We Made It

So I can't find my camera since we moved, but I really haven't looked for it all that hard... so no pictures yet. However, I thought I would update you on our journey here and let you know that we made it to Washington in one piece :).

Halloween was unfortunately not full of trick or treating, but packing and cleaning. The day started out rainy, which we were worried it was an omen because it was really the first rainy day of the year for Cameron Park, typical...when you need good weather, you don't get it, haha. Anyway, it only rained on Nathan and me while we packed boxes in the morning, and when we had more help for the bigger stuff, the sun decided to come out and shine, an answer to prayers. We had two women in our ward that were so benevolent to offer to watch our boys, one watched them the first half of the day, the second for the rest of the day. We had some trouble getting the trailer we rented to tow our 2nd car, but 15 minutes before the rental place closed, they had our trailer in stock, so Nathan drove back to get it with our loaded 16' truck, and I was still at home scrambling to leave our place in a nice condition for potential buyers to actually consider buying it :). It was a mad rush for us to get everything done so we could pick up our boys before their babysitter had to make it to the ward Halloween party, as well as get the trailer picked up before the place closed for the week; however, we miraculously made it, and were exhausted in the process. The rest of the evening consisted of trying to get things figured out for the journey ahead of us, and trying to have an enjoyable last evening with my family while we still lived in the same town. I am really going to miss my parents, my brother Devin, and my sister and her family, we were really blessed to live close to so many of them, and now I am realizing how spoiled I have been. If it weren't for them, this move would have been a lot easier.

Anyway, the next morning we hit the road after the boys woke up. My dad helped us out by driving our HUGE moving truck up there for us, to allow Nathan to drive our other car, and me be the personal entertainer for the boys. We didn't realize how much we needed my dad to come along with us until we hit the Northern tip of CA and parts of Oregon, because the roads were slick, the rain came down hard, and passing through the windy mountain roads alongside semi's made for some crazy driving experiences. We made it to Eugene, OR the first night, which was over half way. My dad treated us to Outback, which we enjoyed, except for the fact that our two boys were exhausted from the long day, and did NOT want to be stuck sitting down again, who could blame them. We grabbed our things to go and went back to where we stayed the night at the local Super 8, which was actually nicer than I imagined :). We hit the road the next morning after we all woke up again, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of OR and WA, and made it to our destination around noon. WA greeted us with HUGE rain drops, which made it difficult for the guys to unload the truck, but the rain soon cleared, and they were able to get all of the moving done. Thank you to all of you that came to help.

Now we are trying to figure things out in our completely different life. The job that we moved up here for is unfortunately only part time for right now, and will hopefully be full time in the near future. So as of right now Nathan is looking for another part time job to give us the income to survive on. We have chosen to make several sacrifices for this new change, which have been really scary, but because we feel that this is what the Lord has asked us to do, we are hopeful and faithful that He knows what He is doing and that the sacrifices will bring the blessings.

We are also very blessed to be temporarily living with Nathan's sister and her husband. I am amazed at how willing they are to clear out two of their rooms to allow us to move in with them. We have enjoyed spending time with them and their two boys, and look forward to the many adventures that lay ahead of us.

Washington Here We Come!

We have finally made a decision! With mixed emotions, and a lot of nervousness, we are moving forward with faith to live in Federal Way, WA. It is really crazy because we were presented this job opportunity by Nathan's sister's husband 3 weeks ago, and it has taken us until, Tuesday, a few days ago, to finally decide that this is the right thing for us to do. The crazy part is--we are moving from where we have both lived at least 95% of our lives, California, on Saturday, the 1st!

I am excited that we have come to a conclusion, and have had experiences that have told us this is what we are supposed to be doing right now, but it is really hard leaving my parents, my sister Megan and her family, as well as our ward family that I absolutely love. Plus, Cameron Park has become our home, and it will be hard driving away from it. But we are moving forward, and although we haven't provided much heads up to anyone, we apologize, we are running around with our heads cut off too :).

What we are primarily looking forward to is that Nathan will be getting into a career that he has found interesting, and something I think he will really enjoy. There were a few job opportunities here in the Sacramento area, but none really panned out, and the ones that could have just didn't feel right, nor do I think he would have enjoyed them much. In Washington he will be learning the ins and outs of the financial industry, working for a company that does 401k's for businesses, but he will be working for the trust company that they have started as an off shoot that has been doing really well, and growing quickly.

