Spring Sprung

So there's an old joke we tell in Idaho that we have all four seasons--almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction. It turns out that Virginia has almost summer, summer, still summer, and rain. Seriously, spring was like a week long! Blink and you'll miss it! It's been officially warm here the last few days.

This is the weather report for Rigby, Idaho on April 8. 

And this is the weather report for today at Virginia Beach (we spent the day there). Big difference! It's gonna be a HOT summer!

Here's some pictures of our too-short spring. Did I mention we were sick the last 2 weeks? :(

We painted fingernails on a shut-in-sick day.

I tried so hard to talk Oaklie into a different paint color but she was insistent. I think it looks like she has a nail infection!

Our ward put on an awesome Easter Egg hunt.

 Oaklie started throwing up the night before Easter and didn't start feeling better until Wednesday, so it was a pretty chill holiday. We were supposed to have some friends over but we had to quarantine ourselves :(

Our Easter baskets are in storage but the hats worked!

Carissa

Dallas

There was a conversation about this about a week before Easter at our house.

Me: What do you want for Easter?

Dallas: Nothing

Me: Ok, what do you need for Easter? Like church clothes or shoes or something?

Dallas: I don't need anything.

Carissa: You don't even need, like....a belt or something?

Dallas: I could use a belt.

Oaklie had a sad Easter with a sick belly. She cried when I told her she couldn't go to nursery in her new dress. It was so sad.

She tried on her skirt for a minute to take a picture. These guys are big fans of their lambs.

This is picture retake about a week later. Don't worry, the outfits were washed between.

April is Month of the Military Child. They had a carnival on Fort Lee in honor of our military kids and everything was free! Some things I really love about being an Army family.

Face painting

Dallas had to work at this event, but he took just long enough of a break to get the girls some cotton candy. I love a little girl and her dad!

Our girls are getting so big!

Speaking of Month of the Military Child, an article I wrote about our military kids was featured on Military.com's sister site, "SpouseBuzz". You can check it out here.

We've been riding out bikes a lot. These guys are little speed demons. 

I got my haircut the other day. I'm trying to take pictures of my hair as it grows out. The plan is to compile them into one shot of my hair growing back. 

Dallas left Sunday morning for field training and was supposed to be gone until Thursday, but got back and surprised us on Tuesday. The first thing Amaya and Oaklie wanted to do when he left was make a calendar. When he got home, Amaya got the calendar down and crossed off the rest of the days.

We took a little trip to Virginia Beach today with some friends and soaked up some sun. When I told Amaya we were going to swim in the ocean she said, "When I move to Kentucky and make new friends I am going to tell my friends, 'Hi, my name is Amaya and guess what? One time I swimmed in the ocean.'" 

Oaklie picked out her swimsuit at the store yesterday and it is so her!

There was a nice little playground by the beach.

Oaklie said, "I need to work out," and then just started doing push-ups. She didn't learn that from me!

This picture is for Dad. Originally we planned this trip to keep us busy until Dallas got back in town. When he got home early, I was going to stay home and hang out with him, but he told us we should still go. He works so hard for our family!  I'm spoiled that I get to stay home every day with our little munchkins! 

The whole group. All of our husbands are here for BOLC (different classes). 

Amaya took this picture!

This is kind of a random end to the post but Dallas found a frog outside our front door. He wouldn't let me throw it in the fish tank and watch it and our Beta Fish fight to the death.

Aren't I a lucky lady to be married to this good looking man? 

Nobody in our house wanted to give him a kiss. He's hanging out in our bushes in case someone changes their mind.

Life as of Lately

Just some random pictures.

A few weeks ago we drove up to D.C. and got a car for Dallas. It's been 2 1/2 years since we've each had a car and it is heavenly. On the way back, we stopped for lunch. Oaklie's lunch mostly consisted of ketchup packets. We're terrible parents.

A couple days later we took the BMW for a spin. (Lest you think we are snobbish it's a 2003, but we really like it). There are a bunch of plantations about half and hour from us so we went and drove the grounds. 

It's hard to read but it says the plantation ground were the site of the first Thanksgiving and the house is the birthplace of William Henry Harrison, the 9th US President and Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

The carriage road.

A couple shots of our drive to D.C.

Oaklie ate the glitter glue at preschool on Tuesday. She is quite the kid!

This picture is proof that my hair is growing...be it ever so slowly...

This is kind of a side-note but if you are like me and so white that the whitest foundation at Walmart is too dark, you should try Mary-Kay foundation. I got some the other day and it is awesome. No more orange!

The girls were playing dress-up today. Maya brought me this dress and said, "Will you help me get this married dress on?" I got a little weepy thinking about helping her get ready on her wedding day. She's not going to be my little girl forever...sob...

Then little sis burst in looking like this...

"Ta-Da!" It's good to be TWO!

Amaya also promised me that when she gets married one day she is going to wear that exact dress. I think I will hold her to it!

President's Day

 We started the day off with a driving tour of the city. The Peterson's were great tour guides!

Washington Monument

Capitol Building

The Supreme Court is under construction so they had this big picture in front of it!

Oaklie really enjoyed the tour.

So did Amaya. She played on my iPad.

Smithsonian Art Museum

Ford's Theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated. I didn't realize it was right in the heart of DC!

Right after we took this picture my camera died. Lovely.

The rest of these were taken with my foggy iPad. It usually takes really good pictures but it was so humid and cold that day it fogged up the lens. 

IN THIS TEMPLE

AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE

FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION

THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

IS ENSHRINED FOREVER.

I love Abraham Lincoln!

It looks like I took a bunch of faux-1970s hipster pictures, huh? I'm thinking about opening my own business.

I'm so sad because this is such a cute picture!

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial. 

Every name represents a soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

We visited some of the Smithsonian Museum. Oaklie wanted to see a lion and Amaya wanted to see a hippo.

haha I love this picture because it reminds me of SISTERS.

Also, we got to see the Hope Diamond which was really cool! Turns out that old lady didn't throw it into the ocean in Titanic after all.

 

Oaklie's favorite part of the day was walking along the bushes that has dozens of little birds in them. "Budies! Teet-teet!" They always flew away right as she got close to them.

This is the lap desk that Thomas Jefferson used to write the Declaration of Independence on.

We all tried our hand at looking like the American president.

Thank you President and Sister Peterson for a great trip! I want to be just like Sister Peterson when I grow up :) They are turning in their mission papers soon and we are excited to find out where they are going!