The House

It's a work in progress, but here are some pictures of our new digs for the next little while. We opted to lease in order to really get to know the area. Thankfully, the house is nice and the neighborhood is referred to as "mini Provo". Haha!!

The front of the house. 3 level townhome
(we're used to that) and no garage. :( 

The main level: living room, dining room, kitchen, nook, and powder room.

The view from our deck. Playground right out back is perfect!

This is the downstairs. It opens onto a deck and small fenced area. There is this big family room, a laundry room, bathroom, couple storage closets, and a big bedroom.

This is that bedroom, currently lots of storage. We're working on cleaning it up for having guests. 

Upstairs is the bedrooms and a couple bathrooms.

Don't mind the perma messy beds.

That's the tour. Now come see in real life! We'd love to have you!

Airplanes

On Saturday we decided to explore a little bit. We drove into D.C. which was surprisingly easy to do. It was similar to heading to Portland. Not too far for some fun. Originally we thought we'd just do a little driving tour since it was still very cold. Once we were there we opted to park instead and explore the Museum of Natural History.

It's a pretty neat museum for kids, and of course free of charge. They have a giant room all about the ocean, another for dinosaurs, ice age, mammals, and many more rooms. I wasn't really prepared so I didn't have my camera, or my phone. It was nice to just take our time and wander through the exhibits.

Afterwards we drove by the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. It was pretty neat to see them even though we didn't walk around. Another day perhaps when the temperature increases a bit.

We headed home to rest for a while before heading out again for another museum. This time we went to the National Air & Space Museum. All I can say is WOW! It's by far my favorite of the Smithsonian museums. It was great to walk in and see Neil's face light up as he saw all the PLANES! There were planes everywhere! It was great.

See..planes of all kinds...everywhere!

The view when you walk in. Pretty impressive place.

This is the Enola Gay...the actual plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

My favorite part...the Space shuttle Discovery. It was massive! Besides the black tiles on the bottom, all the white parts are actually fabric. This space shuttle flew 39 missions. It was really neat to see.

SO big!

There are two of these museums in the area. I can't wait to check the other one out in D.C. So much history all in one place makes for some fun exploration. I guess this will be our Saturday plans for the next few months.

Snow Day(s)

The kids were pretty psyched to learn that we'd be getting a for real snow storm about a week after moving in. They had survived their first week of a new school, and thankfully had been happy with it all. I was pretty worried about them after dropping them off for the first day. Fortunately, they came home with smiles on their faces and had already met lots of the neighborhood kids.

So, when we heard about snow coming, we did what anyone would do...last minute trek to Target for sleds. We had to be prepared. School was even cancelled before we went to bed on Monday night. We woke up Tuesday morning to crying kids..."there's no snow". Well, school was still cancelled. Sure enough, about 10am the snow came, and came, and came. The kids were itching to get outside. I held them off as long as possible. We needed enough to build up in order for sledding to be a possibility. There's this great hill directly behind our fence that all the neighborhood kids like to use.

After lunch, I gave in and we all bundled up. We went outside and the kids ran for the hill with their shiny new sleds. Remember, I am new to this neighborhood, and don't really know the landscape yet. The girls went down. Then Neil wanted to also. He went once, and had a blast. I watched him that first time from the bottom.

Then I decided to hike up the hill with them for the next round. I made it to the top just as Neil was plopping on the sled for a second run. Before I made it all the way up, he was headed down the hill. I didn't really think much of it, until I stopped to watch him go. My world stopped in that moment. I saw directly in his path a giant slab of concrete, that covers some kind of drain. I had no idea it was there. I didn't remember ever seeing it before.

I felt sick as I helplessly watched him spin around on the sled backwards, facing me, as he slammed head first into it. The sled went into that gap, so the only thing that stopped him was his head. As I ran down the hill to him, I thought for sure I would be calling 911. It was surreal. 

It was such a violent impact that I was sure I would be looking at major damage. I was trying not to freak my girls out as I quickly determined that he was alright enough to move him. I ran him inside and tried to get a better handle on his injury. He never blacked out, but he was very unsteady and couldn't maintain his balance. He would not sit or stand. There was no blood, but a goose egg was already forming. I think his fluffy hat, and coat hood are what ultimately saved him. I loaded everyone up and drove through the storm to the ER. After observation and a neuro check, we were able to go home. We didn't even end up needing a CT. Besides a giant lump on his head, he should be totally fine. 

