Before Pictures

It's been just less than a week and I think we've made some great progress on getting moved in. The entirety of our old house was actually loaded up and unloaded here in 1 day. It's just taken me a few days since to unload the boxes. We even started hanging things on the walls last night. So here is a new house tour of big time BEFORE pictures. We have many plans for what the afters will look like.

View from the front door: office to the right, living room to the left, and kitchen/dining straight ahead.

View of the living room from the entry way, ignore those cords, they will all be run behind the wall eventually.

Here is the dining room still housing box mountain. And on the left of the room will be a sitting area.

This is in the dining room looking through to the living room and entry. I love that open arch.

This is from the dining room looking at the kitchen. Now imagine the carpet and linoleum have been replaced by wood floors for a seamless transition from kitchen to dining. Soon my friends, soon!

Close up of the kitchen, and that door by the fridge is my ginormous pantry.

The picture hardly does it justice, because it actually continues around the corner to the right that you can't see.

And the next door off the kitchen houses this loveliness. I know, most of you are thinking, what, it's just a laundry room. But it's indoors people! I've been doing laundry in the garage for the last 5 years, so this is amazing. 

Next up are Andi's bedroom and bathroom, which are just behind the kitchen. There are still a few boxes of toys waiting for shelving in the closet, but it's coming together. 

That is it for the downstairs. I did not show you the office, which is right as you walk in the house, because it's a horrendous mess. It's the least unpacked of all the rooms, and will probably be that way for a little while. 

Now upstairs, first is Sammy's room. 

It's quite a bit bigger than his old room, maybe now I should buy the poor kid a dresser to replace that little Rubbermaid stack.

Next door to Sammy is the future nursery, present dumping ground for all the baby things that used to live outside in the shed.

Then there is the bathroom.

And down the hall is the master bedroom.

Our bed looks so little in this huge room. We need a new mattress anyway, so it might be time for an upgrade.
That slider goes out to our little balcony that overlooks the backyard, and through that arch is the bathroom that is as big as our old bedroom.

And behind those mirrored doors is my huge closet. Yes I said mine, Thad actually has his own in the bedroom. Love it!

So that's the house. I'm having a hard time deciding on paint and  color schemes, hopefully I overcome the stupor soon. Here are a few shots of the yard. Left corner.

Middle

Right corner

 View from the back corner looking at the back of the house.

 

As you can see there is a lot to be done back there as well, but imagine a gazebo back by the fountain with a gas fire pit.  It's going to be great.

A Bit of Pretty

My house is a hot mess right now. Total Chaos is more like it. Moving day is fast approaching, and so my piles of boxes are growing and I'm running out of corners to shove them in. I told Thad not to get me flowers for V-day this year because I already packed all the vases. But he didn't listen, and I'm very glad. Somehow this little bit of pretty helps me ignore the rest of the mess that is making my OCD's twitch.

I also love that whenever Thad brings home flowers there are always stargazer Lilly's in the bouquet.He never forgets my flower. 

So being Valentines day, the kids had a pile of goodies to open this morning from us and my parents, and once the loot was opened they decided they needed their Halloween buckets out to put their stash in. Amazingly I could actually get to those, so they filled them and have been carrying their stuff around. I guess they realized it was raining outside and decided that the jack-o-lanterns would be more useful as rain head gear than candy holders. They are so strange sometimes.

Please ignore my exposed couch cushions in the background, I am washing the covers and they are not dry yet!

San Diego

Thad and I were able to get away to San Diego for a few days this week. He had a management conference and lucky for me the spouses were invited too. We left the kids with my parents and headed out Sunday morning, and it was lovely. The weather was ridiculous, 75 and sunny in January. This is why people live in Ca. Our resort was right on mission bay and there was this nice little bike path that ran behind it to the parks on either side. I had to go to meetings one morning, but spent my other day and a half reading and basking in the sun at the park. The company put on a Luau, and there was an awards banquet the last evening at which Thad received the "presidents excellence" award. Considering he was probably the youngest guy in the room and that he'd only been with the company for 2 years, I was pretty proud. Wednesday morning we did a session in the SD temple before heading home. That is one beautiful temple. They are all beautiful, but I this one is amazing. Of course we didn't take a single picture the entire 3 and a half days we were there. The only thing we have is this strip from the photo booth they had at the Luau. Better than nothing I guess!

