Moving

This is our Living Room.

Nice, huh? All I can say is...

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow.

You're only a day away."

I totally hate that movie, but man that song applies.

No thumbs

Andy and I were talking about the move yesterday.

We were so excited because the number of days we have till we move now fits on one hand.

We're not just single digits anymore, we're one handed.

Well, today we are thumb less, just fingers.

No Thumbs!

Boring

When we moved into this house I was so excited to paint all the rooms! My kitchen I chose a beautiful plum, the girls room a lovely pale pink, my room a soft blue/green and the boys room the coolest green you've ever seen. I bought it originally in CA as an "oops" paint for $1. I loved it so much, in that house, that when we moved here I had it matched and painted their room the same color here.

The kitchen and the boys room are both back to boring old white.

And I have the picture to prove it...

*I'm a messy painter

Cookie Dough

Willson got his first taste of cookie dough

and he, of course, loved it.

Who doesn't like cookie dough?

That's what I'd like to know.

Lunch

So, today I was busy, doing something...can't remember what, when the kids asked for lunch. I told them they could give me a few more minutes or they could make their own. They opted to make their own. Mason told me Delaney was making a big mess with the Peanut Butter, but since she's never tried to make her own sandwich before and she seemed so proud of herself, I let it go. I figured if I didn't see the mess till she was done then I wouldn't be tempted to intervene and finish making the sandwich myself. After they went outside to eat I thought I better go assess the damage.

This is what I found...Now the mess here isn't that bad. I was expecting way worse.

But, upon closer inspection I noticed something NOT right.
I'm pretty sure she used a small paint roller to make

her Peanut Butter sandwich instead of a knife.

I don't even know what to say about that.

*I just finished returning the kitchen to white last night, that's how come there was a small paint roller on the counter.

Yuck

I don't know how to deep clean, I'll be the first to admit it. Thankfully Andy does and he's willing to teach me, so hopefully someday?

Keeping that in mind...yesterday I decided that I needed to deep clean my fridge, in preparation for our move (11 days!) so that it would just require a thorough wipe down when we move. I must have been cleaning fridges wrong all these years. I was shocked at how many pieces came out of the fridge. Here I was sitting on the floor with my soap, water and sponge. When for the most part I could have been at the kitchen sink with piece in hand. Let me tell you how much easier it was to clean it when it was out of the fridge. After spending forever wondering how to get all the nooks and crannies clean I thought hey, this might come out. I am happy to say that it did. It was meant to come out, I didn't just break the fridge, btw. I then had to rewash everything I'd already done, this time removing the pieces. I am happy to say my fridge now sparkles.

Delaney wanted to get in on the cleaning action too, so I grabbed the clorox wipes and she went to work. My kids love those. They'd clean anything if they got to use them. Yeah, that's the oven hood. She's standing on the counter.

*Andy was so surprised when he got home. He was expecting to do it, so I told him he could do the oven instead!

Firemen are hot

Last night, for Activity Day Girls,

Savannah went on a tour of a local fire station.

Savannah and I talked about the

cool things she saw on the drive home.

When we got home Andy started asking her about what she did.

Then he asked her "Were there any cute Firemen?"

She nodded her head yes and and said "uh huh".

I flipped around so I could see her.

Andy was cracking up,

Savannah was bright red, literally her whole face.

I said "Firemen are hot, huh?"

She wholeheartedly agreed!

Yesterday

Yesterday I buried my head in the sand. I looked at the chaos and took my kids to the zoo instead. It was so nice to get out of the house and not think about moving for a couple of hours. We heard the Lion roar several times, from different parts of the zoo and he actually came right up to the glass at one point. This, of course, happened right after we left the area to "give other people a turn". Yep, I said that and wished for the next couple of hours that I would have been inconsiderate and stayed there a little longer. We were able to make it back to the glass, while he was still there. The crowd was five deep by then, but I still got to see a little. The kids still loved it, even though they didn't get a good view. It was just exciting to hear him. The bears were a huge disappointment. One was sleeping and the other was agitated. I think the lion made up for it though. Since we have a membership to the zoo, we tried to look at things we'd never seen before, it's a huge zoo. We saw Flamingos, Snow Leopard, and went to the "Family Farm". I think that was Willson's favorite part. He really liked seeing the cows. I think they have a small petting zoo there too. It wasn't open when we were there, but I think it would be worth it to take them back for that. I think they'd really love it. Love the zoo, can't wait to go back!

