Life update.

So amongst all of this moving back to America, living in a nasty apartment, building a house, buying that house, etc, there has also been a lot of growing up going on around here.  My kids....they just keep growing.  In some ways I love it and in some way some ways I really really hate it. 

Paige: Oh my Paige.  She's a joy.  Except for right now.  She's currently screaming her head off in her bed because it's nap time.  However, when she's NOT screaming bloody murder...she's a joy.  She's picked up a new language.  I'm pretty sure it's some tribal dialect and she's a genius.  No one understands her.  Except for maybe some obscure tribe in Africa.  She immediately mastered the stairs in our new house.  Well, going up them anyways.  She falls down them, which is very sad to witness.  She's 14 months old and still nowhere close to walking.  She has taken the whole mobility thing MUCH slower than her older brother and sister.  I'm OK with it.  She also loves her pacifier and her bunny.  She sucks on her binkie and rubs the ear of her bunny on her cheek.  It's really cute. She loves to cuddle with her Mom, and crawls away as fast as she can from her sister.  Hallie kind of smothers her with over the top protection.  She loves Hallie and avoids her at the same time.  Paige has been the baby that I have enjoyed the most.  I'm sure the 4 year gap between Chase and her helped.  And my being a baby PRO at this point.  She's just a huge blessing and I thank Heavenly Father every day for her.

Chase:  This boy is an interesting one.  He loves school and loves rules.  He's REALLY good at following rules (at school anyways).  He wins citizenship awards and holds a kindergarten record for the most "caught doing good" tickets.  His teachers both at school and at church always comment on how well behaved and smart Chase is.  And then he comes home.  And we get a whole different Chase.  I get eye rolls and arguments.  Not all the time, but a lot of the time.  It's like I witness the constant battle between the angel and the devil on each shoulder.  And then, at bedtime, I lay down next to him in his bed and tells me about his day.  He tells me how much he loves me and that he's lucky I'm his Mom.  Then I remember why he's my favorite child.  Just kidding.  But our nightly ritual of cuddling up together and discussing his life is one of the highlights of my day.  I love getting to know Chase and try to understand how his mind works.  He has a big heart and a serious stubborn streak.  He loves Hallie and wishes she would give him the kind of attention she gives Paige.  He's really smart.  He does things all the time where my jaw drops and I think to myself, "Is that normal?" I have a different sense of responsibility when it comes to Chase.  The thought of teaching a boy to become a man is a big deal.  Teaching him to be honorable, hard working, kind, loving, smart, well rounded.  He's lucky his Dad is such a good example of all of those things. 

Hallie: Hallie has a special place in this world.  She's magnetic.  People are drawn to her.  Kids want to be her friends, boys want to be her boyfriends (UGH), people around her want her attention.  She has a really kind heart (except for when it comes to her brother).  She's really thoughtful of how her words and actions can affect other people's feelings...in a way that's way beyond her years.  She has a real gift with people.  It's hard to teach a kid like her how to be kind without being taken advantage of.  How to be nice, but to stand up for yourself and be assertive.  She's run into problems with boys at school saying really inappropriate things to her.  I didn't think I'd have to teach my 7 year old how to deal with sexual harassment....but it's a sad reality of this world.  She's kind and she's beautiful, I think boys are going to be a problem for many many years.  We are thinking karate might be a good option.  Seriously.  Hallie is also really smart.  I've struggled with keeping her challenged because Oklahoma schools are a bit behind the school that she came from.  Every Monday she comes home with her new spelling list, I test her on them, she gets them all right, then I throw the list in the trash.  I'm not stressing about it, but am doing some extra things at home to try to keep her mind busy.  Like having her play lots of video games.  haha.  Just kidding.  Hallie coasts through life for the most part, and is an amazing little girl. 

Matt: He's awesome.  I got lucky with this guy.  He was definitely made to own a home.  Since we moved in a week and half ago there has been a constant buzz of power tools coming from the garage.  He's building things, tweaking things, staining things, nailing things, selling things, organizing things, fixing things.  Just being a busy body in general.  And he's so happy.  He is upgrading to a different position on the jet at work and is between trainings.  He finished the academic part of his training and is waiting to start the flight portion.  During this in between time....he's been around A LOT.  It's been great that he's been able to get so much house stuff done without having to worry about silly little things like work.  He's a great Dad....his kids adore him.  I'm blessed to have him in my life. 

