Sweet Things

This morning I was downstairs nursing Jane, when I heard Kate up stairs saying "I love you, I really love you, I just do!" I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I don't know if she was randomly telling that to Anna, or if they were playing "house". I hope they were playing house and she was portraying herself as the mother.

As I continued feeding Jane I was talking and smiling at her. I usually take that down time to read, or watch t.v. or leaf through a magazine. Today I was taking the time to just enjoy our one on one time. Jane was eating and then suddenly paused, completely filled her pants, then gave me a huge smile and then continued eating. It was hilarious. She is the sweetest, most even tempered baby ever! It's cute little moments like these that I feel so blessed to be a mom.

Brownie bandit

I told the kids today if they ate all their lunch they could have a brownie. I precut a reasonable size brownie for each of them and then went in the other room. After they had each finished their lunch they asked if they could have their brownie. I said yes, and that I had already cut them each a piece to have.

When I went back later to cover them up there were the three small pieces left and the whole rest of the pan was GONE! I asked Ethan what he had done and he said he had cut them some brownies to eat. Apparently he didn't like what I had cut and cut new HUGE pieces for himself and the kids. I probably shouldn't have been mad but I was. Yes it's better for me because I won't be tempted to pick at them, but come on, that's just a little ridiculous don't you think? Someday I feel like a failure as a mother. I either fly off the handle, have too high expectations or who knows what. Hopefully one day I'll get it right and hopefully it won't be after all my kids hate me and have horrible memories of their terrible childhood.

Miss Manners

Like a lot of mother's, I try really hard to teach my children manners. Manners about table etiquette, bodily functions :), please and thank you's and a plethora of other things. Today I dropped Ethan off at a friends to play while I took Anna to the eye Doc. As I dropped him off I reminded him "please remember your manners". Each time any of my kids go anywhere I remind them, and when I pick them up I ask "did you use your manners?" and the reply is usually..."I forgot". It makes me crazy. I know they are just kids but still. Anyway, today as I dropped Ethan off I said "Do NOT ask to play video games. If they offer you can say yes but do not ask." So when I called my girlfriend to tell her I was on my way she was laughing and said when Ethan got to her house he said "my Mom told me I CANNOT ask to play video games, but I would really like to". Good one Eth!

On another note, Anna's eyes have improved a tad since last year. She is still legally blind without her glasses but for the first time ever they were able to get one of her eyes to 20/20. The other they could only get as good as 20/25 but that's great! Thank heavens for glasses.

One of the hardest things for me as a Mom, and with my overly particular personality is letting my children make their own choices. Anna tried on several pair of glasses today and we narrowed it down to two. I loved both of the frames and their color but when they were actually on Anna's face one just was much more flattering than the other. I felt like I should let her choose though since she has to wear them and like them. But of course she chose the ones that weren't very flattering. Her eye brows are totally straight across so if she picks frames that are straight across they make her to appear sad or mad. On the other hand if you pick a frame that goes up slightly like a smile shape somehow it makes her face appear to be happy. Not to mention the frames are bright red and with her hair and dark eyes she looked darling. The other pair was light blue and just ok. It was killing me that she chose the blue pair. I tried to encourage but was trying to stick to my guns and let her make the choice. Even the guy helping us was going a bit far saying he like the others a lot more and they looked better on her. I didn't want her feelings to be hurt, and wanted to ultimately let her choose. I had paid and we were ready to go when she changed her mind to the red, more flattering pair, Hurray!!! I hate that about myself but they really are so cute on her and not just because they are my favorite color. She was really sad that she couldn't take them home today but in a week when we get them back we will show off our cute little girl in her new fashion glasses.

Good news

The good news we think we have found a house. Ok, so it's actually a duplex but that's fine by me. It's in our price range, in a family friendly neighborhood and we have a "large" family so that is good. Thank heaven's we don't have pets. That's what our real estate agent in Jersey said after she found out how many kids we have :) It is 5 bedrooms and 2, yes I said 2 full baths, which is basically unheard of. That makes it possible for Rand to have an office to work at home a few days a week, not to mention a place for visitors.(hint, hint) It is all newly renovated with hard wood floors through out and new paint and appliances. It is a quick walk to the train station, a walk to the kids school, 6 min. drive to the church, and a half mile to the YMCA. Which we use as our "gym" when we are out of state. Oh, and the kids school is on Tulip street. It must be a sign because we all know how much I LOVE tulips!

All of this good news came just as a neighborhood boy literally rang the doorbell say 16 times in a row during naptime. Good thing I had just received good news about this place or he may have been the lucky recepient of more than just a good ear full about how incredibly rude that is... Wish us luck!

Thoughts

I'm tired tonight. Tired of wondering who will rent our home? Where will we live exactly? When will we leave, exactly? Will it be a good neighborhood, with a good school for the kids? Will we make friends? Will we be happy there? Will Randall enjoy his commute? Can we get by with just one car? Will I like having only 1 bathroom to share among the 6 of us?

