So much to blog.......so little time!

WARNING: VERY LONG POST AHEAD!

It's hard to believe it was 5 weeks ago today that the movers finished packing us up and we were out of our house. It's also hard to believe that it was 9 years ago that we moved to the Chicago area on the 3-5 year plan. So much has happened to our family in the last 9 years and we have really enjoyed living there and we will forever remember our time there and the many wonderful friends we made. We were all a little sad (okay some were extremely unhappy) to leave our good friends and our home, but we (okay not all of us) were excited to start a new adventure in KCMO (translastion - Kansas City, MO).

Friday night (Sept. 25th) began our two week stay in 4 different hotels. Friday and Saturday nights we stayed at a hotel near our house because we had to finish doing some cleaning at the house and we wanted to attend our ward on Sunday for the last time. It was the primary program, which of course Emilie and Ada would not participate in, but they did invite their friend Grace to come and watch. Grace lived around the corner from us and knew a lot of the kids in our ward. Grace came over to our house every morning before school because her mom had to go to work before the bus came. She is a great friend to Emilie and Ada and we miss her much!

Ada, Grace and Emilie

On Sunday after church my good friend Staci had us over for dinner (saving us from McDonalds! THANK YOU!) and then had a going away party for us. It was fun to visit with everyone and have a chance to say goodbye.

Here are just a few pictures

Some of the greatest kids in the world!
Two of my favorite girls!
Our good friends and neighbors - oh how we miss you! One of mine and Sarah's favorite people
Thanks Staci for everything - we miss you!
Sunday night we went to our 2nd hotel which was closer to downtown Chicago because on Monday we were taking the girls downtown for one last time. The main plan was to go to the Sears Tower (I know it's now the Willis Tower, but seriously) since the girls had never been to the top. Of course Monday ended up being an incredibly windy day - I know, when is it not windy in the windy city, but it was UBER windy! We parked and walked the block to the tower and it was so windy we could hardly walk! When we got to the doors this is what greeted us:
PLAN B: Hancock Observitory
It was open, so we drove over there. It was a good second option, but someday we'll get those girls to the top of the Sears Tower! We all had a great time and the girls had fun with the self guided tour.

We then had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory - YUM! After that sadly we were all tired and ready to start our drive to St. Louis. So we drove back to the hotel and picked up my car. Sarah, Ada and Jeff drove in his car. Emilie and I drove in my car. Everything was going smoothly until Sarah woke up around the Bloomington/Normal area. (about 2 hours from downtown).

Monday morning when Sarah woke up her left eye was a bit red and swollen. The only thing we could figure out is that she had gotten a misquito bite on her eye the night before at the party.

I didn't think much of it. We went downtown and she fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel to pick up my car. When she woke up 2 hours later she couldn't open her eye it was so swollen! So we stopped in Bloomington at the Walgreen's quick care. The doctor there said it looked like Celluitus and we should take her to the prompt care at the hospital incase it was.

So we drove over there and saw the doctor there who said it was just an allergic reation. Most likely to the mosquito bite. So we got her a prescription and all of us some dinner and were back on our way to St. Louis. With our 2 hour detour we didn't get to St. Louis until around 10:30 that night. We were all pretty tired from the day and were ready to go to bed in hotel #3. But not before stopping by to see Jeff's sister and family!

Here is Sarah's eye - I called her Rocky all day because it looked like she got in a fight! You should see the mosquito! HA HA HA

This is pretty much the last picture I took since arriving except for some of our kitchen. We are in the process of new granite counter tops and new back splash which they are supposed to finish tomorrow! It looks awesome! I'll post the before and afters when it's all done.

Tuesday we drove the rest of the way to to KC and to hotel #4 and our home for the next 9 days. We made it just in time to go to the school and meet the girls new teachers. Both seemed very nice and have turned out to be perfect fits for both girls. Emilie's teacher is Mrs. Littrell and Ada's teacher is Mrs. Sheriff. They started school the next day and it was much as I expected. Neither wanted to go and there were lots of tears. But they went and they survived. Ada was fine after a couple of days and is doing great. Emilie took a little longer to adjust, but she too is doing great and they both like their new school and teachers!

We closed on Thursday Oct. 1st and then took possesion of the house on Monday the 5th. (It was wierd to us too, but that is how they do it a closing date and a posession date.) Over the next few days we had a radon mitigation system installed, a washer and dryer delivered, carpets cleaned, painted the dining room and I tried to get the house cleaned and ready for our stuff to be delivered. I say tried because I didn't get everything done I had hoped! Our stuff was supposed to be delivered on Thursday the 8th, but there was a 100% chance of rain so we postponed the delivery until Friday.

Gratefully they let us stay in the hotel all 9 days! Everyone in the hotel knew who we were by the time we left. The funniest story was one night we had popped some popcorn and Ada wanted some more, so she put a bag in the microwave and turned it on. All of sudden the smoke alarm went off and we looked over and there was a huge cloud of smoke coming out of the microwave. The bag had gotten stuck and stopped turning and was burning up! It took 4 days for the smell to finally get out of the room! We definitely left our mark at that hotel!

The moving in part was a bit of a fiasco (later post). They guys who unpacked the truck were in a big hurry and put stuff pretty much where ever they wanted. But everything made it and we, for the most part, are unpacked and pretty much settled. We have met a lot of neighbors and the girls are making friends. We love the area - it has rolling hills! From the top of our street we can see all the way to downtown KC (about 20 miles from us)! LOVE THAT! We love the house, the neighborhood and our ward too. I've had fun doing some exploring and getting to know the area. It's been a busy and crazy 5 weeks, but we are doing well and happy to be here!

And just as in Chicago, we love visitors!!!!

The accident waiting to happen............ the sequal

Okay not quite as bad as the lip, but it was close.