Me: Hmmm, I'm good.  Life is good.  I drink a lot of diet coke these days.  I'm pretty sure I'm giving myself dietcokecancer.  I'm planning to quit, eventually.  Once it's time to start trying to get pregnant again I'll quit.  I sound like a smoker.  In other news, I'm back to my prepregnancy weight.  I guess we can thank diet coke for that.  haha.  I have a personal goal that I will not get pregnant again (with any of my kids) until I've lost the weight from the last pregnancy.  It's my way of keeping myself in check I guess.  So I lost the Paige weight and was faced with the idea of another pregnancy.  Then I got all my household goods delivered last week that I hadn't seen since I left Germany.  That shipment was full of clothes that finally fit me again.  Then I decided the pregnancy could wait a little bit longer.  I want to enjoy my clothes for a little bit.  That, and we are getting a puppy.  I know I know, we like to learn hard lessons more than once.  I've done A LOT of homework and I'm hoping that this breed will make a difference in our experience.  We're picking up our chocolate colored cockapoo puppy next Friday.  She will be 9 weeks old and our kids have already named her Blu.  I figure 6 months of training this little girl before I consider another baby to add to the bunch.  Go ahead, tell me I'm crazy.  It's mostly Matt's fault really.  When I found Polly (our beagle from hell) and new beagle loving family, Matt promised the kids a new puppy when we got to Oklahoma.  This puppy, he promised, would never EVER be given away (he said as he glared at me).  So here we go, dog round 2.  This time, dog for life.  So I determined to be a puppy training maniac so we don't have to deal with the same issues we dealt with with Polly.  Plus, if you're ever considering getting a beagle....DON'T. 

So that's what's going on with us.  Life is good.  We love Oklahoma (way more than we thought we would), we love our church here, the kids love school, I love my house, Matt loves me, we are full of love.  Overflowing with it.

Oh yeah- and I love having a dishwasher again.  Lots of love.

I bought a house.

hello. We bought a house.  Can you believe it?  We went from living a completely debt free life, to having A LOT of debt.  But we OWN a house.  I've never signed my name so many times in my entire life combined.  My hand hurt when it was all over, but I also owned a house when it was all over.  I mean, WE owned a house.  And it's a really beautiful house.  We love it.  Although we didn't at first.  Let me take you back about 9 days........
We signed on our house on Thursday, Nov. 15th.  I wanted to wait to move us out of our apartment until Friday.  Not an option for Matt.  We WERE going to sleep in our new house on Thursday night.  So after we finished signing our lives away and had our house keys we went and got bug bombs (foggers) and set them off all over our apartment. 
Have I mentioned that our apartement was infested with spiders AND roaches?  It was bad....really really bad.  We didn't want to bring a roach party into our new, beautiful home....so we tried to kill them off (or at least send them running) long enough to get our stuff out of the apartment and into the house. 
Thursday is kind of a blur of a really bad headache, buying a house, bug bombing our apartment, moving into our house, and going to bed.
Friday is when the real party started.
Friday morning bright and early our movers arrived with ALL of our belonging from Germany that had been sitting in crates in a storage unit since it arrived in America from Germany.  It had been almost exactly six months since we had seen our belongings.  It was pretty exciting.  All day long, box after box after couch after table came flowing though our doors. 
On top of all that the brand new washer, dryer, and refridgerator that we had purchased were all getting delivered the same time our belongings were.  And our internet was being connected.  And I bought pizza for EVERYBODY (because one thing we've learned about movers: treat them well, and they'll treat your stuff well).  It was a crazy day.
Another note worth mentioning.  We have a well and a septic.  This girl from California has never experienced either.  We had been warned that at first there can be some "sand" in the water from the well.  All we needed to do was keep running the water to "clear the well".  So we did.  It ran and it ran and it ran.  All the showers, sinks, and tubs.  And as it ran......it got worse.  Not better.  And not only did it get worse, but the constant running of the water was causing the septic tank to over flow which is connected to the septic sprinklers (which I lovingly call our "poop sprinklers")causing an alarm to go off and the sprinklers to run and flood our backyard.  See the problem?
Our water was starting to look a little something like this:

Because of our "sandy" water my washing machine kept getting clogged and wouldn't work.  Which meant after months of using a laundrymat.....I still had to use a laundrymat.  I cried.  A lot.  I had no water, no washing machine, a poop flood in the backyard, and I didn't want to own a house anymore.

