Good Bye Home

Well after 10 months we can officially say good bye to our home in Phoenix. It is a bitter sweet farewell. I loved that house even though I complained and said some mean things about it. Now that I look back I realized there were some other things going on that made me curse items I was unhappy about. I am sad to see it go. On the other hand I am over-joyed. I feel like I can move on. (Of course that is not happening fast enough in my mind, I mean it closed on Thursday so shouldn't I be in a permanent residence by now?) I wouldn't recommend the route we had to take because it wasn't pleasant. I sometimes feel bad for having to short sell it, but that is done and over with.

So long large living space,

so long open kitchen,

so long refreshing pool,

so long palm trees,

so long bright sun,

so long great neighbors,

and keep growing little orange tree (maybe someone else will know how to get you to grow big and blossom).

Some other good new this week. I got my car back from the repair shop. It looks as good as new and I am so happy to have it back. The sun has also been peeking through trying to warm it up a little. How I love to see the sun! And Brian and I bought a new mattress. I have owned the old mattress for 14 years and it was starting to do the taco thing. Now we have to figure out what to do with the old set. Give it away for free on KSL.com or take it to the dump? I feel bad for giving it away because it is dirty and worn, but Brian's brother said you can't imagine what people will take for free.

My World of Craziness

So the other day my sister went to the mall. She was looking for a parking spot when she saw 3 kids and a mom. The mom was digging around in her purse and then at time turning backwards to the kids. The kids were 6 to 10 feet behind. The oldest child was pushing a stroller with one of the other children in it. The stroller also happened to be weaving and bobbing down the parking lot. The third child was weaving and bobbing along with the other two. My sister thought to herself, "what kind of crazy mom would let her kids behave like that." Then she took a closer look and it was her sister and nieces and nephew. Yes I was that mom she was thinking bad things about. But let me explain. They were not in the way of traffic and Macy was doing her best to control the stroller. She would not let me push it. They were behind me because it seems that no matter what pace I walk at they will always stay that far behind. I have tried walking slower and they start walking even slower. That is why the crazy lady kept turning back; to make sure they were still coming, to herd them along, and make sure they were not going to get hit.

As I am writing this post I have been looking out the window because my kids were headed to a friend's house to play. I wanted to make sure they got there. Well this was quite the ordeal for them. They first had to get in the power wheels jeep to drive to their destination. I noticed that they made a detour at another friend's house. I guess Macy was dropping Kelsey off to play there because Kelsey was no longer in the jeep. Macy then went on her way. Well she has come back to the circle and went to the same house Kelsey is at. I guess Macy's friend wasn't home. It probably took them 15 minutes to do all this. If they had walked it may have taken less than 5. The house they are at is 2 houses down.

So Macy is quite observant. The other night she asked, "What if dad had to go #2 and #1 at the same time?" I told her to ask him what he would do. She didn't want to do that. Instead she came up with her own solutions to the problem and then divulged them to me. However in divulging she of course had to do some exaggerated actions. It was quite funny and I think they probably would have worked. She still wouldn't ask her dad. I think she was being silly and trying to see if I would consider it potty talk.

My Workout Buddy

This morning Braden was my workout buddy. He likes to help when he can. Most days he likes to get up early to make sure I get out of bed instead of hitting snooze. This morning he decided to help in another way and I am not so sure I want him as my trainer. As I was doing the abdominal workout he decided I needed a little more weight to lift. He put his hands on my upper body and then peered down into my face with a huge grin. He thought he was so funny when I would lift the both of us. It quickly turned into a game for him. Of course I didn't appreciate it too much. Not only was it more difficult, but he was making me laugh which made it near impossible.

Hair cuts and food storage

I finally did it. I took Kelsey to get her hair cut. She had been asking for weeks. I was hoping to grow it a little longer so we could donate it to locks of love. I had let her hair get so long that in the fall I started to think how neat it would be to be able to do this. Her hair is so soft and pretty. What little girl wouldn't want her hair.

Of course I didn't get Kelsey in on this perfect plan. I never worried about it because she has always hated getting her hair cut. When she started asking is when I tried to convince her of my idea. She didn't buy it. So off to Cookie Cutters we went. She is really happy about the new do and I think she is as pretty as ever. Macy is always up for a hair cut. She still asks if she can get it cut to her ears. Notice from the picture above I didn't let that happen.

