The Move

Hey All!
Big news for the Sorensen's we have moved.
Many of you already know the story but here is a recap.

Mauvia graduated in December with her psychiatric Nurse Practitioner License.
After that she began looking for jobs and interviewing around the country.
She had telephone interviews in: Pittsburgh PA, Albany NY, (somewhere in) Arkansas, Ogden Ut, Spokane WA, Richland WA, Wenatchee WA, and Redding CA.

Notice that none of these places is in Seattle (at the time no one was hiring).

Through the process of elimination she accepted face to face interviews in Pittsburgh, Spokane, Richland, Wenatchee, and Redding.

She was flown all over the country and wined and dinned and eventually offered 4 of 5 jobs. (Richland was not a good fit)

This made for a very difficult decision that we agonized and prayed about for weeks. Then we decided that Wenatchee was the place for us and found a home there. The next week Mauvia got an interview in Bellevue. Life is so ironic!

Anyway, we have moved and so far we really love it. Mauvia loves her job. We love our new home and we have found our way to the Costco!

Life is good!

Here is a tour of our new place...

Piano room

Living Room

Harry Potter's bedroom

Kitchen

Front Yard

Family Room

Betcha can't guess whose room this is!

The boys room

The view from the back deck.

We have been so blessed through this process and we are so grateful for how everything has worked out. Now all we need is visitors! Please come! We have a room just for you!

Greysen Update

It has been crazy in the Sorensen house lately but here is a quick update of Greysen's progress.

He mastered sleeping in his high chair.

He follows me wherever I go...Can you guess where I am?

He had his first, second, and third plane ride. He did great! No tears.

He got his first black eye...

And his first make-shift ice pack.

He mastered crawling

sitting up

pulling to stand (and pulling my clothes off the hangers)

and standing on his own all in a matter of weeks.

He recklessly goes for what he wants, hence the black eye!

He also recently mastered clapping!
(video pending)
So much fun!

ZOE

Zoe has grown so much this year I feel like I cannot keep up with her. Since she is my first born I have no idea when to introduce new responsibility and usually she asks me for it before I think of it myself. Because of her own initiative she can now do dishes, cook pancakes by herself, and take care of the bunny independently with only a few reminders. She really is amazing. She continues with her piano, ballet and jazz lessons and is doing very well. The first two videos are from dance and the third is her piano recital.

Zoe has been fortunate to have great teachers both in school and with her extracurricular activities. Her dance teachers have known her since she was 3 and know how to get her to do her best. Zoe also loves her piano teacher Sister Apken who put on the sweetest recital for her. You can see in her recital video she is wearing her medal from dance exams. This year she worked just as hard as last year but had much less anxiety about it. She was able to achieve a red ribbon again and really enjoyed it this year.

This is a picture of the group she did exams with.

Zoe is also doing very well in school. She has always been a strong reader but she is doing very well at math and science as well. She can already multiply better than me.

Funny Story: For Christmas Santa brought Zoe a microscope. It came with a slide that has a paramecium on it. Zoe decided this was very interesting so she wrote her observations down and turned them into her teacher without telling me. So I was very surprised when her teacher sent a letter home asking if Zoe would like to do the science fair. (Typically 3rd graders don't do the science fair here).

These are pictures of the project we put together. It was a family effort but she was very proud of it, and so was I.

I am just so proud of her. She has really started to understand things on a different level. Her testimony is growing, she truly wants to do the right thing and she has such a big heart for those who she thinks need help. She is so great! And I am so excited to see what things are to come.

Easter

Decorating eggs is one of our most favorite activities. We get really into it. None of this drop an egg in die and be done stuff. We each like to create little masterpieces. Here are some of the best from this year...

Tate was totally into it this year. He decorated his eggs,
half of Ben's and all but one of mine!

Zoe is quite the artist!

Tate decided that the color pallet we provided was too limiting and
began to mix colors of his own.

Hmmm...I wonder where they get it from?

As always the Easter Bunny has very good taste. He decided this year it would be fun to match us up. He was right it was pretty fun! Now he just needs to give Ben red hair!

So CUTE!!!

We were so blessed this year to have conference on Easter weekend. We watched in our home and felt the spirit all weekend. We are so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and the sacrifices He made for us.

6 months-ish

People are always trying to figure out which feature on our children came from which one of us. Aside from the obvious red hair!

Here are some pics of each of us at about 6 months so you can compare for yourselves.
And also bask in the cuteness!

New Addition

For those of you who didn't know, we lost our bunny Cotton last summer. It was a very sad time for us. With the new baby coming we decided not to get a new pet right away.

About a month ago we decided we were ready.

Introducing...Duchess Patches
Zoe and Tate both contributed a name.

Zoe takes care of all the feeding and litter box changing, Tate takes care of the chasing and frightening. Who do you think she likes better?

FLASH!!!

I was trying to get some good 6 month pictures of Grey this evening
this was the result...