Amelia turned 5 on the 16th.  She has been waiting for this day for weeks.  But yesterday she admitted that she missed being 4!

Here is the fearsome Pirate Amelia.

Here she is as a cat.

Sporting her new sunglasses with her best pal Daniel.  He will be lonely when she goes off to kindergarten.  Amelia wears an average of 3 outfits a day, to go with whatever she is pretending to be.  This does not include dress up clothes.

Just recently she has been putting what she calls “touch ups” or “finishing touches” in her hair.  I do the pony tails and then she does the rest.

Here she is with one of her other best pals, Kathryn.

And her other best pal, cousin Joshua.

Amelia really wanted a rainbow soccer ball cake.  I did my best and hopefully this won’t end up on Cake Wrecks.

She got a pair of goggles from the dollar store for her birthday, and wore them all day.  She also got some gum – we have a rule of no gum until 5 years old.  She chewed gum pretty much the whole day.  It was so fun to see her chomping on the gum, wearing those goggles.

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I did not expect so much wildlife here, particularly in our backyard.

We have seen this kind of snake several times in our backyard!  I looked it up, just a garter snake.

Daniel also found a completely different kind of snake once.  It was much smaller, coiled around, greenish with spots.  Rattle snakes are common around here so when I looked some up I got scared about that.  I am about 75% sure it was one.  Luckily it just slithered into the bush after Daniel called me to come see.

We see these little lizards all the time.

One afternoon Darryl was using the hose to water some bushes and things that weren’t getting watered properly from the sprinklers.  I am positive I saw something scurry against the fence.  It was furry.  I was scared.  Pretty sure it was either mouse or rat.  Ew!!

I have also seen rabbits ( called them jack rabbits because that seemed more wild) in the open field on the way to/from Kathryn’s school.

We have found little frogs on our door a few times at night.

The temple grounds are home to lots of wild turkeys.  I love to see them – probably because I am safe in my van!  There are also deer and I usually stop the car and just watch for awhile.  I never get tired of that!

And I caught a picture of these wild ones climbing a tree!

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Kathryn has had a big year.  She started Kindergarten last August, right after moving to California from Seattle.  By Thanksgiving the school recommended she go into first grade, which she did and which included going to school at a different time and with a completely different class.  Then we moved to our current home and she changed schools and is finishing the year in her current first grade class.  Change is usually hard for Kathryn but she has done remarkably well with all of these changes.  Changing school classes not once but twice in one year!

Kathryn loves doing the monkey bars at school and has come home with several blisters.  Even had to go to the nurse’s office for a popped blister.  She has learned some hula hoop tricks from kids at school.  Today she performed in the first grade play.

Last week Kathryn started piano lessons.  I am so super duper excited about this for her.  She loves it so far, and she and I have even been able to play a duet already.

What has always and continues to amaze me about Kathryn is her art abilities.  This she most certainly did not get from me.  From her dad and Grandma Melanchuk.  She is always working on something, and I do get frustrated with the messes she leaves sometimes.  But she always has a masterpiece in mind.

Here is a zebra inspired by their Africa segment at school.  She came home from school the other day so excited that she learned so many things about zebras that she didn’t know before.  I love that she loves learning!

That was from looking at her My Little Ponies.

Inspired by a robin we would see at our window several times a day.

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Over two years ago Daniel fell in a grocery store and one of his front teeth got pushed back up into his gums.  I took him to a dentist who said the tooth should gradually come back down, though it may be slightly discolored.  That  did happen over the next few weeks and we hardly thought of the incident for two years.

A couple of weeks ago when we went to the dentist for a checkup, they found an infection in that tooth (or gums?) and it needed to be pulled so the infection didn’t spread to his adult tooth up in his gums.

I didn’t like the idea of him having no front tooth for a few years until the adult tooth comes in.  But I’ve come to grips with it and I suppose its all part of the adventure of kids.  Boys, especially!  Daniel was a little nervous this morning, but we said a prayer before we went into the dentist.  I was amazed at how well he did.  And now he is excited for the tooth fairy to come – he beat both of the girls in losing a tooth!

Here are some before and after pictures.

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I want to get down some of my thoughts on our move.  I know its been 8 months, but daily life is busy and I’ve been accumulating thoughts.  I am glad the kids keep me busy, it has kept me from missing Seattle too much.

I miss walking to QFC – a grocery store a couple blocks from our townhouse in Seattle.  I walked there so many times.  We walked there while I was in labor with Kathryn.  Many times to pick up just a couple of things for dinner.