And now project pack and clean is underway. Very slowly underway, but I'm pacing myself, we've still got a couple weeks.

For Memories Sake

     I have nothing super exciting to post, just little things I want to remember about the kids in the future. Andi lost her second tooth this week. I finally pulled it for her when I realized the permanent tooth had already broken through and started growing in behind it. Gonna need braces much?! She also had what she considered a near death experience Saturday evening. Thad and I were out to dinner and the kids were playing outside with the babysitter. They had left a whistle out earlier in the day and Andi picked it up to use and ended up having a pincher bug crawl out of it into her mouth instead. Needless to say she freaked out, and it took the babysitter a few minutes just to decipher what had happened, and then another ten to calm her down about it. When we got home Andi told us about it, and burst into tears again reliving the moment. Totally gross yes, but big sobbing tears just talking about it hours later?! She's a mess.

     Almost everything Sammy say's is funny, either because of the way he says it, or the facial expressions that go with it. He does not say the S at the beginning of words, lobber, melly, lippers, are all things we hear regularly. And yes, he does talk about slobber, and tells Thad he's smelly. Actually, Thad passed gas the other day and Sammy told him he needed to change his diaper. Boys are gross. He makes the dramatic exasperated sound at me all day long, ugh! often accompanied by throwing his head back all the way and staring at the ceiling as he stomps away. Now that he is potty trained(90%) he has discovered that he can use that as an excuse to get out of bed at night and down from the table.

     We also had the inspection done on the new house and the more I see it, the more excited I am to move, and the longer my project list grows as I envision the possibilities there.

Birthday Week

Andi turned 6 on Friday, and we celebrated a full birthday week this year.  The Sunday before her birthday we had family dinner at my brothers and had cake and presents for Andi & Bradon. Andi's birthday is the day after Bradon's so we always have a joint party for them.

Friday was her actual birthday, so we started the day with birthday pancakes.

My mom brought over birthday donuts a little later in the morning. Just so you know any food automatically becomes "birthday" food if you stick a candle in it. Saturday was her friend party. This year Andi wanted a Magic Treehouse party. She has been reading the books for a while now and absolutely loves them. So we planned some activities that incorporated the books like hatching dinosaur eggs(popping balloons), solving riddles, going on a treasure hunt, and they had a great time. Here is the whole gang after they turned Wyatt into a mummy.

And blowing out more candles.

Saturday night we went to Rosemary's and since she is six now, she ordered for herself. I have been hearing a lot of that this week. "I'm six now so I can do (fill in the blank)." "Six year olds can do that by themselves."  Sunday night we had dinner with Thads family to celebrate all the January birthdays and she got to blow out more candles and open more presents. And today she got to go to lunch and shopping with Grandma Bulkeley to spend her birthday money. I believe the celebrations are finally complete and that her birthday has been sufficiently recognized for the year ;)
In other pretty huge news, we bought a house this week. We have been looking for months and months and last weekend we found the one. We are more than a little excited, and have big plans for our new place. At least I do. Thad's main priority is getting some big trees in the back yard, but I've got lists. Long, exciting lists ;) We are supposed to close mid February, so cross your fingers it goes smoothly.
This picture has nothing to do with anything, other than these are the diaper ninja masks Thad introduced the kids too.

Wow, just wow

So I've been waiting to post till after this weekend after Andi's birthday party when I'd have pictures to post, but today deserves a post of it's own. I took the kids to the dentist this morning, Sammy's first visit. He was all excited when we got there because he finally got to go back with Andi instead of being stuck in the waiting room with me. So they do Andi's check up and they let Sammy watch everything so he won't be nervous when it's his turn. Then it was his turn. "We are going to need you to come back and help with Sammy." Did you know that dentists now have a "quiet room" for the insane children? So I held him while the dentist brushed and flossed his teeth and did the flouride paint thing. No x-rays, no pokey dental tools. Toothbrush and floss just like at home. You would have thought he ripped his finger off again. He screamed bloody murder the entire time and I pulled something in my back restraining him. He literally popped blood vessels in his face screaming so hard, he's got all these little red dots around his eyes and cheek bones. All the dentist did was brush his teeth!!! His reaction was pretty much the same as Andi's when she had her blood draw for school. Completely insane. Next visit our goal is to get some x-rays and maybe sit in the big chair for a minute by himself. Seriously I don't know where these children came from.