Saturday was a whirlwind of unpacking and dealing with kids and Matt planting new trees we had bought.  Excellent timing with the trees, let me tell ya.

Sunday brought with it new fun.  After the well man had been here for 4 hours he was able to get our water fixed and running clear.  I celebrated that night with a bath in my big jacuzzi tub.  When I got out of the tub and walked into my bedroom I took one step onto our bedroom carpet right into a huge puddle. 

What the??

Why is my carpet soaking wet?  I kept walking.  Why is my carpet soaking wet all along the bathroom wall?  My stomach sank.
"MATT!!! The bathtub is leaking!"
He stepped into the puddle and realization came over his face as well.  He removed the paneling from the front of our bathtub and sure enough....water was leaking from the pipes, under all the cabinets, under the wall, and into our bedroom carpet.
Then I started crying again.
"I HATE our house!" or something like that may have come out of my mouth.
This is when we start thanking our lucky stars that the whole house in under warranty for 1 year.

Bright and early Monday morning there is a whole crew in our house ripping up carpet and fixing our leak. 

However the washing machine repair man couldn't come until Wednesday so I was back off to the laundrymat.  Crying.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday consisted of lots more unpacking and assembling of furniture.  By Wednesday afternoon our water was running clear, the leak was fixed, the septic had stopped running constantly, and the washing machine was working.  My world was starting to look much better. 

And since Wednesday things have kept getting better and better.  I love our new home.  All the "kinks" have been worked out and we are so happy here.  I'm not afraid to let Paige crawl all over the house for fear she'll eat a roach or something.  She's loving the freedom.  She immediately mastered the stairs and only wants to be upstairs in the toyroom. 

The kids love their new rooms and having all the toys back. We have a second living room upstairs that has been dedicated as the kid room. There's a huge walkin closet up there where EVERY toy in the house is. The Wii is up there, all the movies, a 50inch TV, our old couches, it's pretty much kid heaven. And Mom heaven because I can't hear them fighting. :) 

We still need to hang pictures and organize closets, but we have made a lot of progress.  Here's a few shots from around the house:

Down stairs living room.  AKA- my happy place.  No kids allowed.  :)

The kitchen.  AKA- my other happy place.  I'm in love with my kitchen.  So much in love it makes me WANT to cook.  And have cute little people sitting on the bar stools talking to me about their day while I cook.  I love it.

The girls room.  A few people have asked why I have the girls sharing a room when we have an extra bedroom.  I believe in sharing.  I think it teaches valuable lessons that they will carry with them into their adult lives.  When we have another child (if it's a boy) he'll share with Chase.  I think too many people don't understand the basic principle of sharing and it hurts friendships and marriages.  There's your lesson for the day.  :)

Chase's room.  Desperate need of color or pictures or SOMETHING on the walls.

My blue front door that makes me so so happy.  Did I mention that they put the wrong color of carpet on the stairs?  They're a different color than the rest of the carpet in the house.  How does that even happen?  Still need to deal with that one.

Thanksgiving night we had a special visitor show up.  Charlie elf came to visit.  He reports back to Santa everynight if the kids are being good or bad.  Every morning when the kids wake up they go looking to see what he was up to while they were sleeping.  Everyone knows how much Elves like syrup.

Looks like Charlie (that's our elf's name) was photocopying his bum while we were sleeping.  Trouble maker. 

And closing out this blog post is a picture of sleeping Chase with his big balloon muscles.  I love him.

We like, we like to party.

 So there are some perks and drawbacks to being the #3 child.  Trust me, I know. 

Perks for Paige: She can make as big of a mess as she wants with her little cake and I don't care.  I've come to realize just how washable children are.  Go to town.

Drawbacks: When you turn 1 you have no idea it's your birthday so you don't really get any presents.  Is that terrible?  You may also have to get 5 immunization shots on your birthday when you're the #3 child because your mean Mom schedueled your well child check up on our birthday.  Never would have happened to #1 and #2.  Poor Paige.

