Christmas time and house update

Monday was a busy day - laundry, groceries, karate, and getting stuff ready for the house.  We had quite a few showings while we were gone - 4 on Sunday and 3 during the week, but no offers at this point.  I was glad Doug was around on Monday to get everything done.  He even managed to pick up a tree.

 

This week was hard on me, I was tired a lot from staying up late getting Christmas stuff done or other things.  It's always hard after a trip for me because suddenly I am the only taking care of everyone and there are no cousins or grandparents to play with or help.  But we made it, hopefully there will be less yelling and fewer tears this week. :)  

We had a few more  house showings during this week and we finally got an offer on our house yesterday (Saturday).  We counter-offered and things are still in the works, but we hope to sign some papers tomorrow.  So that is good.  We think we will move right after Christmas.  

The girls looked very cute in their Christmas dresses today. I sure do love them.  It's fun when they think they are pretty.  

Doug will be home on Friday so I hope I don't have to clean the house for anymore showings.  I think I will let the house be messy until Doug comes home.  :)

Trip to Utah for Thanksgiving

We drove to Utah for the week of Thanksgiving.  They get the whole week off of school here.  We left of Sunday the 23rd.  We stayed the night with Doug's brother Eric so we only had to go to SLC.  It took us 8 hours (7 hours driving).  We can make it will just one stop at lunch.  The kids did pretty well in the car.  It was crazy windy, but the storm that was supposed to go through didn't show so that was good. 

Everyone had fun playing with their cousins all week.  We were able to visit all of Doug's and my siblings during our trip.  

We went to Temple Square for a bit on Monday.  I think Damon was the only one who remembered being there - Tyler was a baby the last time we went.  Some of the tree lights were on - probably for testing.  We did a quick tour of the Conference Center and we were able to go up on the roof.  Doug and I hadn't been up there before.  The kids enjoyed the statue of Christ - they thought the space mural on the wall was cool.  It was a bit chilly but we were glad we went. 

This was the trip of multiple locations.  Sunday night we were in Salt Lake, Monday and Tuesday we stayed at the Petersens, Wednesday and Thursday we were at the Datwylers, Friday we went back to the Petersens, and Saturday we stayed in Farr West with Doug's sister Amy - then home.  Poor Doug had to load and unload the van so many times and packing and unpacking was a bit of a bother too, but it was ok.  We were glad to go home by the end of the week and fill settled again.  

At the Petersens the boys like to play with the Legos - big surprise.  

 The girls played with the marbles a lot and the car race track.

I got my hair cut on Tuesday and did a few errands in town.  Doug and I went to see the new Hunger Games movie that night, we went to the 8:00 show after we hurriedly put our kids to bed  Well, it was too swift of a exit and the kids were upset that we were leaving them, so poor Grandma and Grandpa Petersen had to deal with very sad kids - all of them, including Damon.  Mostly it was the girls though.  We felt so bad when they told us.  We should have just gone to the later one and waited until they were all asleep. 

On Wednesday and Thursday we had a mini Datwyler reunion - in as much that we were all together and had planned activities to do.  We made Thanksgiving cornucopias and turkey name tags. 

 Grandma helped the kids do a puppet show and taught them a cute turkey song. 

I was in charge of a treasure hunt, I made the kids do some math and puzzles to get their clues to their treasure.  They each had 3 easter eggs filled with legos, then when they found them all they could put it together.  They were Mixel sets. 

Jenna and Kaylee liked playing with a yo-yo.  Grandpa was good to wind it back up again, and again so they could watch it fall. 

My sister-in-law Tannie was good to map out our stores for Black Friday.  I like going around 6 in the morning.  The real craziness is gone and the stores are pretty empty.  It picks up again around 9:00.  We found lots of fun things and I bought way to much.  Doug was not very happy to have to fit it all in the van.  He made a good effort of not being mad, but I'm sure he was in his head. 

Friday afternoon we met up with Wendy and her family and decorated stockings and then went to a live Nativity program in North Logan.  They also had hundreds of Nativities displayed throughout the church.  It was pretty cool to see that many.   

 One from South Africa, we also saw a few from Thailand.

