School's out... for summer!

Kyle is officially done student teaching! His last day was on Thursday. Hard to believe it was two years ago that he started this journey, but he is definitely ready to be a teacher. We are all so proud of him! He's applied to two teaching jobs in Corvallis, unfortunately there's not anything open in Albany right now. Hopefully he can get some good experience though, and when the right job opens up he'll be ready! He got a job for the summer working for the city of Albany, paving roads and stuff. This will be the third summer he's done it, and he really likes it. The pay is good, the hours are good, and he gets to be outside all day. He'll get out around the same time he did while teaching, so Payton's schedule doesn't change either as far as daycare goes, which is nice.

So, a lot of you are probably wondering what the heck we are doing with our house... we've actually decided to sell it. We worked hard to get it cleaned out and staged nice, and it officially went on the market last Friday. We've had 4 or 5 showings already this week, so our agent was really encouraged by all the activity. We hope it continues until it sells! We thought about it, and really the only reason we would rent it out would be to not have to pay back our first time home buyer tax credit. I researched it, and you actually don't have to pay it back if you sell your house for a loss (which obviously we have to, although not too bad). Neither Kyle or I are interested in being landlords, and our ultimate desire is to sell it so we can buy a home down here, so we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Wish us luck!

These last few weeks have been full of graduations; I went to 4 this year! Tanner and Bryan's were the 9th and 11th of this month, very proud of the Hall boys. I took Payton to Bryan's after she had her morning nap, but didn't take her to Tanner's because it started at 7pm. I put her to bed and a friend of Kyle's cousin sat at the house while she slept and I went to the graduation. Worked out pretty well! I'll let my pictures tell the story.

Waiting to go

Tanner getting his diploma!

Giving the principal Mrs. Orsborn a big hug!

Way to go Tanner!

Brothers :)

Proud parents

Hall clan

Tanner said this one's for Chelsea! lol

Tanner and his girlfriend Brittney :)

Snuggling with cousin Courtney at Bryan's graduation. It was a hot muggy day and I was very cuddly.

College grad with his brothers

And his lovely new wife :)



I helped hold the diploma!

Don't I look adorable in a graduation cap?? :)

Payton is doing well, although she has been QUITE cranky lately. She was sent home from daycare on Tuesday with a fever of 101, but we took her to the doctor and her ears looked fine so he just attributed it to a virus. That, coupled with constipation and a bunch of new teeth (I noticed one of her molars in the back poking through), has really set her on edge. She's pretty sensitive, when we used to say bye she would smile and wave, and now she breaks into tears because she understands that someone is really leaving. We just have to remind ourselves to be patient, but it's hard when I'm wondering where my easygoing baby went. She's also decided that she's not interested in taking afternoon naps anymore, which makes for a pretty cranky evening. Her walking is amazing though, it's weird to think just a couple weeks ago she was still crawling around. It's fun to go to the park now and let her wander around and explore. She likes to pick up her jackets and walk around holding them, which is funny to watch. She's imitating us a lot more these days, this morning I had my hands over my mouth and I looked over at her and she slapped her hands over her mouth too, like I had just told her something terrible. Kyle and I died laughing! My parents also came down last weekend, which was wonderful. Payton loves seeing them, and so do I! I kept forgetting they hadn't seen her really walking yet, so it was cool for them to see her walking everywhere. We went on a trip to the park before they had to go home!

Reading with Grandma

Wee!

Down the slide!







Swinging with Grandpa

This weekend isn't really exciting, I'm on call so we don't really have any plans. It's raining outside anyway, so we timed that pretty well :) I'm excited for next weekend though! We're taking Payton to the Portland Zoo for the first time, I think she will love it. My parents are going to try and come down and go with us too, so it should be a fun family outing. I'm also going to try and fit in a hike that weekend so we can really put that baby backpack to use that we got for Christmas. I hope the weather cooperates!