Baby in a Bed

Not much is cuter than a naked babe straight out of a tub on your bed.


Though this comes close.

Zoo Day with Cousins Galore

We went to the zoo this afternoon. 11 cousins. It is not the best zoo. But we are members now so you'll see a lot of zoo trips if you follow us into next year.
It was M's first trip to the zoo. She still has a bad cold, but trooper as always she was happy. then uncomfortable. then asleep.

Santa in a tractor! A highlight for Sammy.

Christmas Bits

Christmas was a whirl wind.

I will never move in December again. Ever.

I feel like our lives were spinning out of control and I've just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Christmas is one of the rewards for being a parent to so many young children. It is fun and special. I feel like I was robbed of all is should be.

My children are sick. I am sick. My Sam has been crying for about three weeks straight. And we are still living out of boxes.

Santa came, and we opened gifts, hurried to church, hurried to family dinner, hurried to bed, hurried hurried hurried. Marianne didn't even open her gifts until almost 8 at night. I got about ten pictures of the whole day normally I would have about 80.

The kids liked their gifts, but between being sick and the move they just are not themselves.

They only thing I wanted for Christmas was my children to be themselves again. And Santa did not deliver.

Christmas I want a re-do.

One where there is not snot pouring from every persons nose, we aren't more stressed than we've ever been in our whole lives, and my children are truly happy.

I guess I should focus on the magical pieces.

Like how Sam didn't believe Santa gave the carrots to the reindeer because they were only nibbled on on the plate. He doesn't think reindeer nibble I guess.

And out Kate said "oh my goodness, oh my goodness" to most everything, but most of all the lalaloopsy doll Sam picked out for her.

Or how my children despite being sick are beautiful, especially in coordinating red and gold church clothes, or striped and polka dot christmas pj's.

I know I am blessed.

But I think we still just may have to have 2nd Christmas in January.

Game Elf

One of Santa's elves visited us last night, like he does every year a day or two before Christmas. Elves are doing lots of serious business this time of year, like watching to see if you are being naughty or nice. If you are being nice and hanging out as a family one evening near Christmas you can put out treats for these elves. Elves like treats just as much as Santa anyways. Put them on your doorstep. Then sing some Christmas Carols as you get ready for bed. You'll find that if you open the door back up, there is a family game in place of the treats you left. It works like a charm for us every year. And results in the most memorable moments of Christmas with our children. The gift seems to stand apart because it is not with other gifts. It is the first exciting magical piece of Christmas our children see. And we always have tons of fun together playing the game all night. This year we opened the door a bit early, and the elf had not eaten all of the treats and the game wrapped up was down the walk a bit. It was awesome seeing the kids put the pieces together. Sam kept saying "an elf bringed us this game" Kate had mentioned to me in the bathroom while I helped them get ready that maybe the elf would bring us this elephant game she had seen at the store. That elf- he must have been listening.

I made up this Christmas tradition, and I hope we do it every year.

Santa Baby and Sugar Plum Kids

My mom bought this silly santa suit for baby M. Turns out it was a good move cuz she looks awesome in it. One happy fat santa baby! Sometimes I think her cheeks are so fat they might just split open.
The kids found this in a box i was unpacking. It was a party favor from Sam's 1st birthday. It was still wrapped in the custom packaging I had made for it. I'd saved it for sentimental reasons, but the kids just didn't understand that. I guess they were right, I told them they could have it if they would share nice. They agreed.

California Christmas

We finally got to move our stuff into our new for now place on Thursday night. Good thing because that truck was due back on Friday at 8:00 am or we were going to be charged another $100. Jake stayed up all night cleaning the truck out and folding moving blankets. The kids and I slept at my mother-in-laws still since there were no beds or anything to sleep on, basically just three garages full of boxes. My father-in-law and Mark helped us move everything out of the truck. So glad we know people here in our new city. I must say though it was and easier move then the one from Heber into the truck as we are now living on one floor instead of three. Yeah for No stairs! We have been working like busy bunnies to make the house feel like a home. And when I say we- I mostly mean me. Almost exclusively.