Saturday morning we visited with Karen and Brenda then drove to visit with Amy in Farr West.  We went to the Ogden Light Parade that evening because Ashley and their foreign exchange student were marching with the band. It was fun to see the floats and it wasn't too cold.  The girls liked it.

And we got to see Santa! 

It was a fun trip.  It was nice to have Doug around for a week.  It has been hard for me to have him gone so much.  

The trip back was snowy at times, the roads were not that great for the first couple hours, but thankfully it got better as we drove.  We were glad to be home.  

Square dancing and Princesses

At Prairie Ridge they teach square dancing in P.E. The boys had their little performances.  Chris, Jenna and Kaylee were pretty good to watch, even though they are still wiggly. 

 Kaylee usually is the first to put on a skirt and she likes to wear it all day, but Jenna usually follows suit.  This time Jenna really got decked out. Pretty girls.

Moving update 11/16/2014

So Doug left to go back to Houston on Wednesday morning,  It was a busy morning.  I made some muffins for a friends birthday brunch (It snowed some more that night/morning and the roads were pretty snowy).  Then I had to get the house ready for a showing.  I let the girls take a quick nap, then woke them up and we went to McDonald's to play in the play place.  I bought them some ice cream, but I probably should have thought about that more since it was sooo cold outside.  Oh well, they had fun playing.

There was another showing on Saturday and another on Sunday.  We got some feed back from the one on Saturday and they seemed to like it.  We'll have to see if that amounts to anything.  That showing on Saturday I took the whole crew to the grocery store.  I needed a few things and it got us out of the house.  I thought because it was snowy the store would be less crowded, nope.  It felt like a holiday Saturday.  The girls were pretty grumpy since it was 11 and almost lunch time.  I had given them some bread before we left, but it didn't help much.  Jenna screamed for most of the trip because she wanted to get out of the cart, but there was no way I could chase her in that busy store and the moment she got out she would just ask to go back in anyway.  I was getting lots of looks in the store and finally I resorted to opening a bag of marshmallows to appease her.  Kaylee was grateful, she reaped the benefits as well.  Sigh, love being a mom of small children.  But hey, Damon found a nickel on the floor so they all could ride on the electric horse (only costs a penny to ride - I love that).

Doug will get back this Friday evening and then we will enjoy a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving.  Let's hope we get an offer on the house this week, that would be so great.  Doug is trying to go through all of the paper work in Houston to get our house there officially under contract.  They needed our credit reports.  Doug was able to get his fine, but the site he was using didn't allow me to get mine - so then we tried another site and it didn't give enough info, so now Doug is trying another site.  Sigh, lots of little things to do to make everything work.

Book Club

I hosted Book Club this week.  It wasn't really my turn, but they let me host it so I could attend without having to get a babysitter.  We talked about the book, "Heaven is for Real."  I read it a couple of years ago and didn't have a chance to read it again, but the book was easy enough to discuss without the reread.  We were going to watch the movie, but had too much fun visiting.  I borrowed the movie and watched it the next night.  I thought they did a good job.

I love my friends here and I will miss them.  It is always fun to get together and chat.  I made apple crisp and some wheat bread.

Snow

It was a busy week even though I didn't take many pictures.

Monday and Tuesday I went visiting teaching, taking advantage of Doug babysitting while he was home.  Wednesday I had a brunch with some friends and a showing.  Thursday I did some shopping, and Friday I watched my friends kids.  Saturday was cleaning and a showing.

The only other thing to talk about is the weather... It got cold and snowed.  Which isn't very convenient when your house is for sale.  I had to add shoveling to the list of things to do to make the house look nice.  It snowed on Monday, Wednesday, and then again yesterday (Saturday).  It stayed cold through the week so the snow didn't melt.  I don't think we were ready for 15 degree weather. Last weekend we were playing at the park in just long sleeve shirts.

I was glad I had some warm coats for the girls, I didn't think I was going to get to use them before our move.  I had to borrow some boots for Tyler and the girls, grateful for helpful friends.

  It wasn't a ton of snow, and it was powdery, but Chris and girls had fun stomping around in it.

