Jonathan's birthday

Jonathan's birthday kind of snuck up on me this year. I was not prepared like I was last year, but last year was the anomaly. He's pretty easy to please, which takes the pressure off.

This year, I gave him the morning off (he often wakes up with the kids so I can get a little more sleep... isn't he so great!?!) and made omelets, toast, and OJ. We had stake conference today and Aveya wasn't having it... she did not want to sit in the meeting, so I got to walk the halls. The other kids did really well, so he was actually able to listen (which is better than we could say for the last month or so of church, it's not unusual for both of us to be out in the foyer with a different child, and Cambria sits by herself...). Happy birthday to him!

I was pretty exhausted (now that I'm in my 3rd trimester, I'm feeling very tired) so I took a nap, and tried to get Aveya to sleep (didn't happen). Then I worked on dinner and dessert! We had sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, nachos, salad, and root beer. Then we had chocolate mousse for dessert!

As far as presents, he's the hardest person to shop for. He doesn't like stuff, has no hobbies, and doesn't give me any fun ideas... He does have a bike though, so I gave him some bike gear and a new, very slim wallet.

All-in-all, I think it was a good day.

I sure do love that man! He seriously is the best dad and such a great husband. I'm so glad he's mine!

Singing "happy birthday" to himself with the kids.

She's modeling daddy's new helmet. 

It's Undeniable

Heavenly Father is in the details of my life. He cares deeply, and is making Himself manifest in so many areas of my life.

He has been in every step of our journey, and we have really noticed it in the last few months. I don't want to make this post too long, so I'm going to bullet point a few things:

• Jonathan got an internship with General Mills last summer, the company that he thought he wanted to work for ever since he started in Food Science. 
• As we were there we thought we were going to end up there (I was looking at schools, housing, wards... the whole bit). But then we found out about a position opening up at BYU. Academia was never part of the plan, or on our radar. As we prayed about staying at General Mills, each one of us independently felt like we needed to try for BYU.
• When we came back home to Indiana, and made it a serious matter of prayer and thought about how that would happen logistically. We were a little nervous to turn down a great opportunity for the hope of something coming into fruition later. 
• As Jonathan thought about it, he knew he didn't want to continue down the current research path he was on, but didn't know what else would be interesting enough to make a career out of. As he prayed about it, thoughts and inspiration came flooding to his mind, thoughts of research topics that he hadn't thought about before. 
• If he wanted to switch research fields, then the need for a post-doc was essential. But graduating in May and potentially starting in August didn't leave much time. Then the thought came to try to defend his dissertation as early as possible and get a short term post-doc. 
• As he looked into post-doc positions at other schools, he felt like he should ask a recently hired Purdue faculty (doing research in the field he was interested in) for recommendations of good places to apply, and if doing a flexible post-doc was even an option. She basically offered him a position on the spot.
• Jonathan got an interview with BYU, even though there were many qualified candidates that applied (we were told by a few BYU faculty).
• He felt good about how the interview went. 
• Fast-forward to February 2017. I was due with Aveya on the 23, Jonathan originally planned to defend in the middle of the month, but some of his committee members couldn't make it, so they rescheduled for February 21! That turned out to be a blessing, because Aveya came on the 13. I was recovered enough to go to his defense (something I REALLY wanted to do).
• There were some amazing miracles and tender mercies associated with Aveya's birth. Things ranging from saying a silent prayer on Saturday night (Feb 11), just complaining a bit... "I really don't want to deal with being pregnant and this hip pain for another two weeks. If it's not going to be too crazy for Jonathan, can I have this baby early?" then starting contractions within minutes of that prayer... to being able to teach gospel doctrine by myself through my contractions, to all the help I had through my slow c-section recovery, to my kids not being jealous of Aveya... to the miracles of modern medicine, that although Aveya was sideways, she was born healthy and safely, and I was safe as well. 
• We have been struggling with this 2 year long phase Cambria has been in. She's been so defiant, and hard to parent (to not delve into too many things). I've really struggled with controlling my temper and trying to find ways to get through to her. Any parenting strategy that we have tried seemed to not work. But we got so many answers during General Conference (people keep telling us that we need to be more firm, but as I try that, I find it puts me in a bad place, and it isn't effective. But I felt overwhelmed by all the talks about treating people with love. Love is always the answer). We also started reading a parenting book that has been really awesome! As we have applied the little that we've read, it seems to be working! And it's in line with the things we heard and felt in General Conference!
• I have gotten into a motherhood rut, but with some sincere begging in prayer, I have had a few wonderful moments with each kid. I've had better days this week than I've had in a very long time. The enabling power of the atonement is real! And that's a miracle! 

