Sunday, March 23, 2014

MARCHing On...

March is certainly "March"-ing on... And so is TIME! We had Stake Conference last Sunday, and on the drive home from Fayetteville it suddenly dawned on me-- we only have TWO more Stake Conferences left before we move. Soon it will only be two more General Conferences, and give it another month or so and we will only have 12 fast Sundays left here in North Carolina!! And I have to admit, it felt SO good to realize that! To realize we can do this! We can finally finish our four year payback and then move on...be closer to friends and family and "home"...not be so burned out and far away. We've spent almost our entire marriage living on the East Coast, so needless to say, it was a big moment on the power of perspective, and super encouraging for me to think that we've finally reached that light at the end of the tunnel. Almost there!
Meanwhile life marches on as well. This little peanut keeps growing and growing. She is such a firecracker-- people can tell within mere minutes of being around her. We bought some new flip flops to celebrate the warm weather and she wears them everywhere! She also likes to pick her own clothes now, and this is hands-down her favorite dress because of the kitties.
Someone got a hold of my phone the other day and took a "selfie." Leah Selfie! 
Leah absolutely loves mac and cheese. She finds the boxes upstairs in our storage room, brings them to the top of the staircase, and drops them down on me. Yesterday we fed her lunch, and as soon as she was done she walked over to the kitchen drawer that holds the napkins and towels, pulled one out and wiped her hands and face, stuffed it back in the drawer, and walked off.
As the US Open fast approaches, several new businesses have opened up in town hoping to get their piece of the pie in June. A "Buffalo Wild Wings" just opened, and a guy in our ward opened up "Brixx," which is a franchised pizzeria featuring wood-fired pizzas, paninis, and salads. Jon and I decided it was time for a date night! Luckily our neighbor Addie was up for the challenge, and we pay pretty good.:) We got to take Jon's hot new sports car.
We each got our own personal pizzas-- Jon got the Greek with olives and basil, and I got the Chicken Florentine with spinach, feta, and bacon. They were amazing! We will definitely be eating there lots in the year to come!
Last Saturday Pinehurst hosted its annual St. Patrick's Day parade in the Village. The weather was great, there weren't too many people, and my kids were super excited to get candy! I didn't know how interested Leah would be, but she had a blast. She loved the noise, the marching bands, the different cars, and all the doggies. She sat the entire time and clapped for everyone.
Everyone in their green shirts, except for Daddy. Guess he missed the memo!
Lucy finished "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" this past Friday and was super proud. She is an awesome little book worm and has fallen in love with HP. I told her that Grandma Cardon needed to throw her one of her famous HP parties to celebrate! Somehow Leah was inducted into Harry's fan club too, as she came downstairs with a lightning scar on her forehead yesterday, handiwork of Zach.
 Yesterday the weather was fantastic so we decided to get out of the house by heading to the NC Zoo and using our new pass. We'd tried to go a few weekends ago, and when we got there we discovered it was closed due to some storm damage from the night before. After driving 45 minutes just to get there, we were pretty disappointed even though they offered us 5 free passes to use anytime, but it was little consolation since we'd already splurged on an annual pass! 
 Leah LOVED seeing the animals and had so much fun playing at all the different interactive exhibits!
 We decided to tackle only half the Zoo since it's divided into two big parts-- Africa and North America (our half). That way we didn't stress out about our sloooow pace, and we still got to see alligators, birds, snakes, turtles, bears, and buffalo.
I have a thing for buffalo. Aren't they cute? We booked it back to the car and headed back to town to grab some burritos for dinner, and ended the weekend with a movie.
 All dressed up for church this morning!
 Sisters who are definitely pretty in pink!
 Now we're all pretty in pink! Great minds think alike...either that, or I picked out all the outfits this morning and had pink on the brain!
 Can't leave out my handsome (and strong) mens! Jon's done it again. The base had a Sport's Day on Friday where they all competed in an Army Air Assault obstacle course that's used in training, and Jon competed for his team (again, out of the ENTIRE Air Force Base) and WON. Again. 
Here it is. Proof of the big win. Third time he's competed in an event and won. They announced it over the loud speaker and gave him this medal, so he was pretty proud.
Leah has learned Zach's trick of pushing the stepstool over and getting into the treats. Here she found the cookie batter and helped herself. It's a guilty little grin! 

And since the theme of the post has been the passage of time, here's a little comparison pic of a Sunday almost exactly one year ago:
March 2013
March 2014

They really do grow up fast!