This is the result of standing on a chair while eating her dinner and leaning against the back of the chair making it fall backwards and smacking her forehead on the corner of the cabinet. Gratefully she did not cut it open.

Don't be fooled by that smile, there was some serious screaming and crying.

Thanks Staci for being my on call nurse. What am I going to do without you? Don't answer that - I don't want to know yet.

I'm a little frightened to see what she does to make this a trilogy.

A hunting we did go....

and found ourselves a house!

We did it - after two VERY long days of looking a houses, we put an offer on a house and long story short they accepted! We close September 30th in Chicago and October 1st in KC! Everything is falling into place very well and knock on wood it continues until all is said and done.

Quick update

Just wanted to quickly update what is going on:

Sarah's got her stitches out and her lip looks great!

Our house went on the market on Tuesday Aug. 25th and we accpeted an offer the next Tuesday morning! Currently everything is going well and we are scheduled to close

Sept. 30th.

We left for KC last Friday. Spent Friday night and most the day Saturday in St. Louis with Jeff's sister and family. Drove to KC Saturday evening. Sunday we went to church and spent the afternoon with a family we got to know and then drove around the area to explore a bit. Monday we had a fun day. We went to the KC Renaissance Festival (interesting but fun!) with a couple families and then went swimming. Tuesday we started house hunting. We spent pretty much all day Tuesday and Wednesday looking at houses. Today we went back to our 4 top choices and we have narrowed it down to two options and have put together an offer for one. Now it's the waiting game!! We are all exhausted and hope to be heading home tomorrow!

The accident waiting to happen......

happened.

I knew this was coming sooner or later. I've been saying for the last few months that Sarah was an ER visit waiting to happen and today it did. She couldn't have had better or worse timing. Better - because the twins had left for school and Jeff was actually home today so he could drive to the hospital while I held Sarah and kept a towel on her bleeding lip. Worse because we were working on the finishing touches on the house and the realtor was scheduled to be there in an hour to take pictures for the listing of the house.

So here's how it happened. I was in the twins room standing on Emilie's bed hanging something on the wall when Sarah climbed up on the bed behind me. I knew this was a bad idea and I was just about to turn around to get her off when she lauched herself towards Ada's bed. Her jump was a little too good and she landed on the far side of the bed and smacked her mouth right into the nightstand and bit into her lip. I grabbed her (yes she was screaming) and saw the blood, ran into the bathroom and started washing out her mouth with water, got a towel to try to stop the bleeding, ran downstairs and yelled to Jeff and off we went to the hospital. Gratefully there was only one other kid in the ER, who coincidentally also had a split lip and was about Sarah's age, so we got right in. The nurses and the doctor were so nice and really great with Sarah. About an hour and fourty-five minutes and 6 stitches later we were home. Overall she did really well. She didn't like being strapped in to have the stitches done, but who would?

The top cut is where her bottom teeth cut her, the cut with the stitches is where her top teeth cut her. The only reason the doctor stitched the one is because it was right along the lip line and for cosmetic reasons wanted to make sure it healed properly.

She has been pretty happy the rest of the day. Just a little sore and it's been a little difficult to each and drink much. She will get the stitches out on Saturday.

I think our bedtime story tonight will be
"NO MORE MONKEY'S JUMPING ON THE BED!"

On a side note - the realtor came this afternoon and got pictures and our house will be on the market tomorrow!

Two Cute

Sarah is two today!

Here is what she did to celebrate:

Had the door decorated in her honor.

Ate a very hearty breakfast of two bites of cereal.
Had her favorite treat of "popies" multiple times during the day. Helped with the many projects going on around the house.
Played in the water (one of her favorite things to do).
She is always asking to take a shower!

Refused to take a nap due to so much excitement around here!

Took calls from many family members and skyped with her cousins.

Played with her cousins who came up from St. Louis to help with the many projects going on around here.
Took a shower and went to bed early due to no nap.
It's pretty good to be 2. Happy Birthday Sarah!
We'd like to add a little shout out to our friend Gage

Happy Birthday to you too!

Back in the saddle........

......well at least I am going to try to be when it comes to blogging.

I would love to say I have some great excuse like "I wanted to see how long I could be at the bottom of everyone's blog list that shows when the last update was" but I can't. Basically it comes down to taking a bit of a break and then lately it's been a lack of time.

So I'm going to give the rundown of the last 3 months and hopefully I will be better at updating in the future!

Rest of May:

Went to St. Louis for nephew's graduation.

Niece and nephew came up to visit and went to a Cubs game.

June:

Emilie and Ada finished 1st grade!

My sister, her husband and kids came to visit for a few days.

Made our annual trek to Utah via South Dakota. Went to the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Custer St. Park and down to Martin's Cove.

During trip to SL Jeff and I flew to Kansas City, MO for a few days. Then I went back to SL, Jeff flew back to Chicago.

Jeff came back to SL for his Aunt's funeral - the girls and I started our drive home with my friend Tiff and her niece Paige. Stopped at Winter Quarters and Nauvoo on the way home.

Tiff and Paige stayed with us for a few days to party!

**Decided to take a job offer and move to Kansas City, MO.**

On the 19th celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.

Two days later drove to St. Louis for the wedding reception cross country tour of our nephew who got married in SL in June. Next day drove to Branson to party with Jeff's family for 5 days.

During our trip to Branson we decided instead of driving back to Chicago, we would drive to Kansas City and spend a couple days so the girls could see where we were moving. Our nieces Megan and Becca drove with us so they could drive back to Chicago with me and spend a couple days here.

In the 10 days since we have been home we've been finding a real estate agent, packing boxes and getting the house ready to sell. Honestly I'm feeling like a chicken with it's head cut off but I am excited to get it all done and start our new adventure!

I'll try to post pictures soon!