#35

Happy Birthday to Jacob (two days late).

Jacob turned 35 on Wednesday. We celebrated tonight. Betsy and her family came over for dinner and cake. Jacob requested chicken enchiladas and his (norm) favorite applesauce cake. What happened to the cake you ask? It doesn't turn out when you accidentally forget the baking soda. So I substituted for strawberry-mango tortes (and we didn't have to count ridges.)

Jacob is a superb father and a wonderful husband. I hope this year is really great for him.

Bedrooms (part deux)

The bedrooms are finally put together. At least for the kids. Jacob and I still haven't even started our bedroom. Since we sold our bedroom set in Idaho, our bedroom is still bare.
Kirsten chose her room and I love her bed! The drawers in the bottom is a nice place for storage!
McKay's room was the last to complete. I sanded and painted her bed as well. This time it went faster and was easier. I already have my next sanding / staining project, you will have to stay tuned for that one.McKay put together her bedroom all by herself. She did get the smallest room but she got her own bathroom with it. And even though it's the smallest (it's still pretty big) I think it's the coziest.

Bedrooms

Yesterday was Jacob's birthday.
And this was him the day before. He usually takes a little snooze after dinner. I think that's what age can do to you. It's probably more from working full time and staying up late. Anyway, Jacob texted me in the morning and said that we were playing volleyball on a team that night with some friends from work so we are going to celebrate on Friday when Betsy and her family can join us. More pictures of this occasion will come later.
This is the what came to be with my sanding / painting project. I was so happy with the outcome.
We let the kids choose a new duvet cover (since the last one they had was when I chose back in '06) and a bed (within reason). After I put Katanya's new cover on, she informed me that it had forgotten the circle pillow that was at the store with it on display. It's funny how the kids pay attention to certain details.
This is Cruz's room. (If I was to paint the kids room, which I'm not, I would paint an accent wall in green.) McKay painted the picture in the background.

More power

Today....
I used Jacob's power tools.... and I liked it. I can't wait for more projects.This one was for Katanya's bed. She wanted a pink bed....and she'll get it too.

Fitting In

Our new ward is called the Old Settler's Ward. With a name like that, how can you go wrong.

We started going to our new ward the first Sunday that we arrived in Texas. Immediately, we felt like we belonged. The first Sunday was amazing! Everyone reached out to us and we knew this is where we were supposed to be.

A month here, I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. I was given the topic "Press On." One of the most important things I learned was that while you endure and press on it is more than just that. You need to press on in such a way that you are bringing yourself closer to Christ. And even though you may be going through trials, there can be happiness while enduring rather than thinking the happiness is at the end. I know that this is a thing that I have a lot to work on.

The next week (last week) McKay had to give a talk in sacrament too. Her talk was amazing and I was impressed. Her subject was agency and she talked on our first choice in heaven and how it was to choose agency in itself. She pointed out a fact that Satan plan wasn't just to force us to do right but it was a disguise in getting the glory and the power all for himself. She pointed out how little daily choices can end in making choices that will lead to our eternal progression and how while we have the agency to choose the consequences will always follow and those we do not get to choose.

The week I had to speak, I also got called to serve in the Young Women's. There are going to be 19 Beehives by the end of the year making it a total of 30 girls. They are all so closely knit and it's the first time that I haven't seen any "cattish" acts in the group. I'm excited to work and teach and be taught in this organization.

Now for the next question. When will Jacob speak and what will be his topic? I can't wait.

The Oasis

One of the "requests" from the kids when we were finding a house to rent was that it had a community pool. Luckily we did and I can't imagine summer without one.
This is ours. It's actually a decent size and really fun. It's a short walk from our house.
It's never really crowded and it has a 2 foot roped in section and then a bigger area ranging from 3 - 5 feet deep.
We took a break while we were moving in and unpacking for ten days but now the pool has worked it's way back into our routine. Cruz has also learned to swim and take breaths while doing so. Three kids down, one to go.
It's one more reason to love Texas.

Tile floor-1, Fiestware-0

Today we found out what happened when my Fiestaware meets the tile floor. I have a fear what the future could hold for my dishes. Cruz felt terrible for dropping the dish but by far the positives outweighed this misfortune.

1. It was not a discontinued color. 2. It was only $8 to replace. But the best part of all....

3. I got to order the new place setting color for this year. Welcome Marigold.

P.S. I will never complain about the soft bamboo wood flooring I used to have.

What it was like before we came

(Apologies now for the blurriness of the pictures. Jacob took them from his phone and I don't think he waited for it to focus.) This is what the main level LOOKED like. I didn't want to do orange again so before we put down our deposit, I asked if we could paint. The owner said yes and to make it as if it were our own home. Of course I love color but I did keep it toned down a lot this time.There are two rooms (one left and one right) when you walk in the entry way. The were painted Texas Longhorn orange. It had to go.
We painted the floorboards white first. I remembered to have pictures taken after this was done.
The living room and kitchen were a marigold yellow.
Didn't strike me to well either since the counters were a dark navy blue.We finished painting 90% of it before we moved in since we had some minor setbacks. There is one room (the game room upstairs) that we will finish this week. It's a mud brown and really clashes with our couch. (No offense to any brown / beige / coffee / or tan color loving people out there but I just can't handle that shade.)

