We Survived 2010!

I'm pretty sure we all need shirts made up that say that exact phrase! WOW!!! What a year. Seriously DON'T want to repeat that again!!! We survived more than one LIFE ALTERING change in the year 2010. Birth of a baby, loss of jobs, gaining new jobs, (trying to) sale a home, buying another home-total nightmare, and moving...not to mention living apart for 1/2 the year. BUT.....we overcame all obstacles and here we are to tell the story!

So much to tell and so many pictures so if you have a few minutes you can enjoy!

Let's start with the move which was INSANE! Packing up a house by myself (mostly), cleaning, arranging for everything, moving day came and went and was just an absolute blur...mostly never knew where the camera was so I have no "pictures to tell the story"! It was definately a wintery day when it came time to leave. After almost 2 days of moving things, loading, unloading, and then unpacking, it was time to begin sorting out life. Thanks so much to my parents and sister Heather for taking the kids! HUGE HUGE help! There is no way you can unpack a house with a baby crawling all over and an overexcited 4 year old wanting to help.
The most important thing was first getting a Christmas tree up so Reagan could have some sense of "normalcy". She went several months with nothing at home because everything was packed, and well, because it was a hassle to tell you the truth! I was able to unpack a lot of stuff the days I didn't have the kids, got some Christmas decor up and the tree ready. Reagan was beyond excited to be in her new house with her PINKALICIOUS bedroom.
I should note that the day we arrived and unloaded the truck, our most kind neighbor Mike (yep, and his wife is Heidi and the girl across the street is Amber, and the other neighbor's name is Michelle....all my siblings name...weird or what!) came to help us unpack and soon, his 4 kids were over here playing with Reagan. She was in heaven!
The house is great although it's adjusting to layouts, storage, etc, and we have met a few neighbors. We are told there is a "brat pack" of girls on this street so we will be excited to meet the rest this summer....if it ever gets to be.....Reagan was invited to a birthday party the first week and we went to dinner with our neighbors on the right. Really fun family.
December itself was crazy as well. Mike was obviously very busy and committed to the store. We didn't see him much but we try to go to the store (more often than not) to see him. The kids are SO MUCH HAPPIER and absolutely adore him of course so it's been healing for them to be around him. The store did very well for the month and it's really fun to see all the "friends" and "usual" customers that know all about our family and situation already. Mike is definately likable and knows what he is doing and we thank the loyals who are supporting us.
The week of Christmas, Heidi came and stayed for a few days so I could help out at the store as well. The kids (and us of course) enjoyed her stay. She does not normally change poopy diapers so hats off to her for having to change NUMEROUS ones!

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was just us 4. Different, quiet, but calm, peaceful, and happy. Reagan had fun making reindeer food and Mike had fun tramping around in the umpteen below weather making tracks and eating the food! After presents and breakfast, we decided to venture home for the day and it was fun to see everyone for a bit other than catching a yucky bug for the week.
New Year's was spent with the Owings whom Mike lived with all those months!! They have 2 little girls age 4 and 2 so they had a fun time playing with Reagan and we had a nice, relaxing dinner and visit.

So....here it is January already. It's crazy to think all those months that we spent apart and all the stress that we have underwent the past several months. Here's to a new year with less stress and hopefully lots of fun-filled family time.
I know I will grow to like it (maybe love it??) here. It's definately a huge difference. Of course we knew it was cold but it is insanely cold and had no idea. You honestly cannot or do not want to take a baby out in the weather. I am pretty sure it never got out of the low teens and was 5 or 6 degrees DURING THE DAY this past week and we were told that was mild weather!! Even when you bundle the kids up you still feel like they are freezing to death. Nobody on our street leaves their houses! There is not much to do in the way of entertaining the kids so we have spent many hours doing puzzles, drawing, reading, coloring, FINALLY got the TV going so yes, watching movies. Reagan will start preschool this week and she is very excited to be doing that. I can't decide if we will do 3 or 4 days but she will go 9-1 on those days. I am very excited about the place as they do lots of different things daily including learning musical things, drama/theatre, science, etc. Her teacher is a retired teacher probably in her 50's and seemed awesome. For now, I will help at the store a little on those days and hope to get lots of sewing, decorating, and scrapbooking done....that's a big "hope" as Kade is definately a boy on the GO!

