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.
