No, you da ho!

Hahaha! Get used to it people, because I'm going to use and abuse that joke for the remainder of my earthly days.

 

Last week, Justin and I flew out to Idaho for a house hunting vacation (yes, vacation, because we went with NO KIDS)!! The week leading up to the trip was incredibly stressful. My floors were raw, we were working desperately to get the house on the market, our dryer broke (hello, Laundromat, you're disgusting), and we had our first showing (before the house was officially listed). The cherry on top was when Justin tore his ACL the DAY before we left (you win again, church basketball, you win again). To say I was a basket case is a serious understatement. I was so tightly wound and stressed and emotional it was ridiculous.

 

The day before we left, my mom flew in. She is basically a saint who volunteered to stay with our children (in a hotel, mind you, because they couldn't walk on the floors while they were being finished) while we were gone. I took Josie with me to pick her up from the airport. When I saw her walking to our car I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. I'm 34 years old and I still, very much, need my mommy. Josie said it best. When she saw Grammy she said, "Mom! There she is! I'm so happy I could cry!" Me too little girl, me too.

 

Honestly, I don't know what I would have done without her. Just being with her for a few hours made me feel so much better. It was like, I knew everything was going to be okay because she was finally there. I really hope my kids still feel that way about me when they're adults! (**Yes, my mom is super cute and yes, she totally copied me with the bangs.**)

The next morning, Justin and I were out of there. The plane ride was actually really nice (for me anyway, poor Justin was such a trooper with his newly torn and incredibly swollen knee). I got to sit, read a book, drink some water, sleep a little (a very little), and have some fun chats with Justin. It's amazing how much I don't mind a long trip when there are no children involved.

We got to Idaho and I immediately rolled my pants up to capri length and fist pumped over my wise decision not to wear socks. The weather was in the 60's! It was dry! The sun was shining! Absolutely gorgeous.

We flew into Boise and, at the recommendation of one of the interns (who is from there) checked out its, sort of surprisingly, very cool and hip downtown. We ate at a really yummy restaurant and took a short walk of the downtown (but we didn't go too far - I was so, so afraid of doing more damage to Justin's knee - not that it could have gotten much worse). After that we drove to Jerome - an hour and a half away. Our hotel was nice and we were just relishing the time we got to spend alone (which, this month, meant we turned on the TV and watched our March Madness brackets bust wide open).

The next day, Monday, was house hunting. As much as I hate (HATE) selling a house, that's how much I love (LOVE) looking for a new one. I adore house hunting. It is possibly one of my favorite things in this life. Even when we're not looking to move, I am constantly looking up houses for sale. Houses for me, for my siblings, for my parents, for my friends, etc. Seriously, I love it. So this was like Christmas. We looked at about 10 existing homes. Some were immediately ruled out (the house with the giant pond in the backyard and the mural of Tuscany painted on the living room wall) and some were awesome but not for us.

 

Then we found this awesome foreclosure. It had everything we could ever want in a house. 7 acres of land, 5200 square feet, updated EVERYTHING, gorgeous. Seriously. It was built for 1.2 million and then the owners walked away. We could have snatched that baby up for $400,000. And we were tempted, oh boy were we tempted. We got preapproved at the bank and everything. We both really, really wanted this house. In the end though, we decided against it. The main deciding factor was that if, for some reason, this job didn't work out, we'd be stuck with a million dollar home that we'd never be able to sell (people in Jerome just don't spend that kind of money on a house). We don't expect that to happen to us, but we'd heard so many cautionary tales that we just couldn't pull the trigger. Not going to lie. I was pretty bummed about it (even though I am 100% sure we made the right decision) but Justin just told me to make notes of what I liked in that house and, someday, we'll build the one I'm dreaming of.

 

So, after a hard day of house hunting, we didn't see anything (reasonable) that we thought would work for our family. Then our realtor took us into this new development. The homes are still being built (although it's mostly all developed at this point). She showed us around and showed us the largest lot that was still available (.23 of an acre) and told us that one option was to build there. I'd looked into it a little bit before we went out and had actually seen a floor plan I liked. Justin and I took about a half a day to mull it over and then we decided to do it. So we got land!

 

Standing together on our land. Notice the blue sky. It was heaven. 

