Choices

Hub's opportunity to work from home came to us in an interesting way.  Four years ago, before we decided to purchase a home in CA, we looked into other areas to raise our family. Hubs contacted a head hunter to look for jobs for us in Utah and the surrounding states. At the time, there were not any opportunities in valuation and so we decided to move forward with our life in CA.

In August, this same head hunter contacted hubs and told him there was an opening in CO that may fit us well. After many months of discussion and interviews, as well as a trip out to Denver, we decided to take the job.  I was very excited about the new adventure for our family, but something just didn't sit right.

Hub's current firm was not happy about the news, to put it lightly.  They kept trying to persuade him to reconsider. Finally, his bosses told him that if he really wanted a change of scene, why not work from home? He would still get the promotion that was planned for this year as well. As soon as he told me about this offer, I new it was the right choice for many reasons.

So hubs rescinded his acceptance to the firm in Denver. Now we had to decide: 1) stay put, 2) move closer to hubby's parents, 3) move to Utah, or 4) choose another location that fits what we are looking for.

Utah seemed like such a fun idea! I would get to be close to all of my family and many friends. We would have snow in winter! But realistically it just didn't seem like the best idea. Hubs still needs to be close enough to the office to be able to get in when he needs to.  He would have had to schedule flights each month, which would get expensive.

It is a seller's market in our area right now and for many other reasons seemed like a good idea to sell. We will be listing our house the beginning of May.

I would love to be closer to hubby's folks, but prices are very high for what we are looking for.

So we are looking at other areas that are close enough to the city that hubs can drive in if needed, on occasion.  Areas which are still nice, but we will get much more bang for our buck. I never anticipated this kind of change for our family, although it is something I constantly dreamed about. I am sad to leave our first home that we have purchased and the area we have lived in since 2006, but so excited for a new adventure!

Changes

When I was a child, one of my favorite parts of the day was sitting down with my family and having dinner together. I remember waiting for my dad to come home and he would sit and read the paper for a few minutes while my mom finished preparing the food. Sometimes she would listen to music on the cassette player. I can still picture her standing at the kitchen stove, the stove light on overhead while the light in the rest of the house was slowly dimming with the passing of the day.

When my mom passed away, family dinner was a little less frequent and a little more chaotic. My two oldest siblings were attending college and my sister and I ran the show most days until my dad could get home from work. My dad worked hard to balance things as a single parent, but it just wasn't the same. If I never have to eat hot pockets or canned ravioli again, I won't complain. :)

When I married, one of the things I looked forward to the most was having dinner with my husband, and then involving the children when they came along. Both my husband and I were still going to BYU and working. I had an internship 2.5 hrs away on the weekends. Hubby's job was up in SLC.

When we graduated and moved away for hub's new job, I thought, "Finally!" I was so excited to have a sit-down meal each evening with my husband and growing family. What a fool I was. The first year, we tried so hard to make it work, but that meant not sitting down to eat until 8:30-9:00 at night. If we didn't have any children yet, eating that late wouldn't have been a problem. "Someday my husband's work schedule will ease up and he will be able to get home at an earlier hour," I thought. Family dinner may seem like a silly thing to fuss over for some, but not only was hubs not able to be home for dinner but he wasn't even able to get home until after the kids were in bed most nights. The busyness of his job has fluctuated and there have been weeks at a time when he can get home between 7-8 p.m and that has been so wonderful for me and the kids. But there have also been weeks at a time when he can't get home until midnight or later, just to turn around and go back to work at 6:00 a.m. If I thought it was difficult for me, I can't imagine the pressure he has felt. I am truly grateful that he doesn't work weekends too often and only travels a couple times a year.

Nine years and four more children later, hubs has been given the opportunity to work from home. This is a blessing I can't be grateful enough for!

To be continued...

Twists and turns

I was sure horrible at blogging last year. One post...pathetic. I was going to scrap the blog all together, but I always enjoy reading updates from family and friends, so I guess I will try to keep with it, especially with all the upcoming changes.

