Girls camp, cousin/sister/parent time, house sale and moving updates. All the good newses.

 I have such a hard time being motivated to write blog posts lately. But I wanted to do a very quick update since we've had a TON going on.

Megan came to visit the week of July 17th and stayed until Thursday. We got to do puzzles and play games and talk and talk. It was wonderful. I'm so glad she's forgiven me for being awful as a teenager and we can be best of friends now. ;) Love you Megs!

Steve gets passes to Thanksgiving Point once a month, so I scheduled them for while Megan was here. I took all the older kids and Jules (not pictured below because she was hiding from the scary wind and dinosaur) to the gardens while Megan let Harrison nap. She has a broken bone in her foot, so she didn't want to do an excessive amount of walking.

The gimmick at the gardens this summer is animatronic life-size dinosaurs. The kids had been wanting to check it out. So we went for about an hour and a half even though it was over 90 degrees outside and we all about melted.

Since Utah's in a drought right now, they weren't running any of their fountains. That meant they were all pretty mucky. The kids found sticks and wrote silly things in it.

After we finished at the gardens and Harrison finished his nap, Megan met us at the Museum of Ancient Life (ie. the Dinosaur Museum). We've been there several times this summer, so we didn't stay too long.

The day after Megan went home we got a phone call saying Febe had tested positive for Covid. She hadn't been showing any signs before they left, but she got a really high fever that morning so Megs took her to the doctor. All of us ended up coming down with it that next week, so we got to be quarantined for about 8 days.

We did a lot of sleeping and wiping noses and using electronics, but we made it through mostly unscathed.

I got up one morning to find my computer looking like someone had attempted to murder it. Luckily, it was only chocolatey Harrison hands.

He has figured out lately how to scream. Like high-pitch, ear-splitting screams. Mostly when he's mad, which happens every time he's tired or hungry or frustrated. So a lot. He also decided to poke a hole through all of his bottle nipples, so I attempted to transition him to sippies. He will have none of it. He won't even drink milk anymore. He's that stubborn. So now he screams for 10-40 minutes every time we put him down for a nap or bedtime too. It's quite exhausting for an already over-stimulated mother.

But then he does things like this. And I can't help but melt and want to squish him.

Jules wanted rainbow hair one day, so I did this with it. She was satisfied.

She is so cherubic. A little sleeping angel.

I bought a couple 2 pound boxes of strawberries one day at the store. Jules wanted some in the car on the way home, but she doesn't like the greens. So I told her to just eat up to the green part. The next morning, I found about half a box with one bite off the bottom. *sigh* Good thing Mira and I don't mind sharing.

Harrison's favorite pasttime is playing with water. Any kind. Cat dish water, hose water, bucket water, drinking cups left on the table water, sink water, bathtub water, puddle water. It doesn't matter, he loves it. So some days, I take his clothes off and let him spray things with the hose.

This is his serious face.

This is his "mom what are you doing" face. Or possibly, "I wonder if she'll stop me from soaking her" face.

He is just so adorable.

One of his rare smiles. I meant for him to water my hand.

Instead he gave me five.

He likes crawling in there. But then he whines for someone to help him back out.

The next week, we were all excited to be able to leave the house. I think I went to the store multiple times just because I could. Emilia and I got haircuts that week and I had a follow-up appointment for the ADHD medication I'm trying out. So far, I don't love the options we've tried: Ritalin and Aderol.

At that point, we'd been having between 1 and 2 showings on our house each week, but no real feedback or interest. As I said in my last post, we were on the market for almost 3 weeks before we got a single showing and that happened after we got new photos taken. Megan was here visiting the week we got our first showing. We got about 1 a week for a month after that. With little interest being shown, we decided to drop the price. We started our listing at $628k and were the lowest price in the area for a 5 bed, 3 bath house. We lowered it by $10k for three weeks in a row and we were then $30k more than the lowest price house. So in 6 weeks, housing dropped in value by at least $30k if not more. Which is insane to me. I kinda hate that our government has tanked our economy so bad.

The second week of August, Steve drove Emilia to Washington to attend girls camp with Nicole, Jane, Meg, and the girls from the ward/stake that we'll be living in up there.