As we wait to hear back from BYU (we won't hear back till May at the earliest), sometimes I get impatient, ok, most times. But after this weekend, and realigning my perspective, I know that it will turn out the way that it's supposed to. Heavenly Father has a plan, and he has been guiding us in undeniable ways.

What I've learned in Minnesota

I have been looking at living here for the summer as a time to try new things out.

The first thing I wanted to try here had to do with toys. I have never really loved the idea of toys that make noise. I thought I was pretty careful about the noisy toys we acquired, but by the time we were ready to move, I feel like all the kids did all day was push buttons and watch the lights blink. So I decided I wasn't going to bring any toys that made noise. Oh what a relief! I love watching them use their imaginations! I think this is going to be something we take home with us.

I also didn't bring too many toys, the reason I didn't was two fold: one, because we didn't have a ton of room in the van. And two, because if we didn't have a lot to play with inside, we would have to go somewhere to find entertainment.

Which leads me to my next thing I wanted to try out. Getting out every day. We have been really good at it! I think we have gotten out every day, and it makes all the difference! Our days seem a lot shorter (in a good way) and we are getting to know the area so much more quickly.

I have also made it a point to do something fun with the whole family every weekend. This has been so fun, I'm a little worried about what is going to happen when we go back home and dive into crazy-dissertation-writing-time. I guess we will still do fun stuff, just without daddy, since he will be busy.

Here are some fun pictures from our adventures the past few weeks.

first of all, can we just talk about this girl's hair for a sec.... 

 Minnehaha falls. It was such a fun park!

 Corbin found these cool bikes... too bad he wasn't big enough to ride them...

 Daddy is such a good sport! It was only about 65 degrees, but he took off his shoes and played in the water with the kids because they wanted to. What a guy!!

 we took a little walk down to the bottom of the falls. It's so beautiful!!

 We ended the day with ice cream. It's always a good day if you end it with ice cream!

 Memorial day: we went to a splash pad! We left early because the kids were ready and we wanted to go in the morning (since we never know how much time we will have in the afternoon... with naps, sometimes the kids wake up too late to do anything)

It was only about 75 degrees (it warmed up later in the day) so I didn't get too wet, but Jonathan didn't mind the cold water, so he and Cambria had a good time. Jonathan got the most wet... for sure! 

This was Corbin's happy place. In the shade, dry, and eating snacks. 

I caught Cambria reading library books to Corbin. So sweet! 

This last weekend we went to a free zoo! It was pretty amazing considering it was free. 

Cambria and Corbin were trying to decide where to start 

Cambria: admiring the pink birds. She does love pink :) 

Corbin loved the spider monkeys!

Another thing I'm trying out here is to do one dinner a week that is mainly veggies. I figure a diet with more veggies doesn't hurt anyone, and if I can feel better, and have more energy by doing so, then there's nothing to loose!

 we ran out of spinach, so we decided to make a carrot smoothy! It actually was really good.

This is our baked veggie burgers. They were delicious. I think I might tweak the recipe a bit next time, but they were a hit (between me and Jonathan... the kids don't eat dinner... 

