Life Right Now

Life is my family right now. I love them so much it's crazy. It's that love that gives purpose to doing laundry in a laundromat :)

It's actually nice to do all of the loads at once, but it is a long time for 3 little ones to wait... We are getting better at it though! Luckily there is a little bit of entertainment. 

Liam found an orange under the vending machine and started throwing it at the games. It made the whole room smell nice... But I made him throw it away before it exploded. 

Troy and Liam have not really missed our house. They always ask to go back to Grandma and Grandpas if we leave. Troy will sometimes say he needs to go home because he needs to get a certain toy he can't find. But they have been pretty chill. 

Katelyn is starting to sit up for longer periods if time, but still flings backwards. 

Troy and Liam love to make Katelyn laugh. I love it. Sometimes they get a little carried away and start shaking the exersaucer, but usually it's not a problem. 

We go to a park almost daily. It's a great way to get energy out of the boys and enjoy this absolutely beautiful time of year. Ben is usually not with us, but this was family night :)

Troy thinks that daddy mowing the lawn is definitely worth his undivided attention. 

Liam is insistent on rinsing his own dishes sometimes. Cute boy. "Let me do it!" And he loves to say, "um, I don't fink so" 

Troy is doing a soccer clinic through Provo and loves it. He did his first primary program on Sunday!! I loved it. He barely said his line and you couldn't understand him, but I was so proud of him and so was he. I loved conducting and I am going to miss that ward! Ben and I were finally released on Sunday. More updates to come :)

Sarah and Tim's Shower

Wednesday night was so much fun! I helped put together a ward baby shower for my nephew Tim and Sarah and Devin.  I was so grateful for the support the ward showed. The help for the shower and the participation were wonderful! We had a great time!

Sarah gave us all an update and I passed around a poster of pictures. Tim is 9 weeks and was 4 lbs 3 oz on Tuesday. He is looking healthy! Just a couple of things still have to happen before he can come home. Like eating from mom, rather than a tube. 

Fun stories were shared and yummy food and really cute gifts!

Here is the group gift we got her. A bassinet they had picked out. It looks really warm and cozy! Important for a NICU baby in the winter! So cute :)

Keep praying for Tim and Sarah and Devin! We love you guys!!

Needed Updates

Katelyn: 6 1/2 months 

• Still very smiley. Has a light about her that makes everyone smile and feel peace. She does get more anxious if no one is near her. She likes attention and cries without it. Her brothers like to give her that attention. Not sleeping well at all since we moved, but we are adjusting to a few differences and hopefully it will get better. She is a thin little bean. 
• Her 6 month appt stats: 13 lbs (9%),  I can't find her doctor sheet.. moving does that, but she was 14% for height and 78% for head. 
• Loves food now and can't get enough. Loves chewing on real food. Watermelon. She loves to crinkle anything and gets a little over stimulated by water bottles but don't you dare take it away! ;). 
• Loves her whole family including all of the extended. We just love our little baby Kate!

Liam: 2 1/2 

• ENERGY in a word. Never stops jumping or running or climbing. I'm so excited for him to play sports someday, but right now it's a task to handle! Throws everything you can think of and is pure boy when it comes to messy and dirt. Loves SOCKS. Insists on always wearing them and gets them for his sister too. 
• Great things: Speaks really well. Loves his baby sister. He will run in to her room when she wakes up, climb up the crib and scream,"Baby's awake!!!!!!" With a huge grin on his face. Yesterday he asked her,"Baby you want to get down? You want to get down from your crib? Okay!!!" Haha. Love the love. 
• He will also eat anything. Today he asked for carrots. Yesterday he asked for broccoli. And he ate a bunch of it!! It wasn't even out! Weird, I know. 
• In the no phase. No matter what you ask, the answer is no. But distraction works sometimes. He also thinks he is so funny. He doesn't whine or cry, even when he gets in trouble he will sometimes grin. I'm learning how to discipline a whole different way. I feel like I never know what I'm doing. Usually runs away with Troys toys but gave him his own toy when Troy got in trouble for taking it from Liam and was crying. 

Troy:  4 1/2

• Grown up. Talking so much more, understanding things he didn't before. Loves rescue bots more than life and its how we motivate to stop whining and maintain potty training. 
• He is such a sweet boy. Tells me thank you all of the time for random things. Gets a little obsessed with toys and shows. But he's learning how to share with encouragement/bribery/discipline or whatever I can think of. Loves to play with Liam. They definitely fight and Troy enjoys being bigger, but they love to wrestle and play toys together to. 
• Troy is really excited for the holidays. He can't wait for Halloween. He wants to be a super hero. He gave ideas for the rest of the family: Liam can be a super hero too, Katelyn a butterfly, daddy can be Spider-Man, and mommy a dinosaur. Oops, sounds like I've been roaring too much :) 
• Loving this 4 year old. Loves primary and only sings when I'm in there for singing time. He makes up words if he doesn't know them. His first primary program is soon. I really hope he will sing. I'm so excited! Kind of silly, but this is a mommy thing that I've really looked forward to. 