I didn't want to hang out taking care of 4 kids by myself + having to get the house ready for showings, so I decided to take the kids to Megan's house for the week. The Saturday before we left, Aug 6, we dropped our price the last $10k to where we were under the $600k mark. We figured we'd get more showings because we would be in searches for those who didn't want to go over the $600k price point. So Steve left with Emilia Sunday morning. Monday morning, Cecily, Mira, and I cleaned the whole house and got it show ready, and then we drove to Colorado after Harrison woke up from his nap. I was tired when we started the drive, and we didn't get in until 12am, but it was actually a pretty relaxed and easy drive. It took us only 8 hours and that's with 2 stops for gas.

We had a really great, really needed, relaxing week. The cousins got along the whole time. Megan and I got to play lots of games. We started a puzzle. Harrison and Jules enjoyed Nana and Grandpa. I enjoyed Harrison and Jules having other people to climb on and bug for things.

Alex took Febe, Mira, and Cecily ice skating one day. They enjoyed themselves. Alex said Cecily got intimately acquainted with the ice. Or at least her butt did. She was a good sport about it though. :)

They did face masks one day. They are all writing a book together and they started narrating it. They played a bunch of minecraft.

I took Harrison and Jules to a pet store one evening just to get them out of the house.

Jules took a picture of herself with every animal in the store. I love her concentrating face. Haha.

Nana, of course, had lots of fun activities planned for the kiddos, including painting portraits with a 3 foot paintbrush, water balloon fights, and a puffball water sensory thing for the littlest ones. I, of course, didn't take a single picture of it.

Emilia also enjoyed her time at camp. I was so relieved. She hated camp last year. Came home after one night because her anxiety was so bad. But this year, she bonded with Aunt Nicole, got a cush sleeping sitch, and stayed for the whole thing. Way to go Miss Em!

Steve should also be applauded for driving 13hrs each way in a car with no cruise control. Yay, Steve!

We had three showings while we were gone. Not as many as I'd hoped, but enough to make the work of getting the house ready worth it. We got back Saturday, had dinner with the Childresses on Sunday, and the kids started school on Tuesday because we still weren't under contract on our house. Steve didn't want to move or plan to move until we were under contract. We did have a showing while we were at church on Sunday. And another on Monday, and another on Tuesday.

Monday night, we got a totally low-ball offer. $50k below our asking price. We waited until after our Tuesday showing to respond, but they weren't interested, so we countered at $20k below our asking price. the Buyer countered again on Wednesday at $25k below and with no other offers forthcoming, we accepted. It wasn't ideal, but we think it'll give us enough equity to be able to afford our new house in Washington. So we are officially UNDER CONTRACT! I never have to show this house again! And I never have to show any house ever again with a 1yo and a 3yo bent on destruction. Thanks be to the Lord in Heaven.

Here are the 1st day of school pics of the girls.

Since we're under contract, I'm planning on getting us to Washington in time to have the girls start school there with everyone else. They start school Sept 7, so we're hustling our butts to get everything packed in 2 1/2 weeks.

I mean, we've been packing for months now. We've got a lot of stuff done already, so I think it's doable. It's going to have to be, because I've scheduled the moving/storage containers and tomorrow I'll register the girls for school.

Washington, here we come! (FINALLY)

Jules was showing me how her dragon could fly in this picture, but I also love the photobomb.

Harrison does not like it when we give him his food in bite-sized pieces. Of course. Peaches are a favorite at the moment. Not messy at all. Hmm-mmm.

This morning, Harrison was doing his screaming thing for a good 45 minutes. Nothing would console him. Not food, not water in any container. Not music. I finally went to take a shower and left him with Steve because I was too frustrated. When I came out, Steve was laying with him on the bed, blankie in hand. He was quietly hanging out. It was pretty sweet. When he's not being a terror, he is just so lovable and sweet.

So that's us. Crazy busy household of seven soon-to-be-Washingtonians.

Fun and not-so-fun things and teaching the Old Testament

 I'm teaching Sunday School today. I'm so grateful that I get to be the Sunday School teacher for the 13/14 year olds. I've never taught the Old Testament before (that's what we're studying this year as a church), and it's made me love the Old Testament more and more. There are so many things we can learn from the ancient Israelites. Sadly, most of it was what NOT to do. In fact, part of me wonders if they're God's chosen people precisely because they needed His help the most. That's the kind of God I believe in.

I mean, I know Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were amazing prophets that believed in and loved the Lord. And I'm sure that's part of why their descendants are the chosen people. But MAN their descendants did NOT take after their forefathers.

This week we're learning about 2 Kings. There are so many great lessons in there. 

