We're still here....

I've got lots to post.  I have been lacking motivation to do anything lately, blogging being one of them.  I know I need to post pictures of the house, but the house can't seem to stay clean enough for 5 minutes to take a decent picture.  I don't want to post messy pictures...even if my house is messy most of the time :)

My view every time we went to the park.

We've had a crazy year!  Once we got settled into the condo that we were staying in we went back to UT for my sisters wedding.  Trent wasn't able to come with us because he had just started his new job.  So I drove the kids and I 14 hours through 4 states all in one day by myself to get there.  I wasn't planning on going the whole way, but I felt good so I just kept on going.  We left Chelan early in the morning, around 7 am and just drove.  The kids did really well!  I found a Subway and a park for lunch.  I ate while the kids played then they ate in the car.  We only had to stop one other time for the potty and then for dinner.  I had planned to stop in the Boise area, but it was only 5 pm when we got there and I wasn't tired nor were kids hungry, so on we went. We stopped for dinner in Twin Falls and it was only 8 pm.  I felt good and knew that Blair and Rhonda's house was only 2 hours away, so we kept going. It turned out to not be too bad of a drive.

We spent a week in UT before we headed back to WA. We wanted to surprise Trent on his birthday.  I wanted to run into Costco on our way home (because it's an hour away from where we live and we have to drive right by it to get home).  We pulled into the parking lot and drove around to find a space and Carter says 'it's dad's car!'  How's that for luck, we wanted to surprise Trent and he was at Costco the same time as us.  So I did what any crazy person would do and we parked behind the bushes and waited for him to leave so we could continue on with our plan. We waited 10 minuets or so for him to come out then we ran in and got what we would need to make him his favorite birthday dinner.

Hanna was one of the flower girls, they were so cute!

Hunter was the most handsome ring bearer!

He was very surprised to see us when we walked in the door at 10 pm!  He wasn't expecting us at all.  I hadn't really given him a day that we'd be coming home, hinting that maybe we'd stay another week.

Carter and Hanna loved homeschooling for the rest of the school year.  We did an online program and they also had some papers that their teachers sent from CO that they'd do.  They were usually done with all their work by noon each day. And I'm happy to report that I didn't mess them up!  They are both above grade level in reading and math right now in school.  Right after school started they did some assessment tests to see where they were at.  Carter reads at at 12th grade level and Hanna 6th grade.  In math Carter tests at an 8th grade level and Hanna is about 4th grade. So no permanent damage was done by homeschooling for 3 months.

This is was our view from our back door in the condo.

We rented a small, 1200 sqft fully furnished, condo while our house was being built.  There was mostly old people who lived in the complex and not all of them were too excited to see kids running around.  The first part of May the owner happened to stop by.  He knocked on the back door, just wanting to check in and see how things were going. The very next day I got a call from the rental manager.  She wanted to come do a check to see how things were going.  She said that there had been complaints about kids throwing rocks and just making too much noise. I was happy to have her come see that we were in fact respectful of the space. The condo next to us had two kids in it that were rotten little people.  Mom wasn't around much so they did whatever they wanted. But because the complaints were going to the owner of our condo they all assumed it was our kids.

The condo owner didn't know that he was renting to a family with kids.  Seriously, he complained to the rental manager that he didn't know there were kids....let alone 4 of them. I don't know how he couldn't have known, it was on the application...names and ages. During this 'inspection' we were informed that we would have to be out by June 22nd, not the 30th, like our original contract stated. There was a vacation rental on the books that no one remembered.  Funny, cuz when the owner was here he said they weren't planning on renting it because they were trying to sell it, he even said we could work something out if our house wasn't done on time...he said that to my face and then turned around and told the manager to come and do an inspection because we had kids.

Well, June 22nd came around and of course our house wasn't done, nor was in on schedule to be done on the 30th.    We weren't scheduled to close till July 12th...but of course nothing really works that way and we didn't actually close till Aug 5th...but that is another blog post for another day.

Since the rental market is nonexistent here unless you are willing to fork out 3k/week during the summer months I went to UT with the kids and left Trent here to couch surf with members of our ward.

Sheesh, so many things I need to blog about still.....

Trent is loving his new job!  He enjoys the people he works with as well as the patients he sees.  I think he also enjoys the work it's self.  He gets to do surgeries once a week, sometimes more, and always loves that.  He has lots to learn still, but is doing well.

Andrew has grown so much since we moved here!  He was wearing 18 month clothes when we moved and now is in 3T.  He potty trained himself, which was amazing.  For over a year now he has been interested in the potty.  We'd let him sit on it when ever he wanted to.  At first he didn't really do anything, then he started to pee every time we sat him on the toilet.  Then he'd sit on it every morning and poop.  I figured that when we moved he'd regress, he did for a little bit but then he just picked up right where he left off.  He'd even take himself to the bathroom when he needed to go.  I wasn't willing to put the time in to potty training him, after the nightmare that was potty training our last child I just had no desire to go there. Drew wanted underwear for the store, so I bought them for him.  He'd wear them.  He wouldn't wear them, I didn't really care.  Remember, we were living in someone else house with their things, a potty training toddler would have not been cool. And then we were moving into a brand new house.  No, just no.  I can't even handle it.  Within a month of being here he wore underwear all the time with hardly any accidents.  I don't have to tell him it's time to go potty, he just does it.  He dresses himself, and often times has his shirt on backwards as well as his pants, and sometimes his underwear.  But don't try to tell him they are backwards, he'll tell you why they aren't. I gave up, I just don't care what he looks like. We finally took him out of his crib around Labor Day.  We had no other bed to put him in, so we just kept him in the crib.  We bought a set of bunk beds for Carter and Hunter so Hunter could finally get out of the toddler bed and now Drew is sleeping in the toddler bed.  It's amazing, he never gets out of bed when we put him down. For the first month or so he wouldn't even get up when he woke up, he'd just sit on his bed and yell 'mommy, where are you?'.  Amazing.  The other kids were such a challenge to transition to a toddler bed.  I can put him to bed at night before he's really tired and he'll just lay in his bed and look at books till I come in a turn off the light. This kid is amazing.  We sure love him!!

He had to have all the underwear on, not just one.

We have made many friends here and hope to make many more!  Now that our house is done and we are finally settling down (if only I can find the motivation to finish unpacking a few boxes) we hope to not move again for some time.  Hanna came home from school the other day and asked when we were moving again.  I told her not for a while and she fist pumped a 'yes!'. I think they are done moving for a bit.