Pictures of our Home Makeover Edition will soon follow.

one piece at a time

Jacob and I started a puzzle late Friday night.

It was an unspoken word that we weren't going to bed until it was finished.

We finished but paid for it the next morning. I think I'm getting too old too stay up doing stuff like this.

From 4lbs 2 oz to 42 pounds

Happy Birthday Katanya!

Like all my other children as they turn older, I can't believe my youngest is five.
Katanya came out a fighter and she is still one determined girl! She can hold her own with her other siblings but she still has a sweet & strong spirit. I can't imagine our family without her.
This year she celebrated her birthday over two days. Yesterday she opened her presents (a new bike and other toys) and picked out where we ate dinner. We ended up at Chuy's (with a little persuading) and she was delighted! They had yummy chicken nuggets, they sang to her, and she got a frozen push pop. Life couldn't be better! (Plus the adults ate good too! Way better than the McD's that she wanted.)
Then for today (we had planned on going to a outing with Jake's work but it would have ended up taking 10+ hours and we weren't comfortable leaving the kids alone for that long so we changed our plans) we went swimming, went shopping for puzzles (explanations with future posts) went on an evening bike ride and enjoyed chocolate cake....with sprinkles!
I hope this year is great for Anya. May her birthday wishes come true!

Then and Now

The tides have turned. I have gone from a Craigslist seller to a Craigslist buyer. This is my morning's great find.

A little color to an Idaho white boy

We made it to Austin on Monday, and early Tuesday we headed down to South Padre Island. This was our sixth trip. I'm so thankful that Betsy invited our family to join hers. If you want to see some pictures of our activities, click here to go to Betsy's blog. We all got a little too much sun on the first day but I like Jacob's statement the best.....

"Getting sunburned makes me look pudgy."
(I don't think he's pudgy, although on the other hand, I want to know how he got his sunburn in that odd pattern.)

To Do List

Last week, I had a whole list of "to dos" to do. I hope I saw everyone and if not I'm very sorry! It's hard to pack years worth of friends and people and day to day life into just a week. Here are a few of the things we did.
We finally got to meet and hold my brother's baby. Meet Korver Jhett Michael Smith. I'm so glad that someone else used four names too! His abundance of hair reminds me of how much Kirsten had as a baby.
We had an afternoon / evening with Jacob's side of the family. It wasn't long enough but it was fun to see everyone.
McKay met a cousin, Jason. Her Aunt Jamie had her son on Memorial Day but she had to wait til Friday to hold him. He's another adorable baby! Between the two newborns my kids were begging me (again) for another one.
My dad took the kids to their favorite fishing spot. McKay's big catch for the day got away, but we did get a picture to prove it.She was not happy when Kirsten wanted to hold her fish (and every other fish). In fact that is what caused the escape. Kirsten accidentally unhooked the fish and it started flopping and was released back into the fish pond.
Saturday afternoon, we finished going swimming at my mom's friends house. The pool was about 95 degrees and the kids enjoyed every minute.

Other things not pictured but happened during the week: McKay going to do baptisms for the dead for the first time, our own Memorial Day BBQ since the Smith family one was cancelled due to bad weather, Saturday night game night.

We will miss our family that was close by us.

Got milk?

As we were headed up to Kamas to go fishing with my dad, one of my kids asked, "Mom is that milk?" (And it wasn't the youngest.)

The protecting power of prayer

I don't know where the last two weeks went. School finished up one of them and the other was spent visiting family and friends. Jacob was very sweet to let me spend some quality time with my family while he packed out. He met me in Utah late Saturday night and after my brother's baby blessing on Sunday, we made our start for Texas. Since we got a late start (2 p.m.) we decided that we could drive through the night and make it there by afternoon on Monday. As we were driving I kept thinking, "I'm not taking this way home". Then I remembered its not a vacation and that we were only going one way this time. It still feels surreal.

Everything went smoothly until the last 20 miles. Jacob had been driving when I started to hear a different sound. We switched drivers and the noise got stronger and a little louder. I asked him about it and he said it was the bearings in our small tow along trailer and he would fix it later that night. I drove another 20 minutes at 80 mph and then brought up the noise again. I had thought it was coming from the muffler on the van so I pulled off the freeway. Jacob got out and inspected the trailer when he came to me and said, "pull off to the side very slowly and come look at this." I did and got out. The trailer tire looked like the picture.
All of the lug nuts were gone. Again very slowly we drove off the small space between the freeway and the access road and by then all the studs were gone. We were close to Betsy's and only 4 miles from a trailer store. Betsy picked me and the kids up, Nate brought out some tools and within 45 minutes Jacob was "home" too.

We know how bad this could have been. We could have lost the tire at a high speed, ruined the trailer, possibly have wrecked, or even stated a fire. We know that we were protected and blessed. We always start every road trip with a prayer and we have never had anything major happen. I'm grateful for the Lord's hand in everything.