Relaxing in the New Year

It seems like Christmas was a month ago already. Not that we have had a very busy week or anything. We've actually been pretty lazy, and Thad has been home a lot to enjoy the lazy with us. He took the kids out to fly his plane and shoot Sammy's new rockets.

 

We took them shooting one afternoon, and Sammy could not get enough of it.

 

The kids have been playing a lot of super hero and secret agent, but for some reason they only wear the capes when they have their pj's on.

Story of the week. Kelsie and Porter came over one evening when the kids were getting ready for bed. Andi was in the tub and all of a sudden we hear her yelling, Help, someone help! and then she screamed super loud. Of course all three of us went running to see what was wrong and we found this.

 

I guess Porter really likes baths, so he climbed in with Andi fully dressed. 

Thad and I have been watching a lot of documentaries lately, it's amazing what you can find on netflix. Two in particular have given us some major motivation to be healthier in our eating habits and change the way we cook and grocery shop. If you need some extra motivation for your new years resolutions, watch Food Inc. and Forks over Knives. Serious food for thought.

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and for the first time in years I don't feel like a tornado just passed. I'm not sure what was different because we still celebrated 3 different times on Christmas day, but it was just a nice restful fun day. Christmas eve was a break in tradition. Instead of the traditional dinner and Santa letter with Thad's family, we went to a movie and dinner with my family. We actually saw two movies over the weekend, which is totally abnormal for us. Anyway, then we came home and put the kids down early and set up the gifts and just relaxed. This was the first year Andi wanted to put out cookies for Santa, so we did, and she made sure to put out a carrot for the reindeer. In the morning Andi came running into our room asking if Santa had come, so I told her to check and she came back squealing. I just thought it was funny that instead of running straight out to the tree she still came in to our room to ask if he'd come.

Here is Andi with her robot dog that she's been asking for since September, and wearing her super hero cape that I made because she said she needed one.

Here is Sammy with his new computer, also sporting his cape. They have their initials on them in cute fabric, but no, I don't have a good picture of them.

After we opened everything we got ready for church, which Sammy protested the whole morning. Even during church he sat there saying, "I can't wear this. We can't go to church."

Then we came home and headed to my parents, where we made enough food to feed 100 people and ate too much of it. Then we opened gifts with them and laid around because we were all still too full to move. We had all of my siblings here this year, which hasn't happened for a little while. The only person missing was Kelsie's husband Cameron who is still in Kuwait. There were lot's of pictures taken, and video as well, but none with my camera ;) This year for the family gifts I made each couple an outdoor blanket. It's a quilt on the top, but backed with vinyl so it's waterproof.

That afternoon we went to Thad's parents to have dinner and do the Santa letter. We had another lovely big meal, then sang some carols, read the letter and opened gifts. Again, lot's of pictures, only a very few taken with my camera.

This year for Thads family we took on a huge project. We got the all the Santa letters from his grandparents, which cover 1972-2007, and we re-typed them and scanned pictures and had them printed in a book for his parents and siblings. It took us a while, but was totally worth it.
We also got to surprise both of our families with a little announcement. We are expecting our 3rd child at the end of July. I had the 10 week ultrasound today and everything looks great. They even did some of it in 3-d which was amazing and weird to see. Thad was mostly just glad to see that there is only one in there. I don't know why, but he always stresses about that till we know for sure.
So Christmas was grand, 2011 was lovely, and now it's on to 2012 and a whole lot of new adventures. Happy almost New Years!

8 Years Later

Yesterday was our anniversary, and I think we get less sentimental about it every year. Shame on us, I know, but we just get busy this time of year. Last night was Thad's office party so we went to dinner with a bunch of people I don't know. We were planning on making a long night of it and going to a movie after the party, which was over by 8:30, but we were lame and went home early instead. Here is the yearly comparison shot for your enjoyment.

