Down to Single Digits

 Claire

My little girl has graduated Kindergarten now and they had a cute mini ceremony on Friday to show off the songs they have learned and get a diploma. Her teacher is fantastic and made her a scrapbook and things to take home to remember her year. Shay was excited to see her and wanted to join her while they were up on the 'stage' but she will get her turn. Claire was telling her teacher at church that she would be going to a new church next week so she is understanding what is going on, even though she didn't say she was excited just yet. She seems to think she will only have friends here and even though this week has been weird because they keep getting in 'fights' with their neighbor friend, she doesn't want to leave. I can tell she likes having a friend to play with every day that isn't just Shay and they have some fun adventurous games, but her pool in the backyard is making it hard for them to get along because the girls can't stop themselves from getting in the dirty and the rule is they can't go into the pool if they bring mud or dirt in.

Shay

All but a few of her toys are packed up and she keeps asking for things that are already gone. It is like she sees me packing something up and then wants to play with that specific thing and I have to continually tell her we can have those things back in our new house. We have also found some toys that have been hiding up in my closet because they used to fight over a 'magic wand' now they are playing with it again. She came with me on Friday to Chris's work because we were signing our loan papers with a mobile notary! It was a busy day because we dropped Claire off, went to sign, and then went back to school for the Kindergarten graduation. Plus I was busy before setting up utilities in our new house and trying to find a uHaul that we can move with.

House News

On Monday, we had a home inspector look at our house and the list he made of things that needed to get fixed was completed already. There was an issue with our backyard sod that was laid because apparently our irrigation water that connects to our sprinklers wasn't turned on yet and it died so they are going to replace it. We had an appraisal done and we are buying it for a few thousand dollars cheaper than what it was appraised for which made us feel good about our choice. Because of the holiday weekend, the safest way to close on Tuesday was to sign our loan papers on Friday so a mobile notary and I met Chris at his work and we sat in the break room for half an hour and signed our lives away. His patient that was our loan agent met us there too and gave us a generous gift to decorate our new home with; it is a charming, handmade burnt wood American Flag. Now we have less than a week and we will be living in our brand spanking new home which we got to see really good pictures of because of the inspection and appraisal!

My Mind is Disappearing

 Claire

A whole week off of school has been so weird! She only went in one day for her testing and when I talked to her teacher I was reassured that Claire is doing well but needs to learn to focus on her school work. She is extra distracted here at home with our current situation, but I will work to make a dedicated space for schoolwork during the summer at our new home and both Claire and Shay will be working for a few hours every day. They worked really hard on school work when we made the reward of being able to play with the extra phone and watch a show so I will probably do something like that. She was sent home with one homework that was fun for her to do imagining that this week off was a vacation and packing, having an airplane ticket, and telling about it on a postcard. Now only one more week of school!

Shay

Shay was jealous of Claire's vacation homework so I tried my best to make her a suitcase and let her do the packing list and airplane ticket. This is the first time I made her try to form letters on her own instead of tracing them and I was very impressed with how well she did! It was a surprise because I thought she was just going to draw the pictures but she wrote the list instead and asked me to help with the pictures and some of the letters towards the end. She seemed happy that Claire didn't have to go to school, but was sad we had our last day at the gym this past Wednesday. I have one more girls' night on Monday, but they'll be going to bed and I'll be saying goodbye to all my new friends that I made through work. Her primary teacher told me she will be sad to lose Shay because of how wonderful she is in her class. I'm glad other people notice how amazing my daughter is.

Black and White Days

We went for a Bell family reunion in Richmond on Saturday and enjoyed the company of cousins, aunts, and uncles we haven't seen in a few years. It is a tradition to meet at Grandpa Bell's house to cook, watch the parade that is right in front of the house, and then eat dinner and mingle. Chris and I went pretty early because he was going to go shooting with his brother, but the range they tried to go to was too busy so they didn't get to. Claire and Shay had a lot of fun when some family showed up with some dogs and they could 'help' by holding the leash and filling their water bowls. There were no major disasters and Shay only whined about not getting some of the candy during the parade, and everything else was a great day.

Packing

All but 2 of the boxes I have are filled and I still have a lot of the kitchen, pantry, and toys to do! On top of the stress of packing, I broke my phone this past week and I'm without some of my contacts and feel more stressed. We did get our closing date for our house moved up to the 30th on the same day my phone broke so I was able to be happy about that...I'm very excited about a new adventure and to make this house a home. When I ask the girls if they are excited to move they finally say yes and seem to be happy about it instead of sad. Claire is convinced she will get her own room and I can't find a reason to say no because we will have a lot of space now. We have a home inspection tomorrow and orientation later in the week then things will be ready so we are continuing to pray that nothing will come up to ruin things. 