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

I'm not one that likes to say goodbyes. In fact, every time I think about saying goodbye to two of my closest friends or my family in Utah, I tear up. I know this move will be good for my family and it is a good start for Jacob's career but at the same time I'll be farther away and starting over. When we moved to Idaho in 2003, I cried the entire 4 hour drive up from Pleasant Grove. This was just saying goodbye to my family (for a couple weeks.) Little did I know then that with Jacob still working construction projects in Utah how much we would be down to visit. The first year we lived in Idaho, we spent more time in Utah than we did at home. Idaho has really been great to us. We have enjoyed living out in the country and raising our family there. We have had many different life experiences from starting new businesses, buying & remodeling a house, to graduating from college. Now it's time to move on.This is my closest friend, Lindsey. We have and take care of our own families but we are like sisters. I'm really going to miss her. She was my neighbor when we first moved here. It took a year for us to become friends (basically because my family traveled so much) but from there on, we were always involved with each other. Some how we always had kids around the same time too (without planning it.) We were just that in sync. I'm going to miss our late night Wal-Mart runs. It's always funner to go grocery shopping with a friend. Our "sneaky shopping" trips to Maurices. We both have an addiction for the clothes at that store. We taught primary together for 2 1/2 years. I couldn't have asked for a better partner. Midnight showing Twilight movies won't be the same without her. Lindsey is one of the least selfish people I know. I'm so grateful that she is my friend.

House Hunting

We arrived in Austin on Sunday for our week of looking for a house. Jacob and I got off the plane and the rental company gave us this cube. Jacob has driven it the entire time because I have no desire to drive it. The Kia Soul is small and powerless. Basically how we felt in this big city.

We decided to rent a house (I would love to buy but that won't be happening any time soon). What a difference renting a house in Utah / Idaho is to renting a house in Austin. Everything is done through Realtors and if you snooze you lose. Our picks of houses that we looked at on the Internet on Friday & Saturday were gone by Monday morning. We spent 10 hours on Monday looking at houses that were either extremely expensive or extremely dirty. By Monday night I was emotionally drained. I even cried.

Tuesday was a new day. By two in the afternoon we had an A, B, and C plan. Plus, A and C weren't listed in the MLS listings so we were sure to get something we liked. A was our dream home and a far shot but Plan A didn't want to rent since he was selling his house and wasn't in a hurry and didn't need the money so we snatched B up. I'm excited for our move. Our new house is in Round Rock and it's in a great neighborhood and really good school district. I hope the kids are as happy as we are.

So now it's Wednesday night and our next dilemma is that we aren't suppose to be home til Saturday. We have a lot of stuff to still get down at home and time is of the essence. Since Delta wants to charge us over $200 a piece to change our flight we are going to try flying standby. We could end up spending a really long day in the airport tomorrow.

I'm grateful that we could hang out with Betsy and her family during the day (in between our different realtor listings) and the evenings. I'm still trying to convince her just to stay down here but I don't think it will work. Hazel was my "adopted" child. She would sit on my lap, have me hold her, and tuck her in. It melted my heart because this trip I really missed my own children.

So it's off to bed and here's hoping (praying) we can get home tomorrow and I can give my own kids a hug and kiss.

Things I am going to miss....

Reality is setting in. For the last couple of weeks, I've realized how much I'm going to miss Idaho, even more, the people in Idaho. Many different things have passed through my mind but tonight I'm going to focus on just one of them. My dad. This past week he has been up here visiting me again. He usually spends about 3 weeks a year up here with me and my family. My kids love it. I love it.

He has his "rituals" that he does with my kids:

• Going to Barnes and Noble and buying them a book.
• Going to Big Judd's and getting the big hamburger.
• Making their "own" list and going grocery shopping.
• Feeding the ducks at the falls.
• Going to our annual "special place". (This year the weather didn't cooperate and we couldn't make it up there even though we tried.)
  

I really hope he can come out and visit me in Texas. (One doctor has cleared it.) I'm so grateful for our friendship.

Push, run, pose and snap!

Easter Sunday, we decided to get a new "feet" picture.
We climbed up the piles of dirt....
barefoot. And hitting the button to take the picture and running halfway up the hill barefoot didn't feel too good.
The clods and the rocks hurt. But then we decided....
to take some silhouette pictures and that was even harder.
We were barefoot and I was running completely up the dirt mountain, posing, in less than 10 seconds.
It hurt even more, but it was well worth it.

Easter Egg Hunt Idaho Style

We opted out of the school and cities Easter Egg Hunt this year and did our own. It's always nice when you have acres and acres of property. So Jacob went out and hid them behind the dirt piles.Then the kids went looking.
The kids were so excited. They looked along the piles, the trucks and equipment.
They looked in the open fields.
Some were easy....
And some were a little more hidden.
But after an hour of looking for their own 30 or so eggs...(I forgot to count the eggs that were color coded for each kid so they got the same amount and same yummy goods)
Jacob had to go through and help them find them all, sort of.