Catch up

I should probably mention here that Caleb and Joseph had a birthday early March. It has been so much fun to have them sharing a birthday! Here are a few pictures from that exciting morning:

Packages from Grandma are always the best!!

Joseph and Caleb got matching ties, which I adore. Jake was a little put out by all the matching going on that he was not a part of.

But he took matters into his own hands and got a turn too!

Joseph got this cool gear ring that everyone was fascinated by.

... and I'm pretty sure we had cake and stuff, but these were the only pictures I set aside from that day, so that'll do for now.

Another cool thing that happened a little more recently was a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion with my sister-in-law and her daughter, Olivia. They live in Arizona, and the last time we'd seen Mindy was right before Olivia was born, at Caleb's baby blessing. So it was a treat to see them and get to know Olivia a little bit.

Here are all the cousins (minus Keanan) gathered for a group shot. Olivia is sandwiched there between Elinor and Emily. Doesn't she fit in well? Mindy and I kept getting Elinor and Olivia mixed up because they were so alike in size and coloring.

Emi in the butterfly house; Olivia in the background. This place was cool. There were all kinds of butterflies just flitting around all over the place. We had a couple land on us and the kids were in awe. There was also a wall of chrysalises, which was really interesting. (and yes, I did just look up whether or not the plural form of 'chrysalis' is chrysali! it's not.)

Jake.

The four kids settled in for lunch. I love this picture because they are all sitting in a fairly civilized manner, and eating their food like normal, proper people. It's a little sad how rarely this happens.

And a few random pictures:

Typical dinner prep! Our kitchen is way too tiny for half the family to hang out in!

Jake used to have gorgeous curly hair.

Sometimes it wasn't gorgeous, and sometimes it got lollipops stuck in it. One morning I was out on a run and when I got back Joseph had chopped all of Jake's beautiful curls. Yes, they were getting very long, and yes, a lot of the time they were matted or rats' nest-y, but I was really, really sad about it.

Good thing there's so much to love about this baby, even without the curls!

Pajama buddies. Caleb has an obsession with Minecraft and the other kids love to watch him play.

Things have been going well for us, though the weather has taken a turn for the worse - right now we have a winter storm warning in effect, with a possible 4-9 inches of snow accumulation tomorrow! And this is mid-May? It makes me want to go back to Austin!

I have been scouring Craigslist for possible rentals out in California, and have been blown away by how expensive everything is. It is also very difficult to do things long distance. I feel so grateful that Google has offered us a couple of months in corporate housing while we search for more permanent housing once we get there. It does seem like a great place to live though, aside from housing costs. I feel confident that once we've found a place that we feel comfortable with, our time in California will be very enjoyable. I've been working to convince the kids that Disneyland and beaches will make up for not having snow... I think they're slowly coming around!