Tansy got to participate in Operation Spirit this year.  It's for kids 5-12, and they get to spend the morning with a parent pretending to deploy.  They get a call at 7:00 Saturday morning with instructions to report to the deployment center.  They have briefings, go through legal and medical stuff, and get to check out some other stuff.  She had a great time with her dad.

Sydney turned 9 on April 23.  Since Ben is on swing shift, I wasn't sure how to go about this.  However, with our move coming up, he had a short meeting that morning at 7:00 a.m.  When we got home, I had Syd open her presents really quickly before heading to the bus.

That evening was her piano recital.  She did a great job.  Although she is ready for a break until fall when we will have our piano back.

After the recital, we dashed home to scarf down some birthday cake and get Ben back to work.  Syd had a good day, which is all that matters.

Since it was her ninth birthday, I kept the birthday party small.  She had a movie night with her best friends.  They were too crazy for me to get a good picture, so here's what I got.

Yesterday was her last day of karate.  She has done an amazing job, and I am so proud of this little girl every day!

It has come to my attention that I have failed to properly update some people on our house hunt a few weeks ago.  Although we fully intended to buy an existing house, we spent our first day looking at our favorites and were really disappointed.  We agreed to look at some spec homes if they were going to be done in time for our move, so our realtor planned for us to visit the builders the next day while we went back to my sister's house and tried to reevaluate our search criteria.  

While we didn't find a spec home that really met our needs, we fell in love with the first model we saw and kept coming back to that with every property we looked at.  We both felt that this was the home for our family and went back the next day to sign a contract.  At that point we still hadn't figured out where we were going to live for the 2+ months until the house was finished.  Turns out that fully furnished vacation homes are dirt cheap in Arizona in the summer. Go figure.

Here we are on our lot.

We had 3 1/2 hours to choose every finish for the house since we had to go back to Missouri.  All of our flooring is in the front.  The cabinets, granite, and paint color are propped up behind them.

We are really excited about this house it is even in our target school district.  You can see the floor plan at this link: http://www.meritagehomes.com/assets/phoenix-az/del-mar-at-sedella/2415/MRT_PHX_Sedella_1-B_145-2415_Sierra_Web_Brochure.pdf
If you scroll to the bottom, you'll see Opt. Home Office ILO Flex.  We chose that option, but everything else is the same as the floor plan at the top.

My photo of the exterior colors didn't turn out at all.  You'll just have to wait for the post of the completed house.

While Ben was gone, we got pounded a couple of times with snow.  I think we had seven snow days.  This is the snowman the kids and I made.  This is as tall as they were interested in making it.  We used veggies for the face, so they were gone the the next morning thanks to our local furry friends.

The girls had Cowboy/Cowgirl Day at school.  They wanted to pose in their outfits before they left.  They are holding the rope we got in Nauvoo.

Tansy also had her music program while Ben was gone.  She was so cute singing her patriotic songs.

Tansy's birthday was March 14.  She is six!  Ben didn't get home until March 16 at 10:30 p.m.  Tansy waited until Sunday, the 17th to have cake and presents so that her dad could be there.  I know that I couldn't wait that long when I was six.  Such a sweet girl!

This cake is supposed to look like a puppy.  Tansy thought it was great.  I'm just happy there was a cake.

And, yes, we are all wearing green of some kind because it was St. Patrick's Day.

We are currently enjoying another snow storm now.  Church was canceled today because of it, so we have had a nice, quiet Sunday at home with the family.  Darn it!  I just realized we didn't take any pictures when we were coloring eggs earlier today!  I'm a bit distracted since we are leaving the day after tomorrow for Arizona to find a home.  I can't believe we are buying our first house!  I'm sure there will be an exciting, possibly only to me, post about that in a couple of weeks.

Tyler had his first dentist appointment since he is now 3.  It did not go well.  These glasses are probably the only part of the appointment he enjoyed.  Perhaps we can find a pediatric dentist in Arizona and see if that helps.  Then again, what 3-year-old enjoys the dentist?

Sydney recently promoted to Orange Belt 2nd.  This is likely the end of the road for her as far as promotion for quite some time because she is only 8.  That's okay, though, because she has decided that when we move to Arizona, she would like to try something else.  I'm really proud to see how hard she has worked in karate.

January 1 kicked of potty training of my youngest child.  I have waited a long time for this.  I actually tried with him once already.  I was ready to quit after the first week of seemingly no progress, but Tyler didn't want to quit.  About three days later, he started to get it.  However, it is nearly the end of February, and only in the past week would I confidently say that he is potty trained.  He wasn't really sure about it before we started, but I told him that there are no diapers in Arizona.  He totally believes me.  This picture is of him sitting on his potty seat watching TV.  He always insisted on having a blanket because he insisted his legs were cold.

 On January 25, Tyler turned 3.  The poor little guy was recovering from bronchitis, so it was hard to made him happy that day.  We went to dinner at Burger King in the BX, his second favorite place after the Burger King with the playground out in Warrensburg.

He perked up a bit for presents.

 Not my most fantastic birthday cake, but it was exactly what he wanted.  He is a Mickey Mouse fanatic.

When he turned 3, he informed me that he wasn't Baby Bear anymore.  I have called him that nearly his whole life.  I asked what I should call him.  He said, "I you Honey Bear!"  Yes, sweet guy, you are.

Christmas was a lot of fun at our house this year.  Although "overboard" would also be an appropriate term. We did all of our fun Christmas traditions, but this year we also made edible reindeer out chocolate covered donuts, pretzel twists, and M&Ms.  It was a fun family night treat, and Tyler really did enjoy more than it appears.

 Santa brought everyone what they wanted.  Including the Power Wheels that Ben has always wanted.  Too bad he doesn't fit in it any more.