we made it!

We arrived in Idaho on Friday with 28 feet worth of stuff. We had originally just rented a 20 foot truck and quickly ran out of room. Dan ended up renting a unit to pull behind. We have so many people to thank for helping us move. It was miserably rainy and friends and family came to our aid to help with kids, meals, cleaning, organizing and lifting boxes down 3 flights of stairs. I have had a flood of emotions over the last week. I cannot believe this phase of our lives is over. (Dan began his new job today) I miss salt lake and all of the family and dear friends we made. I loved our time there and know that life will never be quite as simple and carefree. I had great friends surrounding me, lots of children for my kids to play with, a safe environment, could run downstairs to borrow a cup of sugar, etc.
There are little things like teaching our kids that a front yard is not as safe as a courtyard and we are not used to paying for utilities. I have been going around turning off lights and we will be without internet and cable for the summer (saving every penny for our house being built). These are all realities that are a bit hard to swallow. I am typing on my phone. But, here are the positives: we are in a rental with an amazing backyard (backs up to a park, fruit trees, a garden and a treehouse), we are 10 miles from the temple, are just down the street from Noelle's school, went to church and were pleased with what we saw and the people we met and are looking forward to paychecks, watching our house be built, making friends and living in a town without any stoplights. I think once we get settled, we will like it here. In the meantime I am going to fight off loneliness by focusing my attention on my kids. Phew, long post. I will continue to blog, but just won't have pictures for awhile. Have a great week and thanks for checking in!

We Have a New Niece!!!

My sister Nikki and her husband Julio brought a new baby girl into the world this morning...Tessa Raquel! She was 6 pound and 2 ounces and came after a long night of labor. Both mother and baby are doing well. I wish I could be there!

DAN GRADUATES!!!!

I am not sure where to begin. Our photos are all on our other computer that is now in a moving box, so I am afraid that my 400 plus pictures from the last month are not available for blogging. This has been a huge month for our family. About 2 weeks ago, Dan's parents came out to Salt Lake to help us get out to California for a visit. The time was priceless. We spent time with both families and were able to see a few friends. We played really hard and the kids cried when it was time to return home to Salt Lake. I could probably do quite a few posts from our trip. We celebrated birthdays and Easter and had a wonderful time. I must admit, I cried too. I miss Sacramento so much and all of the family that we have there. I also have 2 sisters who are ready to have new babies. Last Monday, Dan's mom and I braved two Southwest Airlines flights with the 3 kids to return back to Salt Lake. Did I mention that Dan had to stay home to study for his exam? The kids did great and we both agreed that even 2 flights beat the 13 hour drive. (We had to fly down to Las Vegas and up!) Once we returned home, we switched into party-mode, making preparations for graduation festivities. On Wednesday a bunch of our California family arrived!!! We felt really honored that so many people came to honor this big event in our lives. Wednesday night we had a pinning ceremony with Dan's small graduation class. This was a catered event on the 18th floor of the Zion's Bank building with just the parents. (My dad came too!) Elijah stayed behind with the Pierces and Noelle and Corom went out to dinner with Gina and Josh, Aunt Nancy, Grandma, Grandma and Grandpa. It was quite a treat for us to attend an event kid-less! On Thursday we did a catered Cafe Rio luncheon at the church with all of our family and attended the convocation ceremony for the College of Health at the Huntsman Center!!!! Dan looked stunning, I might add! We are so proud of him! On Friday, we did pictures on Temple Square and lunch, celebrating Deb's birthday before the group headed off to catch their flight home! We had a wonderful time. My dad just left tonight, so we continued our celebrations with a picnic in our courtyard with our Shirley family last night and another Mother's Day luncheon today with the same family. PHEW! It has been a busy week. This morning we went crazy filling boxes. We move in 12 days! Thank you all for your support and love. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped our family along this 9-year adventure through school! I am so proud of Dan and so glad to be done! We have a job waited for Dan in a skilled nursing facility up in Idaho. He received his Master's degree in Occupational Therapy! Have a great week!

Someone is turning 31!

Happy early birthday to Dan/Daddy!!! His real birthday is the 30th, but we will not be here and are celebrating tonight with a yummy dinner, birthday cake and decorating Easter Eggs. The kids get such a kick out of birthdays and have been counting down to Dan's. We are just waiting for Dan's parents. They should be here soon!
"Mom take a picture of me for your blog!"

I think I would have done all small polka dots, but other than that- I am very pleased with the end result!

Easter Update

A view of our "spring-like" weather last week!

This never happens!

Bike Cleaning Day!

