The past few months have been a roller coaster with trying to sell the house. For the longest time, we did not have a whole lot of interested people coming to look at the house. Our time ran out for Lennar to hold our home. We kept our house on the market a little bit longer, even though we no longer had claim to the Lennar home, which felt weird because every time I walked through the framing of the home, I did feel like it was meant to be ours. I distinctly remember walking down the stairs and looking at the bare bones of the home and the thought ran across my mind that that was our home. So, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me that it wasn't working out. We eventually took our home off of the market. Our realtor persuaded us to put it back on the market for two more weeks, and he raised the price. Long story short, our house (which had been the lowest priced house in the neighborhood, and had no interest at that price) suddenly sold once we raised the price. We got full asking price had it sold immediately the first time, for $279,000. We felt good about that. The Lord truly does bless our family. It was a hard decision initially to move. Our kids have been thriving and have many friends in the ward. We love being in the same ward as my parents and Nick and Bethany. But, we knew we would eventually move. Our new house is on a great lot. It's large and in a culdesac with only one neighbor. We have two large green belts next to us, and two playgrounds. There's a sidewalk surrounding the green belts so that the kids can ride their scooters and bikes. The ward we are moving into has a large youth group, and we know a lot of people already. I pray that the kids will thrive and that we don't get scorpions. And, it is only a half mile away from our other house and it's in the same neighborhood :)
At the time being, we are living with Jon Mark's parents and I think the kids are enjoying it. They really like swimming in the pool even though it is still so cold. It's been good for them to spend quality time with their grandparents too! It hasn't been a hard adjustment on our end, hopefully not on theirs either. We appreciate their generosity.
Joshua: He's getting pretty clever (always has been clever) and he tells pretty funny jokes. The other day we were watching Luke play soccer. After the game, the kids had decided that they wanted to watch Sawyer play his game and the field he was playing on was about a 1/4 mile uphill. We started walking quickly, we got almost there when Jon Mark and I stopped to talk about a scheduling issue. As we were trying to figure out the rest of the day, Mom Mac was slowly making her way to the same field using her walker chair. Eventually she passed us and continued on until she reached the field in first place. Joshua tugged on my sleeve and said, "quick, look! That is the perfect example of slow and steady wins the race!" He said, as he pointed at Mom Mom. I thought it was pretty clever and funny.
The other day we went hiking. Along the way, we passed some nice people going the other direction. They happened to be of a different skin color than we were. So, imagine my embarrassment when Joshua skipped by and right as he went past them, he yelled out, "Donald Trump, build that wall!" He didn't know the harm in saying it. He has no clue as to how that can be taken offensively. It's the PC world we live in and I had to explain it to him. Crazy kid.
Mercedes: Mercedes is now in soccer. She and Elena are the only girls on a team of boys. They are the shortest, smallest members on their team too. The boys are very gentle with them and do their best to give them the ball and let them have some fun. It's cute to watch how kind they are to them. It makes me feel happy to see that not all is lost in the world when it comes to chilvary. We woke up late on a Saturday before her game and we were worried that she would be late. We hastened to her room, where she was already up, dressed, and had her shin gaurds, soccer ball, and cleats all laid out ready to go. That's my Mercedes. Super responsible, super organized, and super punctual. She is also a very attentive little babysitter and has had a good time practicing on Jaz and Lily when Joshua is also home. She tries to do fun things with her younger cousins. The other day, she dressed them all up, painted their nails, and paraded them around in a wagon. I think a boy at church kind of likes her. He held the door open for her and then he handed me a piece of paper and told me to give it to Mercedes. I opened it and found that he had written down his testimony for her. What a sweet kid. Mercedes told me the other day that in primary she really feels the spirit and it moves her to tears. I think she's on the right track. I love her.
Luke: Luke is a great kid. He has a spiritual gift for connecting what he learns from the scriptures and applying it to his life. He surprises me constantly with insights that he comes up with and connections he makes. He is a good example to his younger siblings and he is following the good examples of his older siblings. Our family home evenings and scripture studies are great experiences. The kids are attentive and I can see them learning and growing before my eyes. I am thankful for Luke's insights and questions. The other night, Joshua asked a very deep question about the atonement and it began a very deep and thought provoking conversation with all of my children. Luke bore his testimony at the end and I know he and the others felt the spirit.
Hannah: She has a hidden talent for ventriloquy. She sang the first few lines of a song and did it with a smile, her teeth clenched, and she never moved her lips. I was impressed. She was better at it than I am. She is sassy and a teaser. She flirts and dances around. She's been into whining lately, something we are working on, and it has shown me that she is stubborn and digs her heels into the ground on any given topic. She loves school. The other day at scripture study, she was relating the scriptures to her own life and said, "you should always be honest, like when your parents have a cherry tree and you accidentally chop it down. You should tell the truth about it and tell them you chopped it down." Joshua said, "somebody has been learning about George Washington at school." Hannah, with her big eyes even bigger, gasped and said, "how did you know?!" It was really cute. She is vain and likes to look in the mirror. She is very sensitive to the fact that she has brown hair in a family of blondes. Someone complimented Mercedes hair and she exclaimed, "You don't like my hair?!"
Caleb: The other night I went in to check on him and he was wide awake with big eyes and his blanket pulled up around his chin. He said, "I'm scared mom. I had a scary dream." I told him that his eyelids have the power to change the channel and that he needed to think of something happy. He said, "like Jesus and Santa?" I said yes. He immediately, and fiercely started to blink his eyes over and over again. He asked me to sing him songs. I asked which one and he said all of them. I loved how much he needed me in that moment. He's my buddy. We ride to the park often and we go on errands. He's always a step or two behind me like my own little duckling. I took him to the store with my mom to get him a birthday present. I asked him to close his eyes so he would not see what I picked, he did such a good job. He had practiced all morning closing his eyes. Later, I had hidden the gift upstairs because I was going to give it to him at his party. Not seeing where it had gone, he asked Jon Mark if I had already given it to Goodwill. LOL! Perhaps I give too much away to Goodwill. The other night, while he was sleeping, I checked on him and he was talking in his sleep. Most was garbled, but I clearly heard him say, "some of my many super powers" I think he was having a good dream. Ha Ha!