Anyway, I will try to get on here as often as I can. I think these next few months will be crazy and full of changes, but I hope to report on here in the future that things are going wonderfully and that we are enjoying our new home. To all of you that we will be leaving, we will really miss you, more than we can ever express, and if it weren't for you, I think this choice would have been made earlier than we made it :).

Washington, here we come!

We're Alive Still, I Promise :)

I haven't been very good about updating our blog on here for two big reasons: 1.) Our computer got a million trojan viruses on it and would not operate unless it was in "safe mode", which prohibits me from opening a lot of websites, and will not let me open up any of our pictures. Thus it was hard to do anything online. 2.) Nathan has been looking for the right job opportunity, which has occupied our thoughts, energies, and time for the past few months, and overall it has just been crazy with all of it-- so blogging hasn't fit on the top of my list of priorities.

So, unfortunately we are still working on both of the above mentioned items, but we are temporarily borrowing my Dad's old laptop, which allows me to operate in normal mode, and so even though I can't upload any pictures to make this post more exciting, I am able to come on here and tell the few of you that actually check our blog, why I haven't put anything on here for forever.

I am hoping that within the next week or so, we will be able to decide on which of the few options Nathan has is the right one, and then be able to move forward and get back to a somewhat normal life. Until then it will probably be sporadic posts, but I love getting the few chances that I have to come on and see each of your latest blog happenings. Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement and support during this trying time, and I will be eager to post what we will be choosing to do, and what type of adventure it will entail. I have a feeling we have a huge adventure ahead of us.

The Ice Cream Man...or is he?

I had to be careful about what I titled this post because my sister-in-law was concerned that I might get myself into trouble if I labeled it the way I would like to. I mentioned to a few of you recently that I had an epiphany that our ice cream man really sells drugs. The reason for my speculation is this:

1. He is scary and creepy looking
2. His ice cream trunk is totally junky
3. His ice cream co. is from a city/town 2 towns away = why would you drive so far to sell ice cream for $1?
4. He comes at the same time each time, and comes frequently (and I swear he came in the winter time last year, as well as when it was raining. Who buys ice cream when it is cold and wet outside?)
5. We don't have many kids that live in our condo complex
6. He turns on his music until he gets to the back of our condo complex, turns it off for 5 or so minutes, and then goes around the other half of the complex without turning his music back on...why not turn it back on to possibly get more sales?
7. The only reason you would come all the way over here, only turn your music on for part of the time, and not care about what you look like is because you are here to make a much larger profit selling something other than ice cream, and I know we have a cocaine addict that lives in our complex

So I told Nathan my speculation a week or so ago, and he thought I was crazy, and stupid for wanting to meddle and spy to see who is buying the ice cream. I thought, "How suspicious is it to buy ice cream from an ice cream man?" I just wanted to see if it was the addict coming to buy "ice cream"...how much trouble could that be?

Well today I was in the kitchen while the boys were playing in our family room, and I hear "Pop Goes the Weasel" getting louder and louder--the ice cream man was here! I started scrambling all around trying to determine if I was going to be stupid and investigate. I asked Chase, "Chase, do you want to go and get ice cream?" He responds, "Yeah, I am excited!" which is not a word I have ever heard him use before. So at this point I have to go because now my son is excited. I grab his bank, because he has all this change that we could use to buy the cheapest ice cream, and then I grab him and we leave Kai to entertain himself for a few minutes, (in retrospect that was a stupid move because what if something bad happened to me in my investigative work and I was never able to come back to my baby?) Anyway, I go running up the hill towards the back of the complex with Chase in one arm laughing, and his bank in the other, totally looking like an idiot. I make it in time before the driver looks like he is going to pull away. I see a Hispanic man and his little boy walking away from the truck, his little boy holding an ice cream, I didn't catch to see if his dad was holding his own "treat" :), and I run up to the ice cream window. The scary Indian man glares down at me when I ask what the least expensive ice cream is, and I pick out an Orange Creamsicle for Chase, because of course he has clammed up when we are around a stranger. So I am handed the ice cream, and when I am about to turn away, there he is! The coke addict! He is coming to the ice cream truck and he says, "Hey Boss, I'll have the banana fudgesicle" or something like that. At this point I had said "Hey", to be a polite neighbor, but had to start walking away to look normal. I didn't see how much money he gave to the driver for his inexpensive ice cream, but I am willing to bet that a druggie, coming to buy ice cream in the middle of the day, by himself, who is a grown man, and who refers to the ice cream man as "boss" in a familiar way, is buying something more than ice cream. So now I know, my speculation is almost 100% correct, but I really don't know if there is any other way to prove it, nor if I should try. This addict is a scary guy with 2 pitbulls. They have never done anything to us, but I know they are capable of it, so I think I will mind my own business from now on. At least I know, and at least I can let all of you know to watch out for scary ice cream men.

