Moving and My 24th Birthday

Moving day happened to fall on my birthday. Wouldn't have been my first choice of days but it ended up being a pretty good day and very memorable!

 

Overall the move went over pretty smoothly. There was a bit of a mix up with the truck in the morning, but thankfully we were able to get it straightened out. We had movers to do all the packing. And they did an okay job. The men were respectful, but not the best packers. In the end we had several dings and marks on our furniture. And the majority of our boxes were not labeled and poorly packed. Thankfully nothing was seriously damaged. And we were able to find everything in the end. But it was funny to find the printer in with kitchen stuff. And the pots and pans box ended up in Collin's room. And it took days to find a missing piece to one of the baby gates, but we did eventually find it :)

 

Since we had movers to do the hard work, Collin and I got to spend the majority of the day hanging out with our dear friends the Bird's, while Michael supervised the work at our place. Which really made by birthday so much better then it would have been if we were doing it all ourselves. In the morning I did leave Collin with Becca to run some errands, help Michael with taking apart the crib, and to pick up lunch for everyone. So nice to run errands baby free- that was a birthday treat on its own! Then the rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out at the Bird's. I had one of our good friends stop by with a birthday treat and it was so fun to have her stay and visit for the rest of the afternoon. And after some crying and breaking the Bird's blinds-we did get replacements for them :)- Collin did take a good nap for me in the afternoon.

 

But perhaps the 3 top highlights from the day were:

1. My birthday present from Michael and Collin- a Silhouette! I have had so much fun with it already. It was a little intimidating at first, I didn't even take it out of the box for the first couple of weeks. Granted all my nap times and evenings were being spent unpacking. But I have gotten a little braver and already learned some fun things to do with it. It is a machine with endless possibilities! And I am so glad there is a Hobby Lobby in town to satisfy my crafting whims.

The day it arrived! Michael ordered it online so it was delivered a few days after we moved to LJ.



1. All the birthday texts, Facebook comments and calls throughout the day. (And the many well wishes for a smooth move.) They always made me smile whenever I checked my phone. And at the end of a very long day I was overwhelmed with gratitude for all the people who cared about me and my family. I am sure there were some moving emotions in there that made me a little extra sentimental about my birthday ;)
2. The day ended with such a wonderful birthday surprise! When Becca learned that we were going to be moving on my birthday she insisted on having cake and ice cream at their house that evening. We decided on a time and I thought it was just going to be our families. Michael ended up calling me back over to the house a little before it was time for cake (and I should add that this was not planned, just ended up working perfectly). There was a bit of a scramble with the movers- they hadn't managed their time very well and had left things in each room and the cleaners were showing up and the packing wasn't finished and the truck (remember our mix up in the morning- we had to get a smaller truck) was getting really full. I will add that this was the most stressful time of the entire day! Anyway, little did I know that while we were dealing with this, some surprise guests were arriving at the Bird's. When I walked back over the kids were all playing outside, and as soon as they saw me they all ran inside and were yelling she's here! I walked in laughing and found some of our closest friends waiting in the living room. And hilariously Becca and Collin were missing- somehow we had missed each other walking between our apartments. Collin and Becca came back, Michael was able to escape a little later and we had such a fun time! There was Costco chocolate cake- complete with 24 candles and singing- ice cream and lots of fun visiting one last time with our friends.

By the end of the night, everything got done. The cleaners did a fabulous job- so nice to not have to worry about that. Our truck was packed to the max. Michael had to go pick up an extra little trailer in the morning for a few things that didn't fit. We made it to our hotel (thankfully just down the street) sometime close to 10 pm. Collin was exhausted but thankfully went right to sleep. Michael and I relaxed for a little bit and downed some McDonald's (dinner was kind of forgotten in the rush of everything) before bed.

My one picture from moving day.

 

In the morning it was gloomy and raining- fitting for our sad mood. We stopped by the apartment for the last bit of food in our fridge and to load the trailer. Then we headed over to the Bird's for our hardest goodbye. Tear were involved and we ended up hitting the road to Lake Jackson later then planned. Oh well. And before we left I insisted we get a few last pictures by our front door.

 

 



 

Michael drove the truck and Collin and I were in the car. I had been nervous about making the trip with just me and Collin. But Collin ended up being a fabulous traveler. He slept part of the time and was pretty content the rest of the drive. Our one bathroom break I think helped too. We made it to LJ with just enough time to pick up some lunch and head to our new home to meet Michael. We ate lunch and right as we were finishing the movers showed up to unload.

Exploring our new patio area. We are lucky and got an "oversized" one.
Although it is mostly rocks and weeds so not very kid friendly.

