Imagination and moving

The Saturday before we moved Derek and I were doing yard work in the front. Maeley discovered that the iron in front of their bedroom had a door and climbed in. Of course Chase and Zoe follow. They then pretended it was a boat and they were pirates. This was very helpful keeping them contained and off the street.

A few days before the move we stayed at a couples house in our ward (thanks again Diane). Had we not done that I think we would have ended up in a hotel because with the whole house packed there was no room to sleep.

While they were enjoying their backyard Maeley found the goggles and then Chase and Zoe had to try them on. These pictures seriously crack me up. Silly kids.

We had so much help during the move that made it much easier on me. A huge thank you to everyone that helped.  Monday August 23rd my parents came down to help with the kids while the movers were packing. My mom took them to her sisters house and later in the afternoon my cousins house. My dad stayed with me keeping me company. 

Monday night Derek's parents came down which we didn't know until that afternoon that they were coming. I can't believe I did not get any pictures. This was our first time seeing them in 18 months. It was so cute to see Zoe give Tama (Derek's mom) the biggest hug. I wasn't sure how she was going to react because she was only 4 months old when they left on their mission. Maeley and Chase were definitely excited to see them as expected. Blaine and Marylee helped with the kids while I went to the house so the movers could get everything loaded on the truck. They got started just before 7:30 and was finished loading by 11:15. The kids came for about the last hour and was mesmerized by the huge truck. Then we had just enough time to go grab a bite to eat before a couple people from the ward came to help me clean. Cleaning took just over an hour with all the help.

Homeowners

Derek and I signed papers yesterday and overnighted them. The seller signed this morning. We are now homeowners! We couldn't be more happy. Now if the next 6 days can go by quickly so we can enjoy our new house!

We are very anxious to begin this new adventure for our family. I even mentioned to Derek how I'm really looking forward to the drive. That's weird because a) its a relatively boring, long 8 hour drive b) we do have 3 little kids and we are going to try not to use our portable DVD player c) Zoe doesn't do well with any drive over 2 hours. We'll see how it goes. But we do love hearing the conversations the kids have with one another. They crack us up.

When our house here is loaded on the truck Tuesday we have anywhere between 2-10 days before we get our stuff delivered to our new house. This could be a fun adventure camping out in our home. I am hopeful that it will arrive before Derek goes back to work though.

Now we've got so much to do this weekend preparing for the move. I should be motivated but I'm feeling lazy today knowing how much needs to be done tomorrow.

Easily entertained

Recently Derek found a small gecko in our shower. He left it along so I could show it to the kids when they woke up. Zoe was the first. She was not interested and slightly freaked out by the gecko running back and forth in the shower. Later when Chase and Maeley woke up they loved it. Maeley tried to catch him but pulled his tail off instead. She did finally catch it and held it for quite sometime. By then Zoe thinks its the coolest thing ever from a distance but won't touch it. I put it in the kids bathtub so they all could watch him. After about an hour I let the poor guy outside.

Maeley holding the little guy

You can't tell because I was focused on Chase but he's holding the gecko's tail. Wiggly and all.

I love how excited Zoe looks in this picture.

Grasshoppers

I've never seen black grasshoppers before. There is a plant and a few near by rocks in our backyard that they hangout.

Maeley and Chase enjoy catching them in Maeley's kitchen pots.

Fun in St. David

Saturday while Derek was tubing down the Salt River with YM/YW my parents came down and together we went to visit my sister in St. David. It was Grant's birthday so it was fun to celebrate it with him. Maeley and Chase enjoyed picking out a present for him.

 Kyla, Grant and Kourtney

 Grant

Mayla, Grant and Kourtney

Marie wanted to make a flannel blanket for Grant so we got a little sewing lesson from my mom. Then with a lot of help from Mom we also made Chase and Grant ties.

They turned out really cute. Chase loves his. The only boy material Marie had was camo. It goes fairly well with Chase's church clothes and he kept in on the whole time. Chase hates his clip on tie.

 Maeley enjoyed watching a Strawberry Shortcake movie and wearing one of Mayla's shirts.

My dad was left to watch the movie too while we did our sewing.

We always have so much fun visiting. I regret not doing it more while we have lived in Tucson.

Stuff

I'm pretty much losing my sanity. Okay well maybe I lost it...a long time ago. The last couple weeks have been so long. Happy to report everything is going smoothly with our home and are set to close in one week. We now have dates for the move, except we still don't know the exact date we'll get our stuff. We probably won't until they load the truck anyway.

