July 2014

We kicked off the month with a week at Lake Powell with almost all of Todd's family.  It was hot, crowded, and a ton of fun.  We always have a great time with cousins, even when circumstances are less than ideal.  We love spending time with family and making such happy memories.

Hazel and Jack were in heaven.  Hazel loved tubing and being on the boat.  Jack loved playing in the water near the houseboat.  They were both really disappointed when we had to leave.  Gemma had a harder time.  For some reason, she did NOT want to touch the water or the sand.  Every time we asked her if she wanted to get in the water, she shook her head.  Mostly she played in the hot houseboat or went along for the ride in the ski boat.

 Hazel learned from cousin Easton how to fish.  She thought it was quite interesting.

 We loved having jet skis.  All the kids took turns riding with Daddy.  Todd and I left the kids with Aunt Laura one morning and went off for an hour or two on our own.

 We were there over the Fourth of July, which is Jack's half birthday.  He thought we were having a massive party just for him.  He felt pretty special.

 I spent a lot of July in the car.  We signed Hazel and Jack up for swimming and soccer lessons in Livermore a couple months ago, thinking we'd be in our house by July.  Twice a week, I packed all the kids up in the van and drove them up for class.  Poor Gemma got paltry 30 minute naps in the car.  We had to leave early to avoid traffic, then bum around town waiting for class to start.

Our first week of soccer, Jack stood with his back to the class the entire half an hour.  Thankfully, he realized how boring that stand-off was, and he's participated well ever since. He and Hazel are both doing well.

 All three kids got pink eye in July, beginning with Hazel, then on to Jack, and ending with Gemma.  Thankfully, Todd and I escaped unscathed; although I got so little sleep that week that my eyes were bloodshot and achey every morning, and I kept thinking I'd caught it after all.  Yikes!  I had alarms set on my phone to help me remember to give all the kids eyedrops every four hours for a week.  And we had to quarantine ourselves from all our friends just when we wanted to spend our last few weeks with them.  It was pretty lame.

 We went on a few family hikes/bike rides.  We really need to get a bike trailer!  Soon....

 Gemma started nursery at church.  Jack's in there with her (he didn't turn three until January) so it made the transition completely painless.

 Hazel's pre-literacy is getting pretty thrilling.  She's started sounding out short words.  Sometimes, she asks how to spell out entire pages of her thoughts.  She lost to Jack at Chutes and Ladders, and immediately ran to get a paper and pen to write "I'm happy that you won, but I'm sad that I lost," drew a picture of herself crying, stuffed it in an envelope, and gave it to Jack.

 The kids have spent a LOT of time on their bikes and the scooter.  It's been fun since Gemma figured out how to get on and off her bike on her own, so she could have more independence.  She always wants to be on her bike.

 Towards the end of the month, it became more and more likely that we'd move to Livermore very soon, so we took advantage of our favorite things while they were still close by.  We visited the Sunnyvale Library a couple times a week.  My kids have all loved this statue outside the library; they pretend it's Todd and climb into his lap and onto his shoulders.

My best friends Chrissy and Suzanne and I took off to Half Moon Bay for a girl's weekend.  We spent Friday night at a hotel, swimming in the pool and lounging in the hot tub and chatting, chatting, chatting.  

 Saturday we window shopped and got mani/pedis and relaxed at the beach, and talked, and talked, and talked.

 When we got home Saturday night, Chrissy's kids were still awake, so instead of dropping her off, we drove over to Target and wandered around, found silly clothes to try on, and dragged our time out as much as we could.

 

 Hazel's my artist.

  I love this shot.  These three kids are my heart.

 We had to scrunch in as much play time with Hazel's buddies Spencer and Nova as we could before we moved.

 Our best friends from our time in Alabama (Troy and Rebecca Wikle) are living in Monterey for the summer, so we made a trip down to see them.  We went to the Aquarium and the beach, and had dinner at their house.  It is always so healing to spend time with people who have stood the test of time and are definitely for reals your friends.

 All three kids in the same tub. Rub a dub dub.