So here's to hoping you had a wonderful holiday season. Through all of this, it has made us realize how special the gift of family is. How much we take for granted that we shouldn't and how very very lucky we are for such caring parents and siblings and friends. There are times the past several months that I am pretty sure without good friends, parents, and family in general, that I wouldn't have made it emotionally. Such a hard time but definately a learning experience in so many ways. We dearly miss our Utah friends and family and hope you know that you are always welcome in our home because you are always in our hearts. We look forward do seeing more Idaho family and friends as well! Enjoy the numerous pictures!
He's sweet...the first few weeks we didn't have a table so everyone ate...at the counter minus Kade..lovin him some sugar cookies



Yes it's the middle of winter and yes, the kids are naked! Getting ready to open Christmas jammies

New Jammies


Puts a new meaning to "bare back horse riding"! (and yes, that's the PINK room)

It's ok, laugh....this wasn't even as long as his hair was previously!!

Yes...naked again but it's blurred so you can only see how happy he is to have the phone enjoyin' the tree lights

Waiting for the kids


Trying to see Rudolph in the night sky

Reindeer food

Dreaming of sugar plums

And not happy at all for being rudely awoken

Trying to explain the footprints


Cute :)


This is Marvelous...then Roxy...now Agnes

And Kade loves her too!


This was from Kade...and probably her most favorite gift!

He was happy playing with the noisy toys...but really wanted nothing to do with opening them or the general idea....


And really just wanted to go back to bed

And now she can be a real rock star

Reflection

I've walked around our house at least a dozen times today. I walk from room to room, just to walk. I stop and stare, I get a little misty=eyed, a little catch in my throat, a heavy heart, and I reflect. It's been over 8 years in this house. I remember the day we got the keys and opened the door to our first home. We were so excited. We were thinking of things to do to make the house our own (remember removing the pink kitchen sink was among the first priority and here it is 8 years later and still there!). I've sat on the beds today, I've sat on the couches and in the kitchen chairs. I've turned lights on and off, on and off. Each time I flip, I remember another thing that I loved about it, or things that have happened in this house. Memories etched in stone.
We moved in on our 2nd anniversary. A great anniversary. Our very first home. It was a house way too big for us at that time but we knew eventually it would be full. We have loved all the company that has come many times. Just for coming, for family events, birthdays, holidays, special days, sick days, comforting days, and baby days. I absolutely love having friends and family in my home. I thrive on it actually. We have painted, painted over, painted again, moved furniture, got new furniture, and loved our very first brand new carpet :) We absolutely love our back yard. Although it's small, it's shady and comforting and has provided many, many nights of enjoying the outside and making memories with our kids, as well as sheltered friends and families for visits. We've sat on the porch swing eating bowls and bowls of ice cream. We've sat on the patio roasting marshmallow after marshmallow.
And so filling up the house started later than we thought. Almost exactly 4 years after moving in, we then entered the house with this beautiful baby girl. She had this cute room that I loved to sit in (and boy did we sit and sit and sit). She crawled in this house, she took her first steps in our kitchen. and dropped a ton of food on our floor. Each birthday and holiday we have loved celebrating with her here. This year, we entered the house with baby #2. This sweet, blue eyed little boy. Bringing him home was surreal because now we have 2 kids in this house...it's full to us! We have laughed, cried, cheered, grieved, and even argued in this house. It knows all our secrets and has shared in all our dreams. And after all this time of preparation, all the anguish felt over the past several months, all the readiness to move, I still cannot imagine not coming home to this house. The house of a newly married couples dreams. However, as we all know, every chapter has an ending and the time has come to end this one. We have a new home to go to. New doors to open, new dreams to dream, new rooms to fill, tables to eat at, yards to live on, and refuge to give to friends and family. I'm still a little in denial I think. It's been an amazingly long few months but now that boxes fill my home and emptiness settles in, my heart truly mourns, yet rejoices.
However, I will not look back. I will close the door, I will shed many tears, but I will not look back. This home was the beginning of our life....the next will be a continuation of that. There will be many more chapters to come, and probably, another house. Anyone who knows me knows that I am as emotional as they come. I feel, love and care deeply, and I don't necessarily like change. But I bid this house farewell at last. Dear Home, Thank you for giving us comfort, support, warmth when it was cold and cool when it was hot (and all the stress in between like leaking ceilings and broken water heaters;) ). You, my friend, will always hold a special place in our hearts.
So the next time you hear from us, we will be under one roof again. As a family. And we can start to live, to dream, and to heal. Wish us luck, wish us love, and wish us success. So long Utah. You've been good to us!