 

 

Collin and I escaped the chaos and walked around our new complex. Much prettier then SA!

 

When we got back Collin was so exhausted and less then thrilled that the movers were still here!

 

And before we knew it we were left with a maze of boxes everywhere! We returned the truck that evening, grabbed some essentials at the grocery store. After a long couple of days of moving I am pretty sure that we all crashed that night!

Helping Daddy set up his crib for bed. This move brought out Collin's love for helping daddy with his tools.

 

Where's Collin??

 

Where's Michael??

 

Our mess for the first couple of weeks.





We were able to have everything unpacked within a couple of weeks and even got some things hung on the walls. And have been settling into our new life in Lake Jackson very nicely. Now hopefully next time we move it will be into our very own house!! Cross your fingers for us!

 

 

Collin loved that there was so much stuff for him to get into while I was unpacking.

 

His personal favorite was the Tupperware cupboard- that is until we put baby locks on them :)

 

 



Last few weeks in San Antonio

Shortly after getting back to Texas after Christmas Michael got a job offer to be the new Assistant to the City Manager for the city of Lake Jackson, Texas. We were thrilled! We had such a great feeling of peace when we visited LJ in November and the more we learned about the city and it's employees the more we felt it would be a good fit for our family and Michael's career. However, despite being 99.9% sure we would accept, I still needed a night to let it all sink in and pray a little more about it. We had built so many wonderful friendships in San Antonio and it would be really hard to leave, but we knew this was the right path for our family. The only downfall was that Michael was to start the first Monday in February, giving us just barely 3 weeks to move!!

 

Thankfully the city was providing us with a generous moving allowance. We barely even used half of it! This allowed us to hire people to pack, load/unload the truck, and clean our apartment for us! This was great for reliving a lot of stress in those last couple weeks and on moving day (which also happened to be my birthday). The most stressful part of wrapping things up in SA was getting out of our apartment lease. Needless to say after a lot of negotiating (by Michael- I tried to stay out of it because the manager made me really angry) we were able to break our contract without having to pay any huge fees. I am very happy to be done with that apartment! :)

 

In between all the moving prep and dealing with our apartment we were able to fit in some fun final outings in San Antonio.

• Before we were sure if we would hire people to pack we started packing some boxes ourselves. We took down the queen bed in Collin's room, leaned it against the wall and started stacking boxes. Collin LOVED climbing up and down and all over them. He especially loved to sit on one and fold his arms for prayer each night. It was like his own little throne.

•  Baby time at the Library. This was a regular outing every Monday. One of our last weeks we decided to stay with some friends for the toddler time right after. I was amazed that Collin bravely went and stood right up front with all the big kids! Can you spot him?? He is in red.

•  With our moving allowance we were also able to take a weekend trip to Lake Jackson to apartment hunt. We left Friday late afternoon and came back Sunday. After a long day in and out of apartments and lots of prayers we were able to put a deposit down on one. We were also able to meet a young family from the ward here and go out to eat with them. Its always nice to meet such friendly and welcoming people in a new area! We also were able to attend church in Lake Jackson Sunday morning before heading back to SA. It was a great first impression and we knew it was going to be a great ward!

We stopped for dinner Friday night. Collin loved getting chocolate milk and drinking from a big boy cup. He also loved getting to sit right next to his daddy!

•  For FHE one night we went to check out the Japanese Tea Gardens by the San Antonio Zoo. We had always heard that they were so pretty and I really wanted to check them out before we moved. Unfortunately, they were a little disappointing. Half the ponds were dry, no fish and not really the right season for pretty flowers. Oh well we enjoyed a nice walk through them, learned a little history about them and ended the evening with a picnic at a nearby park. We planted our blanket near a baseball field to watch a game that was going on and near the train tracks so we could see the Zoo train when it passed by. We had some really great weather in those last couple weeks, it was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

•  Since moving to San Antonio nearly every week I got together with my good friends Marissa and Becca to cook. It was such a fun tradition that I am really missing! Some weeks we just made lunch, or we would make freezer meals, bread, something sweet, dinner for that night, and all sorts of other delicious things! We usually met at Marissa's house (she had a nice big kitchen) and the kids played while the ladies cooked. I felt like I was a pretty decent cook before we started. But since then I have tried lots of new and unique recipes and learned many techniques from Marissa. Some highlights that I remember: The bread recipe that I now make regularly was one of Marissa's recipes, gingerbread houses complete with stained glass (jolly rancher) windows, homemade ricotta cheese, eclairs, pan glazed plums with ice cream, oven roasted tomatoes. It's making my mouth water just thinking of all these! Many of early recipes Marissa documented on her cooking blog http://anotherstickofbutter.blogspot.com/

The Cooking Group. Photo cred Becca

This was one of our first times getting together. We met downtown for lunch and some exploring. Its amazing how much can change in such a relatively short time! Photo cred Becca...I borrowed it from her blog :)

This was the last lunch we made together. This delicious sandwich had a yummy cream sauce, melted cheese, toasted bread, ham, broccoli, and topped with a delicious runny egg. I was in heaven!

