Moving Day(s)

We awoke St. Patrick's Day morning feeling lucky, so after some green smoothie and green yogurt-topped pancakes, we herded the older kids off to school and brought the three little boys to the Choteau Title Office, where we signed our names about a 100 times, handed over a fat check, and POOF, became real homeowners again!

We dropped those little boys off at my generous friend's house and started moving in right away. With a huge tarp placed oh-so-carefully atop the livestock residue in another generous friend's horse-trailer, Aaron got right to work and had all of the couches moved over in record time, with just a little physical help from me (and a kind passing stranger) and a lot of really helpful advice from me. I have good ideas. Though some unnamed individual may feel my ideas and communication of said ideas just slow him down when he's in his impressive get-'er-done zone.

Soon the extremely generous J&C Stott family arrived and we really started to get 'er done. I feel such a debt of gratidude to them; they sacrificed their whole weekend for us--all day Friday and all day Saturday--despite it being their daughter's 17th birthday on the 17th in 2017 and everything. After school, their older kids came over and helped, too. Since Kaleb had spent most of the morning screaming at my friend's house, I was so grateful that their dear birthday girl had the touch with Kaleb! She was such a blessing to me!

Speaking of after school, that was probably the craziest part of the day. Xander came home to the old house, and was under the impression that his sisters were right behind him. But they weren't. I waited and wondered. And called. But Aaron, being in get-er-done mode, wasn't answering his phone to let me know if they had come home to the new house. When there was still no sign of them and it was nearly time for Elodie to go to piano lessons, I hopped on my bike and zoomed the five blocks to the new house, where I found both girls' bikes and eventually the girls themselves. With all the back and forth we were doing with loads of stuff, this scenario played out several times. Having two homes may seem luxurious, but when they are within easy walking distance even for young children, it gets very confusing very quickly! When the generous horse-trailer loaning friend dropped pizzas off at the old house for dinner, we rounded everyone up at that house and headed over to the new house, which required some people walking on foot and being carried in arms since car seats and strollers were at the other house, and others driving to get another load of stuff over. But by the time we got to the new house, Aaron and the guys had already left to get another load from the old house; I think it took an hour to get everyone gathered for dinner! Hectic!

As we finally sat and stood on the back deck of our NEW HOUSE eating pizza, I was quite impressed with everything we had already accomplished--most of my kitchen stuff was not only moved, but also put away and organized in its new and improved cabinetry.

Aaron even managed find enough energy past bedtime to get mattresses in place to satisfy everyone's wish of sleeping in the new house that very night! And, miraculously, Oliver did an amazing job of staying in his new big boy bed for the first night ever. Lots of change and he handled it without a bump. (Saturday night was a different story. In our exhaustion of trying to finish up a few last things to get the house ready for Sunday, I got to tuck the little cutie in 5 times and Aaron 3. I guess we both needed a little test of patience that night. I actually had to excuse myself at one point when I had gotten so desperate I was begging. I told Oliver I'd be right back, I just needed to go upstairs to eat some dinner--it was 9ish and I'd only had a few canned mandarin orange slices that I'd found in the old house fridge around dinner time--to help refuel my patience.)

This was my biggest St. Patrick's day surprise.

Green. Bright green. My master bedroom has two vibrant green walls. the shocking part was not as much their color as the fact that I did not notice this color the 3 times I had come and looked at the house! How could I miss such a not subtle color?? I just thought the whole room was this fun, pretty shade of blue.

Apparently, I am not the most observant kid on the block. But I think I'll learn to like the vibrant colors. (I'm definitely not the most eager-to-paint kid on the block. Y'all can have your HGTV reno plans and projects, I'm just happy to have a move-in ready house at this busy stage of life!)

Today, I was just so thankful for some generous friends who had invited us over to their house for a delicious dinner and pleasant company! It was a peaceful, rejuvenating way to spend the Sabbath!