I miss living close to downtown, easily picking up Darryl from work if I needed to.  I miss knowing downtown.

I miss living close to DI and Goodwill and Value Village.  I miss living close to everything.

I miss the joy everyone has in a sunny day.  I don’t really miss the rain – we seemed to get plenty here.

I miss being close to the temple where Darryl and I were sealed.  I miss the Seattle temple.  I liked the 6am or 6:30am session on Saturdays.  The Sacramento temple does not have a session until 7am.  I know that is totally lame to feel that, but its true.

I miss our townhouse.  I loved that house – it was our first home, and we bought it just 4 months after we got married.  We had so many adventures while we lived there.

I love our new house here.  I love the large family and living rooms.  I LOVE the yard (although this city girl is getting a little nervous of the snakes and mice – lizards seem okay).  We ate dinner in the backyard the past two nights.

I love parking in the garage, and loading groceries only from the garage into the house.

I love that we lived really close to my sister for almost 5 months.  And that my kids live close to some cousins.

I love living in a cul-de-sac and not on a busy street corner.  And every house on the court has families.

I love living near my parents!  We had them over for dinner last night spontaneously.  They help out much more than I realized.

But change is hard, even if I actually do like moving and living in different places and new experiences.

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Thursday the kids had a dentist appointment.  I got a babysitter for Michael and took the rest of the kids to the dentist – first one here in California, and Daniel’s first time ever.  The kids all did great and I was impressed that they even had a play room as a waiting room, complete with video games.  Also movies to watch while your teeth are getting cleaned.  They came home not only with a new toothbrush and toothpaste, but a sticky hand, helium balloon, and several stickers.  And joy of all joys, the kids got a card in the mail from the dentist a couple of days later.  I kept thinking:  I am paying for all of this!

Thursday we also made these edible nests as a craft and took some to neighbors.  Daniel keeps asking for that kind of craft again!

We made this craft on Friday – they had to dry overnight so the eggs weren’t ready until Saturday.  We also worked on cleaning the house and that night was my Easter Concert.

Grandma and Grandpa hosted an Easter party on Saturday, documented here, because neither Darryl nor I took any pictures at it.

Here is a picture of the kids just after we arrived at church on Easter Sunday.

And an attempt at family picture after church.  We just weren’t ready early enough to try before church.

We had my parents over for Easter dinner, and I realized afterward I forgot to take a picture!  It was lovely, though.  Darryl did get a picture of this Ukrainian Easter bread he made.

Kathryn’s spring break included Monday, so we changed bedrooms that day.  Before Kathryn and Michael shared a room, and Daniel and Amelia shared.  Now it is the girls in one room, the boys in the other room.  I imagine it will stay like this for quite some time.

The documentation got a little weak these last couple of days.  Maybe because I didn’t blog about it until now.  Here’s what I learned:  I loved spring break.  I was prepared and organized and we had fun and also got a lot of work done and I was really happy.  I should be so prepared and organized for every other week of the year!  Oh yeah, and I’m pretty sure the kids liked it, too!

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We started off Week 2 of Spring Break with an April Fool.  We told the kids our dessert was chicken nuggets.  They were so confused!  It was really pound cake dipped in icing, then dipped in finely chopped peanuts.  The “ketchup” is pudding.

On Monday we colored eggs.  See a previous post for pictures.  In the morning we went to Costco to buy extra eggs, and also came home with new swimsuits for the girls and swim towels for everyone.  The kids had fun playing swimming and beach games in the living room.  I love having no furniture there!

Tuesday morning we did an Easter craft.  I had gotten everything ready the night before for each kid to do one while Michael napped.  Kathryn finished the first and wanted to do more, so I explained what she needed to do and she went on to do 2 or 3 more all by herself.

I think they look so nice when the sun shines through!

Then the kids got to go to Grandma’s house while I got a haircut, and after that we walked around the temple, which is just 3 miles from Grandma’s house.

On Wednesday we went on a hike with the Perry’s!  (Aunt MaryAnn, Uncle Brian, and cousins Hannah, Joshua, and David)

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera or phone so I have no pictures, but it was a great hike.  We went on a trail in our neighborhood.  It was a great hike for kids, and for part of it you cannot see any houses and we even had to cross a stream.  The kids pretended to be pioneers.  We ended up with a picnic on our front lawn.