That was by far the scariest moment of my life. It was all slow motion as it happened and I couldn't sleep or close my eyes without seeing it replay in my head over and over. I am so grateful that he's ok because seriously, it could have been so much worse. I am still trying to process it.

Here's a view of the lump before it got big. It was double that size at least.

So....that sorta ruined our snow day. The girls were able to go back out and play once we left the hospital, but Neil and I were done for the day. Fortunately, school was cancelled the next two days as well, so we had plenty of chances to go out and play.

I didn't want Neil to have a fear of snow or sleds, so I encouraged him to go out and play the next day. Eventually he agreed to go out. We started out with just playing and walking around. By the end, I got him onto a sled that I could pull around. He even enjoyed it, but he made sure to stay far away from the hill. Poor little guy. 

We ended up with about 6 inches of dry fluffy snow. We couldn't make snowmen out of it because it was just too powdery. The girls did get to try out a snowboard, and they did really well on it. I was impressed, although pretty nervous about it after Neil's experience. The last few days have been just downright cold here. Like 10 degrees, windchill -5 cold. I am so glad I bought this new fluffy coat for myself, and I think I have cured Neil of his hatred for coats. He now willingly puts it on. :) 

I love these kids more than anything. I'm so grateful for small miracles. Hopefully next week will be much more uneventful and boring.

Since I've been gone

Much has happened since my last post. I'm going to make an attempt to catch up. I know that some of the details will escape me, but I have to try.

The last week of school before the winter break was a super busy one for us. The movers came to the house to pack all of our things and load them all into the big truck. It was pretty hard to see everything getting boxed up. I was quite glad though that it wasn't me doing all the packing. We have so much stuff. I felt like we got rid of tons, but the boxes just kept on coming.

To make things harder, I came down with something awful on one of those days. I had the chills, a fever, and horrible sore throat. Chris was on the east coast, and it was just me, the movers, the kids, and all the work of getting us moved out and into my parent's house. Thankfully, my parents and in-laws were there to save the day. I couldn't have survived it all without them. They brought me soup and meds so I could make it through.

On the second night at my parents' house I was putting the kids to bed as usual. We were all sharing one big room, so Neil had a hard time settling down. I was pulling him back to bed for the hundreth time and he started crying loudly. I had no idea what was wrong with him, but after a few minutes he fell asleep, and I didn't think much of it. That night was horrible! He woke up every couple hours crying in pain. I still didn't know what was wrong. I debated going to the ER, but he kept falling back asleep. I made a 3am run for motrin and waited til the morning to bring him in. By then I was pretty sure he had something dislocated. Sure enough, it was his elbow. Poor kiddo. The Dr. quickly popped it back in, and all was well. It made for a traumatic start to our vacation.

The next day, Chris and I closed on our house. What a crazy feeling to sign away your first home. So sad and surreal. I wasn't quite ready to leave. We had so many good times there, and so many wonderful friends. That night we went out to look at Christmas lights. It was nice to do something relaxing and non-move related.

Chris finally joined us the weekend before Christmas and we were all so excited to see him! All our work was done, and we could finally enjoy the break together along with all the extended family that came to town. We had so much fun playing games, going to movies, chatting, eating tons of junk food, and even making planking pyramids.

(Chris on bottom, me, Keara, and trying to add Claire...you know you want to try it)

Christmas Eve was spent making rubber band bracelets, and eating more food. We were lucky enough to score 2 Christmas dinners this year! Time to break out the fat pants. The kids had a blast decorating cookies for Santa (although 6 each was a little excessive....Santa probably had to throw some away).  We also opened up our traditional Christmas PJ's.

Christmas day was wonderful and crazy. Between both our families, and running across the street a couple times, things were chaotic. So many people, and so many gifts! I was glad that I had bought myself more luggage. I needed all of it! 

