Trip to Missouri

On Thursday morning Joe and I dropped our boys off at a friend's house (a VERY good friend who was willing to watch our rascals overnight) and drove to St. Joe's to find a place to live. We'd expected to drive around all day Thursday collecting info and making phone calls, and then spending all of Friday seeing places. Luckily enough we were able to find, call, tour, and sign paperwork for a great place all in a few hours time on Thursday.
Here is a link to what our place looks like. We aren't renting through this website but the rentals are almost exactly what our duplex will be like except for a few minor differences. We live on a different street so our backyard is different than pictured on the website. It also doesn't show this on the video tour but there are 3 bedrooms, 3  bathrooms, and each bedroom has its own walk in closet! I'm most excited about that part! Also our place doesn't have shower doors, and the kitchen cabinets have a lighter wood color.

 http://www.stjoerent.com/c-north-woodbine-1.html


We can move in as early as June 15th, but logistically can't really move in until about the 20th. This means that we will be able to spend some time visiting friends and family in Utah after we move in.
This is all happening so fast!

WE GOT A JOB!

In case you haven't heard, we got a job in St. Joseph, Missouri!

(yes I say "we". We got a job. We are graduating. Why not? Joe got to say "We are pregnant" and "we are having a baby" when in fact I did all the carrying and pushing out of the baby. So yes, I say again: WE got a job!)

Joe will be walking across the graduation stage in 13 days! Can you believe it?! I am so proud of him! Its been the best 4 years being here in Iowa. I'm sad to be closing this chapter of my life. Fortunately I won't have to leave the Midwest completely. Missouri has the lush foliage, the fireflies, the booming summer storms, the cornfields, and the warm humid air.  St. Joe's has all the basics as well. It has Target, Kohls, Hy-Vee (with awesome GF section), Sonic, Sam's Club, a mall, Buffalo Wild wings (which i just barely discovered had an extensive GF menu), etc.  Kansas City is just 40 minutes away so it has all of the big city attractions including an amusement park, an airport, and a brand new temple. I've also heard that the 4th of July firework show is insane.  We are pretty excited. It will only be 2 yrs there, but we intend to make the most of it.

other happenings:

I'm letting the boys dress themselves. Its so much easier, but oh how I hate how they look.  Not only do they NOT match each other, but they just plain don't match! look at these outfits?! shudder

  Joelle is super adorable, although she is looking less and less like me, and more and more like her brothers. Oh well.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate this picture. Look how tubby she is! I love this girl.

And Noah has learned how to write his name. Ethan can do it too, but i didn't get a picture.  They are getting so big! Every day they say some new funny thing that I've never heard before. Today during breakfast prayer Noah said "bless that we can be so hungry, and bless that we won't eat poo, and bless that we can go to heaven and live with Jesus.".  Also the other day I called Noah a sweet pea.  He looked confused and said "sweepy? I'm not sweepy." I said "no, not sleepy. Sweet Pea." Then I heard Ethan down the hall yell "mommy you a poop!" I thought to myself "why would he say that random mean thing to me?" then i realized that he doesn't distinguish between sweet pea and sweet pee. oops. 
I love these boys. and my girl. and my Joe.

4 weeks and 3 days...

...until Joe will walk across the stage and receive his diploma! I really should be more excited, but we STILL don't have a job! Fortunately we have a LOT of prospects. Joe has been applying like mad to a lot of different places, and making lots of contact. So far we have:

-an interview scheduled this weekend for a community health job in St. Joseph, Missouri. this seems like an AMAZING option for our family because they offer loan repayment! hey-yo! plus they are paying for us to come out and interview, so we are thinking that is a very good sign.

-an interview for an associateship in Billings with an LDS dentist who is a friend of a friend. He has also said that he would fly Joe out for an interview. Billings would only be 9 hrs from salt lake and the area seems really nice.

-contact with a Gentle Dental practice in Vancouver, WA.  Joe was able to get another 'friend of a friend' recommendation to an LDS dentist there who seems to be in pretty desperate need for a dentist. Again, the location would be really beautiful-right on the Oregon-Washington border. So pretty.

-Joe had a phone interview with a company called Midwest Dental who buys practices and then hires dentists to run them. They have 2 openings in New Mexico, so they contacted us to see if we'd be interested. Uh, ya! Are you kidding? We are done in 31 days and have no job-we are interested in anything!

-a contact for an LDS dentist here in Iowa City who is looking for an associate. I really wouldn't be opposed to staying in Iowa City a little longer. I love it here. The only issue is that I'm assuming this Dentist wants someone who would eventually buy in, and I don't think I want to stay in the Midwest forever.

-and "the Price job". it seems to always be there, but never be there. We still have no information right now except that there will be an opening for an associate very soon. we've had a lot of contact with them, and they are really great people, but they don't have any numbers worked out yet. We don't even have a ballpark estimate, so it's hard to try to plan out what our life would be like there.