Catching up

Every month I say "can't believe it's..." but honestly...where did the year go!! Here are a few things we have been up to.

Reagan gets to bring home Gibbles, her class mascot at preschool. She was totally in heaven until she realized she wasn't going to be able to walk the silly thing numerous times a day because it was in no way having me catch him. And, yes, he hid under her bed for long periods of time and I could not retrieve him. I'm sure there will be surprises there for us when we move the bed. And it's safe to say we will never own one of these!!





Enjoying one of the last beautiful fall days we had at the park


If you think we "addict" our own kids to sugary drinks...think again!!



These ladies are fabulous and I will miss them dearly...my "new"house doesn't boast quite the "scrapping space" we have spent hours doing so I will have to be creative when they come with all their goods :)


Scenes from Thanksgiving. Terrible travel both ways as winter storms hit before and after but we traveled safely and were able to spend some time with family which, of course, we always love. I left the kids with my mom and Aunt Heidi while I went to Idaho Falls and worked my first official "shift" as a retail slave. Had a busy, successful weekend and Mike is totally in his element :)

Playing the duty of dad to the dolly


Kade's first Thanksgiving...of course he ate and ate and loved everything

Always room for dress up time

My nephew Hayden is very talented musically. This was a cute scene as he pulled this out and all the kids tried to make a noise on it.


And last but not least, my little guy is almost 10 months old! We were a little late with his well child visit for 9 months but he measures in at 29" long and 20 lbs 3 oz and a whopping 95% on his head size. Yep, that's my boy. The rest were actually pretty average for his age.
He is now crawling all over the place and will pull himself up on anything. He is into everything and unfortunately finds light sockets fascinating. Still only has his 2 big bottom teeth and the same adorable smile. He did hit his stranger anxiety stage (or should I say it's mostly just his I will only have something to do with my mom stage!). He loves to play with his soft basketball, look at books, spit bubbles, laugh at his sister, take a bath, play peek a boo with his blanket, Aunt Heidi, and anything that he can put in his mouth. He is a curious little boy and we have our hands full already. However, our hearts have been full since the day he was born and each day I am reminding of how lucky we are to have him in our lives. I am so excited to see him grow and his relationship with Reagan develop.

Halloween and Amber's wedding

So last weekend we headed to Kimberly for my sisters wedding and to do the Halloween thing. Saturday was pleasant weather for the most part. It was a little chaotic with family in town and all the fun of cousins everywhere and to top it off being on a sugar high for a few days. Reagan was an adorable Tinkerbell and Kade was Peter Pan (although most everyone though he was Robin Hood...check it out..they both do look similar!). Didn't get great pictures of the wedding nor really of Halloween with all the chaos and a fussy baby but here you go.

The bride and Reagan

Cousin Bart and Kade

Ciera (who didn't smile at all) and Dakota

Crazy Uncle Matt

Sweet :)



Before I fixed his enormous hat

Reagan used to love for Grandma's dog to just plop himself down right on top of her lap...Kade, not so much


Ummmmmm......


Don't you think he looks like the "shrek babies"?


Enjoying the Ride

The first big one :)

Last week we had about 3 inches of snow when we awoke one morning. Reagan was in HEAVEN!! The first thing she wanted to do was go out and collect a bowl of snow to eat...that was followed by another, and another, and another. I lost count but that's about all she had to eat all day long :)
Sorry the images on these posts aren't great. I cannot figure out what happened to my camera (well probably Reagan happened to it) and I can't find my manual in the mess of my house. To top it off, my editing on my computer so I could at least lighten them isn't working for some reason.

Royal Ball w/Princess Amerah

Of course we would not miss the opportunity to see Princess Amerah (again!). She hosted a benefit "ball" for a little girl named Maggie. Maggie suffers from Cerebral Palsy and they were raising money for treatment so 100% of the money was donated to the cause. It was a fun night of getting all prettied up, dancing, singing, face painting, eating yummy sweets, and visiting with the Princess and our friends!

He's gonna be....

This little guy is (of course) extremely different than his sister! He sticks everything in his mouth, is curious about everything, hot/cold especially, and nose dives off anything. He cannot be left alone already and he still isn't actually crawling. He nearly climbed OUT of the target cart last week, and I went in to get him from his nap the other day and this is what I found...

(and no, I didn't run get the camera :)..it was sitting in his room)