Gift highlights: Claire...clothes, glitter shoes, books, nano bot fish, minnie mouse, monopoly, Frozen princesses, and lots of accessories.  Grace...tons of my little ponies, castle, Doc Mc Stuffins paraphernalia, a Frozen doll, and clothes. Neil...this was the year of the airplane. So many planes! He also got magformers, cars, Scout the dog, books, and clothes. Me....Chris broke the pact of no gifts. He bought me some nice diamond stud earrings. Thank you sweetheart! Chris....he got some pop rocks among some other small things. (yet to have them)

 

Over the Christmas break, we all passed around this nasty 24hr bug. All three of my kids succumbed to it over the 3 week period. Not in a row though. So every night I would wake up the second I heard a kid get up, just hoping not to hear the terrible sounds. It was hard to get much quality sleep that way. Thankfully, Chris and I managed to escape it. I was glad that he was with me to help when it was Neil's turn. Never fun on your own. I only mention all that because it really was a huge part of the break. Everyone just trying to stay healthy. 

Since both my sisters were in town, we decided it would be fun to host a baby shower for Bree. She's having a girl, so what better way to see some cute girly clothes? Our Aunt Hilary had it at her house, and my mom, Keara, and I tackled the decorations and food. We went with elephants for a theme, and it turned out pretty nice.

The baby shower was a success, and afterwards we headed to the Hancock's house to play some games. We sure are going to miss all our game nights. We always have such a good time!

On New Year's Eve we all got together with both families and ate appetizers and played some games. Then, when it was time.. (about 8:30pm) ..we taped glow sticks to our limbs, cranked a super fun dance party playlist, turned off the lights, and busted a move! It was our second time doing this. Last year our good friends, the Masons, introduced us to this really fun party activity. Our family all loved it! We had probably 15 people shakin it in the dark. We danced until we were all tired out. It was a perfect way to end the year. I think it will be our new tradition. :)

We also got together as a fam and made this little gem... (I should clarify that it was mostly the girls and my sister)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpebCWDAwrs&feature=share

Chris had to go back to Virginia on New Year's day which was sad. The kids and I stayed for another week at my parents house. Things went well. We relaxed, went back to school, and just enjoyed spending time together. I was able to have another fantastic girls night out with my wonderful lady friends. It's always a good time with them! We laughed so hard and took many hideous selfies. We were super hot! As usual, we closed the place down on a school night. I am seriously missing all my friends. You are my rock and my support. Please don't forget about me. I promise that I will be back and want to stay in the loop with your lives. I care about all of you, and can't wait until we can party again. 

Our last night in Hillsboro was difficult. We had a pizza party with both the families and really had a good time with each other. It was very hard to say goodbye. I'm not sure yet when I'll get to see them all again. I miss you all already!

Saturday morning was the big day. I am SO thankful for my parents and all their help over the entire 3 weeks, but especially on our big move day. I had 5 checked bags, 3 car seats, 1 stroller, 4 backpacks, 1 other bag, and 3 kids to move. My dad was great! He loaded us all up, got us the luggage carts, and helped me get everything checked in. Both my parents were able to walk us all the way to the gate. We made it just in time to board. Again, goodbyes were hard, but we made it on the plane. Phew! 

As soon as we were on, I decided I needed to break out the benadryl. Neil was already giving me a hard time, and I couldn't fathom 5 more hours of the same. Thankfully, it kicked in really fast. He was so pleasant and quiet. I was thinking, this is fantastic, this flight will be a piece of cake. It lasted like that maybe 2 hours or so. The problem was he was very tired, but he couldn't fall asleep. So he got very cranky. At one point he melted down because he didn't want to wear the seatbelt. Too bad it was quite turbulent at that point. He lost it again before landing when his ears hurt. Overall, it really wasn't too bad. Just those 2 difficult times. Unfortunately, we always seem to end up in the back of the plane. It's so hard to wait to get off. By the time we could deplane, Neil was throwing a fit. I had to drag him (while he's refusing to walk), and 2 of my bags off the plane. Thankfully, Claire was able to help with Neil's bag, and the nice airline people had my stroller already set up and waiting for me. I plopped him in and walked quickly out of there. By the time I was approaching the area where I knew Chris would be, I couldn't hold the tears back any longer. I was losing it. I handed him the stroller, and tried to regain myself. I had made it. It was over.