Moving Update 11/9/2014

So we had hopefully 4 showings this weekend.  Some didn't leave a card, so I hope they came.  Friday I had to delay the girls' naps, thanks Ashley for letting us play.  And Saturday was a bit crazy.  the girls didn't get a nap and played at a friends house and then Doug picked them up (from driving back from the airport) and took them to the library.  He couldn't go home because of the showings.  I took Damon and Tyler to the high school's production of Suessical the Musical.  They did a pretty good job.  Their sound and orchestra could have been a bit more fine tuned, but the kids did a great job.  We had about 30 minutes after the show to regroup at home and then we went to the park for one more showing.  I hope someone makes an offer, so we can make the next step toward moving.  

 I forgot to post this book report of Tyler earlier.  They had to decorate a pumpkin to go with their book.  Tyler did Strega Nona and this is his magic pasta pot.

Hole in the wall

Alright, so I debated about blogging about this, but I decided it would be good to document my faults as well as my strengths - and most of the people who read this are close family and friends and they will just hopefully smile and get a chuckle from this story. 

So the day that the photographer was going to come and take pictures of our house, I totally lost it.  I just got frustrated with a child and it was the last straw of all of the stress and tiredness that had built up inside of me.  I basically through at fit and kicked a hole in the wall.  Not the best timing.  

Doug was pretty upset at me, but was way too nice to me after a few minutes.  I cried all morning and felt terrible.  Doug was leaving to go back to Houston the next day and he really didn't have time to fix a hole in our wall.  

Thanks goodness for ward families.  I talked to two men in our ward, one is a builder, the other has been flipping houses lately, so I figured they would know what to do.  They came over on Wednesday night and patched it all up.  I painted it on Thursday during quiet time and it was ready to go on the market on Friday. :)

Yeah, I need to keep my temper and emotions in check, sorry Doug.  But now you all know I'm not perfect, but you didn't think that to begin with.  

I didn't get a picture of just the hole, here's the patch, then textured, then painted. 

Blanket project

So back in August was when we moved the girls into their toddler beds.  I wanted to have some cute blankets to go on them and decided that it would be cool to make some from their baby blankets.  I don't like how they just stay folded up in my closet, I would much rather them be used for something.  So I got to planning.  I had seen a design using a 9 square pattern and I liked that.  So I needed 9 different fabrics.  I calculated and tried my best to figure out the best size of square, but since this was my first time I made a few mistakes.  I started out cutting 6 inch squares, but then realized that those would really be too small.  So I sewed up some of the fabric that I had cut so I could cut bigger squares, the other fabric that I had cut I just didn't use.  

I ended up buying two fabrics so I could have enough but here is my stack of 8 inch squares.  If I was going to make this blanket again I would do 9 inch squares.  It would just measure out to be a better size.  It was a lot of cutting, and my roller blade was dull in one spot so it wouldn't cut through.  So I would have to cut that spot again - big pain.  I should have thought to buy a replacement blade before I did all the cutting.    216   8 inch squares

 So then I figured out the best pattern for the 9-squares.  Doug was brilliant and told me to take pictures of the fabric and print them out so I could play with them and find the best combination.  I had fun changing things around and finally came up with this.  The blankets are not quite the same.  Some of the fabric I had enough of to use on both, but some I only had enough for one. I trimmed these 9-squares so that they were more even.  I lost some inches due to this and I decided to add an extra row to help it be long enough.  27   9-squares

 So then you cut the 9 square into 4 pieces, a cross in the middle.  Note to self, if I make this again, reinforce the seem where this cut will be, because the stitching started to come undone.
108   11 inch squares

 Then you sew these squares together.  I did 9 rows of 6. This was the first the girls had really seen the material.  I had actually been using one of their baby blankets as a pillow case for them, so I didn't want them to see me cut the blanket up.  They saw that material (the ones with the red cherries) and said 'my pillow' and were a bit sad, but I told them it would be a new blanket for them.  I think they liked the blankets that much more since they recognized the fabric.

 I was so glad to have the tops done!  Yeah!  It was a lot of cutting and sewing, but the worst part was the ironing.  I ironed all of the seems so it would lay flat and look nice,  That was a pain - I don't like to iron much.  It had taken me all of September to work through this part of the project.  Now I needed to find some bottom material.  There was a sale at Hancock during Labor Day weekend, but I didn't have time to get there.  I figured out how much I needed and realized that it might be cheaper just to use a king size bed sheet.  I went to the fabric store just to check, but I needed something like 26 yards, and it was going to be around $50+ for some flannel (it was 40% off).  So the king size flat sheets at Walmart were $15 each, so that was the better deal.  I still ended up having to piece it a little bit to get enough length.  I got the batting at Hancocks since it felt like better quality.  All of this was kind of stressful for me, since I wanted it to look good, but I didn't want to pay a fortune for it either.  So finally I had all the pieces, then I laid them out to get a rough idea of the size I needed.

