I promise there will be pictures soon...

I think I'm going to like it here!

Birthday Party

Who's birthday is it, you ask?

Well, nobody's.

But, we decided to have a birthday party for the kiddos since we were all together.

Maia wanted to wear her princess dress.

We had pancakes and bacon and cake pops without sticks (so cake balls?).

And Grandma made birthday/princess hats for everyone.

It was the perfect end to our Phoenix trip.

Tomorrow, Wichita!

Phoenix Children's Museum Take 2

We went to the Phoenix Children's Museum today.

This time we got to go with Aunt Cydney and Cousin Audrey!

Audrey and Ruby had some ballet practice at the barre.

The cousins breakfasted together:

Now that Ruby is really crawling, she loved exploring the "under 3" room.

Maia and Ruby had their first driving lesson together.

And Aunt Cydney gets the prize for the best picture of the day:

Also, I'm happy to report that there were virtually no tears when we had to leave.

Counting

Today Maia figured out how to count to 20.

...9, 10, 11, 12, 13, one-teen, two-teen, three-teen, four-teen, five-teen, six-teen, seven-teen, eight-teen, nine-teen, ten-teen.

I tried to tell her that another name for 10-teen is twenty, but she said no.

I told her that since she's 2, 10-teen will suffice. People will know what she means.

Splash Park

The city of Phoenix has splash pads! According to pheonix.about.com:

Zero depth water play areas, splash parks, spray pads and pop-jet fountains are being built all over the metro Phoenix area. With 5 months of summer, it's no wonder that splash playgrounds are one of the most requested amenities of the various Parks and Recreation Departments around the Valley of the Sun.

Unlike a swimming pool, these wet play areas have or little or no depth to the water, making them perfect for anyone who doesn't swim but wants to enjoy some cool, wet fun. Some spray, some swirl, some dump water, some have jets that pop the water at different intervals, and some have a combination of these water feature. As an added benefit, most of them are in public parks or shopping areas, so they are free!

 It's the perfect thing to do when it's 80+ degrees at 10:00 in the morning.

The second Maia's suit was on, she took off running. 

And it took a serious amount of convincing to get her to leave. 

Even then there were lots of tears on the way to the car.

Ruby was a bit more cautious, but warmed up to it after a while.

And smiley Audrey loved it too!

After lunch (all of us) 

and a nap (everyone under 3, although, I wish I had taken one too), 

we headed to the mall to get some new sneakers.

There was an indoor play park thingy.

Can you spot Maia?

No? That's because it was insanely busy.

Here, I'll help you out.

Needless to say, she had such a fun day that going to bed was a bit of a challenge.

Which leads me to this:

From now on, Maia only gets to sit on her hands and eat porridge.

Just kidding.

Goodbye Pullman

I promise this is the last post about saying goodbye to Pullman. After this it will be all excitement and new beginnings and fun!

This past week has been hard. We've said goodbye to a lot of wonderful people. We've been running around doing errands 24/7. Packing every possible second. Eating off of plastic dishes. I thought I was holding up ok.

Yesterday I went for a run and ended up sobbing halfway around the track.

I guess I'm more affected than I'm letting on.

I'm also losing my mind.

Aleks and I went to the bank the other day. We were under the impression that we had to close our accounts and then re-open them, blah, blah, blah. It turns out that the whole process is remarkably simpler than that. And the best part is, Pullman, WA is finally up to speed and the mobile banking app works! When the teller told us this glorious news, Aleks says that I turned to him and said with conviciton: "this is a game changer."

A) I don't even remember those words crossing my lips.

B) Does that sound like something I would say?!

C) I must be losing my mind.

Since that incident, Aleks has taken every opportunity to let me know what is a game changer and what isn't.

Aleks and I have spent the majority of our married life in Pullman. We started our family here. I'll miss the rolling hills in spring, the feeling of excitement as all the students begin arriving in August, the Red Barn pumpkin patch, the farmer's market, the 4th of July festivities. So many things. And most of all, the people.

It's been a good chapter of our lives.

Lady Friends

Yesterday was my last day in Pullman and I got to spend it with these two gorgeous women.

I met Chelsea and Megan in our birthing class at the hospital. I've mentioned before how these ladies were the best thing we got from the class.

