Happy 6 Months Macy!

Just keepin' it real

I love New Years resolutions! I love making goals and then actually achieving them. That's why this year I'm not making any resolutions that I have no chance of keeping. For instance, I wanted to make a resolution that I wouldn't complain about the cold here in Chicago. We all know that one would be broken within 5 minutes of me waking up. So hopefully these are a little more realistic.

1. Take more pictures. See post below.
2. Post more on my blog. Hopefully I will be able to get back into some sort of routine and have some more free time. Did I just type "free time"? What is that?
3. I've got to get a better handle on food storage. I have a basement now (WOOT!).
4. I want to learn how to make EDIBLE homemade bread. Anyone have a good receipe? Did I mention that I've never made homemade bread that turned out good?

Wish me luck!

Christmas in Carolina

I decided to hire a professional photographer to document our family's time in North Carolina with the Tremaynes so that you could all have some nice pictures to compliment my exquisite pros. OK.....really the truth is that I didn't take ONE picture in North Carolina. Not ONE. What was I thinking? Good thing Mandi is around. I will just have to steal her pictures. Maybe I should just post a link to her blog and be done with it. ha ha!

It was so nice to be back in decent weather. I do have to mention though that it got to 61 degrees in Chicago while we were gone. I also have to mention that I am pretty mad that it happened while we were gone. grrrrrr.

Anyway.........what a nice Christmas for us. I'm so glad we were able to go. I've really missed the Tremayne Three (My new name for Jamison, Jace and John. It's between that and the Three J's but I can't decide which I like best). The kids were shy with each other for about 5 seconds and then it was non-stop playing from then on out. My kids LOVED it. The other day we were loading up the van to go somewhere and Alexia said "YES! We are going to my cousins house." I didn't have the heart to correct her and was relieved that she didn't mention it when we reached our destination.

I was also anxious to meet the North Carolina girls. We had such a fun time. However, is it considered unprofessional for a waitress to tell you that she is so sick that she wanted to call in sick that morning? I hope none of us ticked her off bad enough to get a "sneeze burger".

Here are a couple pics that Mandi took that I love:

Oh and by the way.......thanks Jennifer and Mandi for the girls tutus. They turned out so cute!

Thanks to the Tremaynes for being such great hosts! I know that the Tremayne Three are on a count down for when they can come here to visit their cousins. They told Mandi that she has to bring them here in 30 days. Since they don't actually have a trip planned, Mandi hopes they will forget but I don't. 25 days and counting! See you soon boys!

We'll laugh about this someday............MAYBE

You would think that moving would be simple when the bureau hires a moving company for you, buys your house if you can't sell it, flies you to your destination and transports your cars for you.

We WISH it was that easy! What is Murphy's law again? Anything that can go wrong..........

Problem #1 The truck that was transporting our cars broke down several hours away from El Paso........and we were flying out the next morning. Then when they finally get there (4 days late), the driver rolls down the back window and can't figure out how to roll it back up. So, the car crossed the country with the window down half way. Thanks to the Jensens for babysitting our cars for 3 days and getting them safely on the new transport truck!

Problem #2 That left us with a problem getting to the airport. Our cars were supposed to be gone so we were going to rent a car to take us to the airport early Friday morning so we could catch our flight. Thanks Mollie for taking us to the airport and then helping me get the kids through security. I couldn't have done it without you. Hope you remembered to get your car seat off of the Jensen's front lawn.

Problem#3 For 3 weeks I was bugging everyone from our realtor to the mortgage broker to make sure that everything was in line for closing. With that being said I can't figure out why I would need to be on the phone for 5 hours the Friday before closing trying to get the right people to wire money to the title company. Did I mention that EVERYONE was having a "holiday"party that afternoon so there was no one who knew what they were doing that could help me?

Problem #4 Getting the kids into school. If an Obama run country is going to be run anything like the Chicago area, we should just start calling each other "comrade" right now. The kids have to have a physical with the district's "special paperwork", an eye exam and a dental exam. Why does the school care if my kids have dental sealings on their teeth? Oh yeah, and the kids can't bring edible treats (if its not edible how is it a treat?) to school for their birthdays. They are trying to make the kids cut down on sugar. Also, the nurse called me and said that Garrison was behind on his immunizations, even though the doctor said that he was caught up. He even wrote this on his "special" paperwork. After I made an appointment to get the immunizations, the nurse called me back and said that she had made a mistake. Ironically, the name of the kids new school is Freedom elementary.

Problem#5 Child proofing the hotel room. Why does one hotel room need 4 phones? We thought we had all of them unplugged but we missed one. That is the one that Hailey decided to dial random numbers on. Too bad "911" was one of the random numbers that she picked.