Us on our land. .23 of an acre in a master planned development is far from our dream home, but we're so excited because this is going to be a great place for our family for the next 5 or so years while our kids grow and we save the money to build the house of our dreams on the acreage of our dreams.

While we aren't excited about the small lot size or the proximity of our neighbors, there are a lot of things we LOVE about this neighborhood.
1. See that brick building on the left (in the bottom picture)? That's the elementary school where Noah and Josie will go. Awesome, right? They do elementary school a little different out here. There are two K-3 schools and one 4th and 5th grade center. The 4th and 5th grade center (where Clayton will obviously go) is the furthest school from our house (counting the high school and middle school). Justin and I drove one day from that school to our lot. Less than 4 minutes!! Sweet!
2. What you can't see is that right across the street from the elementary school is a big park. So our yard might not be huge, but we'll be in easy walking distance to a nice park.
3. The church is about a 10 minute walk. I would absolutely NOT do that on a Sunday (in heels, no way). But for scouts or mutual, absolutely.
4. There are sidewalks throughout the neighborhood and, at the end of the development, it drops you off onto a nice biking, running, walking path that goes for three miles one way. It's really an awesome location. I can actually see myself taking a daily run on that path (once I get used to the elevation, of course)!
5. When we went there to look at a few spec homes we noticed that there were kids EVERYWHERE! Honestly, we saw zero adults, but there were tons of kids out. They were running in between yards and down the sidewalks and riding bikes. It was awesome! Especially since there seemed to be quite a few boys who looked like they were Clayton and Noah's ages. Instant friends for our kids. And, from what we could tell, apparently I could just send them outside all day to play with friends! Gotta love small town living.
6. Our realtor was telling us who lives in this community. The new veterinarian, the high school band director, a jewler, a manager at one of the dairies, etc. Basically, it's a community full of young professionals and their families. Perfect for us.
After learning all of this we were sold. Hard. I honestly can't wait!

This is Justin. Licking a rock that we took from our property. You better believe that we brought that rock back with us to Indiana!

These are our neighbors. We are kind of at the end of another dead end street (which we absolutely love). Our realtor told us that the people who live in the green house have four young kids too! Yay!

After signing all the paperwork, we made an appointment to go to the design center in Boise to choose all our finishings. Honestly, I couldn't wait. Being able to choose my own stuff!?! Awesome. Especially because we are viewing this house as a temporary home, this gives me the opportunity to get a few things figured out before we build "the big one" someday!

If you want to see our floor plan, here's the link:
http://www.cbhhomes.com/floor-plan/legacy/sundown-3200/
The only thing that will be different is that we are taking bedroom #4 upstairs and converting it into another bathroom (I really don't need that many bedrooms, but when we have guests, we'll be so happy to have that extra bathroom)! They are currently working on the updated plans, but I don't have them yet.

We drove to Boise on Thursday (we were leaving from there on Friday) and went to eat before our design appointment. We went to Boise Fry Company! This place is going to become a tradition when we go into Boise for sure! Oh my goodness, amazing!

Then it was on to the design studio. Basically, we spent 4 hours there, choosing finishings. Here's a very small sneak peek:

This will (probably) be the flooring. Wood in the dining room, kitchen, entryway, and mud area. Shag carpet in the bedrooms and all throughout the upstairs (well, except the bathrooms and laundry room). Tile in the downstairs bathroom and master bathroom (the two upstairs bathrooms will be getting linoleum - I know linoleum isn't great, but the price was right).

Kitchen preview. The wood floor, the white cabinet (this isn't the actual cabinetry we'll be getting, it's close, but not the same - we are using it because it's white, which is the color we'll be doing), the light colored granite countertop, and the dark gray subway tile for the backsplash with the long rectangular tiles thrown in about halfway for one row. I love it and cannot wait to cook in this kitchen!

Exterior. The middle color (which is a light gray) will be the majority of the house, the white will be the trim, the darker gray will be at the top of the house, the stone will go around the bottom, and the door will be daisy yellow!

The fireplace surround (I think). A large, light gray, glass tile with the long rectangular ones running through it to tie it into the kitchen (it'll be a double sided fireplace between the living room and the dining room so it'll be visible in the kitchen and we thought it'd be nice to have them coordinate somehow).

