April 2017

April started off with General Conference.  To get them to listen, I had the kids put a line next to a picture each time they heard that word,  At the end of the talk however many lines they had marked is how many jelly beans they could have.  After a while I let them go upstairs and play only to find Jaron coming back down. He climbed up on my lap and said 'I just want to watch general conference and snuggle with you.'  He literally sat for over an hour with us watching general conference.  Man, I love him.

Christy and her kids came up for their spring break.  It just so happened to coincide with Christy's 40th birthday.  So all the adults went to dinner to celebrate one night.


While Christy was here we all met and went to This is the Place state park. I have never taken my kids here so it was such a fun day.  Sorry for all the pictures...


I have to document this because we stood in line for well over an hour to ride these horses. I tried to convince them I would take them somewhere else to ride horses but they were having none of that.


A train ride around the park with cousins.  Jaron loved the train!





One of their favorite parts was panning for gold.  They were obsessed finding pieces and thought it was amazing when they kept finding more.







Cute group of cousins!

One day the kids decided they wanted to have a campout in their room that night.  Jaron was sleeping in their room already since VaLois was visiting (and yes VaLois came for part of April and I got zero pictures...darn it!)  Anyways, so they spent the day making their campfires and getting ready.  Then they had some snacks, laid all their blankets all over the floor and all 3 of them slept on the floor that night.

The girls have been wrestling each other more and more.  Lately it's been pokemon battles.  They each pick which Pokemon they are going to be and then they 'battle' each other.  It's pretty entertaining to watch...until one of them starts to cry.

Jaron has been obsessed watching this bridge be built on 1300 East each time we drive over to Brigitte's or Sandy in general.  He kept saying he wanted to walk over it when it was done.  So one day we headed over to the Sandy library for story time and we made our way across the bridge.  He ran the entire thing and was so excited to finally be on the bridge he watched be built.

We signed Jaron up for soccer.  I am not a soccer fan, never have been and I don't really even know how to play.  But we did it anyways cuz it's the only sport a 3 year old can really play.  Jaron has loved it.  He goes down to our basement and practices.  For never playing and not knowing anything about soccer I've been impressed how he's done. He's scored a goal almost every game and although not the most aggressive he goes after the ball more than I thought he would.  He keeps telling me he is going to play soccer and then he'll be a drummer (that's what he wants to be when he grows up.)

Although it looks sunny, it was so cold this day, this is the girls 'watching' Jaron play soccer.

We got offered playoff tickets for game 6 to the Jazz vs. the Clippers.  I thought the Jazz would totally win and clench the series but they actually lost this game.  Still it was super fun going to a playoff game.  And a big thanks to Michelle for watching my kids last minute so we could go!

My kids are counting the weeks until July because I told them I would sign them up for gymnastics. They've been practicing handstands and kart wheels non-stop.  Jaron, who watched his sister for a few days practicing stood up one night and just did a kart wheel after about his 3rd attempt.  He's better than either of his sisters, much to their dismay.

A big change

For a while now Shane and I had been thinking about whether or not we should sell our house and move.  There were several reasons why.  We never thought we would be in this house permanently.  We wanted to take the equity and get a smaller house payment, we wanted to be in a neighborhood that has more kids our kid's ages.  We didn't think we would ever put the money into finishing our huge basement and I was so sick of trying to maintain our yard that always had more to do.  Plus we had a hard time even enjoying the backyard cuz it was west facing and always so hot and our neighbor was a little...ok a lot...nosy and liked to lecture us on what we were doing wrong with our yard.  None of these reasons alone were a reason why we would up and move but put together we started seriously thinking and praying about it.  We thought we might sell over the summer before the girls started Kindergarten but hadn't decided for sure.

Well the week before Christmas we got a letter in our mailbox from a realtor that had some clients moving from out of town and couldn't find a place to buy and so she put letters in mailboxes of a few neighborhoods and wanted to know if anyone was thinking of selling.  When I read the letter I just got this feeling like we have to call her and see.  We had been praying about it so I felt like we needed to act on this, but what were the chances it would really happen.  So I called.  The day she was coming to walk through the house I went to lunch with Stacy and got this fortune....I'm not superstitious but thought it was the most appropriate fortune I've ever gotten before.  So she came and walked around it by herself, then 2 days later she did a facetime tour with the family (who were actually moving here from Australia) and the day after Christmas she presented us with an offer from a family in Australia who only saw our house from their computer.



So there we were, our house under contract and no idea where we were moving to.  We started looking online, driving around different cities and neighborhoods and we could not figure out where to go or even narrow it down to a general area.  We couldn't even decide if we maybe wanted to build or not.  We didn't tell our kids (or anyone for that matter) for a while so the kids couldn't figure out why we kept going on drives and ending up back at home.  Meanwhile the inspection went through, the appraisal was done and still nothing.

