We are homeowners!

These few weeks have been a whole big blur! In a quick list,  In a long explanation, here it goes. 

April and May we were working out getting financed- pre-approved- you could say and allow us to do some House Hunting. We put a few offers down and one got accepted. I can't remember the dates to all that. It was in Clearfield and we liked how big it was and a few other awesome features but there were a few things that didn't 'sit right' with me and it kept bothering me but I brushed it off as fear of buying a home. Well, it came down to just needing to have some deeper confirmation and after some long prayers, etc., I realized there was more to it and ended up telling Hyrum that was that and it was time to pull out. Our realtor got on the search again, kind of, and we went out again in the middle of May. We went on a Friday night with him and stayed to see a couple For Sale By Owner homes (FSBO) in Roy on Saturday morning, the 16th, I think. The first one didn't work out by smells and too many pets of the current renters but the 2nd one was this...

 

It is a bit smaller and not the layout of a home I would've picked if I had more options but the price was...Great! And it had most things we were looking for: a 2 car garage, 4 bedrooms, nice size yard, fenced, fully automatic sprinklers, etc. It doesn't have central air, just a roof unit swamp cooler- as seen. But that could be fixed fairly easy. And it was pretty well taken care of, which is really great.

We spent the rest of that day drawing up our own contract since our realtor felt it could wait till Monday and we knew we had to take action before someone else snatched it up. (We knew that the previous viewers of the home wanted it too.) We found documents, filled them out they way we felt they should be done and took them to the sellers to negotiate that night. We arranged payment of the earnest money for 4 days later and for them to make a disclosure statement ready for the same time. That Monday we got everything faxed to the bank (Hyrum did all that) and got the ball rolling in that direction. We got an inspection done soon after and a few days after receiving the report we created an addendum of the items we felt were important, yet reasonable, for them to repair. The next day, they responded with acceptance to all terms. No counteroffer. That was nice. So, they repaired the garage opener items and the hatch to the attic to make fire-safe. And they fixed wiring issues from the cable box- grounding them and such. there are other issues that need attention but we felt that the price of the home, being so good, we could manage the other things. Our deck will need some attention before next summer begins but hope we can get through with it as it is till then.

Other stuff was in the middle of all this. We were contracted to close on Monday, June 22nd and set to work packing, cleaning, sorting, tossing and PACKING more! But that is never just so easy when you have 5 littles needing so much care. Especially a baby!



I took this Monday, June 8th. I thought it was cute that I had a baby
in the middle of all the laundry piles.

This was before I ran downstairs to change the laundry loads.
I wish I had been so much more careful.

To get to the end crazy time- Monday, June 8th: I was busy getting laundry done that morning in order to head off to my visiting teaching appointment and not have much more waiting for me in the afternoon. I was folding laundry and had baby J laying on my bed, surrounded with clothes and talking to him, all the while. I decided to run downstairs quickly to grab my last load of laundry to bring up before running off to the appointment. I wasn't concerned with the fact that there was a bottle of laundry detergent laying on the floor below the steps, the soap being emptied to the floor all the time while being upstairs. It was clear, didn't see it and I literally ran down to the bottom, only to slip- no traction to my flip flops and a giant pool of clear soap below my step- and SNAP! I've heard a snap before when I've fallen and it ended up being a sprain. Maybe cartilage made the noise. But what I know is it hurt like hell and I screamed! I screamed a scream I've never screamed before. I think my next door neighbor could've heard it, had he been home. All my kids came running to find me awkward on my floor and crying. I didn't know what to do but gained control enough to know I somehow needed to get up and get to Jared, who was crying alone on my bed. I got on my knees and crawled upstairs. I crawled to my room, managed to change out of my super soapy clothes and put Jared on a plastic tote and scooted him down the hall, with me behind, crawling. I got the couch, texted my visiting teaching companion and the sister we were going to visit to say I wouldn't be able to make it.