19 month old Elijah! Loving the egg hunting!

Corom and his basket!

"CHEESE!"

Elijah's favorite person!







Wow, I was just reading on NPR that the King James version of the bible is 400- how much I love that book! It has been a fun week for us with the magic of Easter all around us. We had a BIG egg hunt here in our apartment complex. Our student apartment life is full of festivities like this. The kids had a blast, though were quite scared of the bunny. Yesterday we went down to Utah County to spend time with our family from my mom's side. My Aunt Alice made a yummy dinner and we just enjoyed our time there. My kids are so at home with the family. They never want to leave. Today we had a Easter Party for our joyschool groups. This time it was planned by another group and they did a phenomenal job! Crafts, lunch, cookie decorating, egg decorating and of course and egg hunt. This has been my favorite part about this year. We have celebrated every holiday together. These families have become like family. We are now preparing for our trip to Sacramento. Dan will stay home to study for his NBCT exam. (Much easier to do when we aren't around.)

We have decided to go with new construction up in Idaho. It was an option that initially we hadn't considered, but are feeling really good about the decision we have made. We will be in a community that is about 7 miles from the city, a bedroom and farm community. We have heard that there are over 130 kids in that particular ward's primary and that the schools are good. There are lots of play structures in the backyards, so hopefully there will be kids to match up to ours. Now, we just have to find a rental to suit us for the next 4-5 months.

Will it ever let up?

It has not stopped snowing today. We stayed in our sweats and played and played. The kids created and made messes! As much as I have been stir crazy, I found it delightful to sit and watch the kids use their imaginations. They are funny...each one has such a different personality. Today they were playing movie theater. They emptied out a cupboard and got a flashlight and were making flashlight figures with their hands. They also pulled out just about every toy we own! Elijah just couldn't keep a shirt clean today and eventually I got too lazy to fish out another one, so that little 19 month olds hobbled around with one boot on THE WHOLE DAY, with his belly sticking out. He loves boots and any shoes he can get on his feet. He also climbed onto the kitchen table to lick out the apple sauce cups left behind by his siblings. And finally tonight, I put some chicken salad on his tray. I went about dishing myself up and looked over only to discover that he had separated all of the ingredients out on his tray, had dug for the apples and craisins and left everything else.

UPDATE!

Well, today we had a National Lampoon's experience...(Walley World) we were excited to have Dan accompany us to gymnastics. We loaded up the kids to drive the 40 or so minutes to the gym only to see a "Closed for Spring Break" sign on the door. Bummer-we did do Costco and lunch, and the kids are now napping, so it ended up being a pretty fun morning, extra fun because daddy was with us! It has been a busy few weeks, last week especially. Dan completed his internship up at the hospital, having had a great learning experience. He pulled long hours and was able to work in both inpatient and outpatient areas. He is now on a really strict studying schedule for his NBCOT exam in May. We are counting down weeks, with only six weeks left here until we move. (We have about 1/2 of our house already in boxes) We just placed our notice today to be moved out by the 20th. (Yikes) Two of those weeks the kids and I will be in California. It is going to go quickly. We are taking another trip this weekend to try to pin down where we will move. I just have faith that we will know-isn't that how it works? It is such a difficult decision, especially since Noelle is entering kindergarten. We have made three trips up there already and have narrowed down our search and hopefully will make a decision this week.

As for the kids and I, we try so hard to keep busy, to do at least one fun thing everyday. (I make it sound like life is boring...believe me there is nothing boring about our life) We did the aquarium and gymnastics last week and have done the library a few times. Of course, Costco, Target and the grocery store are equally as entertaining for us. We are quite a site when out with just myself and the kids. Lots of "Boy, you have your hands full!" comments. That is the fun of it. The kids love being out and about. We also play outside when we can. We have had a few gorgeous days and will stay outside pretty much the whole day when the sun is shining. We also enjoyed General Conference this last weekend. I was able to go down to Temple Square for the General Primary Training which was really inspiring. My days seem to go by so fast. I am barely on the computer any more. Whenever there is a down moment, I can easily think of something else that I should be doing, other than blogging. Running a house of 5 is a lot of work I tell yah! I hope you are all doing well. The kids and I can't wait to be back in sunny Sacramento...have a great week!
Nana and Elijah above Shoshone Falls

Oh, we love this little guy!

The Niagara Falls of the West!

I am not sure what happened to this picture, but it is quite representative of the craziness of trying to house hunt with 3 kids!

The kids in the front yard of one of the houses!

Caught in the act! Seems like I was just finding 19 month old Corom in the dryer!