•  One last picnic on our front lawn. This was one of our favorite things to do when the weather was nice. I have so many memories of doing this last spring with friends. Especially the day we set up tents in preparation for our camping trip. Fun times! This day Becca, Bronson and Evie joined us. Those kids have so much fun playing together. Despite the age difference, they both are so nice to Collin. Especially Bronson, he is always looking out for and protecting Collin. I love it, and am so sad they won't get to grow up together more!

 

Had to snap a few last pictures by the front door. This was my favorite spot for "baby bump" and "Sunday best" pictures.

•  Michael and I got to go out for one last downtown date night. I dropped Collin of with a friend and met Michael after work for a Riverwalk boat tour. We always said that we would go when we had visitors but that just never happened. So we had to go before we lost our Bexar county resident discount. It was a beautiful evening, and a fun and relaxing ride. So glad we didn't have to wrangle Collin. It was fun to learn some interesting SA history. Would have been fun to do this when we first moved here so we could share interesting tidbits with visitors when we took them to the Riverwalk. Oh well. This was a tree we saw. There was something significant about it, but I can't seem to remember what. But its the only picture I took that night, so I had include it. ;) We finished the night with our favorite fajitas from Mama Margie's. I am going to miss that place!

•  Play group with our church friends. We met so many great people in San Antonio. I know I keep say that, but really if it wasn't for the people I probably would have hated living in San Antonio. We loved going to playgroup when we could. Here is Collin with two of his little friends- Ada and Chloe. And he had the biggest melt down when it was time to leave. I think he sensed something was different. Broke my heart to see him so sad and nearly made me cry too!  

 

 

 

 

Christmas in California

Christmas 2014 was spent in Camarillo with my family. Michael was able to take off nearly 3 weeks from work. Which was great since we had 2 days in driving each way. We traveled there on the 12th and 13th of December. Nothing too eventful happened, which was good, it was just long. By dinner time our second day of driving I (and Collin) were done in the car. We stopped our first night in El Paso, TX and stayed with Michael's old mission president. It was nice to finally be able to meet him (Michael stayed with them when we moved out) and hear some mission memories from Ecuador.

Family selfie as we pulled out of San Antonio...Can you spot Collin?

 

Our (pretty) happy traveler



We had a great time in CA. Unfortunately, Collin got a cold our first week there and it was kind of downhill from there as far as our health went. But we were still able to fit in some fun things, even if we didn't get to do everything we wanted. No matter what it was much more enjoyable being sick in a house full of family rather then home all day with just Collin. Its always more fun to have company when watching movies all day ;) And I was really grateful it was just bad colds and not the flu.

 

Its been a couple months now so I am struggling to remember everything we did. But here are some of the things that I felt were worth documenting. And all the good quality pictures were borrowed from Anie's blog- she is the best at documenting in the family!

 

• Playing with Cousin Bailey. This two were so cute together...except when it came to sharing ;) My parents had just gotten a new microwave and the box made a great toy. Love the picture of the two hugging!

 

 

Can you spot Michael?? Hint...look for his fingers!

He started a game with them where they would pass blocks through the hole and then he would build a tower. We all took turns hiding and building towers. The kids loved it!

 

• Watching Elle in her school nursery rhyme play. She did such a great job, and it was fun going out to lunch as a family afterward. Then after lunch Michael took Collin home for a nap and I got to spend the afternoon shopping with Corinne and my mom. So much fun! I honestly almost forgot that I had a baby at home. It was nice to be free for a few hours, plus I came home with a few cute additions to my wardrobe.



Elle played Little Miss Muffet in the red and yellow





• Family night at Gemini Street. Followed by an adults only white elephant party at the "Broken House" aka the Terry home. Such a fun night. I was already loosing my voice, and a night of laughing certainly did not help my cause, but it was so much fun. Thanks Terry's for hosting, and Brittany for babysitting. Let's make it a tradition....those placemats need to make an appearance again ;)

 

 

 

 

 



• We celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 18th. Which I guess I didn't document :( But we went out for a lunch date to a delicious teppanyaki place in Thousand Oaks. So fun to splurge a little and such a fun atmosphere having them cook it right in front of us. Then we went out that evening after Collin went to bed for a donut run to Rolling Pin. We did this last year for our anniversary and decided to keep up the tradition. Also its great payment for our babysitters (thanks Mom...and family) Collin was starting to get sick around this time so we also stopped by Spencer and Anie's to borrow a humidifier. We ended up staying and talking to them for a while. It was fun just to catch up on life and hang out for a bit.