I ordered Olivia around like never before, relying on her for legs. She got an ice pack and my long sleeve shirt so I could wrap it around my ankle and brace the ice pack into it. I elevated my leg on the tote and held the baby. It was convenient to have premeasured baby formula in my diaper bag and told her to fill the water to the 4-line. I also had a small bottle of Advil in my diaper bag and took a big dose of that. SO, I was sort of set. I needed to get my kids fed, somehow. I decided upon chicken nuggets since Olivia could manage the microwave and get the rest fed. She was working on that when Becky Diamond, my VT companion, arrived and helped serve the kids lunch. She was in and out since she has her own 2 little ones but her service helped.

I started to feel not as bad and needed to get around- go to the bathroom, help the kids and things- so I started walking around very carefully and straight down on my right foot and it didn't actually cause extra pain so I managed through the day till Hyrum got home. I called my sweet neighbor, Sister K, if she could take me to the Instacare to get an x-ray done and rule out a fracture. But when I got there, took off my make-shift splint and everything, we could see it was pretty beat up. The x-rayed it and yep- a nice, complete break to the fibula, right close to the ankle. I was referred to the sports medicine group of IHC and sent on my way- complete with crutches and a boot! That was the hardest thing ever. I've never needed crutches and was very uncoordinated but the worst thing of it all was being unable to carry anything else. Like my baby! Babies need to be held. I cried for a long time after hearing it was broken.

My mom took pity on me and came down the next afternoon to help care for the my little ones and me. I got in to see Dr. Rich the next day and he did more x-rays, including a "gravity" x-ray to see if it remained stable when set up and held by something higher up on my leg and allowing the ankle to dangle. It showed that the distance between bones was consistent and that meant surgery wouldn't be necessary- pending a good and tight cast be put on to allow the bone to adhere to itself. And the great thing was he said I could put weight on it! So, I could be a mom again! But I still had to take it easy and ask for a lot of help from those around me. Dang it. I put a request in with my fellow sisters from the ward on our Facebook page and it was amazing how many sisters were willing to help in any way they could. I was impressed and humbled.

This was actually a few days later. I got my cast removed since it was causing a lot of pain.

This bruising is not from the break, it self, but from the cast, mostly.

The swelling is nice and large.

 

This is a good view of our house in disarray. Boxes along every wall.

And this is what I did. Sat with my leg up.

I mostly sat around while my mom was around to help with the kids. And I held this little baby and got to see this cute face a lot. The only perk.

So for the next two weeks I became a recipient of many acts of love and service from women around me. My neighbor across the street, Rachelle, checked on me every evening after getting home from work. She is one of the greatest and more real (genuine) people I know.

Saturday, June 20th, Damon, Sherie, Brad, Sam and Jake all came to load up two trailers full of our stuff and park in my mom's backyard pasture. It was so nice to have a lot of our things hauled away and be able to focus on the rest.

Monday, June 22nd. Nothing from the bank about closing so it couldn't happen Tues either. Every day I would call and hear that they should know something by "tomorrow".

Thursday, I am told that they have a few last minute things to finish up "first thing in the morning" and then we should be set up to close at the title company in the afternoon.
My mom, Ruth and Angie (who was also staying with my mom for the week) all came to help me do some more cleaning and packing. And Wow, did they help!! I am so grateful for them. And then they took my 4 older kids back home with them so Hyrum and I could get more done. Only, I remember how much I can't do when I am caring for a baby!