Becoming mothers together created such a special bond. Our children's "playdates" just weeks after they were born were often more helpful than a doctor's visit. Watching our children grow and develop their own friendships has been such a gift. 

The three of us parent differently. However, it's been a beautiful thing. I've not once felt judged for doing it my own way. In the opinionated, mine-field that can surround parenting, I treasure the rarity of our friendship.

I don't just value them for their camaraderie in our roles as mothers. Unknowingly, Megan and Chelsea constantly remind me to take care of myself and to embrace who I am, separate from my children.

Their kids are so gorgeous and funny and wonderful and just mirrors of their amazing mothers.

Thank goodness for Skype playdates!

By the way, Chelsea doesn't like the new layout. She said it's like I'm cheating on my old blog. 

Chelsea- it's the same blog, I promise! It just got a facelift. :)

Love you girls.

Ruby is 10 months old! (& Aleks does a food challenge)

Ok, be honest.

How many of you who are reading this find the food challenge more interesting than my darling daughter?

I understand. I'll just open with the insanity that is my husband as long as you promise to read the whole post.

There's a sandwich shop called Munchyz that Aleks frequented during the school year. And this sandwich shop has a Munchyz challenge that consists of eating 3 foot long subs.

My husband has attempted this challenge not once,

not twice,

but three times.

And has never been able to finish it. On his best day he finished 32 of the 36 inches.

You'd think that one failed attempt would be enough.

Anyway.

There's a restaurant in Moscow called Patty's Kitchen that also has a food challenge. 

The Vandal Burrito. 

Aleks and a friend of ours decided that they wanted to attempt it.

Here's how it went down:

Can you believe the size of that burrito? The whole thing is pretty disgusting.

But, there's another side to this story.

Here is our friend's burrito at the end of the challenge:

Admittedly, the shadows obscure the picture a little, but can you tell?!

It's all gone!

In 9 years, only 17 people had completed the challenge, and now our friend is #18.

The little guys can always eat the most!

Needless to say, both boys are pretty uncomfortable tonight.

Ok, now on to the good stuff... Ruby!

Our precious girlie is 10 months old today and it blows my mind that in 2 months she will be ONE.

Crazy.

At the risk of ruining everything, I'm going to tell you all that she's sleeping through the night now.

I feel like I have a new lease on life.

I set her on the scale today and it said 16.8 pounds. That seems kind of small to me, especially since she eats anything and everything I put in front of her.

She plays hide and seek with us, claps her hands, tries to put on necklaces, and copies a lot of what we do. Aleks heard her first word today: "mama." He swears that it's a for-real word, not just Ruby making sounds. We'll see. Maia was talking at 9 months, so it's not totally incomprehensible.

After thinking Ruby was teething a month ago, she is still toothless. Who knows when they'll poke through.

The other breaking news is that Ruby is mobile!

I'm not going to say she's crawling. She's more of a scooter. It's hard to describe. We'll see how long this lasts, since she can't move very fast. I think she's going to get impatient pretty soon and figure out another way to move more quickly.

Here's what she's been up to:

And of course, here's what big sis has been busy with:

Maia and Ruby still love each other!

Home Owners

Today we are officially home owners in Wichita.

There's no turning back now!

I'd put some pictures up, but I don't have any.

I haven't seen the house yet, except through a video Aleks took on his iPhone.

Do you think that's crazy?

I guess it was pretty stressful for Aleks. He felt a lot of pressure and responsibility picking out the home that we will, quite possibly, live in for the next 20 years.

I wasn't worried. I knew that Aleks would pick something out well suited to our family. And quite honestly, as long as he's happy and we're together, I'm good.

See? Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So I've largely been out of the loop with the whole thing. Which has been kind of nice.

This is what I do know and am looking forward to:

The master bathroom has two sinks!

An island in the kitchen.

A proper space for our dining room table and china hutch.

2,875 square feet. (Although to be honest, I'm worried cleaning a house that large is going to take 3 days...)

So, in about a month, I'll be there and see it with my own eyes and share pictures.

Quilt

When I was pregnant with Maia, Aleks and I signed up to take birthing classes at the hospital.

They gave us clothespins to stick on our ears to simulate the pain of childbirth.

Helpful, huh?

However, we did make some amazing friends in that class.