We eventually told the kids when they kept asking why people kept coming to our house and looking around (inspection, appraisal, the realtor, etc.)  I told them that there was a family from Australia that needed a place to live so they wanted to buy our house and we would find a new place to live.  I told them they could help us find a house and pick out their rooms.  They all seemed totally fine and even excited about it.  About 20 minutes later Aria came up to me and in tears told me how sad she was that she would miss this house so much and could we please take a picture of every room in our house.  It broke my heart.  I got all teary as I knew we had so many fun and great memories in this house from bringing our kids home from the hospital to having dance parties and all the milestones each kid had accomplished here.  After that little cry she was totally fine and everyone seemed on board with our move.

The first week of February, Shane and I had a trip already planned to Mazatlan.  More on that in another post but we spent it looking at homes on the internet each evening.  The Monday we got back, The Mannings, who were buying our home had arrived from Australia and came to see the house in person.  We decided to drive over to a neighborhood in Highland, Skye Estates, that we had driven by hundreds of times on the way to my parents house.  We thought the houses were out of our price range but decided to stop by the model home and ask.  It ended up they have 3 different areas of this neighborhood, an over 55 double homes, an expensive home area and then a section of homes right in our price range.  We looked at 3 different homes that night that had been built as spec homes and were all but ready to move in.

After going back and forth between a couple homes we put an offer on a house.  It only had 3 bedrooms which we really wanted 4, but we loved the loft upstairs and the backyard has some scrub oak and a little stream that runs through it.  We loved the natural feel of the backyard, the walk out basement and all the kids we saw running and playing right outside our front door.  These pictures are the pictures the builder, DR Horton had posted on the MLS.




February was all about packing and cleaning out.  Each week we made sure our trash can was completely full and I made a weekly trip to DI as we cleaned out closets and drawers.  It felt good to have some time to be able to clean out and really analyze what we needed and didn't.  I also ended up selling a ton of stuff on KSL.  There were some things we wanted to change and some things we just didn't need.  Some of the stuff I sold...bedroom set, washer dryer, play kitchen, 2 sets of couches, bouncy horse, doll house, file cabinet, bookcase, chaise lounger, and my desk.  I only got scammed once when a guy was on his way to buy something and told me it was raining where he was (it was a very clear sunny day) and then told me his car broke down and could I please give him $200 that he would pay me when he got there.  He then sent a picture of him with his car in the middle of nowhere...probably in Mexico.  haha, it was crazy and pretty funny.  We gave our piano (that is my grandpa's piano) to Jeff and Whitney.

So we moved out of our home on the last weekend in February.  The kids were so excited cuz we 'let' them have a slumber party on the floor all together the last night in our house.  
Our new home loan wasn't quite ready for us yet so my parents were nice enough to let us move in with them.  My dad cleaned out his 3rd car garage to store all the stuff that didn't fit into our Pod we had.  It was so nice to have a place to go for a few weeks.  And now I just realized we didn't take a picture while we were there! (Mom, we're coming to take a picture to add in here!)  We thought we would be there about a month but they pushed our loan through and we moved into our new home exactly 2 weeks after moving out.  It was a crazy few weeks but it felt good to get into our new home.  The other crazy thing that happened was we closed on Thursday, moved in Saturday and then Sunday morning I got on a plane out to Maryland for a work trip for 3 days.




So we're in our new home.  We are loving it.  I was worried about moving to a smaller home but all our stuff fits and I love having a smaller home to take care of and it just feels right for our family.  I love that I have white walls again and just some updated floors, carpets, etc.  The kids love the red door in the front, they love their Pokemon rooms (we put Pokemon decals up since they wanted Pokemon rooms), the girls love that we put their beds next to each other in an L shape so their heads are right next to each other, they love to play in the front yard, have made some friends and love to play at the park at the top of our street.  I'm still taking the kids over to Draper each day for Preschool (the girls go MWF and Jaron goes T/Th)  so that's kind of a pain but just glad we were close enough I could keep them in preschool there since they love it.



So it's been a crazy few months, not what we planned on doing in the middle of winter but I feel like everything worked out the way it was supposed to and we're happy with the way things turned out.

March 2017

The main reason Siena and Aria liked living at Grandma and Grandpa's house was because they could sleep in a queen size bed together.  One night I found them all snuggled together and Aria was perpendicular on the bed.  When we moved into our new house, we put their beds parallel to each other against opposite walls, when they saw that they immediately asked if we could move them next to each other.  So now their beds  are in an L shape with their heads right next to each other.


Before we moved, I wanted to make sure all my kids got their own library card (not that we plan on going over there all the time, but just in case)  The girls were so excited to get their own card and check out their own books all by themselves.


Shane loved living at my parents house so he could snuggle with Gus each night....lol...


I have a lot of pictures of all 3 kids posing next to something in a store we went shopping for the month of March, blinds, drapes, rugs, tables, beds, etc.