Half bath sink.

The bathroom faucets (the kitchen one we picked out is also very similar). They will be in a brushed nickel finish though, not so shiny.

Our shutters (bottom left). They will stay black.

After our appointment, we ate one last meal in fabulous downtown Boise, spent one last night yelling at basketball on TV, and then flew home.

As far as the house goes, they are currently working on my updated floor plans. When they're finished (hopefully next week), we'll sign off and they'll start construction! We have a tentative closing date of August 15th. I really want to be in there before the new school year starts but we'll have to see. I'm not really holding my breath for that one.

We came home to four happy kids, brand new floors, and my awesome parents. Seriously, they rock. My mom did most of the heavy lifting. She did crafts with the kids, swam with them almost every day at the hotel, took them all to the Blue and Gold banquet (for scouts), and shared a bed with two kids every night. Seriously, I need to give her some sort of award.

 

My dad came out and helped Clayton start on his Pinewood Derby car. My dad is kind of a Pinewood Derby legend (Clayton thinks he's famous) and it made my heart so happy to watch the two of them work together. My kids are beyond lucky to have these selfless and loving grandparents!

Now we're back to stress over keeping the house clean for showings, surgery for Justin's knee (oh how wrecked it is!), spring break (next week! Yay!), and preparing for our move. It's really making me a little crazy, but I know it's going to be so very worth it. I am excited for our new adventure. Now that we're to this point it seems so real and I feel like these next three months are just going to drag. When they start building our house, I'm going to have our realtor go by and take pictures for us, so those will definitely make it on the blog! Stay tuned! Big things are happening!!

Road Trip!

The Monday after Justin's graduation my parents, the kids, and I road tripped from South Bend to Vegas. I know what you're thinking, 'A road trip with four tiny humans? Surely you're insane!?!'. Perhaps I am slightly insane but I'm not exaggerating when I say that we had a great time.

We broke the trip up into three days. Day 1: South Bend to Nauvoo, IL for a pitstop then on to Des Moines, IA to our hotel. Day 2: Des Moines, IA to Omaha, NE for a pitstop at Winter Quarters and then on to Denver, CO for the night. Day 3: Denver, CO to Green River, UT for a pitstop at a park and then on to Vegas!

A few things I learned on my road trip:
1. Electronics (GPS, iPads, iPhones, DS, portable DVD players, etc.) are lifesavers. How my parents ever took us anywhere without them is unfathomable.
2. Even though electronics are undeniably awesome, old school travel is fun too. I made the kids spend a portion of each day road tripping 'old school'. The license plate game, I Spy, hangman, etc. can be even better than electronics.
3. My parents are saints. Seriously. Best Grammy and Opa ever.
4. I'll eat just about anything on a road trip.
5. I used to think that western Colorado/Utah was so beautiful and green. Then I moved somewhere truly beautiful and green. I'm not as impressed by those landscapes anymore.
6. Mountains are fun and pretty, but I'm not one of those people who loves mountains and needs to be near them. Give me trees and green and woods and I'm happy.
7. Always travel with more than 2 DVD choices. ALWAYS! (I don't know if I can ever watch 'The Emperor's New Groove' again.)
8. As we travelled, I'd think 'okay, if the car broke down here, we'd call __________'. I love having friends all over the country (and also glad that my car never broke down).
9. My kids are awesome. (Okay, I already knew that one, but it's still true.)

How about some photos:
As I look through these, I swore I'd taken more. Then I realized that I didn't. They're on my dad's iPhone. Maybe he'll send them to me.

My favorite part of our road trip was going to Nauvoo and seeing my good friend, Carrie. Her family is doing residency in Iowa City which is less than an hour from Nauvoo. She graciously agreed to not only meet us there (with her 5 kids) but to bring us lunch! (Which, if you know Carrie is not surprising. She's pretty much the best.)

Josie and Naomi. These little girls were just babies when we left Vermont (seriously, I think Naomi was only a month or so old). They got along so well together that it made me a little sad. I think they'd be good friends.

 Me, Carrie, and sweet little Alice. It was so nice to see Carrie and catch up. I miss our VT friends!