Perks: Your Mom realizes when you're #3 just how short babyhood is and eats up EVERY second of it.  You are doted on and adored day in and day out.  By Me, Dad, Hallie and Chase.  You are spoiled rotten.

Drawbacks: You get your birthday blog 3 weeks late because your Mom is slacking.

Perks: You are the only child who actually GOT a birthday post this year.

 

 

Perk: You are the cutest baby ever.

 

I don't really know how I can describe this baby to you.  Anyone who has met her already knows.  She is the sweetest, happiest, cutest baby ever created (sorry Hallie and Chase). 

When Paige joined our family (a little over) a year ago she healed a part of my heart that was still aching from a lost pregnancy.  She brought peace into our home and so much extra happiness into all of our lives.  Hallie and Chase LIVE to make her laugh and keep her happy.  Hallie is her protector and CONSTANTLY accuses me of not watching her close enough (eye roll).  Hallie actually told me she was didn't want to start school this year because she was worried something would happen to Paige because I don't watch her good enough.  One day, when Hallie came home from school, Paige had a little bump on her forehead and Hallie freaked out at me.  It clearly confirmed her suspisions that I do NOT watch this baby. 

Seriously?

Does she realized she survived to be 7 with me as a Mom?

Bless her heart.

Back to Paige.

I love this baby.

Happy birthday beautiful girl!



Speaking of turning 30,

I wasn't the ONLY one who turned 30 in August.  My best friend Julie turned 30 four days after I did.  Her hubby planned an AWESOME surprise for her and flew her 4 best friends out for a girls weekend in September.  Isn't that so nice of him?  Julie lives in Northern Cali right near San Francisco which made for an excellent setting for a bunch of girls to have too too much fun.

Here's Julie and I (above).  We met the first day of college 12 and 1/2 years ago.  She wasn't the very nicest girl when I first met her (haha), but warmed up to the idea of having a REALLY nice best friend from HB and became a much kinder person.  :)  I love you Julie.  I promise to never punch you in the face again.  (If you promise to never drop your shoulder).

Who has so many beautiful best friends?  I love all these faces.

Julie's husband Matt was nice enough to photograph our best friend photo shoots.  Such a patient man.

I DID have to bring Paige with me, which turned out to be just fine.  She's just always so good.  This is Paige and I sitting on the Pier in San Fran.  I love this picture (Nicole got it in a sneak shot), I want it framed in my house.  I think I'm already running out of space to frame and hang things in a house I don't even live in yet.

OKLAHOMA

At one point during the summer I flew out to Oklahoma to look at houses with Matt.  On my flight back to Cali I just so happened to run into Mr. Cool J in the OKC airport.  I knew I'd love Oklahoma from that moment on. ha.



soooo, after a long, fun summer we packed up our van and drove 20 hours to Oklahoma. 

To arrive at a ghetto apartment that Matt rented for our family to live in while our house is being built.

I cried when we got to the apartment.

More than once.

More than 10 times even.

It's hard to go from living in a home with all of your belonging, to living in a pretty ghetto apartment with a mattress on the floor and none of your belonging.

I haven't seen my shoes in 5 months.

Poor me.

Anyways, shortly after we got to Oklahoma Hallie turned 7, then the next day

I turned 30.  THIRTY.

Sorry Hallie, my birthday wins this year.
Above picture is me on my 30th birthday when I wasn't crying. 

I partly blame PMS and partly blame too great of expections for my 30th birthday meltdown.

I also partly blame this apartment.

I'll just say there was lots of crying, and poor Matt received the full force of my crazy wrath.

The guy got me a kitchenaide mixer I've wanted forever.

He just didn't know I didn't want it for my 30th birthday.

I acted like a TOTAL brat.

And he now uses it (still in its box) as a nightstand.

I'm excied to bust it out when we get into our house.

Moving right along.  I'm 30 now, no biggie.  (throat clear).

We didn't waste any time once we arrived in OK seeking out Horrocks family kind of fun. 

We found an awesome lake whose awesomeness is on display behind me in this picture. Paige and I liked hanging out on the shore.

And staying hydrated in the blistering heat.

My kids were in heaven.

And Paige is absolutely gorgeous.