Maeley is getting into everything! She is so curious and a very strong willed child. Things are not as put away as we'd like right now so she's finding everything. When we were cleaning the shed we brought our camping stuff inside to go through. We removed matches from there because that's on the "non-allowables" list. After 2 days of being in the cupboard Maeley found them. Luckily I caught her before she figured out how to light them. I was furious. If anything is out of its place Maeley will find it and figure out what it is or does. It can be very frustrating.

Because the house feels messy and cramped right now we've tried to keep busy with fun activities. Last week I took the kids to a park with a splash pad. Maeley loved it. Chase thought it was okay. Zoe hated it. I think she would have been fine but it was super busy. Plus Maeley and Chase ran and Zoe lost them and started crying. After that (which was the first 2 minutes) she just wanted to sit on my lap. Monday night for Family Home Evening we went to the movies and saw How to Train Your Dragon. That was pretty special for them especially because they got to stay up late which almost never happens. Maeley was great. Chase did alright and then feel asleep the last 30 minutes. Zoe was amazing. She sat through the whole thing and was never scared.  Yesterday my friend Shannon came to visit. Our kids love her. They were so excited. Maeley wouldn't let go of her. (Sorry Shannon) We went to a couple stores and to McDonald's for lunch. Maeley enjoyed playing in the play place but Chase wanted nothing to do with it. Today Maeley gets to primary activity day. It's been a long day. She can't wait. Tomorrow Derek is going with the YM tubing down the Salt River. My parents are coming down here and then we will all go visit my sister Marie. I'm sure next week will be busy as well prepping for the move but trying to have fun too.

Add to the list

Creatures we've seen while living in this home: RAT

Saturday we cleaned out our shed so its easier on the movers. While doing so Derek found a rat in there. So gross! I hate that shed its home to too many animals.

This is the nest the rat had made in the shed.

This is bottom half of the rat. I couldn't get a good picture and then it escaped. Derek wanted to kill it. He made a few patches in the shed floor so this rat or any others cannot get in.

We got a house!

Finally! It's been a very stressful few weeks knowing we're moving whether we have a house or not. Luckily for us we found something that I think is the perfect fit for us. Not too big but not too small either.

This is the loft which is a great size. This will make an awesome play area for the kids.

This picture is taken in front of the door you saw in the loft picture. I love how the loft over looks the family room down below.

Stairs- This has been a must on Maeley's list from day one. Derek mentioned how fun it would be to go down the stairs in their sleeping bags. Now they can't wait! I told them they can do that once and that's it.

I'm excited for Christmas time. Just imagine how pretty they will look with garland wrapped around them.

I love the size of the bedrooms, they are huge! Plus the kids each have walk-in closets. I know it's kinda silly to be excited about that for kids closets afterall they don't have that much stuff. We do however so I can fill them. Plus no more sliding doors which always fall off their tracks.

My mind has all kinds of ideas on decorating this place. I can't wait to paint however we won't rush into. I still haven't found the right fabric for pillows, curtains etc.

Move update

Today we found out that our move has been postponed 2 weeks. This is a wonderful blessing because we still haven't found a house. Derek and I have been under so much stress lately its great to have more time to find a home. The hard part is putting up with the extra boxes we have stacked throughout our home now. It's getting on my nerves. Even when I clean the house it still feels messy.

This is the hallway looking at the front door.

This is the side of my bed. Absolutely no walking room or hardly any room to tuck our bedding down. Making our bed now has become a huge ordeal that I haven't felt like doing the past couple days. I hate an unmade bed.

This is in our dining room. Every where we turn its just more stuff piled up. I'm losing my sanity.

Since these pictures were taken we have changed things up slightly but it continues to drive me crazy! However I am very grateful to have more time to find the right house for us.

Miss Maeley

We recently got all of our stuff from my parents garage and brought it to our house so we could get quotes from a couple moving companies. Maeley remembered me telling her that I have American Girl books and that they were in Grandma and Grandpa's garage so when we were loading the U-Hual she was looking for them. I have the book sets for Felicity, Samantha, Kirsten and Molly. She immediately wanted me to read the Molly books. I think it took about 4-5 days to read through that set. She really loved the last book. She loved that Molly had her hair curled for her solo tap dance in a big show. After we read that book she insisted on me curling her hair in ringlets. I was fine with that. It turned out so cute but unfortunately the curls only lasted about an hour. Later in the week we bought her a new church dress and she couldn't wait for Sunday to come. Again she insisted on having her hair curled. This time I tried my curlers on her.

She looked pretty cute in the curlers and did a great job with leaving them alone for about 5 hours.

Maeley was thrilled with the results.

Little Miss Maeley is growing up way too fast.

Oh she also requests that we call her Molly when her hair is curly.

