April's Bits

March ended and April began with me being in Utah for Gram's funeral.  With just a few exceptions like having babies and an overnight stay in San Francisco I really haven't been away from our kids.  And it's almost embarrassing how long it had been since I'd been on an airplane.  Yep, since having kids I've been pretty home bound with the occasional road trip and pretty happy about it.  But I have to say, getting away and actually being able to focus on my mom and my task of cleaning out Gram's house without interruption was kind of amazing.  

And, of course, Nate did great, with the occasional phone call or text just making sure he was doing things right. ;-)

I loved getting pictures of the kids happy and enjoying their time with just dad.

Noah's first turn at being catcher came while I was gone.  I don't know what it is about putting on that gear, but every kid feels like they've hit the jackpot when the coach says it's their turn.

Everybody stopped in at the hospital to see Kristina and baby Connor.  Oh, I was having a hard time keeping my jealousy in check!

Moving on, Leah found her reflection in the pots while I was making dinner.

Noah is usually at school when I run errands, so it was kind of a big deal for him that he got to ride the tractors at Lowes.  It's been a while.

Our house went on the market.  This was a tough decision but for sure felt right.  In the end we had ten offers after the first weekend and accepted one that was too good to pass up.  With a 60 day rent back after the close, we are hopeful to find something a little bit bigger that still feels like the perfect place for our family.

But getting your house ready to sell during busy season is no joke.  I was responsible for the majority of it, and it was a ton of work.  And it was often like two steps forward and one step back with our queen of curiosity and messes not far behind.

This fence will probably stand for forever.  Nate and Grandpa Pebley built it years ago together, and silly as it may sound, it's going to be something we really miss after the move.  I guess it's not the fence as much as it is a great memory of Grandpa, his skill, and his desire to always teach precision in your work.

We knew it was impossible, at least for us, to keep the house clean and have an open house so we headed to Tahoe for the weekend while it was happening.  There was still plenty of snow to play in!

Leah was not thrilled when her brothers rigged up a trapeze/zip line off of the bunk bed to practice for their circus performance and she wasn't invited.

But those brothers balance wanting to do their own thing with loving on their sister quite well.  I turned away from the shopping cart to grab something and came back to Noah and Luke smooching their sister in the meat department.  This is one loved little girl!

I don't get many moments like this anymore.  Leah loves to sleep.  In fact she'll lead the way into her room when its nap or bedtime.  But snuggling up in my arms and falling asleep is a thing of the past -- unless she's got a cold.  I held on to this girl for a while and just soaked in my not so little baby.

One day during spring break we finished off errand running with ice cream.  Luke ordered up a scoop of tart orange blossom and loved that it colored up his tongue.