December 20, 2003

December 20, 2011

Excuse the picture being completely washed out. We were talking last night about how quickly the time has gone, and where we are going to be in another 8 years.  The weirdest part was realizing we'd have a 14 year old and an 11 year old at that point. It just does not seem possible. Regardless, 8 years later life is good and we are happy, and I don't think we could ask for much more than that. Happy Anniversary!

Getting Festive

We have had quite the festive week. Monday evening we went Caroling with my family, and the kids loved it. Andi is quite the ham and loves to perform so every house was like a new opportunity for her to shine. Tuesday we went to dinner with Thads family for his Grandma's Birthday. And Thursday we took the kids to see the lights at CALM. They have been asking since Thanksgiving to go, and Thursday was great. We got there before the crowds so we were able to ride the train and the carousel with very little wait time.  And no that's not snow falling in the pictures, that's the dirt everyone was kicking up on the paths.

 This Carousel  is crazy. It spins faster than any carousel I've ever seen, you really have to hold on to the horse.

We even stopped in to see Santa and Andi kinda freaked out his little helper. The lady was asking her name and how old she was and all that while we were in line. So Andi walks up and whispers something in her ear and the lady's face went blank, total deer in the headlights, and then it was Andi's turn so she sat on Santa's lap and we took a picture. The lady just looked at me a little panicked, so I asked her what Andi said. Apparently she told the lady, " I know that's not really Santa, it's just a guy in a costume." And the lady couldn't figure out what to say in response, so I told her to go with Santas really busy this time of year so he has helpers to visit the kids while he gets ready for Christmas. She did, and Andi was fine with it. I was just impressed with the fact that Andi knew to whisper to the lady so she wouldn't ruin it for the other kids in line. She really goes back and forth on whether she believes or not. But here she is talking to Santa.

And this is as close as Sammy got, and only because he was holding out a candy cane.

Saturday my moms family came in to town and we had an early Christmas dinner with them, but I have no pictures of the event, as usual. We ate at the church building because there are just too many of us for one house, and while the girls cooked the boys played dodge-ball and volleyball in the gym. Thad always get a little too into dodge-ball and has been a bit sore since ;) The last of the gifts is finished and wrapped and we have a week to relax before all the fun begins. 

Born With It

I talk a lot about the kids on the blog, and mostly I talk about how insane they are. That's because most days this is what I get from them.

Lately though they are really starting to surprise me, in a good way. Whenever my Dad get's a compliment on his family, or his children he always gives the same response. And that is that he can't take the credit for how well we all turned out, that we all have had the desire to be good and do good from the beginning. I remember being a teenager, and I'm pretty sure I did not always have that desire, but the last few weeks I've started to understand what makes him say that.
Andi's most frequent question is, are you proud of me? She asks it about everything, from cleaning her room without being asked, to learning to crochet, to being nice to Sammy. "Are you proud of me for doing that?" with big puppy dog eyes hoping my answer is yes. It makes me feel like a crappy mom that she even has to ask, I guess I spend more time correcting her than complimenting her. But she continues to ask, and she tries her best to be good at everything so she will make us proud. A few weeks ago she earned a couple of dollars for helping my mom, after a lesson on tithing we went to the dollar store so she could spend her money. She picked out two things for herself and one for Sammy because she felt bad he didn't have any money to spend. I talked her in to saving it and giving it to him for a Christmas present. She has been so excited about the little dollar gift all wrapped in her closet, she can't wait to give it to him.
Sam is not as quick to do good, but he is quick to repent. He can tell from my tone of voice when he's in trouble and he immediately hangs his head and says "I sorry Momma."  Now if only he didn't have to say it so many times a day. He is also very loving. I was having a cranky day this week and Sammy walked up and said, "Can I hug you Momma?" and he did, and it helped.
Don't get me wrong, most days they are still crazy little beasts, but I am starting to see more of the inherent good in them as well, and we are having more sweet days.