Back to square one

We are not getting the house I posted about in the previous post. It's a long story. So now we are 3 weeks away from moving and have no house or a house we're considering. We are definitely stressed to say the least. Our realtor is going out looking at some houses today for us. It's so hard buying a house from another state. You can't just go look at houses on a whim. I do trust our realtor. We've been out now twice with her seeing about 25ish houses so she does know what we are looking for. I never thought we could be those people that buy a house without seeing it in person first. But it turns out we just might be. I think we may be crazy or maybe desperate I'm not sure. We keep telling ourselves that we just haven't found the right house for us. It will all work out I'm sure.

Exciting Times!

Derek is being transferred to a new project in Rio Rancho, New Mexico in August. This past weekend we went out there looking for a home. I was pretty discouraged that we weren't going to find anything. But the second to last house we looked at we fell in love with the layout. There's space, a large walk in pantry, an oversized laundry room, a large loft that will become the kids play room and so much more. We went ahead and put an offer on the house and found out Monday night that our offer was accepted. Wahoo! Now, we do still need to do inspections but if all goes well we will close the beginning of August. We couldn't be more excited. We've seen so many friends and family members buy houses its nice that it's finally our turn.

This is the family room looking into the kitchen/dining area

If you know me I'm not a fan of the oak look so one of our first projects will be to paint the cabinets white.

This is the loft, aka the playroom

This is the view from the back wall. That's the Sandias Mountains. This house is less than 2 miles from Derek's work which means he can ride a bike or come home for lunch.

Now I could bore you with so many more pictures but I'll save that for after we move in and add our personal touches.

Chase's 3 year check up

Yesterday Chase had his well check up. He's in the 50th percentile for both weight and height.

Weight: 31.5lbs

Height: 37in.

Chase is such a great kid. He is so sweet and I love his little voice. He is very appreciative. Seriously every week when I do laundry he thanks me for washing his clothes. He's just so  happy to wear his favorite clothes again. He's a great brother and tells me often that Zoe is his best friend. Derek and I had a great time listening to Chase and Maeley carry on conversations on the way home from Gilbert Sunday. They are pretty silly. Most of the time they get along well but sometime they butt heads. He's really into Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the Toy Story gang. His favorite colors are blue and black but I'm sure he's already told you that. He tells everyone and will tell you over and over again.

A couple weeks ago Chase came to tell us he was tired. I tried to pull out his trundle bed but I could only pull it out about a foot. I can push it under fine but don't ask me to pull it out, it's a very tight fit. One thing you should know, when Chase tells you he's ready for bed you'd better listen and put him to bed ASAP or he'll fall asleep in funny places. Derek was busy doing something and just told him to lay on Zoe's bed. Well about 5 minutes later this is what we found.  He's one cute kid.

Here Chase is showing off his birthday card from Toy R Us while sporting his very cool giraffe boots.

Love you Chaser Racer!

Chase's birthday party!

We decided to have Chase's birthday party Saturday because Jacob, Devan and Boston could be there. And let's face it he loves having time with the boys. He gets tired of being with girls all day long.

As requested by Chase he had a Buzz Lightyear birthday party. We lucked out. Boston had a Toy Story party the week before so my brother Carl saved all the decorations for us to use. Thanks again Carl, that was awesome!

The plan was to have pizza, do presents cake and ice cream then let the kids play in the sprinklers and slip n' slide. Well the kids had there own plan so they started off playing in the water.

Boston and Chase

Devan and Jacob

Jacob, Devan, Chase, Bosten and Maeley

Zoe, Maeley, Boston and Chase enjoying lunch.

Marc, Tyler (in the back ground) my dad and Derek

Derek's Grandma and Grandad Jones, my grandpa Stratton and my mom

Chase's very first remote control car. He really is having a great time with it.  

(looks like we forgot to wash his face after eating pizza, whoops)

The toy he's been asking for for a very long time now.

More  Buzz Lightyear toys. He got plenty of Toy Story toys but has done an excellent job at sharing them with Maeley and Zoe.

The awesome cake made by Laurel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

Silly girls

Chase got a Buzzlightyear toy from my parents that once you shake it and put it on the floor he shoots across the floor in his rocket. Well Zoe was having a great time playing with that this morning. Later I caught her saying "1, 2, 3, go" and running across the room and then doing it again and again and again. It was pretty entertaining to watch and she was having a great time.

Today at lunch Maeley was telling me what her favorite things are. In this exact order.
-food
-animals
-lettuce
-broccoli
-carrots
-and her most favorite animal is the polar bear (of course)

I love these silly girls.

I'll be blogging about Chase's birthday party soon but I've got so much to do today.