Oh boy.  Oooooooooooh boy.  This is the longest lapse in blog posts I've had yet.  Which means, I have TONS I could blog about.  Not to mention the past few months have been a bit on the eventful side.  That may be a bit of an understatement.  All being said, the past few months have also been full of many blessings.  Hopefully we are starting to get settled into our new norm so I can get back in the swing of the blog.

(Insert here, I first started this blog update about a month ago.  We just keep getting further behind.  Apparently the whole "new norm" deal isn't working in our favor.)

So.  Here goes nearly 4 months worth of updates (full of plenty of things that I'm sure will be left out):

It all began with the big move.  Thursday, October 16, 2014 was our final day living in southern Utah.  Jacob had to be up in Logan for work so I was flying solo the last few weeks before we left.  My salvation that day was Aunt Maria who came down the night before to help me get my house all cleaned and finalized, then she drove with the kiddos and I up to Logan.  WE LOVE YOU AUNT MARIA!!  The move and all the preparation for it was pretty stressful, but first and foremost I have to say we were SO BLESSED through the whole thing.  A whole bunch of little blessings added up to us having a smooth and successful transition.  I had wonderful neighbors who came to the rescue when I needed a little extra help with the kiddos.  While I was packing, I happened to come up with just the right box I needed.  Blessings!

It's real- we're really moving now!

On the day we moved, we still didn't have a place to actually move to.  Minor technicality, right?  Thankfully the moving company was willing to hold our entire life belongings for a few extra days as we finalized a place we could rent up in Logan while waiting for our home to sell.  It only took a few days and we managed to find a home out in Young Ward where we could land for a few months.  Once again, blessings! 

We got the girls all situated in their new school with their new teachers.  Kenna jumped right in, Allie needed a bit more convincing.  Fortunately it only took her a few days to decide the new school was going to be alright.  The girls had only been at their new school a week and a half when I got a phone call from the school saying Kenna took a tumble off the monkey bars and her arm wasn't looking too hot.  Off I went to the school to assess the damage and sure enough, her arm was in really bad shape:

It didn't help that I became a bucket of tears myself when I saw the poor thing laying on the couch in the school office.  It just so happened that this was also on Halloween, so sum it up, we spent Halloween in the ER.  The x-ray confirmed a broken arm right above the elbow:

Yow.  So we went across the hall from the ER to the OR where she went in for surgery to put pins in to hold the bone in place.

Kenna was an absolute trooper through the whole thing.  I was so proud of her.  She was in so much pain, and was so scared about it all, but she stayed strong through the whole ordeal.  Grandpa Israelsen came up to help Jacob give her a blessing and I have no doubt heaven smiled down on us.  We also were fortunate to have a family friend as the attending doctor in the ER.  He was fabulous and took such great care of us.  We MUST give an honorable mention to Uncle Ross who met us up at the hospital and then took Ty and Lexi back home for us.  IN THE MINIVAN.  Yes, it's true.  Ross drove the minivan!  True love right there.  True love.  Good thing it was Halloween so maybe he didn't look too out of place.  (wink wink)

The beginning of December Kenna got her cast off.  She was ready to be done with it.  I suppose the attention of it all had worn off and it was simply a nuisance.  When we went in, she knew they had to pull the pins out and was really nervous.  Not gonna lie, I was too.  That sounded so very.....unpleasant.  Fortunately it was one of those "what was I so scared of?" moments and turned out great.  It took a good month or so to get her muscles back in shape and to regain her motion again.  We took her to 2 rounds of physical therapy but that crazy arm was super resilient.  Disclaimer:  the following pic has a bit of an ew factor.  The skin around it was super sensitive and itchy:

A few more highlights:

We rescued a freezing kitty from the farm.  The kids LOVED her.  I wasn't super thrilled about a cat, but I have to admit, she was pretty darn cute.  Unfortunately, Lexi and Ty can't be trusted with a cat.  They couldn't leave the dern thing along so to salvage all our sanity it soon found a new home out at Aunt Connie's house.  Behold, Midnight Storm:

Okay, this is getting long.  I am going to put a rush on it.

In November I took Ty into the Ear, Nose, and Throat doc to have his ears checked again.  It was obvious he couldn't hear very well.  It wasn't too long after we headed into the hospital (again- it seems we are medical junkies) to have his tonsils out and tubes put in his ears.  I didn't get a single picture of this event.  But, he did really well and it has proven to be worth it.  I actually think his recovery was a bit easier (for me, anyway) then Kenna's was when she had her tonsils out.

