Movin' out!

After a loooong week with little sleep and lots of helping hands we are out of our old house! We are staying with our dear (saints of) friends up the street from our old house and still awaiting news from Countrywide. We are keeping our same mailing address and cell phone numbers for those of you who want to get ahold of us.

Can I take a moment to say that moving made it to my Top Ten Least Favorite Things to do. As a seasoned mover put it to me toady, it is a true "bane of existence." Our things just kept multiplying! When we thought we were close to done, things just kept appearing! The trash and Goodwill piles were my friends. Of course at the end, you just want everything gone - out of your site.

Some of favorite lines of the past week:

Trenton: "Mom, how did my swimming noodle end up in the trash AGAIN?!" On my fifth attempt.

My mom: "Well, honey...I've moved 33 times, but we always had a house to move into." Thanks, Mom.

Sweet Kali: After walking into the empty house "But how am I going EAT and SIT to eat without my TABLE and CHAIRS?!" With her little hands, palms up and her jaw dropped open. My girl knows what's important in life.

Jill: "I'm taking your kids tomorrow. Yes, all of them. Don't tell me no."

Stacey: "I'll be there at 8:00 to help pack. Be ready." My ultra organized, ultra clean friend.

Stacey: "JULIE!!!!" Yes, the same ultra clean friend. Heard multiple times during the move as each piece of furniture was lifted to reveal, oh I don't know, year old crumbs/clutter. Then she ran for the vacum. Repeatedly.

Steve :"I'll be home to take the kids for 2 hours. Can I bring you lunch?" You saint of a husband.

The Elder's Quorum President: After closing the door on our storage unit "Just let us know when you're ready to do it again." Dang it. Did he have to bring that up?

My Mom: "Anytime." After driving her to the airport and thanking her for coming and bringing ALL of her help and love over the weekend.

The Willis Family: "Hi. We're here to help. We don't care what you say." Last night at 9:00, the final push before our renters moved in, they knock on the door after being repeatedly told not to come help clean...and helped clean for two hours, not leaving my side until we walked out with a spotless empty house. Who walked out by my side, preventing the tears from falling, leaving the first house we've owned, the kitchen Steve put in for me the week I was at girls camp, the swings I've pushed all my babies, the tulip bed we've added to each year.

Our Renters: While giving them last minute instructions, I must have sounded worried :) "Don't worry. We'll take good care of your house.

In Her Footsteps

I just wanted to share this picture of Trenton & Kali with their Great - Grandma. This was taken at the Rexburg temple. I love how they are walking side by side with such a strong woman of faith, who continues to share her testimony by her stalwart example & has done so much to benefit us, her eternal family. I hope my children always continue to walk In Her Footsteps.

Graduation

What a fabulous weekend we had celebrating Mary's Graduation in Rexburg, ID. We got to have Choo-choo Grandma (my Grandma, named choo-choo because of the trains the kids hear while visiting in Laramie) along for the ride - thank goodness - she was a great driver's companion, helping us stay awake. It was a great excuse for a family reunion.

We stayed at my cousin's Kariesa & Jared's home in Idaho Falls and had a BLAST. They were such fabulous hosts and had us laughing the entire time. It was a much needed weekend to be together - filled with food, family and FUN!

Great Grandma Alley got to meet Emily & John's son, Johhny -
a much anticipated meeting as he is a little piece of John & the first grandchild
to carry the Alley name :).

Rocking it out with Kariesa

During the family wiffle-ball game - "Anna come on, give me a ride to home base."

Luke, hitting his home run! We played with the sweetest bats. Jared makes these fiberglass bats called Moonshot Bats. They are light, but super sturdy.
W e were all addicted after playing with them.
www.moonshotbat.com
Man, we love this sweet Johnny-BoyBlake flying with Anna

Mom wins "best sport," letting her kids launch her in the pool!!!
The question of the weekend..."Kali, do you want Anna or Mama to ______ (buckle, play, do hair)." And the answer was always...

Anna!

For different look at the weekend check out Luke & Mary's blog www.maryandlukealley.blogspot.com
That is the last time we give Luke a CD with every picture taken over the weekend.
Seriously, brother. Last time.

Way to go, Mary!

Homeless

As many of you know, Steve & I are completely throwing caution to the wind and acting as though we were right out of college again & didn't have three kids and two jobs :)

For those of you who have visited us in Parker, you know we are getting a little tight in this house of ours. It has been a fabulous first home, but the days of five of us sharing one shower are getting slightly old. And it's not that I mind our guests walking into our home and being able to see the kitchen/kitchen sink/toy room/master bedroom/music room/nursery/bathroom all at once, but...well, I do mind that. Last May we contacted a realtor about selling our home, and started some fixing up, getting it ready to sell. After John passed away I could hardly function on a day to day basis, let alone list & show a house with 3 kids under four.

