All of the Possibilities...

Kris is going to be very busy the month of March because he has four fly outs to different universities for job interviews. His adventures start in Georgia followed by Massachusetts, Virginia and Utah State. Last month Kris interviewed at BYU, so this will be a long stretch of airplane flights, interviews and presentations for him. There are still enough days in the month available for additional interviews if that be the case, but we are hopeful we will be happy at any of these places if this is it. We are also excited that we should find out where we are moving to next by the time Ellary is born.

University of Georgia: http://www.uga.edu/

University of Massachusetts: http://www.umass.edu/

Univeristy of Virginia: http://www.virginia.edu/

Utah State University: http://www.usu.edu/

Speaking of Ellary, today the doctor said that my uterus is measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule and that she is head down and lying very low. That explains the pelvic pressure I've been experiencing a lot of lately. She is also very active and already copying her sisters as she does what I like to call "pirouettes" in my tummy. She kicked the doctor's hand as he began to measure my tummy today and he was very surprised that she was kicking so high in my abdomen. Best thing of all, her heartbeat sounds great and she appears to be healthy!

Sweet Pictures

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Our house is a very, very fine house...

We are anticipating our departure from Indiana in the next 5-6 months, and so, we are trying to get our house in condition to sale it. On the day we closed we began a quick but nice job of repainting and carpeting, exchanging yellow walls and orange carpet for more neutral colors. Since then (almost 4 years later) some little scuffs, and children's crayon markings have made their marks on our walls and therefore our house has become a home.

However, we need to have a yard sale before we can touch up on the paint, and have some light carpentry work done. Kris and I are hoping that March 21st and 22nd will be a weekend of descent weather so we can begin selling various items including furniture, clothes, and baby things.

We are also hoping to sale our house without a real estate agent, and therefore, we're looking to give someone a good deal for our home. Maybe some beginning Ph.D. student and his/her family with several long years of schooling ahead of them or anyone else who would enjoy a less expensive home with some great space and potential.

Here are some specs on our home:

• Approximately 1750 finished square feet
• 4 bedrooms (2 master suites, one up and one down with connecting bathrooms)
• 3 baths (1 full and 2 3/4 baths)
• 2 car garage
• Double pane windows throughout
• Lots of light in the basement
• Nice, fenced in back yard with wood deck against back fence
• Trim recently (in last 8 months) painted and weather-proofed
• Safe, lit neighborhood, great for taking walks in
• Newly built elementary school nearby
• Close to 2 walking/running/biking trails
• 1 1/2 miles from the local YMCA
• About 10 minutes from downtown and IU campus
• Bloomington has a relatively low cost of living!!!

If you are interested in knowing more about our home, by all means reply to our blog. We'll be happy to tell you more! For those we are leaving, we will miss you dearly.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We hope you are enjoying some time with those you love...

This afternoon we exchanged some cards and candy. Alyson and Kourtney made their own cards this year, and Kris and I will buy ourselves a dart board tonight or later this week (we'll have to tell you the significance of this gift in a later blog).

Here are two special videos for Nana, Papa Bear, and Oma. We love you!

We also hope you enjoy the pictures we took of our Valentine's Day celebration thus far.

Also, Koco nearly nocked Alyson's top right front tooth out by accident this morning. Boy, talk about sisterly love on Valentine's Day! You can see pictures taken of Alyson today at the bottom of this blog while she still has her tooth...And you can see the little colporate at the bottom of the blog too!

For Nana and Papa

For Oma

Our Colorado Vacation

January 15th marked a special day for our family. It meant that Kris had his job applications mailed off to universities and we could visit our parents after having not been home to Colorado in over a year.

After traveling a bleak and redundant path for over three years through Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, we chose another route to take us home. Our handy dandy GPS system helped us map out routes to our destinations. Soon both Alyson and Kourtney were copying the lady's voice. "Then turn right onto the motor way," and "You have reached your destination" became phrases of second nature for our two little girls.

This time we spent two nights on the road: the first in Iowa City, Iowa, and the second in Denver with one of Kris' cousins and his family. We enjoyed time in both of these places as we explored Iowa City, and swam at the hotel (a huge highlight for Alyson and Kourtney), then visited with Erik, Kelly and their two children Kaden, 3, and Taylor 4 months in Denver.

After two and a half days on the road, we pulled into Grand Junction and were greeted by our folks. We spent the first part of our vacation sleeping at Kris' mom's house, and then the second part with my parents. My sister was also able to visit us for a few days, and we enjoyed our time with her, her husband, and four children which have all grown in both stature and maturity. Wow-can you believe what a year can do to a child?

We played games around the dining room table, basketball at the Stake Center, swam, watched our mom's bowl, watched movies together, and enjoyed eachother's company during various other activities. Alyson and Kourtney were spoiled by their grandparents as they were showered with time and attention and with clothing and toys. They also enjoyed time with their cousins and stayed up way too late for their own good.

Kris and I had fun playing Spades against our mom's and taking dates. We saw several movies together and ate out a few times. Kris, his mom and the girls also took a morning to visit his cousin Melanie and treated the girls to pizza and games at Chuckie Cheeses.

After such a long 4-5 months of hard work, Kris really needed the time off but continued to work 3-4 hours here and there to be prepared for job interviews and other projects he's been working on. However he seemed much more relaxed and yet carried the cell phone with him every where he went in hopefull anticipation that he'd have universities calling him to schedule interviews.

Our stay in G.J. was cut about half a day short as a blizzard was predicted to hit the Rocky Mountains early the morning we planned to make our trip back to Indiana. So, we said goodbye to our parents and began our adventure back to Indiana on Sunday around 5:15 pm. We spent one night on the road in Colby, Kansas, made a breif visit to Dan and Sarah Babbels home, and then pressed forward through the next night.

After two weeks our vacation was over, but we came home rejuvinated and ready to see what the near future has to hold for us.

More Pictures will be posted later when I can pull them off of Kris' laptop.