Friday, Moving Day, we get up early, pick up the moving van and get started loading. People from the ward came to help. I have to say it's a good thing I asked for help from the sisters again since they are the ones who pulled through to help in every way! A brother came too, but only because I talked to him on Sunday about it all. We have some amazing people in the ward there. I was lucky to be a part of them.======We struggle to get everything in the moving van and in our minivan but at the end of the day, we made it work. We were told, at 3:00, that closing wasn't going to happen after all. The underwriters had gotten in done, finally but it wouldn't get done with the closing department in time. I shrunk with disappointment. Especially since that proved us homeless. We were exhausted and starving upon hearing of the news and both of us reacted differently but still defeated. We were settling, at the time, to have to return for our very few items within the next few days but I told Hyrum that we needed to leave the moving van in the driveway and go get something to eat. He didn't want to but I made him anyway. We ate, talked and got more composed, more capable to handle the next few steps of the day- being a rearrangement of items to not have to return for things; the trip up North; and arriving homeless and as visitors in someone's property (Damon was the willing one, thankfully). I was nervous the whole way up while driving since I had such a heavy load for my vehicles capacity and the temperature outside that day was beyond 100 degrees. Very hot pavement + heavy load= tire tread issues while driving. So, I drove slower than usual and Hyrum followed behind me in the moving van so he could see if anything happened. I felt better that way.

Saturday, Hyrum dropped me off at my mom's in the morning to stay with the kids while she ran errands with Angie. Hyrum, Damon, Sherie, Kurt, Brad, Sam and Jake all headed over to the place in Roy to unload everything since the sellers had already moved out and agreed to let us unpack trailers and the truck. That was so nice of them. I stayed back since I needed to rest my broken leg from a super long day of packing, loading and Cleaning from the day before. The kids missed me anyway, so it was good to be back with them. Hyrum and all those who showed up to help were able to take care of it in not much time at all and we were so grateful.======We spent that night again at Damon's but this time with all our kids since there was not any more room at my mom's place since Ruth and all her kids were there and Angie too.

Sunday, we hadn't planned on being out of a home and didn't have church clothes. We didn't go. But later on we gathered with family for dinner at my mom's house. We had to sleep again at Damon's. They were going on a camping trip in the morning but were gracious to allow us to stay.

This is Dallin in Damon and Sherie's kitchen. He was so comfortable there.

Monday, we were hopeful again. I had been told we had an appointment at 12:00 in Bountiful for closing but by 11:00 we were told it would have to be pushed back to 3:15. Ah! I screamed when I got the notifying text-while almost stepping out the door to get there. But 2:30 came and we decided to go, hoping it would actually happen-the day before the last day of the month (but being the last allowable day of the month for funding). We got there and waited a while before making it in to sign 100-something papers. But then we were DONE! We are HOMEOWNERS!... now it's time to unpack.

 

Announcing Pregnancy to Family

I didn't want to just say, "hey, guess what? I'm pregnant. I wanted to have a little more surprise factor and make it a little cute. I made this old nursery rhyme into a personal ideal. For the weeks following our surprise pregnancy news, I kept thinking about how crazy I am to have so many little kids and to add one more! This nursery rhyme hit home a little. (not a show home, just figuratively speaking (wink and smile)).

 

So this paper was inserted into the back of the bedtime book that my mom read my kids one night that I was staying over at her place.

 

and this was the next page.

 

 

We, of course, had already told the kids. As they are getting older they are understanding more and catching on to things. It didn't seem right to filter our conversations but better just to allow it in the open. But that was just a talk. When we found out the gender of the little one, we surprised them all with blue balloons. That was fun.

 

 