 The Smith and Randall kids! It seems like a ton.

I also loved stopping in Winter Quarters. I was so awestruck by the early pioneers. They went through so many hardships but relied on their faith to know that they were doing what God had asked. It humbled me to walk around with my own kids, knowing that many of the saints lost their own children there. It made me even more grateful for eternal families.

Josie and Noah dressing up like pioneers.

 Sammie and Opa.

 I adore little pioneer Sammie!

 Pulling the handcart.

After that, our road trip was pretty much uneventful. The two exceptions being the stop at the park and splash pad in Green River, UT (where it was so blazing hot that my mom had all my kids strip down to their underwear and play - that's right, we were those people) and our dinner stop at Wingers in Cedar City. Oh how I've missed Wingers. It's probably a good thing I don't live near one. I would dip everything in creamy buffalo sauce (so could Sammie).

We got into Vegas around 9:00p.m. on July 3rd (which was perfect since our goal was to make it to Vegas by the 4th) and thus ended the first of our two long road trips.

Stay tuned. Next up...Vegas Baby!

Winter Fun!

So, I've mentioned before how awesome my parents are. They come out to visit us several times a year and try to come for special events in their grandkid's lives. Last weekend that meant Landon's baptism. Since my sister-in-law had family in town also for the big event, my parents got to stay with us. Total score!

As usual, I took hardly any pictures (shame Ariane, shame). But we had a blast! See, when my parents come, it's grand adventure city! The kids know this, they expect it, and Grammy and Grandpa do not disappoint! Here are my limited pictures of an action packed weekend:
First up was the kindergarten "Community Helpers" parade at Noah's school. Each kid had to dress up in occupational garb and parade around the school. It seemed more like a "Halloween-parade-but-not-really-because-we're-not-supposed-to-technically-do-that" parade, but it was cute nonetheless.

Of course Noah dressed up like Dr. Smith.

For crying out loud. How cute is he?

That night, we went tobogganing. Here's how it went: 1700 feet of slick, bumpy, ice, steep track. People crammed on to a toboggan wearing no seatbelts, safety harnesses, or head gear going as fast as they can down said track. (Did I mention no age or height limit? Yeah, true story.) I admit, I was a little nervous looking at the track at first, but the kids LOVED it! Not just a little either. The only kid who hated it was Josie. She went down once and decided she'd had enough. The rest of the kids were adrenaline junkies. They couldn't get enough. Fortunately Grammy and Grandpa were pretty dare-devily themselves. They kept taking the kids over and over. Good times, fun memories!
Grandpa and Sammie. This little girl became very attached to her Grandpa and Grammy in a very short amount of time.

I attempted to get pictures of people going down the toboggan track, but I couldn't tell who was who and the pictures didn't always come out great, so this is (I think) Grandpa, Noah, and Tori:

And I believe this is Grammy, Landon, Clayton, and Ella (or not, but really, how would you know?):

Average speed reached was 29 mph. It was fast. Fortunately we were having temps in the mid to high 50's so the water that was leaking from our eyes when the ride was over wasn't freezing to our cheeks!
After her first ride, Jo decided to hang out with whoever was taking their turn on the sidelines with Sam. She's good with the silly faces.

When it was time to turn the toboggans back in we thought it'd be fun to get a picture of all the kids on one toboggan. You can see how much they all loved it...except Josie. She was worried that if she even sat on the toboggan that she'd have to ride it down the track again. We may have traumatized her, until Grandpa saved the day and took Josie on a special toboggan ride of her very own (he dragged her on the toboggan on his way to turn it back in).

Saturday was a big day. The big day. Landon was baptized. It was so wonderful to be able to watch him get baptized and I'm so grateful that we live close enough to be part of that. Kerstin has all the details and some wonderful pictures of it on her blog, so you can click over there to read all about it.

After the baptism, we decided to go ice skating. We tried ice skating once a few weeks ago and it was very successful. When we got to the arena though we were a little sad to learn that it wasn't, in fact, open skate like we'd thought. Enter my mom. She found out it was alumni night and convinced them to let us skate because my brother (who wasn't actually with us - but she was very forthright about that) has a Master's degree from Notre Dame and is, therefore, and alumni. Go Cath. So we skated. My boys were beasts! Clayton was pretty good the first time, but he improved this time. Noah, who was decent (but had a hard time skating without a walker) the first time, stayed on the ice the whole time and only used a walker for about half of that! I was so impressed and proud of my little skaters!