Elisha working miracles for individuals. He made the head of a borrowed axe float. What a small thing, right? But it meant that the borrower didn't "default" on this loan. It meant that the owner of that iron axe head wasn't out an expensive item that likely meant he could continue to work his trade. God works small miracles when they're a big deal for just ONE person.

Naaman losing his temper with the prophet, but still listening to the things he found trite or downright degrading, and being healed. SO MANY things there to unwrap and apply to my life. He had anger issues. He got mad at the prophet. He was imperfect just like me. And he was healed anyway. He didn't like the prophets counsel. He had to have servants (children perhaps? or a spouse? or friends?) talk him into doing what he was asked to do. BUT HE DID IT. He eventually made the choice to listen, to have faith, and humble himself, even when it didn't make any logical sense. Man, it makes me love Naaman.

God opens the eyes of Elisha's servant to see the chariots of fire ready to fight their battles for them. How many of us have felt alone and fearful? EVERYONE. But God is always with us. Even when we don't have the faith or the knowledge to really see him on our side. He is on our side because he love us perfectly. He will always help us fight our battles. This story makes me tear up every time I hear it. I love it so much. I love thinking about chariots of fire and angels surrounding me when I have to fight battles that seem unwinnable or too much for me to overcome. I love thinking that he's behind my children, even when I can't or don't know to be. 

Hezekiah and the kingdom of Judah having faith and trust in the Lord. Hezekiah chose to follow the Lord even though ZERO of the previous Kings had done so (except David and Solomon, of course). And then the Assyrian king decided to attack them. So even people who follow the Lord have trials. Things go wrong. It's not always going to be rainbows and cupcakes just because we're good people. The Assyrian empire was HUGE compared to their small kingdom. The Assyrian king sent messengers to mock the Jews and tell them they were idiots for thinking their God could save them when the gods of every other nation they'd conquered had done nothing to save their people. But Hezekiah prayed and fasted and trusted when Isaiah told him that the Assyrians wouldn't conquer Judah. And they didn't get conquered. The Assyrians were attacked by another country and turned around and went home to lick their wounds.

Josiah was the only other King to choose righteousness. He had the temple repaired and during the repairs found the book of the law (so basically scripture). It had been lost and they hadn't been reading or knowing the covenants and commandments. But they began again. They made covenants. They kept the commandments. And they were blessed. Sometimes we drift away from God's word in our lives for whatever reason. God's voice gets quieter and quieter and harder and harder to remember and listen to. But we can begin again. We can immerse ourselves in the scriptures and let them fill our lives. 

I love that I get to teach these principles to budding teenagers. They need these messages!

We've had quite an eventful few weeks, so there's gonna be lots more to talk about.

First off, this is the picture that Emilia drew for Steve for Father's Day. I talked about that last post.

Also, here is a picture of Emilia and Mira dressed up as Queen and Lancer from the game Deltarune.

And me in my church dress. I took the picture to post about colors in my cover design Facebook group.

My parents were here in Utah until July 1. We saw them a couple more times before they left. But I didn't take pictures.

Megan invited me to play games online on a site called Board Game Arena with her a few Sundays ago. It's a great site and we had fun playing games together while talking on the phone. Emilia joined me for a while.

I take Mira to gymnastics every Tuesday evening and there's a bunch of farmland on the way. I will always always feel like farmland is beautiful because it's home to me. I thought these cows with the backdrop of the clouds and mountains would make a good photo, so I hopped out of the car to take a picture, but I'm not impressed with how it turned out.

However, there were thistles just outside the fence and the bees were loving them. I got this cool photo with a bumblebee on the bottom flower, and a regular honeybee on the top flower (at the bottom of the flower).

The tractor and the sun filtering through the clouds made me stop and take this one, too.

This kid is so photogenic.

So, we decided to get our house up on the market. I thought it would be a good idea to list the house on a Wednesday and have an open house on a Saturday. I also thought, for some unknown reason, that the day to have the open house was July 2. (I bought these flowers to have on the table for the open house).

So the week and a half leading up to the open house, me and the kids worked our tails off. Emilia called it the most stressful week of her life. So, you know. Not fun.

We scrubbed doors and walls. We painted dings and marks and stains on doors. We straightened the storage room. We decluttered all the kids' bedrooms and cleaned off all the dressers and bookshelves and made them look pretty. We packed up extra decorations, swept and sprayed down the sidewalks, threw away tons of stuff, took two loads of stuff to DI, and listed stuff in the classifieds. We scrubbed all the floors, cleaned all the bathrooms, and got the carpets professionally cleaned. We mowed the lawn. We trimmed all the trees in the front yard, and cut one of them down.