Hello Baby Boy

It's Time to Tell

After 5 or 6 or who-knows-how-many times I tested-- I found out I am pregnant. It came a lot sooner than I would've planned and that is the major reason of testing over and over. I found out the beginning of June and was so surprised that I delayed telling Hyrum. We were pretty comfortable with our 4 kids and the equality of genders. On top of that, I am not as young as I used to be and am feeling it. When I told Hyrum I left a positive pregnancy test on the counter in the bathroom. I wanted to give him the same opportunity to react as I did. I had the evidence in front of me and I got to dissolve it a bit. So, I did the same thing for him. I was standing in the hallway when he went in and he quickly poked his head back out and almost shouted, "are you kidding me?" but in an almost-excited voice. Thank heavens. At this point, we've had so many conversations about upcoming baby and things feel a lot different. It's funny what a surprise can do to you. And now that I'm coming to grips with the reality of it, I've realized it's a good time to be pregnant. I'm due the beginning of February and it will be really cold outside. We won't want to get out much anyway so I won't feel like the kids are being deprived of fun outings that otherwise would occur. All my summer babies have had a little bit of that. We've had the babies in the heat of the year and just before the climate change-so that in the weeks following the arrival- the kids are missing the wonderful, perfect air and opportunity of continuous play.
So far things are looking good. I have only had one OB appointment and one tiny ultrasound but the placement of the uterus and tiny peanut of a baby are perfect. In about 2 weeks I will have the next appointment and 4 weeks after that, a complete ultrasound in Perinatology. They will decide at that point if I need to stay in a high risk status or not. Usually, with a history like mine, they do like to be extra careful. So, we'll see.

So, if you skipped through all that here are the important details...
I'm pregnant. for the 7th time! and hopefully it'll be a healthy pregnancy.
I'm 12 weeks pregnant now and
Due February 8th.

It's a House!

Some may know already, but we found a little home to rent. It all happened so fast and, lucky for us, we we only had to give 30-day notice from our apartment complex and we could go. We could jump on the opportunity and get packing! And that we did. It was a lot harder to pack up and get ready to move this time since we have 2 kids that don't nap now and one in pre-school. So, most of the preperation was done after all the kids were in bed.
My Relief Society President, Alma Pascual, was so wonderful in offering to watch all the kids a few different days so that we could get some things done. I am so grateful for her. Even though Hyrum has been in school and, even worse, in his last days of the semester, he's been amazingly helpful.
When it came down to the last few days we didn't have as much packed as we hoped and hadn't done much pre-cleaning. So, it was so crazy. We got the keys Tuesday afternoon, ran a couple van-loads to the house. We packed more and went to bed super late. We got up early to load the moving van and unloaded it. That actually ended up being the easier and faster part of the day. We had so many things left to do.  It was just Hyrum and I, cleaning like mad! It was difficult mostly because we still had a baby to take care of. He still needs round-the-clock care and I was feeling so bad for him being neglected. An hermana in my ward kept him for the loading and unloading of the morning but we didn't know what we were going to do for the rest of the day. Our neighbors offered to help in any way they could and I asked if they could help with Ashton. They were more than willing and we are so grateful to them. We thought we had to turn in our keys at 5 pm but ended up being blessed since the apartment manager wasn't there that day and wouldn't know if we dropped them off later in the dropbox. That was good since we didn't get done cleaning and get out of there till 8:30. There were another few blessing we received in all of the chaos and we are so grateful. AND grateful to be moving into our new place now! Things are everywhere still, as expected, but we have a garage to keep our stuff and move it in slowly. That is so nice. We were so tired the first night that we only ended up showering and sleeping on the couch and floor. Everyday has gotten better, with our bed set up, then the girls and Ashton's today. It's all slow but happening. Something to add to all of this, too, is that we are back in the same area we used to live in. It's weird to be back but we had wanted to be closer to Hyrum's work and school and Livvy's school for Fall. We have officially moved.

Guess What?

We found out today that we are having a...

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*And can't you just see the excitement that Livvy has over this news!?!

Well, we've told Livvy but she doesn't really get it. I'll involve her more in a baby coming when I'm super big and we are putting clothes and diapers out but until then, there is no reason to worry about it.

I don't remember being this anxious to hear the gender of our baby before. I have been calling the baby a boy but was not sure at all. We've wanted to know so badly! It is good to be able to plan now. We have some boy things from when we were expecting Gavin so we needed to know if we should get those out or get the girl baby things out. We have so much Pink stuff!

Hyrum is so excited. He's needed to know he's going to have a little boy. It's funny how much boys need boys. But I think I would be the same if I had 2 boys and found out I was finally having my girl! I am excited now too, to find out we're having a little guy. I hope he's a little version of Hyrum.