There are three of us who have stayed in touch and regularly get together. Our oldest children are all the same age.

Chelsea got pregnant when her oldest was 6 months old. When she told me, I said something along the lines of "no way," but littered with profanity. I never should have laughed. Two months later I was pregnant with Ruby.

Now, Megan is pregnant with #2! Her bundle of joy will most likely come after we've moved to Wichita. 

I'm heartbroken that I won't be here to meet this little pumpkin.

Chelsea and I decided to make a quilt for Megan and her new baby.

Chelsea comes from a long line of very crafty ladies.

And now that I think about it, I do too.

However, I'm not super crafty. I'd like to be. And I'd like to sew more. 

I think my problem is that I'm too impatient. And have you ever looked at the patterns that say "Easy/Facile"? It's like trying to read Portuguese.

Chelsea has a great book called "Super Simple Quilts."

Right up my alley.

And you know what? By asking for help and getting some clarification, it wasn't too hard!

We decided that we would each piece a side and then put it together as a double-sided quilt.

I credit the great colors to Chelsea. She's got an amazing eye and isn't afraid of color. If it was up to me, it probably would have been a study in beige.

I also have to give a shout out to my friend Jodi who let me use some of her equipment and patiently showed me how to quilt and add binding.

And now I'm hooked. I can't wait to make another quilt.

Here's my side.

Finished!

Chelsea's side

I hope Megan's little baby will feel all the love that was sewn into this quilt. I also hope that when Megan sees it she's reminded of her other mommy friends who love her dearly.

Our Small Town Americana 4th

Johnson 4th of July Parade

One of my favorite things ever.

Especially since I have young kids who go to bed before fireworks start.

And some of my favorite people.

Peanut Butter Cups (Cakes) in a Jar

Happy Weekend! 

Can you believe it?! I'm going to post about baking. 

A first for this blog, I believe.

After being inspired by this lady and seeing the buzz all over the internet, I've decided to jump on the band wagon and make cakes in a jar!

We're having some friends over for the 4th and I thought what's more patriotic than peanut butter cups?

Ok, maybe it's not that patriotic, but it's definitely a flavor combination Americans love.

I'll just show you the general process, but you can get the detailed recipe here.

Of course, I had to make a recipe that calls for equipment that I didn't already have. At this point, I'm trying to only buy food, so that I won't have more things to pack, but I just couldn't resist this one time... 

I bought Kerr half pint jars. I liked the smaller portion this size provides and the straight sides made it very easy to layer the ingredients.

Before the fun could begin, the jars needed to be washed!

I used Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake mix. I hardly ever use a cake mix, but since I'm trying to get rid of as many pantry items as possible, I thought I'd make things easy. 

I did however, use organic eggs...

The recipe calls for 8 oz of peanut butter. Surprisingly, I haven't packed up our food scale yet. In fact, I'm still surprised that we even own one. Aleks bought it this year when he started baking bread. It's turning out to be a very useful purchase.

My peanut butter and sugar never really came together and looked like a bowl of small pebbles, instead of one large peanut buttery ball. I don't know if I needed more PB or what, but I made do. When I formed the mixture into balls, I just had to be careful not to squeeze too hard or else it would crumble.

1. Spoon batter into the bottom of the jars

2. Drop a ball of the PB mixture into the center of each jar

3. Spoon enough batter in each jar to cover the PB ball

Maia helped by dropping each ball into the cake batter. It was going really well until she started taking the balls out of the batter.

Here they are just out of the oven.

Add chocolate to the hot cakes.

Cover jars with the lids and swirl to coat tops with the melted chocolate. I don't know how well the swirling worked. I'll be able to see once they've been opened.

The thing I love about this, is that they can then be put into the refrigerator for up to a week! It's the perfect do-ahead dessert.

A Note for My Wife

Hi Everyone,

   This is Aleks sneaking in and doing a little guest blog that Emily doesn't know about. I just wanted to take this moment to let you know how awesome my wife is. As we round the corner to the moving date Emily is tirelessly working, packing the house, taking care of the girls, teaching private lessons, putting lists together and always thinking about the next thing that needs to be done.

   You should know (and she should to) how much I appreciate her and everything she's doing to get us ready for this move. I simply couldn't do it without her. So I just thought you should know how awesome she is and how much I love her.