Last night, for our Enrichment night, we had a few ladies from the ward who were either from another country or had lived in another country. We learned about other countries and sampled food from that country. It was so fun! I was looking forward to it, but was so surprised at how much I enjoyed it and how fascinating it was. I guess it's been a long time since I "learned" something. Makes me want to go back to school, finally get a degree.

It was an awesome day!

I remember

Moving is like childbirth. You're so excited and then there's that moment when you suddenly remember how much you hate it and how NOT fun it is. Then you have the baby/move into the new house and everything is beautiful until you hit the 2 week mark. Then the world falls apart because you're not sleeping/your house is trashed and you want all the boxes to go away. If you remembered how much it sucked you would never do either of them again.

Today I think I've remembered.

And let me tell you it is not going to be fun. I've got a house full of chaos and feel there is no end in sight to all the packing. I want to throw organization out the window and start throwing random things into the box without any thought to the consequences of such a hasty decision. It's still 15 days till we actually move. I figure I got another 13 days before I can start throwing things into the boxes and saying "I'll sort it out after the move".

Right, like that'll happen.

I still have 2, I'll sort it out, boxes from the last move. Looks like I'll have a couple extra to go through once we move.

Hopefully this will be the last move for a long time!

We got Told!

Today in church we were sitting in our pew with Willson on my lap. I guess he started kicking the back of the bench in front of us because all of the sudden there was a cute little 3 year old face staring at me not looking happy. I was told "He's kicking the seat, on my side." So I replied "Oh, I'm sorry honey." I was then told to "move him over there. (pointing to Andy's lap, next to me)" That's when Andy got involved. He realized I was talking to the little girl in front of us, so then she told him the same story and he said "Okay, honey." When we didn't move him she rolled her eyes turned back around. I turned to Andy and said "We just got told" and he said "I know" Then we sat there giggling for a few minutes. She kept looking back and rolling her eyes at us when she noticed we weren't following her instructions. Willson was not kicking anymore, but I don't think she liked being patronized. Andy decided to take it one step further. He grabbed Willson's foot and kicked the bench with it. When she didn't respond he kicked it again and then Willson got the idea and started doing it himself. We were both shaking with laughter, thankfully silently. She pulled out an eye roll, a dirty look and a "hey!" So, Andy started doing it right back to her. She was charmed within minutes. Then we had a cute giggler in front of us instead of a cute eye roller. I had to take Willson out later, he was being fussy, and she was now out with her mom. She looked over and said "hey, that's the baby that was kicking my seat." I sat there silently giggling.

Milk

Last night, after we were mostly done with dinner, Willson wanted to share some milk with Andy. What he started doing was so cute that I ran for the camera. This was done with no prompting from Andy or I. We still don't know where he got it from.

*notice the completely bare walls in the background

Moving Preperations

The other night, after the kids went to bed, Andy and I took down all the curtains and pictures hanging in our home. It was funny to see the kids reactions the next morning. Savannah and Mason noticed what was missing. They looked at the walls and windows in fascination and we discussed what looked bigger or littler, as the case were. When Delaney finally stumbled out of her room I happened to be checking my email. We visited for a couple of minutes and then all of the sudden she says "Mommy, the walls look weird". I turned to her and she was looking very confused. She couldn't place what was missing. It was so funny!

Really?

This is how we found Delaney sleeping last night.

Yeah, that's a laundry basket she's curled up in.

Our House!

I was able to pull this picture off the listing. As you can see we will have our work cut out for us in the gardening department!