Problem #6 Emergency preparedness. Picture this: I'm just about to step into the shower---wait----DON'T picture that. Anyway, Conal had taken the kids to their "special" school physical so I was at the hotel alone with the 3 younger kids. I was just about to step into the shower when the fire alarm starts sounding. WOW that thing was loud. So I quickly got dressed so that I could evacuate the building. You all know what a freak I am about fire. I grabbed Macy and Jackson but Alexia wouldn't budge. She was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room covering her ears and yelling that she is scared. As I am trying to coax her out the door the alarms suddenly stop sounding. I couldn't smell smoke so I went back into the room to see call the front desk. I couldn't find any of the 4 phones in the room because Conal had hidden them (see problem #5). Finally I found one and called the front desk. I asked the guy at the front desk if it was a false alarm and he says "I don't know. A bunch of people came down to the front desk and then just went back up to their rooms." Note to manager: Your front desk guy needs some emergency prepardness training. At this point I still didn't know what to do. Then I heard some noises in the stairway which was right by our room so I opened the door to have a little looksy and there are 10 or more firemen running up the stairs in full gear. I asked one of them if there was a fire and if I needed to evacuate but no one answered me. So I grabbed the kids and dragged them down the stairs to find out that there was a problem earlier but it had been taken care of by then. Does anyone else think it is strange that firemen would ignore a women with 3 small children?

Problem #7 What ward are we in? When we were here in November, we were excited to find that the church was only 10 minutes away. However, the church website said that our building was a half our away. To make a long story short, we go to the ward that is a half hour away. The north border of our ward is our backyard. Apparently the neighbors behind us are in a different city, school district and ward. The people in our new ward seem really nice though. However, should we be concerned that we could hear police sirens all during church both last week and this week?

Problem #8 We didn't have internet all week so we missed the "no school today due to bad weather" email.

Problem #9 The people who owned our house hired someone to fix a leaky showerhead in the masterbath shower. He fixed the leak.......but now we can't get hot water. Did I mention that it is -5 degrees outside right now? Not the best weather for a nice cold shower. The repair man is coming tomorrow. Do you think if he fixes the hot water problem we will get the leak back?

Problem #10 We got brand new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. YAY! Then why doesn't the dishwasher ever finish a cycle. It goes to show you that even if you buy a new house, you will still have problems. Repair man coming Tuesday.

Problem #11 There are no real winter clothes in El Paso and it is seriously cold here. Below zero people. Below zero.

Well, now we are in the house. PHEW. The money got to the title company and we were able to close, our cars finally got here late Wednesday night, the kids are registered for school, and the movers brought our stuff Wednesday morning. Are we having fun yet?

Macy's Blessing

So its finally official. Macy has a name.

We decided to hold off blessing Macy due to the fact that we didn't know exactly when we were moving and we couldn't exactly plan it or get family in town. I'm glad that we waited until we were able to go home to Utah and have some of our family with us.

We are glad you are in our family Macy!

Goodbye to El Paso

Thank you to Mollie and Curtis for risking serious damage to your home to allow us the opportunity to say goodbye (along with the Hunts who are also moving) to our friends in El Paso! Those open houses can get really crazy with all of the kids running around.

We were so busy talking to everyone that we didn't get the opportunity to take a lot of pictures which I regret. Here are a few.

Whetten cousins:

Mollie, Me and Audray (note to self: try not to stand between two gorgeous people)

The 5 year old girls: Bailie, Hailey, and Makenzie:

Um, I think Bailie and Hailey like each other. What do you think? ha ha. These two have GOT to be roomates at BYU. Bailie and Hailey Whetten taking the BYU dorms by storm:

Thanks again Mollie!

So I was wrong..........and I admit it.

WHAT? That doesn't happen very often (the being wrong part. J/K). My Dad and Mandi told me that I would like El Paso. I didn't believe them. They told me that I would be sad when I had to move from here. Again--I didn't believe them. Here I am 10 days away from moving, and now I believe them. No "I told you so" Mandi and Dad. As Bella said to Jacob in Breaking Dawn: "I told you so has a brother................" ok I won't finish that.

Yes, I'm feeling a bit sentimental today. I can't believe that we have lived here for almost 4 years! It went by so fast.

What I WON'T miss about El Paso:

SCORPIONS, tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes, cockroaches, rattle snakes and any other disgusting things I have neglected to mention.
Being stalked in the Walmart parking lot for your parking spot----even though it is at the back of the parking lot.
The Walmart here in general
Waiting in line for EVERYTHING
That nasty stomach flu that goes around
Waiting at the doctors office forever because they over schedule.
Juarez violence. It is seriously getting bad over there.

I will miss:

The warm sun, blue sky and mild winter.
Great food.
My house.
My friends.
Family that lives here.
The kids' Spanish accent.
My neighborhood.
Halloween. It's perfect weather.
The Sun Bowl parade.
Palm trees with Christmas lights.
Rock walls.
Low maintenance yards
The factory outlet mall down the street.
Not having to drive in the snow
My flip flops---closed toes shoes seriously hurt my feet now!
Did I mention the sun????

Who knows? Maybe we'll move back!