"Kai" = Fire

You would never be able to tell from this picture that our little Kai can be quite the fireball. When we chose the name Kai, we liked its many meanings: ocean, beautiful, leader, enlightened one, and many more. However, in Irish, the name means fire, and we are coming to see that Kai has a fiery personality, and to add to the fieriness, he seems to be slowly growing red hair.

Since I mentioned in my last posting that we were going to let Kai cry it out last night, I should mention how that went. I was surprised at how well it went. He started crying two hours after being put down, but after 10 minutes was silent. I think he woke up two more times, and cried no longer than 20 minutes at his longest interval. I went in to feed him close to 5am, and then he slept until 7am. I am thinking that in the near future I will no longer go in to do that morning feed, but I don't want to cut him cold turkey. I am hoping that tonight will go even better.

Anyway, I am only doing the cry-it-out method during the night, and surprisingly Kai has been slowly extending his naptimes from 40 min. on the dot, to sometimes an hour, and sometimes even an hour and a half. Well this afternoon he woke up a little before 40 min., but he was in there talking having a great ol' time. This is unusual since he normally wakes up with a shrieking cry that makes anyone want to get him to make it stop. So since he was having a good time, I thought I wouldn't go in and interrupt. Well he eventually started his normal cry so Chase and I went in to get him up. This is what we walked in to see...

I cracked up when I saw him up there because when I put him to bed he was up against the rolled up blanket, swaddled, (in the blanket that is bunched up on the right,) with one arm out. He not only managed to get out of the swaddle and inch his way upwards, but he also took off the bumper, and was underneath it. I guess he is telling me that he is finally ready to be fully unswaddled :).

You can't quite tell by the picture, but he was quite mad that I hadn't picked him up right away, but rather ran to the other room to grab the camera to take pictures. And I normally don't have him only sleep in a diaper, although it is warm enough to, but he is soooo drooly that his outfit was completely soaked that I didn't want him to have to sleep in it.

He is a funny boy, and I just wonder what we are in for as this little fireball continues to grow up. I can just see him now, a tall, skinny, redhead, with a big head and bouncing off the walls, not to mention shrieking at the top of his lungs...oh no!

AHHHH I am SOOOOO Tired

I figured I would come on here briefly before jumping in the shower, (since I take them at nights due to my mornings often being too crazy), to share that I am trying something different with the whole getting Kai ready to share a room with Chase. So far I haven't had a lot of luck with Kai sleeping through the night. Last night, for whatever reason, he decided to wake up every, and I mean every, hour and a half. Needless to say I was ticked and am pretty exhausted today. I didn't feed him, except for once close to 4am, but figured that by me showing him he didn't get to eat, that he would eventually stop waking up. I have found that there is no easy way with him, he is going to have to cry it out, and cry it out for good. I will go in and reassure him initially in the night, but after that he is going to have to figure out how to soothe himself. This kid is a unique one, and sleeping has never been one of his gifts. I think I have spoiled him by always coming to his aid and giving him his pacifier, but I feel like I really am doing a disservice to him by not allowing him to figure out how to get a good nights sleep, as well as a disservice to me who never gets any rest, (which is why I think I have been having my ear/equilibrium/hearing problems lately). So, tonight I have decided to have Kai get used to sleeping in the crib at night, rather than just at naptimes, and get used to soothing himself. I have convinced Chase that sleeping in the Pak-n-play in the living room is a special treat for a few nights, and we will see how that goes. I figured with Kai crying in a room with a door, we might all be able to escape his piercing, shrieking cry a little bit better. Who knows, tonight is the first night and I am doubtful, but hopeful at the same time. I will have to come back on here and post an update after we give this a go for a few nights. I have to tell myself to be consistent, because it is so easy to give in. Wish us all luck! (Sorry for the long saga, you can tell this is something I think about a lot).

The Latest Pictures

Nathan and Kai enjoying some boy bonding time...watching the t.v.
Kai getting his first bites of rice cereal...not a hit.
Doesn't this face tell you exactly what he thinks?
Chase and Kai love sitting on our rocking chair together. It is nice to see them enjoy being together as well as entertain each other, even if it is only seconds at a time.
I can't believe I actually got them to both make decent faces at the same time. Not the best picture of either, but together it works!