We're Moving!

I'm so excited! We're moving, into a real house!

Our lease here is up at the end of the month and we were tossing around the idea of trying to find something a little bigger with more privacy. Right now we have about 1100 square feet and we're an addition to another house. We do have a yard, which is so wonderful, but we want a house so bad. I didn't think this was going to happen because we are limited on our budget. Staying in our ward was not hard, there's lots of options for that, but in order to stay at the school where our kids are we didn't have many options and even less in our price range. We live on the edge of a very expensive neighborhood and if you move too far into our current neighborhood you switch schools. So, keeping that in mind, I was prepared to sign another lease. So, the other night we went for a drive, after celebrating Andy's promotion at work, and we came across a house that we immediately fell in love with. We were sad to find out that it was more expensive than we could afford, but Andy was not daunted. He spoke to the property manager and we met with the owner and were able to come to an agreement that satisfied all of us. We feel the Lord's hand in this so strongly. We've been praying about this house since the first time we saw it and felt very strongly that we were going to be blessed with this home. We put in our application last Tuesday and because of the holiday didn't find out till yesterday the outcome. Let me tell you, it was one of the longest weeks. I spent so much time on my knees because I couldn't believe the answer I kept getting, that I was going to get to live in this house. We have been truly blessed!

Our new home is nearly 2000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms (we only have one now) and there is a dual head shower in the Master Bathroom (!!), Living Room and a Family Room, and has the most amazing backyard with tons of grass and a beautiful garden. For the first time in my married life I'm going to have a garage! I know that's kind of an odd thing to be excited about, but I am. I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I will post them as soon as I get some!

New Shoes

My mom wanted to buy Savannah and Mason new church shoes. We all thought it would be easier to just send money instead of trying to pick shoes, without kids, and ship them. Mason tried on all of 2 pairs and he was done. Savannah, kid you not, tried on 20+ pairs of shoes. Now, in her defense she had quite a bit more options, but still. We even had shoes in the cart and were walking away when she changed her mind. So, here's what we found...

Mason's handsome church sandalsSavannah's sweet sandals
Thanks Mom!

Lint

This morning as I was getting ready for church Andy came into our room carrying a lint roller. It's very common for him to have one, so I didn't think anything of it until he started using it on his neck. I looked at him funny and he showed me the towel he had used after his shower. It was covered with little tiny pieces of bright pink lint. Apparently I washed Mason's favorite soft, cozy blanket with our towels. Oops! So now Andy is covered in bright pink fibers. So, I took over for him and was giggling as I rolled his head, face, and back. The little roller came back covered! I swear we went through like 10 layers on the roller.

$2, I want my $2

I really wanted pizza today.

I knew if I took the kids to the store they would go crazy

begging for things, so I came up with an idea.

I told them that they each had $2 to spend on

anything they wanted for lunch.

They were excited and as we discussed the

possibilities they became even more excited.

So, off to the store we went.

Savannah chose ham (for a sandwich), string cheese and cookies.

(she originally had goldfish and then discovered the cookies,

for the same price, then the switch was made)

Mason chose a mini frozen pizza (no surprise there) and blueberry yogurt. What was surprising was how long it took him to decide.

He is usually an in & out shopper, just like me. Delaney chose a lunchable.

She decided on that at home and never once wavered.

I provided the bananas. Willson had pizza too. I wasn't going to include him in this because he wouldn't know the difference, but he wanted pizza! I couldn't get a picture of it because at the grocery store he was licking the box, so gross, but otherwise he was screaming. I finally had to take it away when he managed to rip one end open. Trying to get him to pose with it would have just been torture for all of us!

Now when lunchtime came I was really nervous. They'd all chosen so differently, but things that each of them like. I was afraid there would be upset kids. I am happy to say that everyone was as pleased as could be with their lunch and there was no "I wish I had..." or "Why does he/she get..." I don't know, maybe them each getting to chose their own had something to do with it. I think this might become a new little outing to do to break up the monotony of summer break.