House Update

Stuff has been happening on the house! It looks looks a house for starters!

This was on March 31st.

We went by the next day with the kids.

It was windy and freezing-thus the crying and hunching.

This is on April 6th.  Just before we took off for Spring Break.  We have windows and a roof, and the electrical work inside was finished.  Along with bathtubs and plumbing installed. 

This one is on the 14th.  They are starting to wrap the house for stone and stucco.  And we went inside and were pleasantly surprised to see the sheet rock is up. 

This is Sophie and I in the front living room.  I will use this as my sewing room and I love the big windows and all the light that comes in. 

That's it for this week-hopefully next week the outside will look pretty finished-but who knows.

Spring Break 2012

The kids and I drove out to California to visit my grandma this year for spring break. Jack and Isabella hadn't been out since the summer of 2007.  Sophie and I flew out in March of 2010.  It was clearly time for a visit.

My cousin and her two kids got to stop by and visit, which was so fun, we hadn't met her kids before and they are so cute.

After they left we hid Easter eggs all over the front yard.  Now, my grandma has a lovely big garden-filled back yard which would be great for hunting Easter eggs, except for one thing-we discovered a snake in the back yard the night before.  We managed to see it three times, and while it was certainly frightened of us, no one really wanted to reach their hands into various bushes.

We hid the eggs again and again until everyone had a chance to hide them and find them.  We managed to find all of the hidden eggs-no small feat.  The weather was beautiful and I could have spent all day outside.

The next day the kids and I drove through Berkeley to go into San Francisco.  We went over the Bay Bridge where we encountered an really bad accident.  A small pickup had a run in with a van and the pickup lost and left it's innards over three lanes of traffic.  There were all sorts of people trying to pry open the drivers side door which was mashed shut and the passenger was clearly injured and on the ground on the other side of the pickup.  The accident must have just happened as no emergency assistance was there yet.  I tried to distract the kids from looking, but we moved by so slow.  After we passed the scene, we headed across the bay bridge, this bridge is the big one.

  It goes across to Treasure Island (man made) and then into the city.  We drove through San Francisco and to the Golden Gate Bridge.

  There is a vista point at the far side where we got out and walked over part of the bridge. 

 I had Tessa in the wrap, and I don't know if Sophie could have made it the whole way.  Then we headed over the Richmond bridge.  Sophie really wanted to choose where we ate and I thought maybe she would see somewhere we hadn't been before and pick that-but no, she chose Applebee's.

Tuesday we planned to go to Tilden Park to ride the carousel and see the little farm and such, but it was raining and when we got there everything was closed.  In a bit of desperation we called Nate and had him google and few things so we could decide on an activity.  We decided to go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco and headed back into the city.

  It is a museum of science and experience and the senses and all sorts of fun things.  The kids loved it.  I think all day wouldn't have been long enough to see and try out everything.  We stayed until it closed and then walked around back to the Palace of Fine Arts.

  Jack took about 400 pictures in our two days in the city-I will let him have the camera more often, I certainly don't take that many.

Everyone was getting hungry, so I drove down to Fisherman's Wharf and we got out to find somewhere to eat.  The kids were all for Subway or In-and-Out, but I vetoed on the basis of going somewhere we can't go here at home.  We ate at Boudin, a sourdough bakery.  It was really yummy, Jack and I are big fans of sourdough and could have eaten twice as much I am sure.  The girls shared a cheese pizza on sourdough crust and it was so yummy.  

We then walked down to Pier 39 and went out to see the sea lions laying on the docks. 

 It was a bit rainy, so no real crowds.  Their was a giant cruise ship in port and the kids were totally fascinated by how big it was.  We got some salt water taffy and cookies on the pier and bought a few t-shirts and headed back to the car.  We then headed over to Lombard Street.  We drove down it and then through the city before heading back to my grandma's house.

The next day we stayed around my grandma's.  I hemmed some pants for her and we talked and talked.  I love hearing all her stories and histories and anecdotes.  I think we stayed up past eleven every night talking.

  She has all sorts of stories about my dad and his childhood that are new each time I visit.  She has a lot of family history gathered and knows a lot about her ancestors.  I love visiting her and love taking the kids there.

  California at this time or year is so lush and green and I always wonder why I don't live there.  The kids played with toys I played with when I was small.  They were reluctant to wander around the backyard too much with the garter snake back there. 

 They played dominoes and found an old ping pong set and made up games.  Sophie loves Grandma Penny and snuggled her and played with all the dolls and stuffed animals she could find.  

We had to head home on Thursday and drove through snow in the Sierra Nevada's.  The whole drive home is one long day in the car.  We were all happy to see Nate and be in our own beds, but all want to go back soon.

Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships

The girls and I went to the Pac-12 gymnastics championships the last weekend of March.  Nate and Jack stayed home having been up sick all night.  I had hoped it we stayed away from them, none of us would get it-I was wrong on that count.

Anyway, we had a pass from Bella's gym to go and drove up to the U of U and spent a few hours watching four schools compete.  Bella loved it all! We bought soft pretzels and ice cream and had a really great time.

After the meet, we headed over to the newly opened City Creek shopping center down town.  I knew it would be pretty busy but was a bit surprised when I had to wait in line at the only store the girls wanted to go in-The Disney Store.  No other shops had lines by the way.  The line looked pretty long but moved fast.  We also looked at all the fountains and watched some of the performers.  It was a fun day, good thing too as we were all pretty sick that next few days. 

Poetry reading

Last month Isabella's class had a poetry reading night.  All the kids got dressed up and parents came and they read poems they had written to the audience. I love this because I think it is good to have kids speak in front of people, public speaking is a good skill to have.  Also, Isabella brings home notebook upon notebook full of poems and stories each year.  Her teacher gave her more than her allotted share last year and I sent in a few.  The stories she writes are random and funny and good.  I usually only keep school work that are original ideas and her box is big because of all the journals.

Bella loves her teacher this year!  She came to Bella's gymnastics meet and always has such wonderful things to tell us about Bella.  Almost all of the favorite teachers we have had over the years have left after the year we have them, so no repeats.  Mrs. B is going to have a baby in the summer and move away for more schooling for her husband.  We will sure miss her and wish the little girls could have had her as a teacher as well.

So...where are we going to live?

We decided to build a house last fall.  Picked out plans and put down some money.  Then we sold our house, a bit more quickly than we anticipated.  This left us in need of a place to live.  The rental market is a bit tight, especially if you aren't looking for long term.  I found a condo in Saratoga Springs that we cute and clean and convinced the owners to let us rent it for a few months.  I thought we would be here until the first few weeks in May, but it's looking like it will be a bit longer, the house building process is sssssslllloooooooooowwwwww.  Originally the house was supposed to be started the last week in January.  But there were a few things with the permits that needed to be resolved, and some confusion with the builder, so they didn't dig a hole until the end of February.  We decided to take a picture of the kids in front of where the driveway is each week to document the progress.  I will try and update if it seems interesting, these first several are pics of the kids in front of dirt, exciting, I know. 

This was in February-just dirt.  Jack is wearing rec specs because we just finished basketball games.

They dug a hole-end of February.

The footings are poured here-basically concrete under concrete. I love the sky in this one. 

Foundation poured. Sophie is a total ham if you didn't already know that.

This is St. Patrick's Day. They poured the driveway and back patio.

No Jack in this pic. He is home sick with Nate.  The rest of us got that same sickness within days. There are all sorts of piles of lumber in this one.  They sat there for days and days and days.  Then yesterday on the way home we noticed they started doing stuff with the lumber, so this weeks picture should look different.  But after uploading all of these I can see I lied, I will post stuff whether interesting or not.  You know, just for personal documentation. 

Basketball 2012

Jack and Isabella both played Jr. Jazz basketball this year.

 Jack mainly played guard and was on an all sixth grade boys team.

This was the first year that Bella was on an all girls team.  She had some good friends on her team and had a great time. 

They both scored a lot of baskets and improved over the season. 

Sophie and Tessa are troopers and went to all the games.  Tessa learned to clap as a result, pretty cute.

Goodbye Old House

Last fall we decided we were bursting at the seams in our house.  Tessa is in our room, the girls are in bunk beds, which is fine, except for the ceiling fan that keeps the room cool in the summer is right next to the top bunk. And with the kids getting bigger, the house seemed to be getting smaller.  So Nate and I started looking into new housing options.  We visited various model homes and looked at a few things for sale here in Lehi.  In November we decided to build and picked out a floor plan and a lot.  Then right after Thanksgiving we put our house up for sale.  We thought with the holidays, we really wouldn't have any interest in the house until after the new year.  And knowing that house building is a bit of a slow process, we thought we had a lot of time to worry about selling the house.  Well, just before Christmas, about three weeks after we put it up for sale we had a buyer.  We went to Oregon for Christmas and then came back home and put ourselves into moving mode.

  We packed up all non-essentials and stored them.  Then I found a place to rent and we were out of our house by the end of January.  After we had cleaned everything out we took an opportunity to go say goodbye to our home of almost seven years.  It was good to hear everyone's favorite memories and think of all the changes we underwent as a family.  We moved into the house with two little kids and left with four.  We tried to improve things in the house and yard.  We made many great friends and had great neighbors. 

We are excited to move onto the next chapter and see our new house when it is finished!  We have been blessed to be happy and close wherever we are!