Back to School - in Texas!

We have lived in our new house in Fort Worth, Texas for a month now. Jered was off the first couple of weeks after we closed on the house, so we were able to get everything unpacked and set up (even the garage, what?!) in about a week. We even had a while to enjoy our new house and get to know the area a little before Jered reported for duty at his new squadron, VR 59, the Lone Star Express.

The kids started back to school last week at Elkins Elementary. They love their new school so far and are making new friends already. Emma also started dance last Monday at her new studio. She is taking ballet/tap/jazz this year with a 6-8 year old group. She has been wanting to try jazz and was excited that it was included in her new class. On Friday, we went to a local church for a Boy Scout meeting. Will has been wanting to try scouts, but the dens around us have always had conflicting schedule with Wednesday night church. That's not a problem in Texas! His den will be meeting Tuesday nights. They are called the Weebalos, and they are about 10 fourth graders. He also joined the Hoofbeats, which is the fourth and fifth grade choir at school. Both the kids will start Awanas in September at Northwest Baptist, a church close to our neighborhood we have been attending.

A special thing we've enjoyed in our new duty station is living close to my sister, Abby! We have been able to have a lot of fun times together already, and she was also very sweet to help us a lot with unpacking when we got our house hold goods delivery. Tonight we went to a WNBA Wings game in Arlington. Abby works for the Wings and got us tickets and some VIP treatment. We've really enjoyed spending more time with Auntie Abby!

Ian also came out to see us Will's birthday. We had a nice relaxing time at home, and also went to LEGOLAND Discovery Center and Aquarium. We enjoyed seeing Uncle Ian and we're glad it's a shorter, direct flight from Seattle so it will be easier to see him more!

My parents came out for Will's birthday too. It was great to show them the finished house since the last time they saw it, the house was still in framing. We are driving down to Corpus for Labor Day weekend coming up. It is wonderful to live only 6-8 hours from our family there too.

Easter 2016

He is risen - He is risen indeed! We had a nice quiet Easter this year. Jered and I taught Sunday school, then attended service. Two of the kids' friends from the neighborhood came to church with us, which was awesome. When we got home, it was cold and rainy, so we skipped the egg hunt this year. Both of the kids did egg hunts at school this week, which I was able to go to since I got off work in time! For lunch after church, I made a glazed ham, roasted potatoes and carrots, and strawberry shortcake. We had a nice relaxing afternoon at home. Emma was super excited about Easter all week. On Good Friday, Emma was squealing "I'm so excited about this weekend because we celebrate that Jesus is alive and he rose again!" They were both focused on the true meaning of Easter and not bunnies or baskets. That makes us so happy to see them so excited for Jesus!

I also had a lot of fun sharing the Easter story with my classes this year. The 3 year old class responded so well and during our Easter celebration at school, they were able to tell their parents what we had learned. I was happy they were listening to such an important lesson!

House & Max Update

During their spring break, my mom and dad went to visit Abby in Fort Worth. They all drove up to our new house and took some pictures for us. Exciting to see all the progress!

We also had a scary experience at the same time - Max got very sick. He couldn't eat or drink, or stop vomiting, so we took him to the vet. They did x-rays and there was an object in his intestines. They wanted to do exploratory surgery, but at first told us his organs might be calcifying! That was terrifying, but upon doing another x-ray the next day, we saw the object had moved. So they went in and took it out - it was a small plastic spiky ball!! He is back at home now (after 4 over nights at the vet and a couple of thousand dollars), and recovering very well. Ug was thrilled to have him back and they are inseparable again. We also have a brand new 16 foot wide baby gate blocking off the playroom area to keep this from happening again! Our new house has a large loft upstairs for toys (our dogs don't go upstairs), so that will make it easier to keep Max from inedible treats.

Mandy's Birthday 2016

Even though I worked on my birthday this year, my co-workers, especially my assistant Robyn, made my day fun. It was really cute too having my students sing happy birthday. They were probably more excited about my birthday than me! Jered took us out for a nice dinner at our favorite seafood place the night before, since we had church that night. The day after my birthday was exciting as we put earnest money down on a house in Fort Worth! It is a spec home in a new community called Lake Vista Ranch in Saginaw, just north of Fort Worth. It will be finished in June, just in time for us to move. Abby went by and looked at the model of our floor plan and also at our neighborhood and took pictures of our foundation!

Valentine's Day 2016

For Valentine's Day this year, our church put on a Parents' Night Out event. We dropped the kids off at church from 4-8. The fed them dinner, played games, and got them worn out for us. Jered and I enjoyed a nice dinner at our favorite Irish pub, Keegan's, and then went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to browse - alone!

Christmas 2015

We spent Christmas in Texas and had a wonderful time with our family. We got our official orders in December and were able to share our good news that we are moving to Texas this summer! Since I have been very busy teaching 5 days a week, I haven't kept up with our blog the last couple of months. I made websites for both of the classes I teach, and at least I've kept those up to date! The kids and I on spring break this week, so I'm going to try to catch up the family blog!