Bonus Blog: Signs you have kids...

What I found today:

An unflushed peed in toilet with my toothbrush in it. Delightful.

Sorry to gross you out, I was grossed out, too. Don't worry the toothbrush found it's way to the trash can.

Nothing is safe anymore!

Yesterday Robby walked into the living room to find this...

Yes, nothing is safe anymore!

And boy was she proud of herself! "Look Daddy, I can almost touch the light!" (Next thing you know she will be swinging from it!)

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I just posted several new posts. Just so you know, I will probably be out of commission on the blog for a little while as we make our move to Iowa. With the way things have worked out, we will be "homeless" for about two weeks between the time we have to be out of our rental house and the day we take possession of our new home. We've decided to turn the gap into a vacation, of sorts. So, if you don't hear from me on the blog, just know I will be back in about 6 weeks (give or take a week).

Jenna's dance recital

Jenna had her first dance recital on her birthday! And she got to dance with her daddy in the recital! Yes, you read that right, Robby got on stage and danced with his little girl. (Only for one of his sweet daughters, would Robby dance on stage for more than a thousand spectators!)

Of course, he wasn't alone. All of the dads danced with their girls for the number. Jenna and her little friends were elephants, monkeys, and lions, and they danced to music from the Lion King.

I must admit, I was one proud Mama watching my little girl and her daddy dance on stage. I wish I could show you the video, but they had a professional video company come and refused to allow anyone else to video tape. We did buy the tape and I look forward to watching it again when it comes!

A Ward Service Project

Jenna's birthday was pretty packed between a dance recital rehearsal, a ward service project, and the dance recital performance, we were go, go, go all day! For our ward service project we went to the working 1920's farm at Prophetstown State Park, and helped spruce up the grounds.

We start with a picture of Jenna -- There were several things to do at the ward service project, weed a garden, shovel mulch, and paint two out buildings. When we arrived, I figured that our family would stick to the dirt jobs and leave the painting to others. Apparently, I was wrong! Poor Jenna tripped while shoveling mulch and fell in the paint. Then she found some kids painting a small fence around the garden, and she decided to help. At least she had fun, right?!

After the project we toured the farm and checked out some early 20th century farm equipment. There was a cool machine, that Robby especially liked, that separated the corn from the stalk with the turn of a crank. Of course, as I type this I think the contraption was only fun because we were playing. If we really had to turn the crank to get enough feed corn for all the animals, we probably would have grown very tired of the process.

Playing on the mulch pile!

Olivia did her service riding on my back.

Jenna's 4!

In light of the craziness with packing and preparing for a move, we had to do our best to squeeze a birthday celebration into the schedule for Jenna. She has been talking for months about having a birthday party, who would be invited, and the pink cupcakes with sprinkles that she would have. So we blew up balloons, backed pink cupcakes, and had four friends over to play and celebrate. (Side-note/ Tip: If you have a party to throw, I highly recommend the individual helium tanks that you can buy at Wal-mart. It was great! We had about twice as many balloons for about 2/3rds the cost, and we used the tank for 3 celebrations - Dad's birthday, balloons as a gift for a friend's birthday, and Jenna's party.)

Pink with sprinkles, of course. Baking these and eating them brought back memories of my 3rd or 4th birthday when I, too, had to have pink cake.

A few friends to join in the fun!

This is Dillon, one of Jenna's best friends here in Indiana. We're going to miss him when we move!

And we had presents! Jenna made sure we didn't forget the presents!

Jenna with her girl friends.

After everyone went home, Jenna spent the rest of the day playing with her new princess umbrella outside in the rain.

Jenna's birthday was actually the next day, so I took her outside to take her first 4 year-old pictures, and she insisted we have a picture with her favorite gifts. 2 My Little Ponies (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa H and her big brother, Robby) and her princess umbrella (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa W).

And here's our 4 year-old!