We Got Our House

Yeah I'm so excited.. It looks like we are going to be able to get the house I fell in love with after all.. The owners decided to lease it to us with an option to buy it if we want so we must be living right.. I can hardly wait.. You can check out our new home here.. I love the neighborhood. It has a private pond right in our backyard and backs to a nature preserve. There is a nice trail that runs along the subdevision for me to go running on and its just like being up in the mountains because there are so many pine and other trees and nature all around the neighborhood. It's like being in a forrest! There is a nice size river that is just around the block that I'm sure Steve will ehaust with his fly pole.. And there is a nice big lake called Lake Ori0n within 1 mile of our home to go boating on.. There's actually about 5-6 lakes around us all within a few mins drive, and tons more lakes we have yet to discover all within about an hours drive.. There are so many lakes in this state it's a boaters dream..
The only downfall is we are about a 30 min drive to go to our church which will make the weekly activities a challenge.. It's not like I will be able to drop the kids off and then go home and pick hem up when its done. I will have to stay or go do some shopping then be there to pick them up..
Also I am about a 20 min drive from the nearest walmart.. I dont know if I will survive without being within a few mins from a walmart but at least there is a grocery store within about 5-10 mins so I guess it will do... I think we will really like being here.. Other then the cold weather and very snowy winters I think its alot like Utah where we grew up so I think it will feel alot more like home... And bonus they even have a scrapbook store out here Yeah!!! NJ didnt have one so I am excited to have one so close now.. I cant wait to get out here!!

House Hunting

Just hanging in Michigan looking for houses.. So far I have only seen 2 houses I really liked. 1 was already under contract and the other one which I really really liked is too expensive for us so I am feeling a little bummed out.. There doesnt seem to be a whole lot in our price range to buy that are in good areas and so we are now looking at renting options which we have found 1 that would work so we will see.. I hope some more options come open for us.. It's been pretty cold here the last couple days.. They got alot of rain over the weekend so alot of areas here are flooding or have ponds in their back yards.. And alot of houses here have ponds, nature preserves, or lakes that come right up to the back yard. So very pretty but a little scarry too..
Seems we just cant find the right house with a decent yard in the right area.. Very discouraging!!
Owell hopefully something will come up..

Another Recap

We signed up Austin for basketball this year. This is the first time he has been on a basketball team. He has had so much fun.. He really looks forward to his saturday games. He is so into athletics right now.. He loves sports and being active.. He wants to try football next but I'm not to excited about that.. There seems to be many more injurys associated with football. Owell I guess you have to try everything once.

Look what we recieved in the mail over the weekend.. A good friend and co worker of Steve's sent us this gift as a going away gift.. Can I just say these are the best cookies ever... There were about 5-6 diffrent cake slices, 3-4 diffrent types of brownies, 11 diffrent types of cookies.. Yummy!!!!

So I got a Bosch mixer for christmas and I finally decided to try it out and make some bread.. After my last attempt to make bread I was a little nervous on how they would turn out.. I was very impressed with myself.. They turned out heavenly.. It was a really good recipe. And I spent about 15-20 mins kneading the crap out of it and it ended up having a great texture..

My mom wanted a recent photo of the kids so this is what we came up with.. Seems I can never get all the kids to cooperate or not fight or be crying in group photos so I snuck one really quick before school and it turned out ok.. Of course we had to try 3 times because someone would not be smiling or be pulling some crazy face..

12 years ago on Friday my precious Allie was born and I became a mother. What a sweet little bundle she was. After 32 hours of horrible labor, an infection from my water being broken so long and being utterly exhausted to the point my poor hubby had to wake me and hold me up to push through my contractions and with some help with the forceps she finally made her entrance into this world. And it's been like that ever since. Everything is always on her own time.. There is no rushing her. She is not about to do anything until she is good and ready.. She is my sweet angel, and I am so glad she came first. She is so gentle natured, She has a heart of gold, she is sensitive (a trait that often drives me bonkers) she wears her heart on her sleeves. She is very loving and kind. She loves her brother and sisters and helps me take very good care of them.. She is becoming a great babysitter.. Hooray finally!! She is so easy going.. I cant believe I have a young woman already..1 more year and we hit the crazy teen years.. Why cant I just keep them little?? Of course I am looking forward to having more mother daughter outings with her now that she is getting older and can relate a little better.. We have alot of catching up to do.. Being our first she was born under hard circumstances. Steve was going to work and school full time and what little time he had left he was doing homework or trying to sleep.. He was working graveyard shift and going to school during the days, and being a new mother and not knowing what to expect and not having him there to help me was extremely difficult. On top of everything else I developed a horrible case of the baby blues that didnt go away and took many months to overcome. I never got to bond with her the way I did with my other children. We have always put a lot of responsibility on her and have expected more from her then the other children. I'm not sure why we do that.. I hear alot of people do that with their first child. They kinda have to grow up way to fast and dont get to enjoy being a child.. Anyways enough babbeling.. I just cant imagine my life without her and I am so lucky and blessed to have her as my daughter.. I love you Alligator!! Happy Birthday...