Here is a little update on the kids:

Child #1 is still full of energy and is loving school. It doesn't come easy for her but she works hard. She is our little tomboy and is super competitive, and not a gracious loser. Reminds me of myself as a child. My siblings didn't like me to join in when they were playing games because I would make a fuss when I lost. She is always entertaining us with new songs and dance routines she makes up and has her sibs participate in. She is a great little mama and loves to hold the baby for me and change him.

Taking a selfie, instead of pics of her science fair project, 

like she was supposed to be doing.

Child #2 likes to read one of our Little Golden books called, "Nurse Nancy", and has decided to take that role upon herself in our family. She has a little kit up in her room that she uses whenever someone in the family gets hurt.  When she initially set it up, she told me, "I hope someone gets hurt soon, so I can give them a band-aid." :)  She enjoys school but since she is so much of a perfectionist, homework can be a challenge at times.  She loves to go outside and wander around and eat a snack when she gets home, or play in her room alone for awhile. She definitely likes her alone time. She has a sensitive little heart and gets upset whenever someone else is feeling sad.

Child #3 is growing like a weed and learning a lot. He will definitely be ready for kindergarten next year. At least academically wise. He thinks it is fun to do math flash cards. Because he is left-handed, his writing is coming along a little more slowly. He likes to read "Dick and Jane" books to me and work on his preschool book.  He is still nervous in new situations and around new children.

Child #4 is very mischievous and undoes as fast as I can do. Trying to clean up with him around is very counterproductive.  He is the clown of the family and makes everyone laugh a lot! This morning everyone was wrestling on the bed with dad and dad had oldest child trapped under the pile of children. She cried out for #4 to rescue her, so he yelled, "Cannonball!" and jumped on the pile of bodies.

#5 Little one is three months old today. Can't believe it! He loves to smile and is starting to try to talk to us. At his two month check-up he was 15 lbs 3 oz. This expression below is pretty typical. He looks at the world with wide eyes! He is starting to be less fussy and can lay on his own for good stretches and look at the lights on the Christmas tree. Wait what? We still have our tree up? We'll take it down one of these days.

I was released as Primary President last Sunday. Bittersweet. I love working with the children in Primary, but it will be nice to take a step back and focus on some other things that need attention right now.

This post is getting long already, but I hinted at some changes coming our way. That will be saved for my next post. ;)

Family fun

Over the last few months our family has been able to be a part of a lot of fun adventures.

DISNEYLAND!

The kids still talk about it almost daily. Once child in particular (#3) is counting down the days (or years) until we get to go again. He already has planned out what he wants to do the next time. 

Ahh. Brings back childhood memories. I sure loved gymnastics when I was a girl, and this little gal below sure enjoys it too. Both girls are currently doing gymnastics, but we may take a break for the next few months, because of...

 ...Softball!

 Hubs decided to buy a huge bag of mussels at Costco and learned how to prepare and cook them. The kids were fascinated by the process and needless to say, there weren't any leftovers. Even littlest ate a bunch!

This little cutie lost her tooth a few weeks ago and she still hasn't lost her second top tooth.

Oldest turned 9! Wow! I feel old.

Over Christmas, the grandparents kindly took the kids for the day, while the three married couples, along with hub's younger single brother, went to the BYU football game in San Fran. We walked around the city for awhile, hubs showed off his office, and we ate pizza with toppings like broccoli and potatoes, which was amazingly good.  Love this family!!

Merry Christmas! (and happenings of late) :)

I have been so busy lately that I can hardly think straight! Regardless, we have been able to take some nice breaks as a family and do some fun things. For Thanksgiving, we went to visit hub's family and while we were there we went to Monterey for an afternoon. It was heaven! Perfect weather and clear skies. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and climbing around the rocks and investigating the tiny crabs and other sea life hiding about. 

My brother was able to join us and I think he enjoyed the get-away as well. :) Not sure what little boy is doing in this picture below. Being his little goofy self. ;)

Older brother is part of a preschool co-op group and he sure loves it. Every Wednesday the children come to our house and we enjoy having circle time, music time and doing crafts and occasionally science/nature study and experiments. Little brother loves that he gets to join in. I get Mondays off where we rotate through all the moms. 