Fast forward a year and we were ready to try again. We spent a large chunk of our tax return getting the house fixed up (new concrete, paint, yard work, staging, storing stuff, etc), the entire time a little sick to our stomach knowing in this h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e housing market we would likely lose everything we were putting into it. We'd be lucky to walk away breaking even. But as anyone who reads the news knows it is THE BEST time to buy. We were told by EVERYONE here to rent, but we didn't want the headache of background checks, maintainance on two homes, etc. After about a month of work on the house, we were ready to list. Our good friends came to us the day before we put the sign in the yard and asked if we'd be interested in a rent-to-own deal. Hello...YES! They are immaculate, he maintains and repairs homes for a living, and would be invested due to eventual ownership. A true answer to prayers.

We started looking at homes and put an offer in on a beautiful home going into forclosure. We have prayed the entire time to be guided in what feels to be a HUGE decision on so many levels, and when we walked into this home I looked at Steve and we both nodded. It was home. It has every single thing we dreamed of except it is not in our current ward (congregation we attend church with) who are truly our family as we live so far from most of our family. It is just across the street from these dear friends, which makes it a little more bearable. It is a short sale - which has nothing to do with the amount of time it takes. You make an offer to the bank "short" of what the house is worth. And then you wait. And wait. We put an offer in on Feb 19th and haven't heard back yet. We've heard some positive things - they are doing the BPO (equivalent of an apraisal), have postponed the forclosure auction because of our offer, have not accepted other offers - but we are just waiting for the final say!

Soo...that leads us to our dillema. Our renters are moving in on April 30th. They were going to move in on March 30th, but patiently extended their lease an additional month to give us more time. So the question you may be asking is the only logical one, "What are you going to do now?" Well, that's a very good question and we're open for suggestions :) I run the scenarios over in my mind - what if we don't get the house at all? What if we don't get it for another 3 months? What if we have to start house hunting all over again? (Which we have continued to do - we've looked at 34 houses in Parker - none come even close to the one we put an offer in on, so it gets a bit discouraging).

What I know for Sure: 1) My Mom has tickets to come out next weekend and help us move out & clean. 2) And we have some very dear friends who have offered to let us stay for a few weeks (2 months ago - Friends: "If things don't work out we'd love to have you stay with us" Us: "Ha-ha. That's so nice of you, but we'd never do that to you." And here we are.)

The selling realtor said he was preparing his clients to close by April 30th and his last email said "are your buyers prepared to close at lighting speed?" So the carrot is being dangled, making us not want to do anything too permanent (like get into a rental), but leaving us flying by the seat of our pants. I haven't felt this way since we flew to Hawaii for Steve to go to school with no jobs, just our car and a 3 day hotel reservation. Those were the days.

Well, that's the update. We're crazy.

Easter Fun

We had a blast with Aunt Sandy & Uncle Art on Saturday. We decorated Easter Eggs and made Taco Salad for lunch - yummm.

If the package of egg coloring says "Egg Tattoos" steer away. We spent a lot of time rubbing tattoos on, cracking eggs, and piecing together torn tattoos to create the children's masterpieces. Lucky us to have 4 pairs of adult hands helping! Although I will say Kali sat still patiently rubbing tattoos for almost an hour. She loves art projects.

Love playing with Uncle Art!

We made Easter nests (inspired by my friend Heather), which was really just a good excuse to make my favorite Christmas cookie at Easter.

All the partying just wore our little guy out.

My Blake Boy

Every time I look at Blake, I can't get over how much my heart melts for this child. I realized I never blogged about his first birthday, so I want to talk about my Blakey Boy. This child is full, full, full of love. He has brought peace and joy to so many through this difficult last year. He has the sweetest disposition and kind, loving eyes. I feel so blessed every day to have him in our family. My heart aches to see him and hold him - I don't know if I'm beginning to understand how fleeting and precious babyhood is, but I enjoy every moment with this child. I hurry to get him out of his crib in the morning and I fight Steve to rock him to sleep at night. The one day a week I work I hurry home, so anxious to see his huge open-mouth grin and watch him scoot quickly towards me.

His brother and sister love him so much. Trenton is so patient with him - his classic line is "It's OK Mom, I don't mind if he _______ (hits me, rolls on me, throws things at me)." He trusts Trenton and never fusses when he carries him or picks him up. (The oppisite can be said for Kali - he usually runs in the oppisite direction when his well intentioned big sister comes at him).

Kali takes such good care of him - this morning I caught her in the crib with him after he had woken up. She was facing him on her knees stroking both of his arms, singing "Lullaby little baby, I love you little baby." Oh, my - precious. And in the bathtub tonight she washed his back for about 10 minutes singing, "All clean, little one. Let's get you all clean. There you go sweetheart."


Getting some love from his Uncle Billy - his namesake

Some First Birthday Fun - with homemade chocolate/cream cheese icing from Aunt Emily. We were blessed to have Great Grandpa, Grandma, Anna, Sandy & Art, and Emily with us to celebrate his first birthday.

I just love this little guy and watching his personality unfold. He has been such a delight to have in our home!