But then I remind myself that we feel good about things, and we think we have found a renter for our home. I love NYC and am excited to be so close to all it has to offer. New Jersey has good schools,and the kids will be fine. Of course we will make friends. Having 1 car means less maintenance and less money out of pocket every month. There's Trader Joe's. So much history and culture and places to explore. One bathroom makes less clean up for me, and we will be happy there, just you see. And just think how cute and curly Kate's hair will be with all that humidity. Maybe next year on the 4th of July we will celebrate with the hundred's of thousand of other people at our nation's capitol. Just you wait and see...it could happen.

Jane's Blessing

We blessed Jane Sunday June 6th, 2010 in Springville, Utah. The reason I put the date and where is because I am realizing the things I think I will never forget I actually do forget.

It was a very nice day and we were thrilled to have so much family come and support us. WE missed those that weren't with us but know they wished they could have been there :). Randall gave Jane a beautiful blessing. Somehow I always feel like the baby is officially part of our family once she has been given a name and a blessing. After sacrament meeting we invited our family over to our house for some lunch. Lucky us it was the hottest day of the year so far, so our plans of having everyone out on the patio did not workout so well, and are home is not large to say the least, but we made it work.

Jane wore the blessing dress that I bought when we were living in Belgium as my keepsake. Following tradition she was the 9th granddaughter to be blessed in the dress. It is so beautiful and long with all handmade Belgian lace and is very sentimental for me. I was only 14 at the time that we picked it out so it is amazing to think it has now been 17 years and we have now had 3 of our own daughters blessed in it. I think that is really special. I hope that the daughters in law don't feel bad that they basically had no choice in the matter of having their daughters blessed in the dress. I think it will always be a sweet remembrance of a very special day.

Start spreading the news

Just in case you haven't heard it through the grape vine, or on Facebook, we are moving. In fact the picture of Times square above is where Randall will be working for the next year or two or three, who knows. We do know that this is a great opportunity for not only him and his career but for our family. No, we will not be living in Manhattan, we're not that crazy, not to mention you have to be a kazillionaire to live there. Right now we are looking to live somewhere in New Jersey that is a close commute and a nice place to live.

I wish I could say it's all excitement, and there is a lot of that, but I'm nervous and down right scared at times wondering how things are going to work out exactly. If you know me much at all then you would know that I'm a planner. That means when something like this comes up I don't just think to myself, "how fun we are moving", instead my mind goes wild of every single minute detail like, are we going to rent or sell our home? Where are the best schools? Where is a nice, affordable neighborhood? I need vaccine records to register the kids for school. We should probably get our teeth cleaned here while we know a dentist. What should I get rid of? I need to get the carpets cleaned, how will we get the house rented? will my dental hygiene license transfer? Is there an Ikea?

Randall knows me well enough to know that after any big change or decision to just give me 24 hours to let the idea settle in and then I'm fine. This doesn't mean I'm freaking out and crying or anything I'm just saying I feel like my brain just might explode wondering and worrying about all the many changes and things now on my "To do list".

The older I get the more "comfortable" and "settled" I become. A few years ago I was chomping at the bit to move on to "our next adventure". Just the other day I was thinking how on July 24th it will be our 2 year anniversary of living in this home and the longest we have ever lived in one place. I wondered how long we would actual be in this home. Days later I got my answer of oh, 6 weeks or so.

You may be wondering how all this happened. Well, a few months ago Randall decided to interview for a new position at work. Throughout the long and exhausting weeks and 8, yes 8 interviews later( I guess they like to be thorough)he was not offered the position. Of course Rand was disappointed but through those weeks and that process we prayed that if it was right he would be offered the job. So when that wasn't the case we felt like there had to be a reason. It all becomes complicated after that so let's just say in just over a weeks time it was decided that Randall should transfer to the NY office, and strange enough we feel really good about it. The hardest part is that we will be leaving both of our families and some very good friends as well. That's no small thing. But, we feel right about it enough to still do it.

The good news in all of this besides the fact that this is a good thing for Randall, is that it will be a good thing for our little family. Utah is a great place and has many perks but we have lived in different states and places before and always had very positive experiences and met many friends that became our family. We are excited to have our children experience other cultures and religions as well as the history and culture of the East. I'm sure it will be hard and require some adjustment time but we are really looking forward to it. The great thing is we already have friends from grad school living in New Jersey, as well as Randall's sister and family in Baltimore(when they aren't researching in Africa :) and friends moving to Brooklyn this summer and friends and mission companions in D.C., North Carolina etc. Also, since New York is such a fun place to visit I actually think we will get a good amount of visitors coming for a free place to stay to see the city. So, if you are one of those don't hesitate, well at least wait until we know that we aren't in the Ghetto somewhere.

I wrote to a friend expressing my fear and concerns and this is what she wrote " I think it's those times that we have to really step into the dark that the Lord tries our faith. Sometimes, we are then given a flashlight, other times, I feel like we've stepped into the dark and are given a birthday candle. In other words, the bigger picture is still too far away to be seen..we may just get a faint glimpse, or wax on our fingers."

Let the adventure begin.