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I was able to play my viola in an Easter concert this past Friday and Saturday.  Our stake hosted an interfaith concert with a large choir and full orchestra.  I have been itching to play in an orchestra for several months.  I really miss playing in part of something wonderful and big.  It has been quite awhile, so when I heard about this concert I was eager to join.  But when I saw the music and tried playing it I was discouraged.  I had not hardly played my viola in years.  Except for musical numbers at church 2 or 3 times a year.  The music wasn’t that difficult;  I am just out of practice.  But I started practicing in the evenings after the kids went to bed.  Darryl was able to be home Thursday nights for me to be at rehearsals during the month of March.  It is so satisfying to be a part of great music.

Sorry there are two of the same picture – still trying to figure out the new format for pictures.

My viola looks so big in this picture!  Which reminds me, did I ever blog about how we got this viola?  I need to check on that.  It was quite the Ukrainian adventure.

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We had fun coloring Easter Eggs.  Darryl did a couple more Ukrainian eggs.  I don’t have the patience for it.  But I did have fun with the “magic” crayon from the egg dyeing package.  Kathryn and Amelia also used it and made some beautiful eggs!

We had an update on wordpress or something and I’m trying to figure out the pictures without Darryl.  They seem to be either too small or too big.  Hopefully you can see the detail on Darryl’s eggs.  It is amazing!

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This year is my first year as a parent with spring break.  Kathryn gets two weeks of school off!  One week, no big deal, but two weeks, wow.  We just finished week one and I tried to document what we did.  I wrote each morning on the white board their jobs for the day and also what fun things we would do that day.

Monday:

We went to the dollar store where Daniel and Michael each had a dollar to spend from a Valentine gift.  I love watching them decide what one thing they will get.  Michael just wanted to climb the shelves.  I decided Michael wanted a bucket.

Daniel chose a small puzzle of Lightning McQueen.  At Michael’s he also found this Peanuts puzzle and I bought it since the kids love Peanuts right now and I’m a sucker.

Kathryn and Amelia both had a $5 gift card to Michael’s, so we headed there next.  Kathryn went straight to the flowers.  Amelia looked around and made a tough decision not to get a hula hoop (who knows what you will find at Michael’s) and got some bunny ears.  Both also got a $1 water bottle.

 

Amelia really didn’t want her picture taken.  But she was truly overjoyed to get these bunny ears.

In the afternoon we went to the library.  Kathryn hadn’t been to our new library yet, since we usually go to story time while she is in school.  We read some books, checked some out, and tried to keep Michael from taking all the books off the shelves.

Tuesday:

Amelia’s gymnastics class where they let Kathryn join in while Michael, Daniel and I played at the park.

Wednesday:

Michael’s one year check up while the other kids played with cousins and Aunt MaryAnn babysat.  He is 90% for height, 50% for weight and very cute!  The five shots were tough on both of us.  Then we picked up Darryl from work and went on a mystery outing.  We didn’t tell them where we were going and ended up at the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour.

Thursday:

Easter craft.

In the afternoon we went on a walk around the neighborhood and wrote down several things that we saw.  This would be used the next day.  Also that night Grandma came to babysit while Darryl was still at work and I went to an orchestra rehearsal.

Friday:

I took four kids to Winco!  Not sure if that was on the “fun” or the “job” list.

Then we went to Grandma’s house where Kathryn interviewed her for the upcoming “Grandparents’ Day” at her school.  In the afternoon the Perry’s came over for fun and pizza.  We took them on the walk around our neighborhood and they had to find all the things we had written down from the day before.

Week two will feature a hike, more Easter crafts, and going to the dentist.

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This weekend is General Conference at our church, when we have a chance to hear from the prophet, President Monson, as well as other leaders.  Saturday morning Kathryn was up earlier than usual.  I asked her why and she said she was just so excited for Conference!

We have this chart to put up pictures of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles when each gives their talk.

When I went upstairs to put Michael down for a nap, I liked the view of my family’s activities during conference.

This was early on, while Daniel was actually watching.

Amelia made this representation of Lehi’s Dream all on her own during one session.  Notice the tree with fruit, the string for iron rod, with some holding on.  The big bear is the river, with some bears drowning therein.  The blue and red chairs are the “big building” as she called it (large and spacious) with some people in it.  Not pictured is even a bear on the other side of the couch that Amelia said was lost from the path.  I was so impressed!

 Finally, while Darryl was at priesthood session, the kids all had baths and got new spring pajamas.