May You Have a Wonderful Mother's Day

 Claire

I found two cute new dresses for the girls on our recent trip to DI and they wore them today for Mother's Day. I watched them sing in the primary during sacrament meeting even though Chris missed out because his stomach was upset. Claire stole Daddy's phone and sent me a macro polo where she took 20 minutes to do her hair, show me her boys, and talk to me about a bunch of stuff. I was literally in the room right next to her listening to her do it and watching on my phone. It sounded a little too much like a make-up tutorial off youtube when she was putting clips in her hair and I can just see how much she loves herself. I'm glad I've instilled a love of herself and I love when she says things like, "mama, I love you, your the bestest in the whole wide world" which is how she started the video.

Shay

We had a park date without Claire because I had gone to the bank with her and finished sending our earnest money for our new house quicker than I anticipated. We had 20 minutes before Claire got out of school and I didn't want to go back home just to get back in the car to get her. We found a new park with this fun dino and one buried in the sand in a corner too. She was a little bored without any friends around and we ended up going back in the car and waiting longer for Claire. While Claire was making a macro polo for me, Shay wanted to take pictures so she started going around with our extra phone like she was in a museum and getting pictures of everything in the house. I really love my daughters so much.

Date

My aunt took the girls for a few hours yesterday so Chris and I could go to the temple and then see a movie together. She drove them into Salt Lake to a big mall with a kid's play area and then spoiled them with dinner and ice cream! I was told that Shay was a little-miss attitude about some things and then fell asleep in the car on the drive home. Other than that, they had fun and told us all about what they got to do. I know I've been to the Bountiful Temple before for family, but this was the first time we went since moving here and will probably be the last because our offer on the house was accepted and we will be moving in 3 weeks! I don't want to jynx anything, but this process of finding a home to buy in time has gone really smoothly and looks to be in the works so we can move in at the beginning of June.

May Life Get Less Crazy

 Claire

The kindergarten class gives each child a particular week, usually on their birthday if they can, to be the line leader and have a day where they get to feel special. Since Claire's birthday was in August, her teacher put her on this last week so we made a cute poster with baby and family pictures and things she likes. She had princesses, ponies, rainbows, and stickers all over her poster and told her classmates all about the things she likes, then they asked her questions and it was a really cute thing they did. Shay was distracted the whole time because she found a kitchen set and made food while Claire did her 'show and teach'. I had made the perfect amount of treats for the class and convinced the girls that theirs were at home because we had to go to the dentist after school. 

Shay

I officially believe it is spring because we had some flowers grow in front of our house that I never even knew were there until about a week ago when they started growing. Now they are bloomed and beautiful, and Shay likes to smell them every time we come inside from the car. She also spends as much time as possible outside playing her pretend games and drawing with chalk on my door. When I heard it from inside I was bewildered what was going on and opened the door to realize she was drawing beautifully all over our front porch. I told her I loved it of course and she continued playing as I went about my day. That is how our life has been since the weather became nice!

Zoo

Claire's school field trip to the zoo was on Thursday and Shay and I were able to come because I volunteered as a chaperone and paid a ticket for Shay. We had a little group of 5 kindergarteners and 2 preschoolers from me and the other mom that was in my group. They gave us the freedom to go wherever the kids decided they wanted to go and got to see at least 90% of the zoo in the 2 hours we had there before leaving to go to a park for lunch. Our sack lunches were fun because Claire and Shay love their lunch boxes and the idea of a picnic, then all the kids had plenty of fun at Liberty Park. Claire claimed her favorite animal was the lion, it was asleep but she liked the statues and water fountain, and Shay said she liked the monkeys, there were some fun ones jumping around for us! And yes, everyone asked if they were twins.

News

Chris got a promotion with his work and will be taking over a clinical director position next month in Eagle, ID. He was offered on Tuesday and we took the day to decide if this was right for our family and then started the process of making it happen in the time frame they are asking. We don't want to have to live apart again so we have rushed the process of starting to look for and buy our own home! Enough has fallen into place that we will be moving out the first weekend in June and are praying the Lord will have a situation ready for us by then. We currently have an offer on a house that is under construction in Star, ID, and get to relax a little because we have to wait for them to reply or counteroffer. It is slightly bittersweet because we had started to make plans for the summer and year here in Utah with our Lagoon season passes and signing up for a series of runs in Pocatello with family. We are too excited about the future to let that hold us back and will probably make plans to visit down here for Frightmares and such and I'll drive to Boise to visit family if Chris can't get off work early enough on Fridays.