Life in Virginia!

It's been a long time since I have created a blog post, but I know there are many of our family and friends who are wondering how we are doing here in Virginia since our move at the beginning of this month, so I thought I would give a mass update to all those who might be interested :)

We have settled in to our new home, and love how green everything is around here (even though people keep saying this is their dry season). We haven't seen anyone with sprinklers around here, since it rains quite a bit, or the morning dew is able to water everything enough. It makes for some fun wildflowers growing all around us, and it's wonderful seeing the beauty of the earth. However, settling in has taken a while, so we haven't been able to take advantage of some of the hikes that we would like to take around us. We'll have to post pictures of our adventures as we take them. We are hoping to make it to the beach in the next couple of weeks (since it's only 4 hours away), and there are some hikes with waterfalls nearby, so we have a lot that we want to do.

We love our new home, and want to give you all a sort of "tour" through pictures here:

View from the front of our house.

View of living room, including our new couches which we love. Oh, and the one on the left is a sleeper sofa (Queen Size) so we would love to have you come visit! :)

View of front entryway, bottom of stairs, and closet.

View of kitchen from the living room.

Dining room, and door to balcony

Laundry room and stairs to basement.

Basement storage.

Basement "office" area where I work on homework.

Stairs to the upstairs.

Upstairs hall.

Master bedroom view from hall.

Master Bedroom

Master Bath.

Master bedroom.

Abby and Christian's Bathroom

Abby's room

Abby's Room again.

And Abby's room again :)

That gives you a general idea of the house. It's nice and big for our little family, and we are enjoying it a lot. The Christiansburg Ward is very friendly, and we are working hard to make some great friends. Jenny and Abby have been having play dates with other mothers and children in the ward, and Abby is beginning to make friends. We are also getting to know the sister missionaries fairly well, as we have them over for dinner once a week. It's been a lot of fun getting more involved with the missionaries in the area, and Jenny has even had the opportunity to go out with the Sisters.

Now to some individual updates: I have just finished my first week of school, and the classes should be OK, though homework will probably take me a while, since Mathematics homework at the Graduate level seems to solely consist of proofs. I have some friends in the Math department, as well as the school of education, who all are Mathematics Education nerds like myself. It's been fun getting to know them, and having classes together. I have also started working on Megan Wawro's Linear Algebra and Quantum Mechanics research project, which should be really interesting, as I get to learn about a subject I have never studied before (Quantum Mechanics). It's going to be a busy semester, but I am going to learn a lot, and should have some fun as well.

As I mentioned above, Abby and Jenny have been organizing play dates and babysitting with mothers and children from the ward, and are beginning to make friends. We are hoping to invite some couples and families over for dinner in the coming weeks to get to know them better. Jenny has started making some great headway on her Children's Book idea, and is really excited about it! So far (in my not so humble opinion) Jenny's sketches of the book look awesome :) Jenny will also be babysitting a little bit for people in the ward, but she is hoping to possibly do a trade-off on certain days, so she can get in some solid "working-on-art" time.

Abby is enjoying Nursery, and will actually be starting a once-a-week preschool in the next couple of weeks, put together by a sister in the ward. She is getting smarter by the day, and loves to learn, play, and explore. Abby has also started to draw people, and it's fun to see her development ;)

Christian has started to crawl in the last couple of weeks, and is starting to get into EVERYTHING. He is so curious about the world around him, and loves to dive into everything head first. He makes us laugh and smile every day, and it is such a blessing having him in our family.

We love you and miss you all so much! Hopefully this blog will help keep you updated on our lives. Good luck with all your endeavors, and we hope to hear from/see/be with you soon!