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Michael turned 1 on the 12th.  My mom documented some of the festivities here.  Unfortunately, he was pretty sick.  Had a fever much of the day and a terrible runny nose.  He didn’t eat much during the day and wasn’t even into eating his cake, but he did love his birthday dinner of pancakes and scrambled eggs.  Here are some pictures of first birthdays from our family.

He liked this plastic container that Kathryn used for a gift she made.  She made a pop-up card for Michael and wrote him several notes.

Daniel’s first birthday.

Amelia’s – making me nostalgic for Kyiv.

And Kathryn’s.

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Darryl got me a gift  - a bread machine.  He came home from work early to make sure he was here when the package arrived.  As soon as it came he asked me to open it.  It was time for me to be preparing dinner and I had to leave for the evening right after dinner and wasn’t ready.  I figured I would just learn about it and use it the following day.  I didn’t have time then, right?  But Darryl was too excited, so he went ahead and made a loaf.  It was delicious.  He made another loaf last night and now he has the sour dough starter in there.  Oh yes, and as I was leaving Thursday night, he had all the kids sit and watch the 30 minute video about the new bread machine.  I don’t need to wonder from where Daniel gets his enthusiasm.  But I do wonder who this gift was really for…

In the end I will probably use it more than Darryl.  We had one in Seattle that we used to make all our bread.  But it was small and well used and I stopped using it several months before we moved.  But I just hate buying bread.  Good bread is so expensive and inexpensive bread is so lame.

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For any who have not seen pictures of our new house and are interested, here are some that Darryl took before we moved in.  The furniture and things are the previous owner’s.

This is Amelia and Daniel’s room.  The other upstairs bedrooms were hard to get a good picture of with the lens Darryl had.  Kathryn and Michael share a room, one is a play room, and one is for Darryl and me!

I love this hallway, it overlooks the family room on one side and the living room/dining room on the other side.

Since I don’t plan on using a formal dining room very often, I like that the living room and dining room are together.  There is plenty of room for both, but it can also be used as one big living area.  We don’t have living room or dining room furniture right now, so it is a big open space for kids.  And for a photo studio for Darryl when he wants!

This is the downstairs master bedroom.  There are four bedrooms upstairs, one of which has a full bathroom, and that is the room Darryl and I currently use.  When the kids are older and not waking up so much we will move in downstairs.  Why is it the 3 and 4 year old wake up more than the almost one year old?  We do enjoy putting all four kids into this bathtub.  Its so big!  The four upstairs bedrooms and five total bedrooms were a big selling point for us.  We saw so many bonus areas, that were not closed off.  We ultimately decided we wanted an actual bedroom that could be used as a play room, office, bedroom, or whatever, but that had the closed door.

Love the kitchen.  That apartment kitchen was so small.  Some of our kitchen stuff we never even unpacked.  Darryl even said once he didn’t like cooking anymore because of the kitchen!  Luckily he is in full cooking mode again now.  Not pictured is a pantry and butler’s kitchen (I didn’t know what that was before I saw it in some homes).  Just more counter space and cupboards.  Plus a built in desk.  So nice since we did not bring any desks with us in the move.

Its pretty much a dream home for us.  In Seattle we never thought we would have a home like this.

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Saturday morning Kathryn came down dressed up as Mary Poppins.  I think she did a great job!  The colors may not be the same, but she does have a hat with a flower, dress, sweater (for the coat), carpet bag, umbrella, and notice the stance of her feet.

After lunch we went on a walk/hike on a trail near our home.  This is Amelia’s getup.

Darryl took this beautiful picture.  These trees are growing on me.  I miss the evergreens of Washington, but these oak trees (is that right?) are fascinating to look at.

At one point we heard all this chirping but we couldn’t see any birds.  There was a large tree nearby but we could not find any birds.  The noise was so loud, sounded like many birds!  Then we saw two birds fly to the tree and go into the middle somewhere.  And then the noise quieted!  Wondered if it was parents bringing food to the hungry baby birds?

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We are really loving having a real yard.  One day Darryl cut down two trees that were too close to the house.

The kids were having so much fun in the branches that I let them stay out there instead of having naps/quiet time.

I told Daniel it sawing time instead.

We do not have to take care of our front yard, as the HOA pays for the landscaping and maintenance.  Daniel loved watching the leaf blowers at our apartment, and now we get leaf blowers about once a week on our court.  Here he is watching the leaf blower at the park near the library.