On Thursday I was at my Grandma Lue's house with my broker working on a listing price. I had my camera with me and couldn't help taking a picture of her food storage. When I was first married I always told her that we would come running to her house when disaster struck. This was why. Now some of it could have been scary to eat, but when you are starving you never know what you will do. When I saw this storage on Thursday I thought "Now where am I going to go?" I guess I better get back on the band wagon and start re-stocking. I have depleted my once filled food storage since living with Bri's parents. I didn't want to move it all again and I thought the stay would be short. Well here I am still here only now when I move into my own home we won't have anything (except for wheat, flour and sugar those are in the big buckets and they are stored where it is too difficult to break in to). By the way, the big old metal garbage cans is where she used to store some of her wheat. I didn't pick up a lid to see if there was still any wheat in there.

Espanol

That is the extent of my Spanish speaking besides "?Como estas?" "Muy bien". (Don't judge my spelling. It has been a few years since middle school spanish.)

Kelsey wanted to watch "Happy Feet" while I was on the computer. I got it going for her. About 10 minutes later she comes up to say she doesn't want to watch it anymore and went to play at a friend's house. That was a little odd for her. I didn't bother to go turn off the movie for some time. When I went to get more laundry I heard the movie but something was different. I went to investigate. Somehow the languages had been switched and it was all in Spanish. No wonder she didn't want to watch it.

The Little Mom

Macy is eager to change a diaper as long as dad doesn't ask her. The other day she was successful at it without any help from me or without me even knowing she had done it. I guess this inspired confidence in her because a couple days ago she tried again. This time when I came in the room she was very frustrated and carried Braden over to me. I saw the clean diaper in her hand and knew he was not being helpful for her. I told her she doesn't need to change his diaper and that I can take care of it. She throws him into my arms and then I feel his bare bottom. She had gotten the old diaper off but after that the scamp kept rolling and crawling away from her. It really infuriated her. I only wish I could have seen it all play out because I know Braden has gotten fast. He has worn me out as he tries to roll off the changing table and arches his back to get away.

Valentines and Braden Update

Well Valentines came and went. I tried to be a good mother and do fun Valentine things but it didn't work out as I imagined it. I had told the kids that we would make sugar cookies on Saturday for their neighbor friends. Well my mom made cookies with them on Thursday so I thought I was off the hook and could make brownies or cupcakes. Well the elephant, aka Macy, remembered the cookies and said that is what we had to make. So I started the cookie dough (which I was going to do on Friday, but had already altered my plans to do other things). The girls helped slightly but I did most of it. Then I had to refridgerate the dough so they went to play. They didn't have time nor did they want to cut out the cookies because they were playing. So I did it by myself. Because they were so busy playing I decided we could frost them on Sunday instead of cutting out paper hearts. Well Sunday came and when I asked if they wanted me to make the frosting they said no. Again they were having too much fun playing. So the cookies were never frosted and are in the freezer. The neighbor kids never received their Valentines.

The only Valentiney thing we did was fill out cards for Macy school class and dance class and decorate a box (which after I spent time wrapping it Macy put on 2 stickers and called it good). I guess I did help out in Macy's class for the Valentine party, but Kelsey didn't really do anything. Thankfully my mom made chocolate dipped strawberries and raspberries and heart shaped rolls for Sunday dinner. I did make the strawberry spinach salad to add to the festivities.

This past week I also celebrated my birthday. We went to the boat show and drooled and Brian is back hunting for a boat. He has found a couple that he likes but needs a boat partner. Anyone interested? I joked about posting it on Facebook but I think he may make me do it. After we went back to my parents and Brian surprised me with presents and my favorite chocolate cake. It is the one from Costco so I have had a piece every night since. There goes my beachbody from P90x. Friday night he took me to dinner at Tiberon. The place was not cheap but it was so delicious. This is the second time we have eaten there and both times have been great. The last time was years ago. This time we had purchased a gift certificate from city deals and that is the way to go if you want to try it out.