Family night: herding chickens. Seriously. We usually sing lots of wiggle songs, watch a short movie, try to teach and share our testimonies. Treat is the only thing running through Liam's mind the whole time and its Troys motivation to sit down. Not sit still, but sit down. Katelyn is usually good because she has so much entertainment around her. Ben is patient and I am so glad we are in this together! 

Scripture Study: Is more like scripture mastery. We have Troy and sometimes Liam copy us in reading a scripture mastery. We've learned that bedtime works best for us, but its hard to always remember! Trying to do better. 

Ben is working really hard on his job search. He follows up well. There are some prospects, but it's all about finding the right job and the right place. It's a really big decision and it takes time. We are grateful for our circumstances and to Ben's grandparents most of all! 

Ben is still Elder's Quorum President for a little bit and wants to take care of his elders. Our ward had a lot of flooding in their basements on Saturday, so yesterday the ward went to help. There will be a lot more of that this week. 

I am getting over a sickness and trying to get a routine back into our lives. I'm incredibly grateful for the Mormon Channel. It helps me keep perspective and grasp the big picture when I feel overwhelmed. I love my three kids more than anything and I show it through all of my energy and hard work to keep them healthy, happy, and close to their Savior. We are far from where we need to be, but we are trying and I feel the Savior's love for our family as we try to do better. 

Museum of Art

MOA at BYU activity day. It was so cute! I was brave to take Liam. They had a blast. We did lots of art activities and talked about flowers, sizes and colors. You have to sign up in advance but its free and you take your crafts home! 

Selling our place

*Super detailed - sorry.

SO, when I say we suddenly moved, I really mean sudden. We hadn't even really thought about putting our house up for sale, but little by little we kept getting the feeling that maybe it was a good idea. Both of us did. We had been talking to family members and neighbors about how to sell a home and buy a home, with no real intent to actually apply it until at least a year from now. I got really interested in the process and learned a lot. But again, didn't think I would use the info till later on.

Our town home development is on its final phase of building. But they don't start selling for another month or so. So, we thought that maybe we had our feelings because it would take awhile to sell and Ben is applying for a lot of jobs that are out of state. The good news was that the new ones are selling for higher than we bought ours for. The past few years, we would have lost money if we had sold. Yay for better market!

We decided to pay a real estate broker to list our house on MLS for a flat fee but sell the home by owner. It took the listing to be put up about 24 hours. THAT night, a girl came to look at the house with no warning. She tried to call but could not reach the agent. Let me say it was THE worst time for her to come. Dinner everywhere, not even straightened and I had just showered with my hair wet. But I let her in and she looked at the house for about 30 seconds (no joke) and said, "Oh its the same as the one down the street." A similar but newer town home was for sale about 200 yards down from us. But it was priced really high for several reasons. It was a "make me move" price. Anyway, after her self guided very short tour, she asked our plans. Ben was not home and I was not a fan of doing this myself with three kids at dinner time. I told her I would call her later. We decided to meet the following morning on Saturday.

She had no agent and we had no representation. So, it was a little bit of a learning process. But really all that mattered at first was negotiating the price and what would be included. After that morning, I would have said no to that buyer if I hadn't had a feeling that this was going to go through completely. She had some preconceived ideas about home pricing and Ben was really good about helping her understand why we priced what we did. She also told us that she had bought a new condo in Provo already, but the funding didn't go through on the builders side, and so she needed to find a place in the next couple of weeks. She had furniture on hold that was waiting to be shipped. What?! We said that the earliest we could be out was three weeks. Not to mention, paper work and the appraisal would take time. After a couple of days of hammering out the price and details (longest days of my life) we came to an agreement. I had to constantly pray and ask if this was right. I would randomly get scared of leaving and the whole process happening so quickly. I went over the documents with her since I had looked into it (thank goodness) before she filled them out on her own. We had our listing agent and a friend look over the paperwork before we took it to the title company and it took some tweaking, but it wasn't heavily detailed, so it wasn't too bad.

We had an appraisal on rush order and it went well. Then it was packing and cleaning time. It was shocking to our neighbors since we never even had a sign out front. It was still being shipped to us. Haha.

It was super crazy and rushed. We are incredibly grateful to Grandma and Grandpa Allsop for letting us stay in their basement. Moving was a huge deal and we will do it again in the next while.

When we left we felt so good and no regrets. Even a little bit of a freeing feeling. So sad to leave our area, but we made great friends and memories that we will still have.

Ben finally has time to focus on the job hunt.