We ended the weekend with church in my brother's ward for Landon's confirmation and a big family dinner at my house. As always, there was much weeping and wailing when it was time for Grammy and Grandpa to leave. Nobody likes that part, but it makes us feel a little better to know that they'll be back soon (Grammy's coming back for Clayton's theatrical debut next month so yay!). It was a great weekend full of fun and memories. Thanks Grammy and Grandpa! We love you (and promise that we'll take more pictures next time - but you should probably help us remember)!

**Stay tuned for some awesome projects that my dad helped me with (read - he did most of the work). Great stuff!**

Grammy and Grandpa visit!

Last week, my parents came out to visit us and meet Sammie. It's always wonderful to have them out with us but it was especially a blessing this time. With Sammie being so small it's always nice to have a couple extra sets of hands around to help out with the older kids plus, Justin was on nights while they were here so they were especially helpful during the bedtime hours! While they were here so much got done (and almost none of it by me). My dad did lots of small repairs around the house as well as putting a light in our toy room (where there was nothing before - it's glorious) and he played endlessly with the kids. He also stayed up with Sammie one night so I could go to bed at 8:00! My mom cleaned my whole house top to bottom, did all the laundry, made me sleep as much as possible (even though she was sick while they were here and could have used the rest herself), and planned some fun outings and activities for the kids. My parents are so selfless and giving. I definitely recognize how blessed I am to have them as my parents. My sister and I were discussing how amazing they are and what a wonderful example of selfless service they set. We discussed how we hope that we can be to our kids what our parents are to us. Everyone should be so lucky to have parents as amazing as mine!
While they were here we did a lot of things, but of course I took pictures of very little. I feel like this always happens when they come out. I think it's because we spend so much time having fun and just enjoying being together that I just forget to get the camera out. So I only have a few pictures (and only one with them in it - oops). I'll be better next time Mom and Dad!
One of the special things we did while they were here was bless Sammie. We did it in our home this time with a few of our close South Bend friends, my brother and his family, and my parents. It was a very small affair and I really enjoyed it. Justin gave Sammie a beautiful blessing. I only have two pictures of the day. I need to get some of Sammie in her gorgeous blessing dress before she outgrows it!
Our family. As I look at this picture I'm realizing that this is not the most flattering dress (on me), but other than that - don't I have the most attractive family!?! Seriously, they're super attractive people. 

This is the only picture I got of my parents while they were here.

My mom likes to plan fun outings and "grand adventures" to do with the grandkids. As usual, I didn't photograph hardly any of it. I did however, get a few shots of the 'princess party' that she had with the granddaughters. It was so cute. She bought each girl a beautiful princess skirt. The girls dressed up, got pedicures (from Grammy), put on sparkly princess lip gloss, made pink princess cupcakes, ate beautiful princess butterfly snacks (mini corndog with Dorito wings), took a princess parade through the neighborhood, and ended the party by watching 'Cinderella'. The little girls LOVED it!
This just makes me smile. I forget what she's doing, but I love this picture!

Waiting for our cousins to arrive.

Josie loves ANYTHING princess related. This was right up her alley!

Three princess cousins.

So that's it. Those are all the pictures I got of my parents visit. Fail. Fortunately they're coming back for Christmas which is always pictur-riffic. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming. Hopefully our tears when you left (picture me and all four of my children bawling in the car at the airport) let you know what your visit meant to us. Your visits are ALWAYS welcome, anticipated, and appreciated. We love you and can't wait for you to come back!