• Of course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities.
• Christmas Eve the whole family was together- 10 adults and 10 kids age 15-1. It is always a fun, (crazy) party!
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
   
  
   
   
   
  
   
   
   
   
• Then Christmas morning the S&A family joined us after stockings for brunch and that evening the L&S family came to exchange gifts. I loved watching Collin open presents this year...so much fun! He loved taking the wrapping paper off one little piece at a time and then had to hand us each piece. Santa brought him some Duplos which he was so excited about. He also got bubble bath, so naturally he had to have his very first bubble bath Christmas morning. I got Michael some Lodge cast iron skillets, and a new dutch oven pie cookbook. Michael got me a new purse. Santa also gave Michael some stick on mustaches in his stocking. The boys had fun with those. 

Christmas morning we had to wake up Miss Sleepyhead. I caught Collin mid-blink but he loved waking Bailey up!



 

 

 

 



• When we are in town we always stay at Mom and Dad's but I like to make time to hang out at my sibling's house at well. Its always been just Spencer and Anie, but now we get to add Lindsay and Shaun's place to the list as well!
• We spent a Saturday morning over at Lindsay and Shaun's. They had waffles for breakfast and then we all hung out in the back and the kids showed off their Christmas spoils- dirt bikes. Collin got to have his very first ride on a dirt bike. He loved it. But there may have been a few reminders for Michael to go extra slow...he was carrying precious cargo ;)

 

 

And a highlight of the Terry home was Cousin Brittany's new baby chicks.



• Spencer kindly volunteered to give Collin his first Flowbee haircut. More like he insisted and kept saying his hair was too long ;) I finally reluctantly gave in. I was really sad to see all his soft baby hair go, and took me several days to get used to his new big boy look! Anyway Collin did great with the flowbee, a little hesitant, but mostly curious. Then we played with cousin's and joined them for dinner. Favorite memory from the night was Elle (or maybe it was Madi) picking up Collin and carrying him across the room. He is quite big, and they aren't much bigger. Collin hated it, but I thought it was quite comical. There was also some rough housing that happened. Its good for Collin to have some interactions with bigger kids!

• Dinner at Andria's. Best seafood in town :) We had no idea that S&A, and some of Anie's siblings were going to be there at the same time. It was a fun surprise!  

 

 

We walked around the harbor after dinner.
Unfortunately, this trip we did not make one trip to the beach to put our toes in the sand.



• Breakfast with Auntie Chlo at the airport café. Always fun to see her! It was a first for us, and very yummy. Just wish it hadn't been so windy so we could have enjoyed the planes.

 

• And some random fun things we did around the house.

Exercising with Boppi in the mornings. A nice 30 lb weight addition :)  

 

 

Collin's favorite toy at Boppi and Owie's.
Thankfully it was on sale after Christmas so we were able to get one for our house too.

 

Apple pie lessons from Mom

 

Wouldn't be a trip home without dinner at Olas. Collin wasn't so sure about the lime.

 

Truly and Miso. Sadly this was our last time seeing Truly.
She was a good pup and we were lucky to have her for nearly 16 years.

 

Beautiful Camarillo sunsets

 

My home stake put on a huge Christmas program. Collin was mesmerized like this for a good portion of the performance. A rare occurrence for this busy boy ;) He especially was in awe of the bag pipers.

 

Snuggles with Boppi and Owie....and Miso. This was our last night home and a long day of fevers and not feeling well for Collin. Poor baby. This was not a good trip in the health department for us.



• I should add that Michael had the chance to go sailing with most of my family on our last day in town. I was feeling better at that point and would have gone, but Collin came down with a pretty high fever that day so I took one for the team and stayed home with him so Michael could enjoy a day on the seas. Sadly I should have had a better attitude about it, but thankfully most of my bitter feelings toward missing out on the fun have faded now. And there will always be more sailing trips. No pictures though- I am the photographer in the family, not Michael ;)
• After a couple weeks of fun it was time to hit the road again. Love my handsome traveling buddies! Unfortunately, Collin didn't sleep well and his fever came back during the night. Eventually, he ended up in bed with Michael and I laid down in the other bed. Good thing he is cute!