(Sigh)

I think I'm recovered enough to post. It was a whirlwind week. Have you ever had to get your house ready to sell? Did you have to do it in a week? With a baby that is teething and not sleeping through the night and a toddler that is afraid of monsters and wakes up from bad dreams? A queen bed is not big enough for a family of 5.

It sucked!

All those little things that we meant to repair turned out to be a LOT! Thank you Jordan for the yard work. Thank you Sarah for the cleaning. Thank you mom and dad for sacrificing your Easter weekend to slave away at our house. Thank you friends and neighbors for watching the girls. We may just stay in Boise for the rest of our lives to avoid going through this again.

Dan starts his job on the 7th. We won't buy a home until ours sells. Dan will come home on weekends. I don't know how I will manage being a single mom in a house that has to stay spotless. I may spend lots of time in Santa Clara. (This is where we are currently.) Dan stayed in Lehi to continue working on the house.

We went to a birthday party for my Grammy (84 yrs.) on Saturday. This is a picture of all her great-grandkids:

WWJD

We have a BAZILLION things to get done. We're puting our house on the market next friday. So I shouldn't be blogging but I wanted to write this down before I forget.

Chloe loves long hair. She really wants long hair like Rapunzel or her cousin Sara. I've blown it out a few times in the past couple of months and she thinks it's beautiful. I tried to take some pictures of it. I wish she would let me cut it so it would curl, that's a lot easier. I like the black and white one, even though her hair is in her face (we were doing Salon Selectives) because her smile is natural.

Chloe is in a doll club with four other girls. Each month one of the mothers hosts it (not my idea). Tuesday was our turn. Chloe kept telling her other friends about it and asking them to come. The night before she asked me again if they could come. I told her I didn't have enough supplies for more. She said, "Mom, what's the right choice? What would Jesus do?" I told her Jesus would invite everyone to doll club. "Then why aren't you making the right choice?"

A few weeks ago Dan was asking Chloe if she wanted more kids in the family. She told him, "Maybe just one more boy so we could each have a prince." (She and Stella.)

Boise Pros & Cons

#1 pro: Dan will like his job better. He'll have to explain the new jobby-job.

#1 con: Leaving family. Even in Lehi we were the farthest away from my family but we got an occasional, "hey, we're coming up for....can we stay at your house?" We won't get that in Boise. Chloe LOVES playing with her cousins. Now we'll be the novelty cousins. The ones that only come around a couple times a year and miss out on everything else.

And I'm sad to leave my little brothers. Up until I graduated from highschool I spent a lot of time with Jordan & Zach. But then I went on a mission, away to college and then got married and haven't returned to Santa Clara. I wasn't around for their highschool years. I didn't know their friends or see them go to prom. I felt like I was missing out. But since Jordan has been living in Provo we see him frequently. He'll stop by and bring a friend over occasionally. And I'm sure if he got a girlfriend I would meet her. He could get married while we are still living in Idaho. And Zach will be home from his mission this summer and we won't get to see him much.

I'm usually the last to find out about things related to my family. I'm sure it will only get worse with fewer visits. Even if I could manage the kids alone on a 9 hour drive, I don't think I want to spend that much in gas very frequently.

Also, we get to see Dan's sister everytime they come to SLC to visit her in-laws. We'll miss that.

more pros and cons to come.

BFF's

Fred and Sid were both born on the 15th---three months apart. Sid is younger but a bit bigger I think. Sid is chubby and squishy. Just like a baby should be. I hope they will be best friends (even though Sid dresses a little different sometimes). We really enjoyed their visit. Wish we could see them more. Instead we're putting even more distance between us. More photos from their visit here.

Fred is 7 months now. He's crawling and trying to go up the stairs. And finally tolerating my diet better.

We're Going For It

While we were in Boise a voice came to me saying, "This is the place." So we're moving.

Or else we're just willing to risk it for the adventure.

--Let me interrupt this post to inform you that I haven't thought this through and it will most likely be filled will ramblings. Continue if you so desire.--

We spent our weekend driving around Boise trying to figure out where we would want to buy a house. In all our driving we only saw 3 LDS chapels. I can see more than that from our house here. I thought that since they are neighbors to Utah and they have a BYU that there would be lots of Mormons. Not so. I'm not sure if anyone at Dan's work is a member. Most of them have one or two kids and will have no more.

Next thought: Chloe is five. This will be the 3rd state she's lived in. And it's likely we'll move again. Is it bad parenting to move your kids around?

Those of you that are into mountain biking, kayaking, climbing--outdoorsy stuff--know that Boise is a cool place to live. We are excited about this. As you know, Dan is into biking. This was the tipping point:

I'm going to stop here and make individual posts for each of my thoughts.

Vote for Torah

Because she is totally the rippingest. Rowe asked me to pass this along. So head over and vote.

We're Moving!

What!? Yep. It's not for sure-for sure but pretty for sure.
So, any guesses?
Don't feel bad if you had no idea. It all happened really fast. And I wanted it to be a surprise.
Surprise!
A couple of weeks ago Dan decided he was ready to move on. Put out his resume. Had some interviews and offers. And now we're moving. Probably. We still have to sell our house and stuff. Which brings me to....anyone want to come visit? By visit I mean help watch the kids, pack up the house and get it ready to sell--you know, fun stuff. Please. Anyone.

More on this topic to come.

Over With

(Chloe's hair is Dan's fault)

Well, I did it. My goal was to run 8 miles but I was able to run the whole thing. Slowly. My time was 2:21. I know what you're thinking--you didn't know it was possible to run that slow. Well, it was more like stomping. I leaned forward, picked up a foot and let it flop to the ground with a 'thud'. stomp. stomp. stomp. For 13 miles. My lungs and muscles were fine but my 31 year old tendons and joints struggled. I wouldn't have made it without ibuprofen (thanks Dalls).

It didn't work out for Dan to mtn. bike or climb. He just watched the kids. He didn't enjoy it and said he'll make a bigger effort to make sure I get to do fun things on trips. (I'm writing that here so he'll remember.)

Tubing

Every year Dan's company takes the families tubing.

This is what Fred did:
while we did this:

Gettin' Physical

Dan and I are signed up for the Moab half-marathon on Saturday. I haven't trained so well. It is hard when the ground is covered in snow. Only 2 kids fit in the stroller. So Dan bought a used treadmill. It is still hard to train. I try bribing the girls to be good until I'm done. Bribery doesn't work for Fred. It was warm enough to run outside last week so I took Stella and Fred in the stroller and Chloe and her friend rode their bikes behind. We did 3 miles. With lots of stops for drinks. Stella and Fred slept.

Here are the longest distances I've run:

1996--Marathon

2006--10k (in an olympic distance triathlon)

Last Saturday--5.5 miles

Other than that I've never run more than 3 miles (to train for sprint distance triathlons).

So, any guess on how I'll do in Moab?

The treadmill gets a little use.

Splish Splash

he's going to be a back-stroker.

sorry for the slip. i've filmed him so many times. this was the cleanest.