The Exodus

Well, it's official, we're no longer Vermonters. I'm not going to lie, I still cry a fair amount when I think of everything (and everyone) we've left behind. We've been in Indiana for 4 days now and it just doesn't feel like home (yet). It's been a whirlwind week.
On Thursday we loaded our truck. That was fun (insert eye roll here). It was stressful, but the kids were (fairly) well behaved - no small thanks go to Grammy for that one, we had some great help, and it went pretty smoothly (I think). The noteable exception being Noah taking a header off the back of the truck. Fortunately, our brain surgeon friend, Chih, was there to check Noah over and give him a clean bill of health!
Sad empty living room:
The boys loved helping load the truck. Truthfully, they weren't our greatest 'helpers' but they win the enthusiastic award!!
Running around in the empty truck before we started loading it:
Josie loved all the boxes and things that were all stacked on top of each other. She's a climber for sure!!
On Friday, we closed on our Vermont house (goodbye Logwood Street), and hit the road!! We had decided to break the trip up into three days. Friday was just a driving day. We stopped for the night in Utica, NY where Josie and Noah had their first experiences with hotels. I have to say, I was really impressed with how well my kids handled staying in a hotel (actually, I am really impressed with how they handled the whole trip. period.).
These boys loved the hotel stay. They have seen this whole trip as a 'grand adventure' (as Grammy would say). Their attitudes have really impressed me and helped me with MY attitude. What can I say, I have the BEST kids!!

Good thing Wiebke was able to make the trip with us!
On Saturday (Josie's birthday), we decided to celebrate with driving to Palmyra, NY and seeing some church history sites. We were able to see the Hill Cumorah, the Joseph Smith farm, and the Sacred Grove. It was really cold (apparently New York didn't get the memo that it's SPRING), but we had some good experiences and I'm glad we made the stop.
Grammy and the boys in the Sacred Grove:
An amazing view of the Palmyra Temple. Wouldn't this be GORGEOUS in the fall?!?
Justin and Josie on top of the Hill Cumorah. Man alive, that is one steep hill!
Grammy and the boys on top of the Hill.
After seeing the sites of Palmyra, we continued to drive in to Conneaut, OH. When we woke up on Sunday we drove in to Kirtland, OH and went to church. After church, we saw the sites of Kirtland. We were able to see Old Kirtland (the Newel K Whitney store, the Whitney house, the Johnson Inn, etc.) Old Kirtland was my FAVORITE! The cute Sister Missionaries who took us around were amazing and had the boys eating out of the palms of their hands! So cute! It was a really great experience.
In the School of the Prophets on the second floor of the Newel K Whitney store.

Grammy and Clayton
Hands down my favorite picture of the whole trip! Everyone's looking and smiling!! This is inside the store part of the Newel K Whitney store.

At the Johnson Inn, Josie fell and hit her head on the corner of one of the exhibits. She has a pretty awesome bruise from that fall. Fortunately, she's a tough cookie and took it like a girl!
After seeing Old Kirtland, we took a tour of the Kirtland Temple. I didn't get any pictures (honestly, I spent most of my time chasing Josie and Noah), but I thought this was a cool picture of Noah looking up at the temple.
After seeing the sites of Kirtland, we drove into Indiana. We are currently staying in an extended stay hotel that I can describe in one word - small. We're pretty cramped in here and nerves have been high the past few days, but we are scheduled to close on our new house on Friday and we can't wait!! Our hotel days are numbered (thankfully)!
Indiana happenings: Clayton has been re-enrolled in school here and had his first day today. His teacher seems nice and he had a great day. We were able to take Noah to check out a potential pre-school and he thinks that he is 'all growed up' now that he's been to school (once. for, like, 15 minutes). Josie's been doing okay, but this hotel stay has been the roughest on her because she really can't see this as an adventure the way the boys can. The boys have enjoyed seeing their cousins every day and it sure doesn't hurt that Grammy is still here! Finally, I've learned that Indiana-ans are called 'Hoosiers' (okay I already knew that, but still). FYI, the term 'Hoosier Daddy', NEVER gets old. Deal with it!
I leave you with this picture of Noah (apparently this is what it looks like when you're 'all growed up' - I love that he thinks he's such a man now):

So we've left Vermont. It's been an emotional experience, but we made it to Indiana alive and sane (well, as sane as we ever were anyway). A giant thanks to Grammy for coming on this trip with us. I know for sure that I wouldn't have been able to make a 3 day, 14 hour drive with 3 kids without her!! Another big thanks to Justin for driving the MASSIVE Penske we had to rent to haul all our stuff. He did a great job! So that's the update. We're here. We're together. It's good. Hoosier Daddy!!!