Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Our New Life in Utah

Saturday:
Saturday was insanely busy for us as we moved into our new home. We were supposed to get the keys at noon, but had a couple issues with the previous tenants crop up that delayed our start.

We ended up getting moved in with the help of my parents and brother, my aunt Marla, my cousin and her two kids, another cousin, and a few of Caleb's friends. 

Sunday:
The next day we drove out to my aunt and uncle's house for Sunday dinner. My grandparents were in town as well as my older sister's family, plus another of my cousins was in town with her husband. It was quite the get-together and there was no way I was going to miss it! 

The kids had a blast playing with friends and cousins, and spent time on the swings with daddy. 


 My older sister got to meet Liam for the first time and hold him as well! 


Monday:
 On Monday my wonderful cousin, Sara, came down from Twin Falls to help me clean the dirty townhome and do some unpacking. I'm appalled to see that I didn't take a single picture of her, but I assure you I was so excited to see her and so appreciative of all her help! 


Tuesday:


 Wednesday:
My older sister's family stopped by for a little while and my sister took some pictures of Liam and I which I am very excited to see! 


 Thursday:
Sara headed home to Twin that afternoon, and the kids missed her! Connor called her "Shan'rie" the entire time she was with us. He told me multiple times. "Mommy, Shan'rie gone... where Shan'rie go?" Thanks for all your help, my wonderful cousin! We sure love ya! 

Evelynn and Liam wore themselves out that day, but Connor probably would have stayed up all night if I'd let him. 



 Friday:
Caleb's family came into town! My mother-in-law, Deanna, and youngest sister-in-law, Macie arrived that afternoon, and Parker, Katelyn, and Shandrie arrived that night after most everyone in the house had headed to bed. 

 Grandma Anderson was excited to meet baby Liam!



Saturday:
Saturday morning there were more introductions to baby Liam. I'm quite a slacker with the pictures, apparently, because I didn't take a single one of Aunt Katelyn holding Liam!


There was also a trip to the grocery store.


Some haircuts, including Aunt Katelyn, Aunt Macie, Evelynn's first REAL haircut, and a trim for Connor. 



And then we ended the day by participating in a family reunion for Grandma Anderson's family, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed! They had daddy, Uncle Parker, and Aunt Shandrie take them down the slide multiple times, even though they were freezing in 80 degree weather. (Poor Arizona babies... it's gonna take some time to adjust to swimming in less than 100 degrees! haha!)



 Sunday:




All our guests had to head home Sunday afternoon, so the kids made sure to say their goodbyes with lots of kisses! 



 Monday:
I had a friend invite me to a playdate. You may be thinking, "Already making new friends?! Go Rebecca!" but it was actually a friend I grew up with in Nampa who lives close by. I was so excited about getting out of the house with the kids! We went to a nearby splashpad and the kids loved it (including Liam who slept through it all)!


 Tuesday:
My daughter thinks her daddy's new computer desk is a perch for her to sit on while she stares at the computer screen and loudly demands to watch YouTube shows. It's not. But she hasn't caught on to that detail yet. She's mastered the cute pwwwweeeeese face though that often gets her what she wants! 


Yesterday (Tuesday) our day was filled with cleaning and attempting to finish unpacking this place with the help of my cousin and aunt. Thanks for your help! 


Moving Prep & Moving Day

My Mom left Arizona on the 23rd of July, which gave me about a week to finish up packing before it was time to load the moving van. I attempted to keep busy during that time and updated the blog, and finalized housing things and ensured bills would be paid on time. 

I was a bit overwhelmed with handling three kids, if you want perfect honesty. Liam loves to be held, and both Evelynn and Connor knew something was going on and that Mom had packed away their toys, and they weren't the biggest fans of it. Their tablets ended up being my life-saver during the week! 



 I was still pretty tired, considering the fact that I had just had a baby a week and a half ago. So, Daddy was the best baby holder each night while I rested! 


Our first outing with the entire family in the car was the 24th, for Liam's 1 week follow-up appointment. Connor was so excited about his big boy spot in the 3rd row! 


Here's our cute little girl amusing herself with a few of her favorite toys we made sure to pack last. Sometimes I can't figure out where she got so much diva attitude! It definitely wasn't from me.


We had a stressful weekend while we tried to sort out some housing issues that cropped up. We had a place lined up and approved for renting it, but then management decided they might let their current tenants stay and put in a new application. We ended up having to tell them we couldn't wait til next week while they sorted it out, because we couldn't risk not having housing when we arrived in a week. So, it was back to the drawing board while we tried to quickly find another place and get the approval started. 





You can view a cute video of the kids occupying themselves by singing wheels on the bus HERE.

On Wed the 29th, our A/C quit working. It was the last day to complete our packing since my parents and little brother would arrive that night to help us load the moving van the next day. It was miserable as we waited for the repair man to come! It had been a long, exhausting night. 




 We were relieved when the repair man was able to come back in the late afternoon with the necessary part and fix it for us! 

 After we (well, the guys!) loaded the moving van, my parents and brother took the kids for a swim for the last time. I forgot to leave out Caleb's swimsuit, so he had to watch with me and Liam. He was an awesome baby holder, though! Yay for Daddy!



We stayed one last night after the  moving van was packed and all slept on air mattresses. We did the final cleaning, our move out inspection, and then turned in the keys. While we waited to do that, Joseph helped entertain my kids. 



When it was time to leave, I demanded we take a final picture by the moving van before heading out. 


Caleb drove the moving van with my dad as codriver, and I drove our car with myi mom as codriver and Joseph crammed between carseats to help take care of my kids. He was such a wonderful help though!

I drove the first 5 hours to past Kingman, but we made a stop before hitting Vegas and I switched with my Mom. My back was killing me, so she drove til St George where we stopped for dinner. 


Welcome to Utah! 
From St George on, we had my dad drive the car, and Caleb drove the moving van with Joseph and co-driver. Neither my mom or I drive well in the dark so we were glad to have my dad take over. 

My kids were incredibly well behaved on the drive. Liam went about 2.5 hours between feedings, and Connor and Evelynn hardly made a peep throughout the drive. It took us about 14 hours, and the fact that all three were well behaved during that time was amazing to me! 

It was close to 2 am when we got into American Fork, UT to stay for the night.