The experts say that you shouldn't make a separate meal for your kids, so we don't. They also say that they will learn to eat what we eat... well our kids just choose to go hungry more nights than not. *sigh* maybes someday they will learn)

Picture dump

I don't get on my lap top much anymore, and the blogger app makes it really hard to post pictures. So basically, now that I'm on my computer I'm just going to post lots of pictures :)

(Back in December) We went to the bank for some reason, and Corbin found the glass.

(December) As I was trying out my new gel manicure set Cambria wanted to cure her nail polish with my light.

(December) my Christmas manicure

Cambria's Christmas manicure

This is their first introduction to White Christmas. Cambria watched till the very last scene, I was pretty impressed.

(December) We decided to do something fun during the break and went to open gym at a local gymnastics place.

Cambria's interpretation of the picture on the wall (it was all her idea)

We decided to finger paint on New Years Eve.

this was after our family slide show on New Years Eve, we didn't have egg nog during the Christmastime, so we couldn't let it pass without having some. Cambria loved it.

the whole family, after we threw confetti to ring in the new year!

this was all dad's idea, and it turned out to be really fun, and not too much of a mess to clean up!

Shhhh, don't tell the kids that we rung in the new year at 7:15...

New Years kisses

(January) Cambria built that tower almost all by herself. I was pretty impressed.

(January) we visited the preschool that Cambria is going to go to in the fall and she found the paint. She loved it!!!

(January) Corbin LOVES anyone smaller than himself. This little girl came over and he wouldn't leave her alone! He was rubbing her back in this picture

 This is us trying to install our washer and dryer, we paid someone to deduct and move the electrical so that we could have a stack-able washer and dryer! It was quite the tight squeeze to get the duct work connected. More often than not, it was the blind leading the blind, I couldn't see on the side next to the wall, and Jonathan couldn't see on the other side (while he was on top of the water heater). But we made it, thanks to special tape... the clamps were a joke, but the tape saved our lives!

This is such a great form of entertainment!

this is my first attempt at baking suger cookies and doing royal icing... not too bad if I do say so myself.

Happy Valentines day from the Kershaws!

Cambria wanted Corbin to sit on the potty with her, so I got brave and took his diaper off. 

"Oh, y'know... just me with my satchel."

I watched some friends, and they all decided to line their pottys up and go potty a the same time.

trying on hats. Isn't he just so cute!?

I had so much fun doing 1930's hair and makeup!

Cambria and a friend (Hazel) decided to get into pajamas

 Mom told me that she needed an update picture of the two kids together. "just put a sheet up and sit them down and take some pictures" it sounded easy enough...

first picture: not bad, but Corbin wasn't smiling. Lets try another one.

good, but not looking at me.

wait, we lost one...

me: "can you get back up on the couch?"
Corbin: "silly mom, that would make your job easy..."

me: "smile Corbin"
... silly me, I didn't ask him to stay... he was smiling...

"take that out of your mouth"

what if we all get together, could we get a good one? Almost, except you can see that I'm frustrated...

She found a ring pop, she was so excited!!

The sister missionaries stopped by and let Cambria wear a name tag... she was on cloud nine!

Corbin has started playing on the floor on his belly, it's the cutest thing!

James and Sadie surprised me at my show! They took the trip down to see me! These are the only pictures I got of them here... I'm horrible, I know.
But... again, Corbin is in heaven, he has a small baby to play with. Cousin Tanner wasn't too excited about the interaction.

 March 15 is free ice cream day at Dairy Queen, so we went. It was a hit.

Notice how Cambria eats her ice cream...

... and how that differs from Corbin... (haha!)

Cambria was by far the slowest. She just likes to enjoy every bite...

Corbin got stuck :)

I have been doing better at exercising constantly. As I was stretching Cambria started stretching with me. She bent over and touched her head to the ground, no problem. ... Jealous.

Cambria has all of the sudden become really interested in spelling things (thanks to Arilyn, I think). She asked me how to spell Evelyn (a friend) and Arilyn (her cousin). I told her the letters, and she found them and put them in order, with very little help from me. This girl never ceases to amaze me. She is a sponge, just ready to learn in so many ways.