We are big believers that you can find fun and beauty everywhere you live.  That's why every time someone tisk tisked and said they felt bad for me that we were moving to Okalhoma I cringed.  Firstly because every person who said that had also never been to Okalhoma.  Secondly because if there is one thing I have learned from all of our travels it's this:

We live in a beautiful world and you can find happiness anywhere you live.

It's all in the mindset and the willingness to explore.  Oklahoma is already proving fun and beautiful and we are looking forward to years of exploring it and it's surroundings.

Oh my cute kids.  Hallie started 2nd grade and Chase started Kindergarted a few weeks after we got to OK.  They both LOVE school and LOVE their teachers.  The transition for Hallie to a new school has gone better than I could have ever hoped for.  She's made friends quickly and easily. 

And as for Chase: he was made for school.  He loves rules and learning and being good.   Perfect for Kindergarten.  His teacher loves him.

Oh my pretty girl.

And my cute boy.

Hallie walking into her classroom on her first day.

 And Chase outside of his room.

Happy Mom and Dad get a little more one on one time these days with a napping baby and two kids happily in school.  

A few weeks ago we got to experience the joys of the Oklahoma State Fair. 

It was truely a beautiful thing.

Deep fried everything you could imagine....on a stick.

We ate ourselves sick.

And I start to feel sick just thinking about it.

However it was something that had to be experienced.

Look at his drunken fair food face.

Remember that house that I've mentioned a few times?  Well this is it.  This is the start of it anyways.



It's going to be amazing. They started the brick a few days ago and finished the drywall on the inside.  I'll keep the progress posted on here as we go.

And then there was summer....

Just as we were leaving Germany our friend Nicole took our family pictures.  I'll post all of my favorites on another post.  This one below is my very VERY favorite though.  It will be hung above the fireplace in our new home...when we move in to it.  Have I mentioned we are building a house?  It's going to be beautiful.  In the mean time we live in a notsobeautiful apartment.  More on that later.

 

Nicole also did a 6 month old photo shoot with Paige (about 6 months ago..) and this is my very favorite shot from that shoot.  I'm thinking huge square canvas print?  Maybe near my entryway?



 

Here is a run down of our summer.  Swimming, swimming, swimming.  Since Mary was getting married in CA right after we got back from Germany, and we were homeless, the kids and I just vacationed and road tripped for the summer while Matt got our lives set up in OK.  We missed him alot, although he did fly out to see us 3 times which made it feel not so bad. I love the above picture of Chase.  

 

The one theme of the summer was definently cousins.  My kids were in heaven spending so much time with all their cousins and we miss them so much!  (side note: moving back to America brought with it cell phone contracts and iphones.  The big draw back to my iphone is I never get out the camera.  Hence poor quality pictures.  I'll try to do better.)

 

Mary's wedding was really gorgeous.  And Mary of course was gorgeous.  I'm dying for an original of this picture of all 8 of my siblings to hang in my house as well.  They are all just so good looking.

 

I love this picture Mary.  Love it. We are so happy for you.

Shortly after Mary's wedding the kids and I drove up to Utah to spend a month hanging out with my older sister Lara and her family.  We had such a good time.  Hallie was is baby heaven.  Lara has a set of twin girls that are 3 months younger than Paige.  They were all so cute together playing on the floor.  How lucky is Paige to have 2 automatic college roomates?  Lara and I will insist that they go to the same college.  haha.

Did I mention that Lara also has an awesome trampoline in her backyard?  And two increadibly cute boys for Chase to play with?  Yeah, they had a really good time.

 

For the 4th of July my cousin Chad came over to Lara's house and partied with us.  It was fun to see his beautiful family and get to know his cute girls.  Love having a big family.

On one of Matt's trips out we went and hiked Timpanogos with the kids.  They were such troopers and loved exploring the caves up at the top.  If you live in Utah, take your family on this hike.  It's a fun one.

I don't particularly love carrying a baby up a mountain.  Luckily she's reallly cute.

And I have a husband who will take turns carrying her.

 

 

So there's a REALLY brief recap of our summer.  There's a lot I didn't get pictures of because I was too busy having a really good time.  I'm grateful for a good family who put me up for the summer, their poor homeless sister/granddaughter.  Matt's family fed us and played with the kids and relieved me when I started feeling overwhelmed with being a single Mom.  I'm grateful for them and how good they are to my kids.  We are blessed.

Up next....Oklahoma adventures.