Thankgiving was awesome.  Connie and Dustin hosted.  Turned out perfect.  The pic of the
day is Ty and cousin sporting their super sweet backpacks:

Yep.  Thanksgiving in a major nutshell.

First part of December we went down to Vegas for the NFR.  This is the major abbreviated version.  Tons of fun.  Loved it all.  We went down again with Bob and Wendy (SOOOO fun to see them again.  Darn golly we sure miss them). Spoiled pure rotten.  We also got to meet up with Connie and Dustin and Ross and Bekka.

WELCOME HOME UNCLE BENSON!  This was soo soo soo fun.  Being at the airport when he came home was major validation for us moving up here.

ROSS AND BEKKA GOT MARRIED!  Such a perfect day.  Beautiful bride, handsome groom, so fun.  Loved it all.  And they all lived happily ever after....

...at least we all keep striving for "happily ever after," right?  It's a process.  Just have to insert this here because I love love it:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey . . . delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." [Jenkins Lloyd Jones]

Our family helped out for the Young Ward Nativity.  Well, sorta our family.  Lexi got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Israelsen's house.  Otherwise it would have been more of a tragic comedy.  It was a great experience:

 That's Moses the camel.  How cool is that?!

Despite it being a crazy, somewhat unsettled time after just having moved and whatnot, Christmas still came and went and turned out great.  It was so fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Otte over for the afternoon without either of us having to drive 5 hours!

Well, I've missed a whole slew of details and other great blessings we've received.... but BAM!  I am done with 2014!  A good stopping point.

PATIENCE....is a virtue.

I have a little lady who is pretty determined she can do everything. 

All by herself.

Not only is my little toddler learning all sorts of new talents, I am having to fine tune some skills of my own.

Namely, PATIENCE.

Here we are in Walmart.  Don't you even think of touching the cart to help me, Mom.  I can't see where I'm going, but I WILL push this cart.  By myself. 

Just look at that face- she is all business.

She's got the car seat covered, too.  So she thinks.  Absolutely under no circumstance should any assistance be offered until she has exhausted all possible options of clicking the harness.  All. by. herself.   

But here, HERE is the ultimate test of patience.  This little event was another casualty of mom-is-side tracked-with-packing.  Try not to cry out in horror.  Gasp in utter disbelief.  

That is the drum of my washer.

That is brown paint.

That is brown paint in the drum of my washer.

That is mom nearly blowing up.  Nearly.  It took all I could muster not to come apart at the seams.  Ty knew I was less than thrilled about the fact that he and Lexi loaded my washer with buckets of paint with a lid that wasn't on tight.  But at least I didn't lose it entirely.


Hopefully, the two cycles of "washing machine clean" did the trick.  If not, I will have brown sheets here in a bit. 

I'm working on my virtues.  Patience is coming one little meltdown at a time.

Something Other Than Moving

It seems all I think about is packing and moving and everything associated with it.  So, I'm going to divert my attention a bit and post some pictures.

One of the challenges of parenting is allowing your children to have opportunities to stretch and grow, yet knowing where to draw the line on some things. 

Um, ya.  Don't look at me.  I haven't figured it out yet.  

A great example of this was the other night when Kenna was devastated (drama, severe drama) I wouldn't just whip out my checkbook and buy her something at the Book Fair at school.  What kind of mother am I?! Child abuse!  She suddenly became bound and determined to find a way to earn some quick money.  While I was working on dinner, she marched herself right out to the shed and pulled out the lawn mower. 

I'll insert here a little honest insight into a Mom's mind.  My thoughts: "The mower is bigger than she is.  She can't start the mower.  She'll make a mess of the yard.  I'll have to intervene.  I'm working on dinner!  Not right now!"  Yep, pure honesty my friends.  Nothing to brag about, I admit.  But, at the same time I realized I don't want to put a damper on my child showing a little go-gettem.  So I cringed a little, gritted my teeth, pushed aside my first thoughts and let her have at it.  Here is my determined little lady:

 I really just had to let go of the parts of the lawn getting missed and not go out to try and micromanage the mowing of the lawn.  Besides, all I'll get in return is a firm, "I know how to do it, Mom!"  It's the same thing when the dishwasher gets loaded.  I have to restrain when it doesn't get loaded the way I do it.  Hold back, Britt.  Let them learn!  AAAAH!  Sometimes I can't help it and I just HAVE to reload when they aren't looking!  Another confession.  Whether you wanted it or not.