 Hazel's been going crazy drawing on herself with washable markers.  It does come off, but it takes a day or two to fade completely.  Gemma's obsessed with markers, and immediately pops off the lid whenever she finds one.  Thankfully, she's following Hazel's example and has (so far) only drawn on herself and not on the walls, or the floor, or the furniture.  We're trying to keep them out of reach, but there's always a stray.

 Our last full day in Sunnyvale, we had our sweet Derham friends over for a swim party.  I wish I had spent more time with their mom, Olivia, when I easily could.  I'm realizing more and more that I have to be aggressive about my own friendships.  Hopefully, I can take what I'm learning to Livermore and be better about pushing myself out of my shell.  I really want to give myself the gift of regular friendship with the people I can sense would be good for me, and I'm learning that won't happen unless I really make a big effort for it.

 Our last evening, in the middle of the craziness of packing and loading and cleaning, we met up with Chrissy and Spencer for ice cream.  Hazel bawled on the drive home.  I hope she can make some great friends as well.

June 2014

June has been a waiting game for us.  We'd originally thought we'd be in Livermore by mid-month at the latest, but the house remodel continues to evolve into a bigger and slower job.  It's looking like it'll be late July, at best, when we move in after all.  It's nice that the remodel is getting done while we live in a fully-functional apartment, but we all wish we could move forward with our plans, and that the house would stop looking like this:

Gemma is currently obsessed with baby dolls and bikes.  She seems to learn how to say a new word every day.  Her favorites right now are: baby, outside, shoes, and (the cutest) want some.

The kids had their last swimming lesson with Teacher Ricky.  He has been so fabulous for them.  They loved going and learned so much.  We are all sad our time with him is over.  

Jack finally decided he loves to swim enough to brave our cold pool.  He is so cute, with his little legs kicking madly in the water.

Hazel wants to swim every single day.  She usually gets in during Gemma's nap

 We bought a couch!  This is our first real piece of furniture (other than our mattress) that we've bought new from an actual furniture store, not just Target or Walmart or Craigslist.  I can't wait to lounge on it.  Hopefully, our living room will be ready for it when it gets delivered in a couple of weeks.

So that's our life right now: hanging out by the pool and waiting for our house to be ready.

May 2014

We went to a Polynesian Festival at the start of the month.  We watched some hula dancing, ate some pulled pork, and took a ride in a longboat.  Hazel and Jack walked through the booths and each picked out an inexpensive item to take home.  Hazel chose a piece of pottery.  Minutes before leaving, she dropped it on the concrete and it broke into a bunch of pieces.  She was devastated.  A perfect stranger who saw this happen bought Hazel a replacement and chased us down as we were leaving to give it to her.  There are good people everywhere.

We decided it was time to give potty training another go with Jack.  It was a massive success!  Hooray!  

The kids' swimming lessons are going wonderfully.  Hazel can swim independently for 10-15 feet and just loves being in the water.  She plays in our community pool several afternoons a week.  Jack has begun to hold his breath under water and will swim from the wall or the step to his teacher, two or three feet.  Unfortunately, our apartment pool is quite chilly, unlike the 90 degree water his lessons are in, and he will not get in and practice at home.  

I didn't sign Hazel up for preschool out here (to minimize transitions for her), so other than swimming lessons twice a week, and buying groceries and such, we're mostly homebodies right now. Besides the pool, we've got a few other things gong for us.  

First of all, we've got a massive porch to hang out on.  I love it!  We've also got a big concrete area in front of us that the kids ride their bikes around on.  Jack especially has been on his bike constantly since we moved here.  

The other pro about being in an apartment complex is that Hazel has a bunch of built in neighbor-friends.  There are all these cute seven-year-olds she enjoys playing with.  After they come home from school, it's a big party outside every afternoon.  

We also have a nice big park right next door, just the perfect distance for H and J to ride their bikes while I carry Gemma and follow behind.  We were there yesterday and Hazel was being soooo helpful with Gemma, helping her go on slides and ride on the teeter totter.  And Jack loved pushing her in the baby swing for a long time.

