Happy First Day of Spring!

(Or 'Spring 1st' as Landon would say :)
Yesterday Jordan and Landon worked on clearing away some rocks from one of our green strips and planted some colorful pansies and lots of wildflower seeds. As neighbors walked by on their way to the park or drove by, we wondered if they were thinking 'don't they know the deer will just eat those up?' or 'what are those Brough's doing out in the snow planting flowers?' But Jordan had a spring planting bug, so plant he did. :) (And happily, our flowers survived their first night with no deer stopping to munch!)

(Ellie is suddenly camera shy and loves to look the other way w/ a mischievous smile when she sees the camera)

We had some lovely sunshine this morning so we sat in the backyard before church-- Jordan set up the hammock and Ellie's swing -- and the kids had a great little crackers and cheese snack in the warm warm sun. Spring is certainly a bit behind here in Logan, but we can feel it coming. Hooray!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a fun little 5 second animoto of the kids showing off their mommy-made shamrock shirts.

Could it be???

Yep, we still have lots of snow...

We played at the park across the street last week with about a foot of snow under foot (most is melted now :)

But what is that?

Could it really be something growing?

It is! Spring is on the way to Logan!!!

Jordan's new job

A few weeks ago, Jordan was talking with Drew about work and about how much someone would have to pay him to leave his current job at Animoto. They were talking salaries, and Jordan was guessing close to triple, but at least more than double. He loves his job that much!

The next week, Jordan's manager called him and asked him for his thoughts on taking a new position as the team lead for his group of developers. ('Nothing is more constant than change'...) Given the options and where each choice would lead, he decided it was the best thing to do - so, farewell to the old beloved job and welcome to a new challenge!

Jordan's super excited about the new position - it's a lot more managing and a lot less coding, but he's happy to be learning some new skills and still working with the same stellar guys that have made it such a great place.

We are certainly feeling the weight of a lot of new things around here though -- a new job for Jordan with lots to learn and some upcoming travel, a new baby joining us in just a few weeks... and still recovering from the LONG winter sicknesses we've all had!

Today is a beautiful sunshiny day though and things feel happy and hopeful and exciting. It's wonderful what some blue sky can do for me. :)

One more late lovey note

I've had this link on my bookmark bar for a few months now - waiting for a good Valentine's day post... then I forgot! But here it is - just a sweet little love story.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Landon made this animoto as a Valentine's day present for Jordan using pictures he took himself and of course his very favorite song. :)





I love Valentine's day and have been having fun making decorations and doing fun February and heart-themed preschool time activities this month with the kids.

And, we have been blessed with some absolutely beautiful, blue sky days this week which makes everything seem happy and lovely. :)

Muir Woods

Muir Woods, Summer 2004:

I told Jordan I thought we shouldn't date anymore. He told me he thought I should come home with him to California...

Muir Woods, Winter 2010:

Happy I listened to Jordan's great idea!

(This was one of the great fun events from our stay in California for Christmas time. We spent a few weeks in Livermore and loved being with family and enjoying the warmer weather and being able to play outside a bit. Two weeks home and I'm still working on unpacking, catching up on all the every day sorts of things, cleaning the house and packing up Christmas :)