Of course, I can't do a post without a little house progress update. ;)

I convinced hubs that board and batten would look nice in the entryway, so he lovingly helped

me put it up one Saturday evening and then I did all the finish work over the course of the next week. He liked it so much that he suggested doing the living room/dining room as well. I think we will stick with the entryway for now.

Before

 After

We also had to give back the couch in the above picture to hub's aunt and uncle, so we finally bought a real set. I love them!

Enjoy some Christmas photos!

Other things to fill our time these days: gymnastics, piano lessons, school, homework (I am surprised at how much more homework oldest has now that she is in 3rd grade, and I know it will only get worse. Ugh), volunteering for the girls' classes, babysitting swaps (so that I can volunteer :)),
 late work nights, being primary president, and of course, the endless projects on house and yard. ;) I think this next year we will do the counter tops in the kitchen and then really focus on the yard for the rest of the year, as we pretty much haven't done anything outside yet (other than ripping things out, which doesn't really count).

Merry Christmas!

Kitchen Changes and the Zoo

This was the kitchen upon moving in.

Here is the kitchen now.

 As you can see, we don't have a ton of counter space so this table I got for free off Craigslist works perfectly as an island. We also use it to serve dinner on. I line up the food and the kids can help themselves. We have a fairly small dining table and with my older brother now living with us, plus 6 other people, it gets a little squished if I try to put all the food on the table.

  A little personal artwork.

 Pops of color. :)

 Done:

Paint the existing cabinets.

Clean and spray the existing hardware.

Spray paint the pantry doors.

Prime and paint the brick.

Tile the floor.

Add a toe kick and molding to the cabinets.

To Do:

Replace counter tops, cook top, sink, and faucet....someday. ;)

I took the boys to the zoo last week with some friends.  Older brother loved the tigers and little's favorite were the elephants.  They loved carrying around their own personal maps and older brother directed the way. :)

A Two-room update

As promised, here is the progress on the girls' room. I put together a little wall collage, which includes a doll that I had hanging in my room when I was a child, a ceramic puppy that oldest daughter painted at a birthday party, a silhouette of the Salt Lake Temple, the girls' feather collection, and a picture of the two cuties themselves.  The lamp was given to me by my voice teacher when I was a teenager. I plan to redo the top of the dresser to match the stain of the bunk beds...eventually. Oh, and they still don't have a door knob. :( Their room is painted a very, very light pink.

 These pictures come from a copy of one of my favorite books as a child, "Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the New Dotted Dresses".

                                                                  It is hard to tell unless you are in the room in person, but I applied a stencil to this back wall and sewed some fabric to the end of these Target curtains. (Update: I have since painted the baseboards white, and the outlets were replaced).

 This beautiful rug was made by my very talented sister, and she gave it to me as a birthday present this year.  I think it looks so good in the girls' room!  My sister has more rugs for sale at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/socuteandfumps?ref=search_shop_redirect.

Room Number Two:

If you remember, I showed this picture of the family room awhile back.

Here is what it looks like today.

 We painted it a light gray, added new base boards, crown molding, window molding, a rug, and a window treatment. I ordered this fabric from Fabricguru.com and sewed them.  I still need to redo the coffee table, but other then that, this room is done!

 This green chest holds all of the boys' cars and trucks and it is perfect for them to get into while I am making dinner. Oldest used my little button pins on the cork board to make a smiley face. It is painted with chalkboard paint, so the kids can draw on it as well.

 This old crate holds the kids' collection of marbles, and rocks and shells from the beach and it sits atop the toy/book shelf. I also finally found a little place to hang our growth chart. The kids all have measurement marks on it and love to check how much they are growing. (Oops: Still need a switch plate for this light switch. The switch is so old and gross, but we can't remove/replace it, like we have been doing to all the others, because there is a mirror (painted over) that covers part of it. What to do? Just paint it too?).

 Next up, a reveal of an almost done kitchen. Here is what it looked like when we moved in. So lovely, I know. :) Half-painted brick and sub-floor.