Gemma's in a cute phase right now.  She's always got a book tucked under her arm.  When the kids play animals, she growls right along with them.  She loves being chased and still adores peekaboo.  She'll hide in my closet while I'm getting ready in the morning and poke out to surprise me.  She's adorable.  

Our biggest news is that we're getting ready to move ... again.  Todd's joining up with a small fire protection company in Livermore.  We're quite excited for this new venture.  Todd's looking forward to having a more challenging, dynamic job.  I'm thrilled that we're going to rent a house.  The company bought it, and we've been helping to renovate it.  Mostly Todd has been.  He's been working himself to exhaustion day after day.

The kids' favorite part about it is that we're going to have a backyard!!!  We're all pretty thrilled about it.  We've already bought a play structure on Craigslist and set it up.  The kids play on it when we go up to work on the house.  It was the ticket to finally motivate Hazel to figure out how to pump on a swing on her own.  Hip hip hooray!

 There's a bike trail entrance beside the house.  I anticipate many more outings along this path in the upcoming years... It leads almost directly to the elementary school.   I think we'll be taking Hazel to kindergarten on our bikes!

 More info to come next month!

April Review

We spent the first third of April packing and cleaning up our house in Smithfield, and saying our goodbyes to all our family nearby.

I experienced mixed emotions.  I was so excited to move back to California and "un-pause" my life.  I dreaded downsizing from the wonderful house we had into a yard-less, washer and dryer-less apartment.  I freaked out about that a bit, actually.  

The night before we left, my mom accused me of "not feeling sad at all" about moving away. I remember she said, "This must have been a really awful year for you if you're so anxious to leave."  Um, yes, yes it was a really awful year.  It wasn't all bad; I loved being near family and being in a nice house.  But it was still the hardest year of my life by a long shot, and I was happy to put it behind me. 

But that didn't stop me from crying the last time I walked through the place, everyone else already loaded up and ready to drive off.  That house was Godsent, and I will always be grateful for it and the people who took care of me while I was there.  

We moved back into our previous ward's boundaries here in Sunnyvale.  That has gone a long ways in helping us all with the transition.  We are happy to be surrounded by long-time friends and our ward family.  

Hazel and Jack have a bunk bed, and take turns sleeping on the top.  Hazel set up her scarf hammock and hangs out there a lot. (I love how this picture shows her lemur hanging out by her as well.  Also, the look on Hazel's face: "Get out of here." I get that a lot.)

We signed the two older kids up for twice a week swim lessons.  They're the only kids in their class with Teacher Ricky.  They've been three times so far, and I can see they're rapidly gaining confidence in the water.  Jack will put his face in the water on the count of three.  Hazel loves diving for toys and  swimming face-down.  She can make it 8-10 feet now.  

 One of our first field trips out here was to visit the beach and Barbara's Fishtrap (aka The Fish Restaurant) at Half Moon Bay.  It was an awesome day for everyone.  I especially loved watching Gemma experience everything for the first time.  She was fascinated with the different textures of the wet and dry sand, and loved standing in the water and being chased by the waves.

 Easter has been our first holiday out here.  Our attempt to color eggs was kind of pathetic.  I thought we'd unpacked the food coloring, but then we couldn't find it, so we ended up just coloring the eggs with markers.  Jack flipped out when he realized all the ink was coming off on his fingers.

Some of our friends organized an Easter party the Friday before.  In addition to an egg hunt, the kids tried out ice blocking and hard boiled egg races.  We love the good friends we have out here!

A family in our ward owns the local mini-golf course and hosts a ward egg hunt there every year.  It is awesome!  Our attempt to catch a photo of all three kids... not so awesome.  Gemma was sporting a bit of a fever that weekend and was furiously offended that I set her down.  

Gemma broke out in a rash moments after eating walnuts.  Guess we've got an allergy there.

I took the kids with me to visit old co-workers at Cumberland Elementary.  I think it was a really good experience for Hazel to see a kindergarten classroom and meet a K teacher.  She's been nervous about starting school this fall, and I think seeing how friendly and welcoming the atmosphere is took the edge off for her. She's since started acting a little excited about school.  

Overall, the move back has been pretty painless.  We're happy to be back.