And then Jules got a stomach bug. And threw up all over the place.

That was Wednesday the 29th. Three days before our open house. Here's how the next three days went (as told in my Facebook group on Saturday). I don't want to have to rewrite it all):

Wednesday, our 3yo got a stomach bug. Her first one ever. She didn't know to run to the bathroom, so we had to clean our carpet in 3 different places before she figured it out.

Yesterday, we were all so worn out from cleaning and packing and organizing this week that I took the girls to the dollar store to pick out something to do a Youtube-style makeover with. Thus we had paints out that I specifically told them to keep away from the edge of the table so that the 1yo trouble-maker wouldn't be able to reach them and make a mess.

Well, last night, our 3yo decided she needed to get in on the action. She grabbed paints and started working on one of her plaster crafts. Which is fine. Except she took the cover off a bottle of dark blue paint and left it at the edge of the table. Where the 1yo found it while no one was watching.

He proceeded to throw it at the carpet, dumping most of the bottle in the most conspicuous spot between the living room and the dining room. After an hour of cleaning the spot with our carpet cleaner, the brown carpet still had a gray tinge to it in that spot. It was then an hour past the 1yo's bed time, so we gave him his bottle and put him to bed.

10 minutes later, he started screaming like a banshee, so I went to check on him. Apparently, he threw the bottle of paint because he tried to drink it and then got mad that it tasted bad. Because he threw up blue paint all over himself, crib and the carpet next to the crib, staining the carpet there as well.

Then this morning, he got the stomach bug and threw up at least three different places in the house. Our 13yo also got the stomach bug. A balloon we'd gotten to advertise the open house got stuck in our ceiling fan. I found several places on the carpet where somehow the 1yo dumped toilet bowl cleaner. I put a plant onto our deck which the wind promptly blew over and dumped dirt all over our nice clean deck.

Harrison was still throwing up in random places all over the house twenty minutes before the open house was supposed to start. So we canceled it.

The next day, Sunday, Steve, Mira, and I all came down with the bug. I was the only one who didn't throw up, but I also had it the longest. I didn't eat three full meals until the following Friday.

Here's Emilia and Harrison both not feeling well. They SO look like each other.

Monday was the 4th of July. Steve had the entire week off from Adobe because they're nice like that. We were supposed to hang out with Alison and James, but we canceled so we didn't share the fun bug. Cecily came down with it that day. I was still feeling super yucky and everyone else was still out of energy. So we mostly sat on the couch and watched TV that day. Around 7, we all played a game together. And then Steve and Emilia went to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks display. Me and Mira and Ces sat out on the porch and watched the neighborhood ones for a while and then we all went to bed.

Oh, I did Mira's nails as we were watching fireworks. It made her feel festive.

She and Cecily also wore festive clothes that day.

This is from Steve's phone. Not sure what was happening, but they're cute. :)

Tuesday, the older girls and Steve were feeling well enough for an outing and we managed to secure last-minute tickets to Timpanogos Cave. It's a major hike to get there, but none of the girls had ever been. And since we're moving soon, we wanted to let them experience that.

Thursday, we secured tickets to Thanksgiving Point from Adobe. So we went to the biosphere, farm country (for like 20 minutes because it was HOT), and the dinosaur museum).

When we got to farm country, they were milking the cow. I got to take a turn. And Harrison is fascinated with all kinds of animals, so he was content to watch and pet the cow for a good 15 minutes. He also rode a horse without crying. He didn't want to get back on, but all of my other kids cried their first time doing the pony ride. He thought feeding the goats was great fun, too.

Friday, we decided to visit the Coombs in Panguitch. We'd talked about going earlier in the week, but we once again didn't want to share being sick with them, so we held off until Friday to go down. 

They currently have Samoyed puppies. All the kids were decently good with them, but none of them were in love. Jules was surprisingly brave around them. I didn't take any pictures of my kids with them though. Just this one of one of the puppies sleeping hung over the partition. Haha.

Harrison and Uncle Joe bonded over doing the dishes.

We played some games. Cecily and Mira rode their horse a couple times. We visited Haley at work and Emilia stayed and went to the new Thor movie. We went down to Panguitch creek and I sat on a blanket trying to get Jules to not freak out over the wind (she thinks it's going to kill her for a reason she can't explain). Everyone else got on innertubes and rode down the creek about 150 feet and then ran back and did it again. Jules did eat a sandwich for the first time because Cindy made it exciting for her. Thanks, Cindy! :)

Harrison liked cousin Sebastian's toy guys and cars. This is what I did when he was done playing with them.