Toothfairy Fun

The tooth fairy made her first visit to our house this week. Andi has had a "wiggly tooth" for some time now and Monday it finally came out. Once And showed Sammy the missing tooth he wanted one too and has been asking me ever since to take out one of his teeth. The fairy brought Andi a dollar and she could not wait to use it. Most days Andi would lounge in her jammies all day if I let her, but Tuesday morning she ate breakfast in record time, got herself dressed, brushed her teeth and hair and by 8 was ready to go to target to spend her dollar. She even picked out my clothes to help me get ready faster so we could go to the store sooner. Here she is in all her holey-grin glory.

She spent her money on a plastic horse in the dollar section at target, she even paid for it herself at the register which was super exciting.  The horse sits with her at mealtime to eat, she "brushes" it's hair and teeth morning an night, she puts it down for naps. On Wednesday when she went to school she left me a list of things I needed to do to take care of the horse while she was away. Seriously, that whole theory that kids who have to earn/pay for their own things take care of them better is so true. She has taken better care of this dollar horse than any other toy she has, because it was her money, and she bought it.
Sammy has turned meal times into a battle lately. He takes forever to eat anything and ends up in time out at least twice a dinner. Tuesday night I just left him at the table and didn't keep pestering him to eat and made sure no one else went in the kitchen to distract him. Really I just wanted to see how long he would drag it out, but then it got really quiet. And I found this.

 

He was out cold and almost fell out of the chair while Thad video taped him bobbing around. So maybe he's just really tired by dinner time and isn't in the mood to eat? Whatever it is, I hope he grows out of this phase soon.

Thanksgiving 2011

 We were lucky enough to have two thanksgiving dinners this year. We celebrated with my Mom's family at my Grandpas last weekend and had about 30 people at the shin dig. Yesterday we were with Thad's family at his grandparents, again with about 30 people.  Go big or go home right? In fact yesterday there were separate children and adult rooms for eating. Here's the older kids table, the 3 year old's had their own table in the corner.

16 children ages 12 and under! We were there a while before the cousins came and Andi and Sammy were getting a little bored, so Grandpa taught them how to stand on their heads. They didn't really get it, but we got a great picture of Grandpa demonstrating ;)

After we stuffed ourselves with the most amazing turkey ever and all the fixings, we had a little F.H.E. with a talent show and jeopardy game. It was a lot of fun. Andi represented the talent in our family by playing old MacDonald on the piano.

Once all the clean up was done the adult girls started going through ads and planning their black Friday strategy.  They were trying to talk me into joining them, but shopping in crowds of people is not on my fun least even at reasonable hours. That late, forget it. But their excitement rubbed off and Thad decided he needed to go with the girls just to see what all the fuss was about. So off to wait in line at Target they went at 11 pm.

Thad came home underwhelmed with the "deals" and shocked by the complete insanity of the crowds, but had a great time hanging out with his sister and cousins and laughing at everything for several hours. Today we are setting up our Christmas decorations, minus the tree, because Andi just could not wait one more second to start the Christmas countdown. I am loving her enthusiasm this year. Once we get rid of the kiddos for the night, I will be doing my version of black Friday shopping, on-line. This time tomorrow I should be 90% done with Christmas prep!

Under the Weather Adventures

Thad has been sick this week. Monday he took the day off to go to the Dr and get an antibiotic. The kids did their own exam as well.

I'm not sure why he has not learned that the living room floor isn't the best place to lay down and rest. The kids see that as the sign to pounce and tackle. Luckily for him they realized he was not feeling well and just played Dr instead. When Daddy was recovered a bit we decided to go for a picnic and the little zoo here in town. Hart park is a pretty decent size park, with a couple little ponds where people go to feed the ducks and geese, who sometimes charge and attack the nice people throwing them bread. So this trip we avoided the ponds and headed to an area full of peacocks. I have no idea why they are there, or how they got there, but we have peacocks in the park.

The kids tried to feed them, but they weren't interested in the bread. But it was really cool to just sit in the grass as they wandered around us.

After the picnic we headed to calm to see more animals. When we got to the mountain lions Thad has the kids run back and forth in front of their cage so he could get a video of them running around. It was kinda scary to see how they watched the kids. They were not interested in Thad or I, but they locked on to the kids and followed them as they ran.  The kids favorite is always the deer, they pick up random leaves and feed them, and the deer are very friendly.

Thad liked this guy.

It was a fun lazy afternoon with Daddy home.