Speaking of sheer determination, here is my little Ty Man who is trying to learn a new skill of his own:  pumping.  Yes, it's always a great day when your child finally learns how to pump their legs to keep themselves going on the swing.  I couldn't help but giggle watching Ty giving it his all to try and keep it going.  Out, in, out, in.....I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!

 
The look on his face is absolutely priceless.  It's hard work being a kid, you know.

It's hard work being a mom letting your kids be kids, you know.

We just have to keep growing together, I guess.

Distracted

We are right in the thick of trying to get a house ready to sell.

Bleh.

I can't say it's my favorite thing I've ever done.  At all.  I finish up one "little" project only to find another thing to try and spiffy up.

Have you ever tried to spiffy something after a child has ransacked it?  There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING spiffy about children.  Nothing.  I can't describe the layer of dirt that was covering the floor after we pulled up the carpet of the kids room.  I'm pretty sure small animals scurried away as we tore their habitat away.  Thankfully that little endeavor is completed and the critters have relocated.

So now we move right along to packing, and cleaning, and keeping the kids from destroying, and anything and everything associated with all the of the above. 

In the midst of all our chaos, the kids have been on mom-is-distracted-so-we-can-runamuck mode.  For example:

This is what happens when we've had a bit of rain and mom is inside painting.  Ty and Lexi dressed themselves in their swimsuits.  I'm pretty sure Lexi had to contort her body to get her suit on like that.  They then of course followed their older sister Allie who led them through the mud.  Pretty much they went straight to the tub after this little adventure.

Speaking of adventure, this morning a gentleman who was helping to lay the new carpet in the kids room kindly brought it to my attention that my 2 year old was on top of the van.  Sigh.  She was just in the living room for crying out loud!!!!

Yes, distracted.

For now we'll just keep on spiffying and try to keep our kids off of vehicles.  And out of mud.

Test

So Jacob and I thought we'd conduct a little experiment.

We thought we'd do a little test to find out who reads our blog first.  For our little test we are going to post our new announcement and see who finds out first.  Insert a mischievous little grin here.

We have some big news.

A little change in the family.

Granted, we realize we said this probably wouldn't happen again any time soon.  We weren't necessarily planning on it ourselves right now.  But, sometimes things just happen and it works out for the best.

So are you ready?

Ready for our big news?

Any guesses?

What do you think it is?

We are going to have a new......

Place to live!

Yay!  Oh wait, you thought we were having a baby?  Nope!

Jacob will be transferring to the Logan office for work, so here we go on a new adventure!  It's all pretty surreal and crazy with plenty of details to work out, but we are looking forward to cutting down a bit of time on the family commute.  

So watch out, here we come!

HOORAY!

I love weddings.  Oh I love weddings.  Especially when it's a family member.  It wasn't too long ago we celebrated with Marlene and Jesse on their beautiful day.  And now, NOW (get excited here folks) we are going to have ANOTHER WEDDING!  Yes, I know, I know, I can hear the angels singing too!

Check this out:

There is a ring on that pretty little finger!  Ross and Bekka are getting married! 

Because we live so blinkin' far away we almost ALWAYS miss out on these great little moments.  But this time we really scored.  We got to be there when that gorgeous diamond made its first debut at the Israelsen home.  I think I just about came out of my chair!  I may be just a bit on the excited side.  Just a little bit.

Congrats Ross and Bekka, we can't wait for your big day!!

Soccer!

Ty has been waiting and waiting and waiting for soccer to start.  I got him some soccer cleats about a month ago and he has loved trying them on along with his shin guards wondering when in the world he finally would be able to use them.  He made sure to keep them nice and tidy in a little bin under his bed.  The day finally came and he was as happy as could be!

Here he is drowning in his new soccer outfit.  Check out his celestial ball.  It's only fitting the picture turned out that way- he really was that excited:

Here he is scrimmaging with his "Ty Man's"- or so he calls all his little soccer buddies:

He's only had one practice/game.  It's on Friday nights and they practice for a half hour then play for the other half.  His "team" is huge- it has over 30 kids.  Hence the parents are heavily involved.  It was a bit on the chaotic side, but I'm okay with doing it all on one night rather than having it take up 2 days out of the week.  Ty was a bit disappointed that everyone just ran to the ball in a mad dash but hey, it was only the first night!  Hopefully over the next little while he can perfect some mad soccer skills.  I'm certain he has an inner Beckham just dying to get out.

Way to go Ty Man!