I really do feel like things will work out exactly as they are meant to. we have EXACTLY one month left, but that's still enough time to find a job! Wish us luck!


P.S.  I'm SO bummed that i missed the Pella Tulip Festival again! I absolutely love tulips, and every year I say that I'm going to the Tulip Festival, but I've always missed it. Dang it.  Well, out of the list above there are 2 jobs that would allow us to see it next year. I guess that's fine.

Here is a picture of the boys enjoying their Easter loot from our ward Easter egg hunt this year.  Are you noticing a trend yet?

 This is Easter last year.

And the year before that:

This was 2010. My parents got these 'Easter Baskets' for the boys. That's what they're known as. The boys still call them their Easter baskets. But now that we have baby #3 we're going to have to get a third. Which school do you think we should represent? I'll have to keep an eye out for a Hawkeye bag for her.

 

As of today Joe will be graduating in less than 8 weeks.  It's not really sinking in right now, mostly because we still don't have a job! i know! we have a few coals in the fire, but are currently on hold awaiting the one we want most. Still no word yet. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it's too late for that one. My hopes are up, and it's going to be a REALLY happy or REALLY sad day when we get that call. I'm also trying to be patient. I'm failing that one too. Every morning I get up and check Joe's email to see if there is something from a certain dentist holding our future in his hands.  Every day. Multiple times a day. Turns out i really suck at being patient. More than once I will happen upon Joe in the middle of a phone call, and jump up and down silently mouthing "is that who I think it is?!!!".  Nope. It's just our dang friends wanting to be friendly. Then I'll grudgingly pick up the phone and say "ugh! (friend's name) why aren't you calling to offer us a job!" Those poor friends are the victims of me jumping to conclusions. Good thing they still like us.

Pretty in Pink

This is me ^  

In this picture I'm wearing my blessing dress. It's pink, and I love it. My grandma made it for me to wear on my blessing day. I REALLY wanted Joelle to wear it when she was blessed too, but she was too small, being only 3 weeks old, at the time.

This picture of me was always called 'the Elvis picture' because of the funny thing I'm doing with my lip. Is it a smile? A smirk? Who knows, but when I was little it looked like the Elvis lip to me so that's what I called it.  I really liked having this picture of myself to compare to Joelle. Since I've already had 2 Joe-clones I really wanted a little Jessica-clone in our family. After all, I did most of the work getting them here.

Today is Easter. It just so happened that this dress fit her today. I tried my best to re-create 'the elvis' picture. I think it's a really sweet way to illustrate how special certain events or memories are. But Joelle doesn't do the weird lip thing, she smiles instead.  I can't call this an Elvis picture because she's too cute! She is definitely much more adorable than I was, and that makes me happier than having a me-clone. I want her to have only the best parts of me. Someday she's going to grow up to be a better person than I am, and that's exactly how it should be.
So what's better than Elvis?
 Pretty in Pink.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

It's baseball season! And do you know what that means at our house?!

 It means it's time to whip out the white spray paint and baseball tee. This a picture of the boys showing me their white hands after having touched the fresh white paint.

Joe is such a good dad.

He even painted where their feet go. they tend to have trouble with their stance so this was Joe's genius solution.

  I love him so much that I'm posting a pic of me after having slept off all of my makeup.

 Noah swinging the bat!

 Running the bases! This is Ethan trying to 'throw him out'. They don't have any other teammates so they literally throw the ball at the base runner.  He hit Noah in the arm.

Noah throwing a fit because Ethan hit him with the ball-even though Joe kept telling him that he was safe.

 Ethan's turn at bat.

And of course his consequential fit from being thrown out.

I love the weather right now. Cool spring evening, baseball, pandora, and the smell of dinner cooking.

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.
(can you tell that we love using that line in our blog? its about the 5th time we've done it)

BIG Girl!

Joelle had her 3 month check up this week. She weighs 13 lbs 7.5 ounces! What a good chunky baby, eh? That puts her in the 90% percentile for weight. She's also in the 95% for height, but only the 40% for head circumference.  Ya, she's got her dad's tiny head. It's no wonder she held her head up so early. She's got a big strong body and small head. 
It feels good to have a big baby. With the boys it was a battle just to get them on the charts at all when they were this age. Growing up they never exceeded the 50% percentile in anything. Everything with her is different than the boys were-except her cuteness of course:)
Other facts about Joelle:
-she's a GREAT sleeper. Thank goodness for that.
-she eats really well, but then pukes a lot after each meal. I don't mind and her pediatrician thinks its normal so I'm not worried about it.
-She has such a great temperament. I love watching her coo and smile and bat at her hanging toys.
-she drools like crazy! this girl can soak though her clothes every hour if i don't wipe her chin. I love it though.
-She loves it when i sing to her-except when i try to hit the high notes. yesterday i was singing one of my favorite songs "Lets Hear it for the Boy" and at the end of the song i squeaked out the last impossible notes and her smile turned to a look of confusion. It was really funny.

She's such an angel. I love this girl!