I wanted to throw in a few updates about Braden. He has stopped the army crawl and is now crawling. I give the credit to my dad for this. One Sunday he spent some time really working with the little bugger. Now his pants stay on but he is all over the place. He has even climbed a couple of steps and pinched his fingers in drawers. He is like Macy and empties drawers if he can. He is so proud that he can pull himself to standing. He is still the hoover and eats anything off the ground, but he is by far my pickiest eater and refuses a number of vegetables but devours anything with sugar. His eighth tooth has come in so he is even on top and bottom. He won't leave his socks on. Every time I turn around he has pulled both socks off and one is usually drenched in spit. I measured him myself since we only have temporary health insurance right now. He is 29 inches and about 20 pounds. He is doing more growing in length than in width.

Not my Best Week

So last week, not the greatest week. The closing of our house had to be pushed back to the end of this month because of loan issues for the buyer. Then my car, my new car, was hit on Saturday night. Everyone was okay. The kids were shaken up the first five minutes and then it was cool and they wanted to get out in the street to see the missing bumper. It wasn't my fault and the car is still drivable. It is in the shop now to get fixed. The bumper was torn off, my rear driver's side tire was flatten, the running board smashed and my doors dented. The lady was turning right and missed her two lanes of traffic and went into the middle lane but her angle was not straight and so she came into my lane and we collided. She was old. It was dark and somehow she missed her lanes completely. According to her insurance company she is not sure what happened. It was scary because I saw her pull out and see her coming my way but there nothing I could do because I had cars on the other side of me. As I saw it unfold I was just hoping she would realize and correct herself. The final kicker is someone accidentally took my brand new $200 (Brian says $100 but he bought it on sale) dress coat home with them from church. They must have mistaken it for theirs because I put theirs own at first and realized it wasn't mine. I just have to cross my fingers that they remember to bring it back some Sunday and I will have to check the racks each week.

Photo Shoot

Last Tuesday I finally made it in to get group pictures and individual pictures. Kelsey hasn't been professionally photographed since she was 2 and Braden hasn't had them since he was 4 months. I went to Target and I have had better experiences. Let's just say I was there way too long. The girls wanted me to curl their hair (which is a first and has since been a favorite request). In fact that is how I convinced Kelsey to get her picture taken. She has many moments in which the camera is her enemy and hides from it. Here are the results of the visit:

The blooper.

Ugly Critters

So Kelsey is the cutest kid and definitely our little princess. She hates to walk long distances. She loves to dress up. She cries at the drop of a hat and is very sensitive. In some ways she is not exactly princess like. She laughs at farts and burps (despite discouraging this behavior). She is also the instigator of such foul behavior that is also followed by laughter. She has been known to moon her brother and sister. With that said she is still cute and very photogenic.

Anyways she has this knack of picking some of the ugliest stuffed animals. Several months back she bought with her own money this guinea pig type thing from IKEA. She has since carried it everywhere, slept with it and maybe even bathed it (who knows). So yesterday she was upset because she picked guinea pig stickers(she really wants a guinea pig, so I am told on a regular basis) for her reward for getting pictures taken instead of a teddy bear like Macy . She cried and begged and said she would use her own money to purchase it. I gave in and off to Target. We came back with this alien turtle instead (she also wants a turtle and a bunny, pretty much an animal). She fell in love with the turtle because we couldn't find the same bear. Of course I think after seeing the turtle even if we found the bear the turtle would have won. Time will tell if this stuffed animal will be loved as much as the pig.

Another Way to Play with Your Brother

Make him your pet dog. Tonight Macy used a toy leash and buckled it onto Braden's pants. At one point he was sitting up and she dragged across the floor until the buckle couldn't take the strain anymore. Braden didn't care. He just smiled and laughed.

This little man loves to move so last week I was on the treadmill when he was awake. I built a barrier with a couple of items. He was determined to get to the treadmill. He wedged himself between to objects and had no parts of his body touching the ground. Instead of helping right away I grabbed my camera because it was too funny to see arms and legs flailing. Of course by the time I got the camera he had at least created more room to put his body back on the ground but not enough to get through sideways.

He loves to explore and on Sunday I saw him standing at this footstool and then he would put his head in the storage area. He thought he was so cool.

On Sunday dad gave him his first haircut. Brian did a good job for his first attempt at becoming a barber. Of course it took him too long and Braden had had enough by the end. Looking back at some of Macy's baby pictures for her VIK (very important kid) at school and then seeing Braden get his haircut, it is confirmed that Macy was the baldest of the 3. It took her a long time to grow any.