And I am trying to not think about how in a year or less we will be doing this all over again.

Once the essentials were unpacked like the dishes and the kids clothes, I moved on to the really important stuff. Like Christmas decorations. I've funny enough mourned moving for many reasons but one silly one- that we haven't had any kind of Christmas of our own. No time for much traditions or activities, no decorated home, no baking with the kids. But yesterday- yes the 1st real day in our house, we spent after dinner decking the halls. It made most everyone happy. And when I say most everyone I mostly mean me. Almost exclusively.

The kids have been loving the new house. Mostly the backyard, where there is a huge cement patio to ride bikes on. They have spent nearly four hours both today and yesterday playing outside. I love Utah- but- in your face Utah.

They played in the leaves today. Sam kept throwing them up in the air saying "Spring" I think he meant Fall, irregardless he has the wrong season. It just seems like Spring because it is 60 degrees, and fall because the leaves are just falling off the trees. It might as well be summer too since he was playing with the leaves with palm trees swaying in the background.

They like the house in general too. Kate says she likes all the colors. It has a lot of paint. And originally I thought it was crazy, but now that our stuff is in it doesn't seem too bad.

I like the house too. The neighborhood feels really nice, and the house itself is pretty fancy. A little fancier than I am used to with regal drapes and light fixtures. But again with our stuff inside it is starting to feel more like home.



Also I went to Target today. It was a five minute drive. That is pretty great. Because it didn't take me 35 minutes to get there I could spend more time in the store. Which meant I browsed about then came home with coordinating holiday wear for all the children.

Living in the city also means that although we have the exact same internet we did in Heber, it works like a billion times faster.

Life is looking up and I am looking forward to be California Christmas. It took me about 35 seconds to upload all the pictures for this post.

Twists and Turns

Life is funny.

And sometimes not so funny.

We arrived in Fresno late late late Friday night. Mom was kind enough to come with me and the children so I didn't have to make the 14 hour drive alone and try to keep babies happy the whole time. Jake drove the enormous truck of course.

Saturday morning we went for our final walk through on the house.

I could tell as we pulled up Jake was not feelin' it.

Remember he had never seen it before.

After walking around for a little while I could see he was struggling with something. Kind of like the last time I saw him make the hard but right choice to quit his job as an attorney and work for himself.

So I sent the kids to the park with my mom and we looked around some more.

In the end, the house wasn't all that we expected, we couldn't get our loan to be exactly what we wanted and we had an overall anxious feeling about the matter. If you can't trust those gut feelings that make you want to puke what can you trust?

I had a small panic attack, about two weeks ago that maybe we should wait until we knew more about the area before buying a home. But Jake assured me it would be fine.

A week before move in date Jake has some more anxiety because we weren't able to get the interest rates and loans like we wanted. But we crunched some numbers and decided it was alright.

Prayers and fasting and we weren't sure we had an answer so we proceeded.

But walking around the property Jake was sure we just shouldn't buy the house.

A hard but right decision.

Sometimes we wish didn't have to be grown-ups for a few days

you know.

We canceled the purchase. And lost a lot of money doing so darn it.

Me. Frustrated. Devastated. And mostly sick with worry about how the children would feel when we told them we wouldn't be moving into the house. Sick Sick Sick.

But in the end- trusting, that Jake was right.

The kids have been resilient. And funny.

Saying things like "our new house is broken, but I can fix it with my hammer"- Sam, or "Dad didn't like the new house"-Kate.

But I can see the confusion as we told them we would move into a blue house, with a pool and big bathtub and fireplace. And now we are not.

They play at grandma freeman's where we are staying and ask "Is this California" and say "bless that we can move into our new house soon" in their prayers at dinner. or ask how many days until Christmas because I told them we were moving before Christmas.

Sometimes Kate will catch me without a smile and ask "Mom why is your face like that" She knows something is up. So I am trying to be more cheerful.

