Girls Night

We were so excited last year when we heard there were four other Mormon families already at Tuck. We have loved getting to know the Dances, Holbrooks, Torontos, and Laytons and we're so sad that they'll be graduating and moving in a few short weeks. We had one last girls night on Friday before everyone gets busy with finals and graduation.

Andrea, Michelle, Tiffany, and Maren

Love these ladies so much!

 I gathered notes from everyone about these four ladies and made little books for them with the notes and pictures from their two years at Tuck.

 My party planning partners... 

Candace (her husband and Josh are the two T'14 Mormons) and Catherine (her husband is doing medical school this year and Tuck next year)

 Some of my favorite Dartmouth ladies

 I thought this girls night would be full of reminiscing and tears, but instead it became a fun night of dancing and karaoke. I'd rather be dancing than crying!

(Ashley and Steph snuck out before I started going crazy with the pictures)! 

I am seriously going to miss this group of ladies, but I'm excited for them as they move across the country and embark on bigger and better things.....like earning paychecks!

Love you ladies!!!

Saturday Afternoon

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, so we spent as much time as we could outside! 

I hope Bryn is soaking up this play time with Josh because he only has 3 more Saturdays with us until he leaves for NYC for the next 11 weeks. Yikes!

Mealtime

Mealtime.

A.k.a.: the Hawkins family circus

Mya used to have such a hearty appetite and was so eager and efficient at her mealtimes. Now, instead of eating she'd rather be playing peekaboo (while smashing crumbs into her hair), dropping food from her tray, and doing magic tricks with her bib.

At one point tonight we thought we heard a pig squealing, but it turned out to be Mya wedged under a low kitchen drawer. 

Sometime down the road, we will all quietly sit in out seats, enjoy a nice meal, and have an engaging discussion about current events or an important moral issue or something. But right now, mealtimes feel more like a work-out than anything.

Field Trip to Waterbury, Vermont

Mya's cute friend Kate turned one today, so we celebrated with ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. It was about an hour drive, through the gorgeous, green hills that are so typical to Vermont. Bryn was really excited to go to "a real live ice cream factory!!!" and that excitement turned into lots of energy and exuberance during the factory tour. Thankfully the tour was really cute and kid-friendly and my little hyper child didn't cause too much of a scene.

There was a fun park right outside Ben and Jerry's and I think the kids were as excited about the playground as they were the factory. It's hard to beat a good playground :)

 We also checked out the Cold Hollow Cider Mill down the road, which had fresh apple cider samples and delicious apple cider doughnuts. 

Clearly the girls were getting a little loopy at this point, but we had such a great morning checking out a few of the fun things in Waterbury.

Mother's Day

 My first Mother's Day as a mom of two!

As I type this, I can hear Bryn and Mya giggling in the next room over and I can't think of any sweeter sound. They're supposed to be going to bed, but lately they've been having little giggle fests every night before bed. I used to try to calm them down and give them a speech about quietly going to bed, but now I just let them laugh it out until they fall asleep on their own. I love these two girls so much and am so grateful to be their mother. 

 It's been a wonderful Mother's Day, complete with breakfast in bed, six(!) handmade Mother's Day cards from Brynlee (they just kept coming!), a few sweet gifts from Josh, and lots of fun family time. Bryn was so over-the-top sweet today that I couldn't help but laugh. All day she kept giving me tight embraces and dramatically expressing her love for me. She kept leaving her seat in primary, giving me big hugs, and whispering things like "I love you, Mother! You are important and beautiful and special to me!" She also presented me all day with random toys and food items, wrapped up in blankets, and offered as Mother's Day gifts. She really went all out and it was so funny.

This is my first Mother's Day with this little fuzzy-haired chubba! Last year at this time I was in my 3rd trimester of a rocky, high-risk pregnancy, just praying with all my heart the little babe inside of me would be unaffected by the pregnancy complications. My heart is so full every time I look at this healthy little girl, and I'm so glad she's a part of our family. I am grateful every day for my two sweet, healthy girls and the chance I have to be their mom. 

