We Are A Happy Family!

My mom and Amy flew in the next week. Thank you so much, Mom, for braving the airs with Amy, especially with the unexpected layover. We were so excited to see Amy (especially Mike who hadn't seen her in about a month). She was pretty wired by the time she got here too.

We spent the next day relaxing with Amy and my mom. Mike was super-excited to have Amy there, so he came home from work during lunch time and took her to lunch with him, and when he came home he took her out to feed the geese. There were these huge geese that wandered the apartment complex, and often wandered into the road and made you stop and wait while they slowly crossed (except for that one unfortunate dead one on the side of the road who clearly didn't move fast enough for some driver).

We spent the night waiting to hear from our soon-to-be visitors. "Visitors?" you ask. Yes, visitors. My sister Lisa and her husband TJ drove out to Ohio (he's starting law school at Ohio State) and had laidover at my sister Calli's house in Kansas for about a week. They were going to crash at our place Friday night before going the last hour to Columbus the next day (and to see my mom). Calli decided that since Mom was going to be within a day's drive of her, decided she would bring her three kids up to see us and Mom too!

Lisa and TJ rolled in around 11 pm after what Lisa refers to the worst day ever. Calli and Brendan and the kiddos rolled in at about 4 am. We were so excited to see all of them! It was nice to have family here - I think it made the transition easier. While the new move was exciting, it felt more natural to have family around to help out. Brendan was there for a couple days, then flew back to Kansas for classes the next week, then flew back at the end of the week to drive back with Calli and the kids. What a good husband! Mike was glad to get to have a friend for those couple days too.

My Mom was amazing that week we were still in the apartment before we were able to get into the house. I felt a little guilty because she kept taking the kids off their hands. In the mornings she would take the kids for a walk to look for "treasures," i.e. rocks, sticks, and leaves. Then she would sit downstairs on the patio with them and let them color them with crayons until lunch. She's pretty much the best grandma ever. This was especially appreciated because Amy and Keaton decided life was too quiet if they weren't fighting. Amy would grab Keaton around the neck and Keaton would scratch her across the face. Sometimes it would be quiet in the room and Amy would look around, see Keaton, and push him just to make life more interesting. Wow... I'm glad I only have one 2 year old. I'm sure they will be much better friends later.

Mike had saved his fireworks from the 4th of July and we went out that first weekend (while Brendan was in town to be his accomplice) and we shot them off at the park. Calli, Mom, and I were a little skittish about this since they're really loud and we were the only people shooting them off since it wasn't exactly the 4th. The kids loved the sparklers, although the loud fountains and aerials made Amy nervous.
At the end of the week, we finally moved into our new house. Here are some of the things I love about the house: - 4 bedrooms (which means the kids each get their own room, plus we still get an office / craft room)
- 2 full-size baths upstairs (so I don't have to share a bathroom with Amy), plus a half bath on the main floor and a half-bath in the basement.

- A fireplace, because we all know I intend to sit by the fireplace with my hot chocolate all winter long while it's FREEZING outside. - A very open floor plan, so that the living room and kitchen are separate but joined. - A separate "piano room," or living room. It's nice to have one room that is always clean for visitors. - A pretty green backyard with a built-in playset. Amy would look at the pictures online before we moved out here and say "my swings!" I like that the backyards are open (most backyards in Ohio don't have fences at all), but I'm glad that we have a short white picket fence around ours so we still feel part of the neighborhood but Amy doesn't wander out when I send her in the backyard. - A basement! I never appreciated basements until we moved here and I haven't had to look at Amy's toys! She keeps a dozen books and half a dozen stuffed animals in her room and the rest I throw down the stairs if she brings them up. It's fantastic! After living on top of them in Arizona (we only had a "great room", so she always had her toys in the front room), it's great not to see them EVER!

- The Deck: So nice! It's nice to have an open area for our table and barbeque. Come on Owens... you know you want to sit on the deck and make tritip!

- Nice neighbors. We came over to see the house the night before we moved in and our neighbors immediately came over to say hi. They have 5 kids (all a little older than Amy, but she likes to watch them play) and are so nice. They're the kind of neighbors you could borrow a cup of sugar from. I like that! We didn't have that on our immediate street in Arizona, so we went around the corner to the Owens, Beckers, or Hardings. Our new neighbors aren't as great as you guys, but they are a suitable substitution for now!
- Beautiful neighborhood. This is the kind of neighborhood that people go on walks in the evenings and sit outside and have community garage sales and the kids ride their bikes all day long. I love that! We had a street like this growing up, and it's been sad in recent years to live in areas where there is NOBODY outside EVER. Granted, the beautiful weather definitely helps.

Of course we had to come up with at least one project while my mom was in town. So, we decided to recover my kitchen chairs. This became essential in the past couple weeks because Amy decided to smear chocolate pudding all over two of them. This, coupled with the kool-aid stains, made for some ugly formerly-white chairs. Don't worry, we definitely covered two of them with the new material, and then a layer of plastic covering over that. Amy has already proven this essential, so I'm glad we did that! Here's the before and after:

Ultimately, I think that we will be happy here. My mom and sister got to stay for a few more days once we got into the house, which was much nicer to have more room for the kids to run around at. But, then it was time to say goodbye. Calli and her family headed out Sunday morning. Thanks so much for coming guys. I hope you didn't hate the drive too much, because we'd love you to come back again! We'll definitely make it down next year at least for Brendan's graduation.

Matthew and Brody (19 days apart)

All of my parent's grandchildren: Taylor (5), Amy (2), Keaton (2), Matthew (2 months), Brody (2 1/2 months)

And so we had to say goodbye to my Mom again. Thanks for everything Mom! We couldn't have made it here without you (not with our sanity intact, at least).

So here we are in Ohio. We're all moved in (except the office, which is still a disaster area), we're getting to know the area really well, and we're enjoying our new ward (although we definitely miss the Sarival Ward! Best ward ever!).