Lucky for us we do have a place that is comfortable, supportive and close at my in-laws.

Scrambling like chickens again.

We have found a property to rent, funny enough on the same street Austin.

That is what the picture is above.

I kind of didn't want to rent it, just because it will sting every time I drive to the new home and pass the "what-was-to-be" new home.

But it is nice, no pool, lots of colored rooms, but comfortable and large enough.

I keep saying this is better.

It will be better to save a bit more before jumping into a new house.

It will be better to make sure I like it here and don't want to just move back home.

It will be better because we can get to know the exact area we would prefer, or perhaps build something instead.

But it was a great house.

There is always tomorrow for dreams to come true- or so says Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeers girlfriend on the Christmas movie that has been playing on repeat on the car DVD player all week long.

I hope she is right.

In the mean time we are going to try out being renters.

That will be a new adventure for us. What will we do without having to do home repairs and landscaping on weekends? I guess take trips to Disneyland and the coast instead. Darn it.

For now I just miss my comfortable home and city.

Heber, where we don't stick out in Wal-mart because we are the only people with all their clothes on.

And of course all my friends and family.

And a normal Christmas. with things like snow and neighbor gifts, and hometown coziness.

It was 60 or more degrees here today. I should be happy about this but it still feels wrong.

Today we had to go withdraw a lot of money to put down for the rental, but don't have a local bank yet so we just carried this money around all day. We were a bit worried about it as we were walking around getting stolen or something. Jake said "if this gets stolen, that is it, we are just going to turn around drive back to Utah" That is kind of how I feel too. I realize a lot more could have gone wrong with our journey here, but it hasn't felt like fate was in our favor either.

The good news is we should be in our new rental by the weekend.

With just enough time to trim the tree and put dishes away before Santa comes down our chimney.

It will be nice to not feel like we are running from the law or something like that.

And just be a little family all settled again.

I'm ready for a normal nights sleep too.

Is that coming anytime soon?

Long Holiday in Heber, Utah

We had to be out of the house on Baxter by 9:00 am Friday morning. We have had about 11 days before we can move into our new home. So in the mean time we have been taking a long Christmas Vacation at my parents house. We have never really lived with parents before since being married other than a month or so between homes before we had children. Turns out it is really awesome. We almost wish we didn't have a new home to get too and could stay longer.

No Really!

People make children breakfast, lunch and dinner, and us for that matter. I've only done the dishes once in 10 days. And there are always treats. People plan fun crafts and acitivities for children, play with them, give them presents, bath them, get them dressed, rock them to sleep, and watch them while I run errands I need to, go on dates with my husband and out with friends. Right now, my sweet aunt Carol is at my parents home as well. So really the adult to child ratio for most of our stay has been 5 adults to 3 children. It means I have lots and lots and lots of happy help caring for kids.

I've been able to spend tons of time on the phone trying to get Kate approved for health insurance, setting up new utilites, and doing all those silly moving type things that take forever without being interuppted by fighting kids. I've done all our Christmas shopping. I could go on and on. We've had tons of visitors and cousin over for family Christmas parties. We really are going to miss the people and the help that staying at my parents has included. It has made us already look forward to our Christmas visit next year. What a great stress less time inbetween moving out one home and in another.

Cousins showing off bff necklaces.

Cousins in a tub. The kids requested a bath in the waterfall bathtub almost every night and never wanted to get out.

The kids enjoying toys at Grandma's. They mostly played well together

A night out on the North Pole Express. With grandma, grandpa and all the grandkids minus Marianne. My kids knew just what to do when Santa came I was told and started shouting gift requests.

The kids thought their room at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's was so great. One big queen bed for them to share, windows they could watch the Christmas lights out of, and their very own little Christmas tree in the corner. Grandma had a new ornament for them to make and hang everday, and Sam loved plugging in the colored lights. They had an advent calander for each night too.

A visit from Great Grandma Elaine and Tom, with gifts that were well loved.