Caterpillars

Spring is officially in full swing, which means the bugs (and even the bears!....that's a different story!) have come out! After a long winter Bryn must have forgotten about bugs because she's been dramatically shrieking every time she sees a fly, ant, ladybug, or any other harmless insect. 

There's only one bug that doesn't scare her and that is caterpillars. She finds them all around our yard and has no problem picking them up and telling them in a baby voice how fuzzy and cute they are. 

Josh is such a fun dad and made Bryn this little house for the caterpillars. Josh and Bryn get fresh grass for the caterpillars every morning and Bryn runs out to the porch all throughout the day to check on them. Originally, there were five caterpillars ("Sarah", "Bill", "Lily", "Berry", and "Cinderella"), but "Cinderella" and "Lily" have since passed on. They attached themselves to sticks, hardened up, and got all covered in grey fuzz - tricking us into thinking they were forming their cocoons - but it turns out they were actually just dying. So that was kind of anti-climatic, and now we're down to three.

Anyway, seeing Bryn's excitement over these little bugs is just priceless. Being a mom is fun :)

Spring Hikes

I've probably already mentioned this or hinted at it, but February and March were pretty brutal for me as winter drug on and on with it's freezing New Hampshire temps. Holy cow, it was hard for me to stay indoors every single day with two kids....coming from SoCal where we were outside nearly every day of the year. I wish I could say that the long winter didn't effect my mood, but it definitely did! Now that it is finally spring I can honestly say that I am loving New Hampshire again. And one of my very, very favorite things about New Hampshire is all the hiking trails right in our neighborhood. (I guess there are a few perks to living out in the middle of nowhere).

 Usually I go hiking on my own a few times a week, but sometimes the whole fam comes along for the fun. Boston Lot Lake is the closest hike and it's beautiful. There is the Sachem Trail that just takes about 20 minutes jogging to get from our porch to the lake, and then there are tons of other trails to take once you get to the lake. That's my usual route. But there's also a shorter path if you drive down the street a mile. It's the perfect hike for little kids because it only takes about 15 minutes and the trail is nice and wide.  

 This is an embarrassing picture capturing my weak attempt at skipping rocks, but it's the only picture I have of this side of the lake. It's such a pretty spot.

Josh prefers skipping boulders instead of small rocks :)

Josh was nice enough on Thursday to play with the girls at the lake, while I took the trail around the lake for a little extra exercise. Lucky for him, Mya stays in one place and is pretty content if you just put a snack in front of her.

  

 This last (poor quality) picture is my second favorite place to hike/walk/run: the road from Hanover to Etna. This road is so charming to me. Near the top of the hill there is also a great outlet to the Appalachian Trail. I love this area because it's just so scenic, but also because the road is at enough of an incline that I can run it without my knees hurting.

Basically, I love, love, love New Hampshire in the spring. I do miss living a mile from the beach in Huntington Beach, but I actually love these beautiful rural spots even more. 

When we were moving to New Hampshire everyone told us the same two things: (1) that the winters would be cold and long and (2) that it would be one of the most beautiful places we would ever live. Both of those things are true! :)

Spring Formal

This weekend was the Spring Formal for all the Tuck students and we actually found a babysitter and went! We didn't attend the Fall or Winter Formals, so I'm glad we finally went to one this year. It was so fun to get dressed up and go on a fun date with Josh and some of our good friends.

Before the dance we went to dinner with a few other couples at Tip Top Cafe in Vermont. Great food, great company!

Steph, me, Maren, and Michelle.

The Formal was held at the Hanover Inn, right next to Dartmouth campus. It was fun to meet more of Josh's classmates and hang out with the ones I already knew. One of the great things about Tuck's small class size is that it's a pretty tight knit group and it's been fun to get to know the students and their wives at all the social events. 

Of course, dancing was the highlight of the night :) I definitely wouldn't consider myself a "dancer", but I must admit that I love to dance and Josh is always so fun to join me! I wish I had better action shots of Josh dancing because there are few things I enjoy more than seeing Josh bust a move on the dance floor :) We had such a good time!