 I know you normally cut the edges of all of the layers the same, but I wanted to make the blanket bigger than my top layer.   So I purposely made the bottom of the blanket a few inches longer on all sides so that it would make about a 4 inch border.  The church had these stands and I was grateful to borrow them.  I set these up when Doug was gone for his first long trip to Houston. (mid October)

 I finally got them tied.  It didn't take that long, but I was in the middle of being a single parent, looking at houses online ,and getting Halloween costumes ready. Then I just evened up the edges, ironed the hem, and pinned it down ready to finish.

 I really worked hard the last week of October.  We were going to have pictures taken of the house to go on the market and these blankets would look so much better than the navy fleece ones that the girls were using.  So I got them done Monday October 27th!! Wow, that was much more involved than I thought it was going to be.  I don't know if I'll be doing any other blankets any time soon.  Maybe when college time rolls around :)

Kaylee's

 Jenna's

 I love how they turned out! I just can't wait to put them on twin beds, they will look so much better.  I saved the rest of the material that I had.  I would like to make a throw pillow and/or a wall hanging with it, but I think I will wait awhile before I get started on that project :)

Moving update

So as I said in my Halloween post, I left for Houston Saturday Nov. 1 bright and early.  I left my house around 4:40am and got to the airport around 5:30.  I made it through security fine (I really don't like traveling by myself, I get so nervous since I don't fly very often).  My flight left at 7:00 and I got to Houston around 10:30 central time.  I had a quick nap and lunch and then Doug and I were off looking at houses.

We saw 11 houses on Saturday, most of them were in the same area, so that made it nice.  The area we looked at was nice and we liked a lot of the houses.  We looked at quite a few new homes this first day and a lot weren't even done yet, but would be soon.  We really liked this one, 1714 Laremont Bend.  It was new but completed and had an amazing kitchen and great backyard - our two main areas of interest.  The back yard went into the natural preserve, so there were tall trees to provide shade and you could hear the birds.  It was just a really nice spot.  They others we looked at were nice too, but you can't buy trees that easily.  It was a pretty fancy house and I worried about decorating and making it look cute - but I loved the kitchen.

We got done looking around 6:00 and we were both pretty hungry.  We found a local place that looked good called Rudy's BBQ.  It was great.  They sell their meat by the pound, they just weigh it for you and either put in on a bun or just serve it with some bread.  They had a few sides to choose from too and their cream of corn was delicious.  Since this was our first time they let us sample a bunch of their meats- yummy.  I had the smoked turkey sandwich and Doug choose the pork loin sandwich.

We went back to the hotel and sorted through our notes and got ready to go back out the next day.

Sunday we went to church at the ward where that house was that we liked.  The ward was great and had just been split and the Stake had been split 2 weeks prior. We got to watch the new bishopric be put in and hear from all of their testimonies - it was a great meeting.  R.S. was also very good.  It was a lesson on visiting teaching, so basically all meeting was hearing stories of sisters serving others or being served.  It was a great way to get to know some of them and hear their testimonies of service.

In the afternoon we went looking again with with our Realtor.  We looked at one house and then asked to go see the 1714 house again since we were nearby.  When she went in to get the key from the builder she could tell that there was another couple in there looking to put an offer on that house.  The builder said that he would let us have the chance first, since we had looked at it first.  So Doug and I walked through the house a little more carefully and came to a decision to put an offer on the house.  We signed a bunch of paperwork, but it wouldn't be totally complete contract until they got some documents from our lender.

So then Doug and I were pretty happy and our Realtor canceled the rest of the showings for the day since we had made an offer on one.

We went over to a member's house for dinner that Doug happened to know from Logan (small world).  It was nice to visit and get more info about the area.