Count down to close

I truly am grateful that we found this little rental house in Choteau when we needed it. Really, I am. It is conveniently located and has technically fit all of us and all of our stuff, which no other rental we saw could have done. Yet, I admit, I am eager to move on. Many of you reading this may have come to take certain luxuries for granted. Perhaps soon, I'll forget they are luxuries and be tempted to take them for granted as well. So now I document them lest I forget.

When I stand in front of a sinkful of old dirty dishes, or find myself trying to cheerfully motivate a child to face the mountain of dishes, or attempt to wash dishes with a baby on the hip, or even look at a "clean" kitchen with a huge heap of clean dishes spilling out of the dish drainer and across the counter to dry, I get so excited about having a dishwasher again!

When I step on the sharks and boats in the bathtub as I shower, I get so exciting for having a master bathroom all to ourselves, with our very own shower! Talk about luxury!

When I am vigilantly following Oliver around the front yard (since the back yard is barely existent) to keep him out of the puddles just off the sidewalk in the busy highway, I am so excited for a fenced yard on a quiet street at the edge of town.

When I trudge out into the snow, back and forth between the house and the car with the little boys and the groceries, I get so excited for the ease of an attached garage!

When we're all sitting at the dinner table and I realize I forgot the salad dressing, so I ask Hazel and Max to move so I can open the fridge, or Elodie literally climbs over Oliver to get to the sink to get herself some water, or we invite company over and squeeze them around the table, I get so excited to have plenty of space for our family and friends to not only fit around the kitchen table, but to comfortably get in and out of our seats.

When Xander is getting upset with a younger brother, AGAIN, for destroying some irresistibly amazing Lego creation while he was at school, I get so excited for Xander to have his own bedroom, with an actual door!

When Kaleb wakes up in the middle of the night and I really think he doesn't need to eat, and would probably just fall back asleep if I let him fuss for a few minutes, but then one of his dear roommates, Hazel or Elodie, comes in to beg me to just please get him and feed him so they can SLEEP, I am grateful that in the new house, he can sleep in the office and have his "own room" with a door!

When I trip over coats, backpacks, and shoes as I'm trying to walk downstairs to the basement, or hear Max ask me why I put his boots in the freezing room again (our truly arctic entryway), I get so excited for a spacious, heated mudroom!

When I wedge myself into the little closet-sized laundry room to stuff the clothes into the dryer, I get so excited for a beautiful, custom, well-designed laundry room.

When I walk into my bedroom and it's covered with a heap of partially folded laundry, again, I get so excited for the simple laundry basket shelf in the new house that will help me to prevent the mountain from ever forming in the master bedroom.

When I bump into the exercise bike squeezed into our bedroom, I get so excited for the basement family room with ample room for a little spin bike.

Needless to say, I'm counting down the days. Five. Yes, 5 days until closing and moving day!

7 is 7

My 7th baby is 7 months old! And he happens to weigh 17 lbs 7 oz.

He is a delightful baby who uses his charm to get plenty of attention. There phrases are oft repeated in our home: "He is just so cute! Kaleb is such a sweetie! He is adorable! Ah, look at Kaleb, he is so CUTE! Listen to how I can make him laugh!"

Just in the last week, he learned how to intentionally, frequently roll over. Fun and exciting, but sad to say goodbye to the stays-where-you-put-him phase. He can now roll himself right into trouble, bumping his sweet head on furniture and getting stuck in awkward places. He can sit up for brief periods of time all by his growing self, but he quickly tips over. Soon he'll master that milestone too and really earn the title of independent sitter.

As far as sleeping goes, I'll just say that I had a lot more success with wise sleep principles back when the baby had the luxury of having his own room and there was no crying domino effect. Those nights when he does sleep all the way through, I am amazed by how refreshed I feel in the morning! When I've been pacing the dark house and catch myself wondering, "why won't you just sleep?!" I snuggle his darling little body and feel a surge of gratitude, peace, refreshment, and love. Such tender moments.

What a precious stage.

Spice of Life

Kaleb loved the Thai Curry. 

Max, Oliver, and even Hazel thought it was too spicy--it is a real Thai import after all. Yet Kaleb lapped it up. Atta boy, Kaleb. Way to make your mama proud.