The reason I liked living with my parents was because on my half birthday my dad made me my favorite breakfast, hash browns and eggs.  Yum, it makes my mouth water just thinking of it.  I'm so spoiled.  This is the picture I texted to all my siblings so they would all be jealous of me!


Shane's friend, Taj, that he went to India with when we first started dating and has done some business with, had a book written about him called The Orphan Keeper.  Such a good book,and  true story about his life.  So Highland hosted an author Q&A night.  So of course we all had to go to hear about it and see Taj.  Taj just about died when he saw Shane walking up to the event but it was so interesting to hear him answer questions and see his cute wife and kids.


The kids favorite game to play with grandpa.  Grandpa pretends to be asleep and they try to sneak away before he wakes up and gets them.


While living with my parents, the kids learned to play Mario.  They are obsessed with it now and must play every time we go over there.  I'm surprised how good they actually are at it.


The kids love going down to our stream in the backyard and checking it out.  I haven't let them in it yet but it's going to be a fun yard once we get it all completed this summer.


Jaron just might be the cutest leprechaun I ever did see!  I love that he will wear this and let me take his picture, the girls never let me!


An updated picture of the JLO's.  Landon is so tall, Jaron is the shortest.


The kids were so excited that the secret leprechaun knew where we had moved to.  They talk about the leprechaun for weeks leading up to it. It's as exciting as Santa and the Easter bunny is.


I have a few other March pictures that I used in this year's happiness book so I'll save them for that post so I don't repeat myself too much.

February 2017

February wasn't a whole lot better for pictures but here's a few things we did.

I'm not sure what this is but sometimes they just crack up at themselves and want a picture, that's what happened here one morning.


When the Manning's came to look at our house after arriving from Australia they gave us these cute gifts.  They knew I served my mission in Australia and it was so cute and thoughtful of them I thought.


We made valentine cookies and decorated them one day...mostly we just ate them since it was one of the Swig cookie mixes.  Yum.


One last picture in the front of our house.  Even though our yard doesn't look that good this time of year we still had to take one last picture so we could remember what the kids looked like when we moved.



The last bath in our old house...how many baths have I given in that bathtub? Way too many to count but they've always had so much fun in this bath tub over the years.  Lots of yelling, screaming, laughing and splashing.


I shared this on Instagram but when I was pregnant with Jaron I can't even count how many times I ate at Chick Fil A.  I craved their honey roasted BBQ sauce like nothing else.  So I guess it was only appropriate when after he ate his dinner, he asked if he could have another packet of sauce and just eat it plain with his finger.  haha.


What the girls did while I cleaned that entire house one last time before we drove away for the last time.  No toys, no nothing left in the house, so they got to watch a show on my tablet.

Mazatlan

Right in the middle of selling, packing and finding a new house to buy chaos...Shane and I had a trip to Mexico planned.  We booked it last spring when we had some airline credit we had to use.  I told Shane 'I want to go somewhere warm in February when I'm so sick of winter here.'  So we booked a trip to Mazatlan.We had no idea at that time that our life was going to be so crazy.  But we still went and had a great time.  We stayed at this great hotel that had a balcony that opened up onto the ocean.



We actually didn't do a lot while we were there.  We slept in every day, ate our meals overlooking the ocean, went shopping, laid under umbrellas on the beach, took walks on the beach, watched the sunset, and sat in the hot tub each night.






One day we did join a tour of the city by bus. It was fun to see different parts of the town.





I wish I would've gotten a picture of our favorite restaurant we went to 3 times while we were there, Gringo Lingos.  They were right outside our hotel and seriously had the best fajitas.  mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking of them again.

Overall though I accomplished what I went there for, enjoy some warmth and sun and relax.  I'm always amazed how much sleep I can get each night and still feel tired that night after doing nothing but relaxing all day.

My parents were nice enough to watch the kids while we were gone and my mom drove them over to preschool each day back and forth.  They had a great time and did so many fun things.  Each day they had a little field trip, puppy barn, McDonalds, Cabela's, Dollar Store, etc.  So they were well taken care of and probably a little spoiled.

January 2017

The month of January was not a great picture taking month.  These are literally the only pictures I took of my kids the entire month.  Pretty much all my pictures are of things I was selling or houses and neighborhoods we were looking at.

Jaron started Sunbeams.  He was so excited to be in primary and was more than ready.  His teacher, Sister Burton dropped off this candy necklace to him the week before class and the note told him to try and find someone wearing the same necklace and that is how he would know who is teachers were.  We love Sister Burton, she taught the girls in Nursery and CTR 4 and taught Jaron in Sunbeams until we moved.  She even offered to let us move into her house if we didn't find a house in time and she was totally serious, she's so genuinely nice.


Story time at the library...I did take them a few places this month, they weren't totally ignored! :)


The rest of these pictures are just crazy things they did to keep themselves entertained.  They all wanted to try on Aria's glasses one day.






Siena, my little craft lover.  She literally asks me to do a craft every. single. day.  I love that she loves to create things.