A little friend get together for her birthday..

It's a crazy week for me.. I'm trying to get my house organized and clean for the upcoming weekend. I have my best friend from utah flying out on Thurs. to spend the weekend with us.. She and I are going to have a girls weekend out and go to NY friday and Sat and do some sight seeing and go to dinner and go see the play Wicked on broadway. I cant wait.. It will be so fun to see her again. I think she is my sister I never got... And my moms coming out on friday to help watch the kids while we fly out on monday to go house hunting for 2 weeks.. So lots to do.....

Catch Up

Ok I know its been a while.. So much has been going on lately that I just havn't had the time to sit and blog for a while. Well plus I have just got introduced to face book so I have been spending some time on there trying to figure out how it works.. Its been fun finding tons of old friends from highschool on there and reconnecting with them..Some I thought I would never hear from again so it has been cool.... It has brought up some fun memorys going back to those days.. Of course I would never want to go back and relive them.. It's funny to see how dumb highschool really was and that there was so much life out there beyond the highschool doors if you know what I mean, but there definently was some great times had there..

So Steve got the job in Michigan so we have been taking the last week trying to find out all we can about the areas, trying to decide on where to start looking for houses.. Getting info on schools and communitys.. Trying to make plans for my mom to fly out and watch the kids while we go house hunting. Trying to make a list of all the things I have to get done here to get ready to move.. I like moving but then I really hate moving.. There is just so much to do in order for it to happen.. Things have been happening really quickly lately..

We have been tossing around the idea of just when we should move. Wait until kids get out of school or go in the next couple of months and let them finish up the last couple of months there and hopefully find a friend to have someone to play with through the summer.. There is pros and cons to both..
We moved out here in the middle of the school year and it was so hard on the kids but I think it was mainly the whole culture shock that was the hardest on us where we were coming from utah and had never been anywhere else.. So I am hoping that now that we have been out here and have gotten kind of used to the whole culture diffrences and stuff I am hoping that this move will be much easier on them..
I do think that it will be important for them to find some friends to get through the summer with.. And with Steve already working over there and flying out every sunday and coming home at the end of the week will really get old quickly.. The only thing we have to wait for is Jessie is still undergoing her testing with the child study team in school to determine her basis for special education and we definently want to wait until that has been completed before we go so we can take all her evaluations and reports with us so we can get her established in some programs out there... So we are thinking we will possibly be outta here by April... I will really miss NJ.. It is so beautiful here and we have made some great friends.. Finally after 14 months of living here I finally feel like I fit in here and have come quite fond of the area. Although I still hate it being so cold and having no snow here.. But I dont think that will be a problem in Michigan.. LOL

And on top of all that I have one of my best friends coming out from Utah in a couple weeks for a visit and we are planning a girls weekend out in NY.. So I have been trying to plan things to go and do over there and get tickets for a broadway play and some other attractions over there. So it has been busy busy here... I am actually planning to fly out to go house hunting the same day my friend plans to fly home from here so its going to be one thing after another until we move... We are going to be spending most the whole month of March over there and April we will move so its going to be a nightmare here for a while.. My poor mom is planning on being here from March and not going home until after we get moved so she will be gone for like at least a month and a half.. I hope we dont kill her off!! Trying to take care of 4 kids on your own is hard enough on me but for her exspecially when she is not used to it. It will probably put her over the edge... LOL My dad cant come out to help because he will be recovering from knee surgery so it will prove to be interesting around here.. she is quite the trooper!! What would I do without her... Love you Mom!!
But I am excited for the adventure.. At least I am getting to see some of the world this way... LOL

Anyways that's whats happening in my neck of the woods. Oh plus Steve was in another car accident.. Bless our lucky stars he was not hurt but did end up having the car totaled again.. This is the second accident since we have been here.. I wonder if that says anything about NJ driving since we never had 1 in utah.. Although in my opinion utah drivers are not great either.. LOL
At least it was not his fault.. Oh and I have my oldest turning 12 next week.. AAAGGH Since when did I get old enough to have a daughter going into young womans.....The gray hairs are really settling in now...It seems like just yesterday I was there and now I have one..Man how the years have flown by.. I was just thinking I will have been married 14 years this June.. Wow!! Crazy!! I really do feel we have been blessed. It's not exactly how I thought things would turn out but it definitely has been quite a ride.. I still hope that someday we will end up back in utah to be near family again but until then I am enjoying the adventure..