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Kathryn missed the 100th day of school at both of her schools between the move.  So we celebrated once with cousins, and another time at our home.  She wanted a picture with her siblings on her 100th day.

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This morning Amelia runs into our room and announces that she is Peter Pan and Kathryn is Tinkerbell.  If you know Amelia, you know this kind of thing is not unusual.  She is always pretending she is someone and generally has to change her clothes accordingly.

The girls were already dressed in costume and then before breakfast had made hats, swords, and a wand (Kathryn said she knew Tinkerbell doesn’t have a wand, but she just wanted one).  I also put a bun in Tinkerbell’s hair.  I thought they did such a good job on the costumes I documented them.  They also had name tags, just in case I guess!

 

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Most people who read this blog know that we moved into our new house last month.  My mom documented it here.   It marks the end of a journey and the beginning of a hopefully longer one.  Three years ago when we were preparing to return to Seattle from Kyiv, Ukraine, we knew we would need to find a place to “settle down”.  We loved our townhouse, but with three kids we were outgrowing it and being on a busy street with no yard to speak of, and not the most stellar of schools, we knew we would be moving.

After settling back into our American and Seattle life, we decided to stay in the Seattle area.  We loved it there, and that’s where Darryl’s job and contacts were.  We started looking at homes in a few different areas.  It was just so confusing.  Each time after we went out I was more confused than before about which houses I liked, what neighborhoods, what I was looking for.  I finally realized this was a “stupor of thought” type of answer.  This was not the place or time to move.  We decided to wait a few months and try again.  This was spring 2010.

One night that Fall Darryl said perhaps we should think about moving to California.  Sacramento area in particular, as that is where my parents and one of my sisters live.  What!  I soon felt that we should move to California as well.  It was one of those things when there are lots of reasons for and against, but in the end we just really felt it was the right thing to do.  Then came the decisions of job, of selling or renting our townhouse, of where exactly to move, etc.  So much.  In in the meantime, Michael was born.

So many miracles happened that I am now very sure that we are supposed to be here (even though I really miss Seattle sometimes).  One of those was selling our townhouse in a mere three weeks.  Darryl was able to keep his job at KPMG and transfer to the Sacramento office.  We got here in August and rented an apartment in Rancho Cordova while we looked for a house.  We chose that area because its where my sister lives!  We had so much fun living close to the Perrys.  Especially the kids, whose ages match up perfectly.  When we left Seattle I pictured being in a new home by Thanksgiving.  To sell our house, we had packed up half  a POD full of things in June before it went on the market.  When we got to our apartment in Rancho Cordova, most of those things stayed packed away and stored in the garage.  We never fully unpacked in the apartment, knowing we would be packing up again soon.

Looking for a house was more difficult than I thought.  There were so many areas, and so many things to think about.  One area that I automatically ruled out was El Dorado Hills.  It is quite far from downtown and for that reason I told Darryl it would just be too far for him and we should not look there.  After several weeks we felt that El Dorado Hills was the place we should look.  The very first house we saw was in a neighborhood called Serrano.  A gated community with a big HOA and big HOA fees to go with.  We started looking at any area of EDH but Serrano.  A few weeks after that we felt that Serrano was the very place we should be.  We sure are wrong to begin with a lot!  So the very next week our agent showed us several houses in Serrano and we felt we could live in 3 or 4 of them.  We had our pick!

So if you made it this far, you now get some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  Here are the kids in the moving truck.

The front of our house!

The view from our house.  One of the reasons we chose it is that it is on a cul de sac.  Two kids in Kathryn’s class at school live on our street – out of only five houses on the street!

Daniel watching the movers but keeping his distance.

I love this view.  This is what you see when you walk in the front door.

The hallway upstairs overlooks the family room on one side, and the living room on the other side.

Daniel loves doing this now.

Michael loves all the cupboards.

We love visitors and have plenty of room for you!

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Kathryn came with me to the church youth group ice skating activity.  The smile on her face shows exactly how she felt.  She skated the entire time, didn’t even want a break for a cookie or hot chocolate.  After awhile she was going by herself without holding on to anything.  I was so impressed!

Daniel and Amelia on a New Year’s Day walk after church.  They are best buddies right now.  Daniel loves playing with someone big, and Amelia loves being the boss for once.

Daniel turned 3!  He is really into Charlie Brown right now.  All the kids are.

Michael is everywhere.  Quite the climber, cruising a lot, and starting to stand by himself.  And trying to mimic the sounds we all make.  Super cute!

 Богородица

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