We came home Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I drove Mira to Pocatello, Idaho, to meet Tristan and Kate Nelson. They were headed to his sister's house to have an adventure for Kate's birthday. Mira had a blast hanging out with them all week. She got to swim twice including paddleboarding (that they nicknamed "cattleboarding") and jumping off a high dive and swinging on a rope swing, learned to ride a horse, including posting, built all sorts of fun stuff in minecraft, got a lesson in crocheting, got to visit a museum, and ate tons of amazing food. I was jealous of all of it, but maybe the food the most. ;)

While she was gone, I got another book in the mail that I'd made the cover for. That's pretty fun.

Harrison is climbing. He's learned to move chairs around and get onto counters and the table.

Since putting our house on the market, not only have we ruined the carpet, but we've scrubbed almost every door in the house and the windows, and Harrison. Because Jules has gone on a marker rampage. She started with her washable markers and when she wouldn't stop, I took them away. So she climbed and got a dry erase. And when I took that away, she found the sharpies I'd bought to mark boxes we're packing. That's what got Harrison. And the window. And the curtains in his room. *sigh*

I went to take pictures of the marker on Harrison and got this one of his feet instead. It's too adorable to not include.

His beautiful hair is currently died green.

She writes on herself almost every day. Now all the markers are hidden. The next day, she took all her pots of watercolor paint and submerged them in cups in the bathroom. So I guess she doesn't get those anymore either. If for no other reason than it's all gone now.

This week has been a lot slower and less traumatic. We've mostly hung out and done little things to get ourselves ready to move when the time comes. We've had our house on the market for 18 days though and haven't had a single person come look at it. The market flipped in the last three months from a sellers market (houses were selling within 24 hours with multiple above-asking-price offers) to a buyers market (8500 listings and almost no one buying). We have to sell this house before we can close on the new house, so we'll take prayers that a buyer will find us in time. 

We decided that maybe we need better pictures of our house to make it more appealing, so we scheduled that for Saturday. Friday, I wanted the babies to NOT MESS UP THE HOUSE. So we were going to go on an outing to Cascade Springs. However, we got a late start. And before we were even two miles from our house, Jules started freaking out because she could see the wind. (Did I mention how ridiculous this fear is getting? She won't even sit in a room with a view of the outside of the house because it's too scary, let alone go outside for any amount of time.) I changed directions with our plans and stopped at Smith's to get donuts for everyone and then took everyone to a nearby park. Jules managed to leave the car without losing her mind for more than 10 minutes because there was literally NO wind. It was 85 outside and muggy. Wind should have been welcome. But it was kind enough to stay away for half an hour. We got to eat donuts and feed the ducks and collect feathers. And then we went home and put Harrison down for his nap and let Jules watch TV. House still clean. Phew!

Saturday morning, we all pitched in to get the house picture perfect. Steve mowed the lawn and took babies on an outing. Me and the girls straightened, vacuumed, spot mopped, set the table nicely, made beds, and did dishes.

We all left while the photographer was here. And then Emilia had her birthday party. She had 8 friends come over. They ate pizza, went to the park, ate brownies, played video games and opened presents. She was pretty worn out by the time everyone went home, but it was exactly what she wanted.

And now it's Sunday. And I've now taught my Sunday School class. It went okay I guess. It was a lot of info to cover in 45 minutes. So maybe the lesson was more for me and that's okay, too. Megan drove into town today and I'm excited to spend time with her this week.

Oh! I almost forgot. Remember how I was saying that we didn't know how we're going to afford living in Washington, but the Lord keeps telling us it's the right thing to do? Well, Steve had to get a letter from his job for the loan company stating that he will continue to be employed when we move. He talked to his boss about it and she signed off, but said she had to put it through HR. Then HR had to get it signed by the VP. Well, the VP finally signed it and we got it on Friday. The letter stated that since we were moving to a state that was more expensive to live in, he was getting a new compensation package. They increased his pay by 13%. We hadn't asked for that. We certainly didn't expect them to pay us more because we decided on what would look like a whim to change where we live. But here we are. More able to pay for this new house than we ever would have expected. The Lord is good. It reminds me of the scripture in 1 Nephi 3:7.

 

 I found that printable here if you're interested.