Monday was a bit more crazy.  At first we thought we were going to have a day to go on a date, since we didn't need to look at houses anymore, but then Doug started thinking about the numbers of the house payment and insurance and things like that and also got concerned with some of the documents that the builder said he needed.  He wanted us to give him our credit report and scores.  But he is not our lender and he doesn't really need those.  We were already pre-approved with Wells Fargo and the bank said it was company policy not to give those reports out.  Anyway, long story short, it was a long day of phone calls, calculations, and thinking.  Because of our situation with Halliburton and depending on what we sell our house for and depending on when it sells we realized that this house might not be the best choice for us.  They said they could only set the closing date for 45 days out, and we wondered if we didn't sell the house by then or if we didn't get a decent price we would be not as comfortable with this house financially.  So since our contract is not completely signed we will be able to back out if we need to.  We have until Sunday or Monday.  So if by chance our house sells in the next few days then things can move forward, but if not, then we will have to look elsewhere.  It was quite an emotional rollercoaster during this trip, but things will work out in the end.

So Tuesday we looked at some more houses as a back up plan since I was still in town.  These houses were more spread out and we got to see some different areas which was good.  We had to finish at 1:30 so I could catch my flight home.  The plane sat on the runway for at least 30 extra minutes due to a storm delay.  There was a bit of turbulence going up and landing in Denver, but it was ok.  I had another friend pick me up and then I picked the kids up.  The girls were happy to see me, the boys weren't that excited :).  It was a bit crazy getting things put back to normal here at home, but it was good to be together again.

Over the weekend only two people looked at our house in Firestone.  I was pretty discouraged with that. I'm afraid that since it's so close to the holidays that no one is looking to move.  I know it will sell eventually - it has too.  But I hope it happens before I go totally crazy from being a single mom at home with 5 kids and trying to keep the house looking good.

Creative kids

I had to put in here a shot of all of my kids playing with play dough.  

 Damon recently has begun playing Clash of Clans on the iPad and he made his little town and army and whatever else and staged his own battle, he is pretty creative and fun to watch play.

 Tyler of course follows suit and Chris did a bit as well.  Tyler was proud of the cannons he had made.

Pumpkins and Halloween

We carved our pumpkins on Monday, the girls just had fun poking holes with some small screwdrivers.  They came up with this idea on their own.  They saw what their brothers were doing, went over to the drawer, picked up the tools, and got busy.  

 Damon is a bit dramatic.

 It was pretty chilly Friday morning and poor Tyler only had tights on.  I almost went back and got him some pants, but we knew it would warm up, he just had to be tough in the morning.

 I helped at the boys' parties in the morning.   I like how they do breakfasts and not treat parties.  I opted for easy and just had to bring bananas for Tyler's class and apples for Damon's.

 Damon with his two good friends, Ethan and Dalton.

 Our other twin friends were super cute as Anna and Elsa. I may ask to borrow her costumes for next year, I'll pay for shipping. :)

 This was our first house trick-or-treating.  The girls had so much fun.  They were too little last year to understand.  This year they loved the idea of getting candy at each door.  After each house they would say "next one" and off they would go.  I was a bit stressed getting everyone ready.  We just ate leftovers so that was nice (I was leaving to go on my trip in the morning so we needed to eat up the food.)  We finally got everyone bundled with hats and gloves and my friend and her older kids met us and we went out together.  It was great to have the extra help and her kids helped the girls and Chris a lot.

We all got plenty of candy and we are still eating it.

After trick-or-treating I got the kids ready to go over to our friend's house.  My friend and her family were so amazing and offered to watch our kids while I went to Houston to go house hunting with Doug.  It took a bit of effort to get everyone in the van with all of our stuff and then unload it all and relay instructions.  The kids were so wound up because of Halloween and because of being in a fun new place with lots of toys etc.  I'm sure they didn't go to bed for awhile.

I got back home after dropping them off and got to work on cleaning.  It was weird to not have to worry about being quiet.  I could vacuum at night - crazy.  I had to get the house looking good so people could come look at it (we put our house on the market earlier that day -Friday).  I stayed up until 12:30 am cleaning and picking up.  I was pretty tired.  Then I woke up at 3:10 and couldn't really get back to sleep very well until 4:00 when I got up to go to the airport.  A friend drove me which was so nice since I was so tired and couldn't focus my eyes very well.  My flight left at 7:00 and off I went to Texas.