Moving etc.

Hello! It feels like an eternity has passed (and an eternity's worth of drama) since my last post!  But alas we are here in Orem, alive and well, kickin' it in our new house and still very pregnant.

Maybe the term "kickin' it" should be replaced with something a tad more fitting... 

sweating... unpacking... working like dogs... moving things over and over trying to find the perfect fit... losing sleep, running errands like crazy.

Tonight I drove home with the boys in tow after a long day and as I pulled up into the drive way 1 1/2 hours past their bedtime,  it was one of the first times that walking into this house has really felt like home to me and had the same old welcome-home-after-a-long-day feeling. It was SO nice to have a minute of pure peace before tackling bedtime routine chaos.  We're loving our new house.

Here's what's gone down since my last post...

After much delay and drama with the family buying our home we finally closed on our Provo home and our Orem home on the same day. Back to back. About 20 minutes apart. Remember how we were supposed to close initially on Friday, Oct 5th? Yes... well that ended up being pushed up to Wednesday, Oct 3 and then  extended to Thursday, Oct 11, and then pushed back once more to Friday, Oct 12.  I was a mad, hormonal, pregnant woman who had strong words to say to our buyer's lender and underwriting team. 

The pros? 
-We didn't end up having to rent our garage space back from our buyers just to store our things in our garage for 2 weeks.
-I learned that if I ever get back into the work force it will NOT be in the housing, lending or real estate industry.  

The cons? 
-We really wanted to close on Thursday so the loans could record and fund Friday, giving us ALL Saturday to move in.  Grr.
-I made at least 50 phone calls to various utility companies changing the date over and over for hook up and shut off dates. 
-I got my cell phone bill for $200 (normally $50 mind you) because I had gone so far over my minutes and text limits trying to coordinate all the details of selling and buying a house. 

That same Friday morning that we closed my sisters and mom totally and completely surprised me by coming into town for my 30th birthday!! (A tradition started  10 years ago with my oldest sister, Andy. Note - I don't turn the ripe old age of 30 until November but due to the whole baby, Thanksgiving, moving issue, they just planned early. This will be it's own post.).

Sunday, Oct 14th, we visited our new ward and LOVED it.  It seems like an extremely well-oiled machine that we have moved into.  Wohoo!

Monday, Oct 15 -After much sweating, hoping and praying that our buyer's loan would fund and record by 5pm so that our new loan could fund and record (stinkin' domino effect) it all funded (barely!) and we got the keys from our realtor at 5:15 pm exactly.  Meanwhile Ben was at our old house at 3:30 pm loading things into the UHaul praying that we could get into the house that night. Luckily it all worked out and Ben pulled in with the UHaul at 5:45 pm to start moving in with about 2 1/2 hours of daylight to work with.  

But here's the awesome part... Ben's mom had the boys at her house the whole night, we had a handful of guys from our old ward show up, two friends from Ben's cycling team, Kaye and Riley, Ben's dad, Tim and Brenna, Andy Gavan and Mercer,  2 of Ben's co-workers, about 10 guys and 3 whole families from our new ward!  It was amazing and relieving to see how much help came around when we really needed it.  And it was wonderful that a handful of them stayed late into the dark going back for one last load so that Ben didn't have much to do the next morning. 

Wednesday, Oct 17 night we had enough unpacked that we could start living in the new house. 

We worked our tails off unpacking for 4 days.

Sunday, Oct 21th - Ben left to go to California for a week for business.  

Friday, Oct 26th  - Ben got home to find me still pregnant (38 1/2 weeks) and somewhat sane, ready to kill our stupid cat and I had even gotten some unpacking done.

Now, Monday, Oct 29  we are almost fully unpacked (minus the nursery and all the boxes of house decorations that just aren't going to be put up until after Christmas...) and it's finally feeling and looking more like home!!

We've gotten a loaf of bread, a plate of brownies, three plates of cookies, a couple random stop-bys, an interview with the bishop, a visit from the Relief Society and Elder's Quorum and even an invitation to a girl's night out since moving in two weeks ago.  We feel so welcomed and loved so far.

And I finally got to sit down and start sewing a bit tonight (in my very own sewing room!) and it felt so, so good to be reunited with my sewing machines again!  I haven't seen them since June when we packed up to show and sell the house.  I never thought sewing an R2D2 costume could feel so fulfilling.  Ha.

So now we're 7 days away from baby girl's due date and what's left to do?

Paint her nursery
Unpacking her 0-3 clothes
Buy a new nursing bra
Dye the muslin blankets I made, old white burp rags and my old diaper changing pad cover
Finish her afghan
Finnish her flower embroidery wall hanging
Sand her dresser and repaint
Hang up decorations
Wash and clean bassinet
Wash and clean baby swing
Sew a yo-yo pillow and yo-yo's for her wall hanging
Put together the fabric hoops for her wall art
Sew her quilt
Pack hospital bags and boy's overnight bags for Marm's house
Decide on a name, er, at least narrow it down 
Get a baby book
Sew a blanket from the cute flannel that I could help buying today
Sew two crib sheets from a cute old sheet that I got at DI
Spray paint the wicker stool I bought for her room
Make blessing dress
Get ready for the actual birth and mentally ready for a 3rd babe at home

Yeah, that's not all going to get done this week.  Time to prioritize I suppose. It's a good thing babies don't really need much as newborns. :)   

Here's some pics from the past month, in no order really.

35 weeks

36 weeks

38 weeks

 

I unpacked this suit that Jera made for Ben when he was 2 years old.  Linco wore this to church a  few weeks ago and was pretty much the biggest mack ever.

Meet Shae, Lincoln's PEIP person (child developmentalist). She has been a part of our family for the past year. This picture was her last day of visits.  It was actually timely because he's qualified for speech pathologist visits now so she would have stopped coming regardless of our move. 

Evidence of moving.. the paper products stage. 

Ben puzzle piecing our...stuff... into 2/3rds of our garage for storage. 

Logan's last day at the house... of course sporting a super hero pose. 

Getting our new keys!!! I promptly set to work cleaning after this. 

Late, late night after moving in the first day. We were totally exhausted. This is our kitchen.

 This was the day we were officially under contract to buy the house a month ago. A neighbor came over and took this pic for us.

Picking out pumpkins with Marmie

THe boys kept stacking and unstacking the pumpkins.  or "Pupicks" as Lincoln calls them.

We drove away with just a few...

I actually bought a handful as well and that was actually the first thing that we moved "in" to our house. Pumpkins on the porch. :)

Oh did I mention that amongst all the moving and unpacking we've been big-boy bed training Lincoln?  Logan's upgraded to a twin bed, Lincoln has Lo's toddler bed and the baby will have the crib now. 

He's actually been doing AMAZING at staying in bed. There have been small frustrations here and there during nap time, but compared to Logan getting up 60 times per night when he transitioned to the toddler bed, Lincoln is  doing awesome at staying in bed.

This is how I found him his first night in bed. 

Conference weekend we were living with Ben's parents and Nick, Maegan and co. came down for the weekend.  Saturday morning while the boys were fishing bright and early, the rest of us took a stroll down to Lehi Bakery to indulge in some doughnuts. 

The cousins riding bikes between Saturday sessions of conference. 

Chicken noodle soup (with homemade egg noodles of course) was the first meal I made in our house the first night we started living there.  

It just happened to be what I was craving that day and it used ingredients I had unpacked thus far, but it just happened to be quite the homey meal in my opinion. :)