I Whip My Hair Back and Forth!

Most of you know, Jori kind of has a mane of hair. It's fine as can be, and (I think) it's also quite thin, like mine. But it is LONG. It grows fast. By her first birthday she had a mullet.

Here's also a comparison of her at 9 months and her at 22 months, so a year and a month later: 

Finally, to give you an idea of what we're working with here, this picture is from Christmas day three months ago: 

This is why I finally found a website that has a bazillion hair tutorials. And (on good days), I've been attempting to recreate some of them. So here are some of those. 

 This one was following this tutorial. The picture with the dark pink shirt, that was the original girl, so you can compare the two. (Obviously I'm not as good as that lady...)

  This one took way longer than it should have, following this tutorial. The original can be compared below.

That's it! Although most of the time, her hair looks a lot more like this: 

 (We haven't combed it yet today, that's what it looks like right now!)

Luckily she's beautiful regardless. :) 

January and February, in a flash

Most of February was spent packing, and a lot of January was spent looking for a place. Here are some random pictures I found of the two months

That was one magnificent blowout. Look at his left leg.

This was Fritz. Jori and her daddy built him one snowy January evening.

Jori was trying to do a stink-eye. Little cheeseball.

Our first house as a family! (Living in, not owning. For an indefinite amount of time. With no others.)

We've moved...8? Times, since we've been married? Something like that. But we haven't really felt completely comfortable in any of them, just either knowing they were going to be short-term or feeling like they should be short-term. The first two were only 4 month contracts, the next one seemed indefinite but it was a kinda run-down apartment so we didn't want it to be forever and it ended up being only for 7 months until we got into subsidized housing, then subsidized housing was what it is, so we had a sense of needing to leave as soon as possible. Then we were in another "4 month contract" you could say, then we lived with Sam's parents and then mine, and then a different subsidized apartment again. Not that there's anything wrong with subsidized apartments, we just don't like depending on other's to assist in paying for our place. So we knew we didn't want this last one to be forever either, even though we were so grateful to receive it. We still expected it to be for a while, since we didn't know four months after moving in Sam would go full-time with a raise, but as soon as he did we started looking again.
 So! After four months of searching, we found THIS place! We'd been struggling because what I wanted wasn't what Sam wanted, and vice versa. Finally it just seemed like we needed to stop being so picky, and just choose a place. It worked out perfectly, since we had a month to prepare for the move and also didn't end up having to pay double rent, as we were expecting we'd have to (the apartment we were in requires 30 days notice). So on March 1st, we moved in here!
I'm excited because the only reason we'd be moving at this point would be to BUY a house, to get something bigger because we outgrew it, or if Sam were to go back to school and we had to move as a necessity. The third one is most likely why we'll end up moving, but it doesn't seem like it'll be any time soon since Sam isn't even sure what he wants to go back to school to study. And we're really sick of school (one of us was in school for the first 3 2/3 years of our marriage, just up until about 6 months ago).
So here it is!





Some reasons why I am loving our current home:

• The ward is super friendly so far, and also a normal family ward. Not like, a married student ward with a couple older people as well, like our last one. But our first Sunday, it took about 2 minutes for the Relief Society President to come up and chat, then the bishop, and other ward members throughout the block. 
• Walk-in Closet and Lofted ceilings, along with under-the-stairs-cupboard, were not on my list, but since being here I am loving them! 
• I love the pantry
• I love the kitchen window, which doubles as a play drive-thru/etc. window for Jori when she's on the back porch
• I love that there's a fenced in backyard
• I love that there is a park a block away, that's small enough that not many people are there but big enough it has a fun playground and swings for the kids
• I am loving Springville! It is a bit smaller than Provo, but it still only takes 8 minutes to get to my parent's house, and it has basically all you need still like Provo but it's easier to get to since it's smaller. Example: library is a 4 minute drive, post office is across from that, grocery store a five minute drive, etc. 
• The library deserves its own: it is BEAUTIFUL. It's new, got a great layout, has toys...it's just awesome. 

I hope we get to stay here for quite a while! We decided on it so impulsively it felt like, but I really think it was the right choice for us. 

Hatch Family Christmas Party and Messiah Singing

Immediately after Christmas, we spent a few days up in Idaho for the Hatch Family Christmas Party. It's always fun and crazy when everyone gets together, especially for Jori. 

 Unfortunately, she got a nosebleed this year while sledding. This is her being sad after that...other than that she enjoyed herself the entire visit, as far as I can remember.

 A big part of the Hatch Christmas party is always the showing of talents. It's fun to see what everyone can do!

And in closing, I'll just share this gem from the Christensen Family Messiah Singing that took place one of those days, too: